Remember. Resist. Rise. Student Services Conference 2025

Student Services

Remember. Rise. Resist.

Student Services Conference 2025

Across the country, we’re witnessing attempts to silence culture, restrict care, and roll back the progress our communities have fought so hard to achieve. But here at 17�Թ�, we are choosing a different path.

We are remembering our roots.
Resisting systems of harm.
And rising to rewrite the rules.

This day-long conference will explore how we can decolonize our approach to student services—across counseling, wellness, and beyond. Through workshops, creative reflection, and ancestral practice, we’ll envision new ways of serving our students with heart, justice, and joy.

Workshops include:

We Were Never Meant to Heal Alone: Community Approaches to Student Wellness
Stories in Stone: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Customer Service
Beading New Pathways: Restorative Justice as Resistance, Healing & Heart Work
Decolonizing Counseling in a Structured System
Mosaic of Liberation: Disability in Every Life: From imposed barriers to collective care, our shared experiences create a new picture of belonging

This is not just a professional development day—it is a declaration that we refuse to be passive in the face of injustice.
We’re building something bold. And we need your voice in the circle.

Let’s rise together.

Agenda

Thursday, May 1, 2025 – 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Campus Center Plaza (Lower Level)

8:15 AM	Optional Dance Therapy: Remembering our Roots through Movement	Lisa Manca	Mental Health & Wellness Center Lounge
9:00 AM	Breakfast: Chilaquiles & Coffee	The Best Sandwiches	Campus Center Plaza
9:00 AM	Aztec Dance Presention	Danza Azteca Mixcoatl Anahuac
9:30 AM	Land Acknowledgement & Blessing of the Food	Chayo Maciel, Huitzilin The Hummingbird Project	Campus Center Plaza
10:05 AM	Opening Program: 17�Թ� Hiphop Club, The Movement Remembers with Lisa Manca, Spoken Word by Marvin Flores DJ Marcus Moore	Campus Center Main Dining Room
10:30 AM	Keynote: The Sacred Thread: Healing, Resistance, and Rising Together	Dr. Laurie Scolari	Campus Center Main Dining Room
11:15 AM	Concurrent Workshop Session 1	Student Services Administrators	Classrooms
12:15 PM	Lunch	The Best Sandwiches	Campus Center Main Dining Room
1:15 PM	Concurrent Workshop Session 2	Student Services Administrators	Classrooms
2:15 PM	Closing & Special Presentation		Campus Center Main Dining Room
	Student Services honors Pauline Brown: FHDA Classified Employee of the year.

Workshops

Please preregister for workshop sessions.
Limited space in each workshop.
Register early to secure space in your preferred workshop

Workshop Descriptions

We Were Never Meant to Heal Alone: Community Approaches to Student Wellness presented by Alexis Donato and Dr. Laurie Scolari

Every point of student contact is a potential moment of healing—or harm. Whether you're welcoming students at the front desk, helping them navigate financial aid, supporting academic planning, or providing accommodations, your role in student wellness is essential. But what if the way we understand wellness is too narrow, shaped by systems that don’t reflect our students’ histories, cultures, or ways of healing? In a system built for separation, how do we remember that healing is—and has always been—a collective act?

This interactive session invites student services professionals across departments to explore how we can resist colonial definitions of “wellness” and reimagine student support through connection, culture, and care. We’ll share how the 17�Թ� Wellness Lounge has begun rewriting the rules—moving from clinical crisis response to culturally grounded spaces of restoration, including crafting, mandalas, sensory regulation, and low-barrier support.

Together, we’ll explore ancestral and Indigenous ways of tending mental and emotional wellbeing—approaches rooted in story, land, ritual, and community. Participants will be invited to reflect on their own cultural traditions and co-create a shared vision of student wellness that affirms who we were before colonization—and who we are still becoming.

Because healing doesn’t belong to one office. It belongs to all of us.

Stories in Stone: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Customer Service presented by Anthony Cervantes

Join us for a thought-provoking and creative workshop that blends ancient storytelling with modern-day student service. Discover how the enduring symbols of rock painting—crafted with care, purpose, and empathy—can inspire a fresh approach to how we communicate, connect, and support our students.

In this session, we’ll explore the parallels between the lasting impact of rock art and our everyday interactions. Learn how to turn even the most difficult conversations into opportunities for solutions, empowerment, and legacy—by embracing a mindset focused on “Getting to Yes.”

Whether you're on the frontlines or behind the scenes, this session will leave you inspired to carve a more meaningful path through your service practice—one compassionate “Yes” at a time.

Decolonizing Counseling in a Structured System presented by Dr. Isaac Escoto

How do we reimagine community college counseling and student services within systems that still require ed plans, GPA benchmarks, and transfer metrics? Rooted in decolonial and antiracist education frameworks (Smith, Rendón, hooks), this workshop invites counseling faculty and classified professionals to explore how we can affirm student identity, agency, and dreams while navigating institutional structures. Guided by the Nahua concept of Tonalli, the sacred life force each student carries, we will reimagine our roles as protectors of student purpose. Participants will leave with concrete, role-specific strategies to humanize required processes, disrupt deficit thinking, and practice relational, healing-centered support—ensuring everyone, regardless of position, walks away with tools they can implement in their own space.

Beading New Pathways: Restorative Justice as Resistance, Healing & Heart Work presented by Catalina Rodriguez, Pauline Brown and Natalie Hansen

Beading New Pathways: Restorative Justice as Resistance, Healing & Heart Work is an immersive, decolonial workshop designed for educators, staff, and student support professionals ready to reimagine how we address harm, accountability, and care in our institutions and our lives. Through intentional dialogue and the cultural practice of beading, participants will explore how restorative justice offers a transformative alternative to punitive, colonial systems—centering healing, truth-telling, and relational accountability. Each bead chosen in our circle will hold symbolic meaning, serving as a tactile reminder of your personal and professional commitment to justice, courage, and community. This session offers more than tools for your workplace—it nurtures your spirit, strengthens your ability to support students and colleagues with compassion, and creates space for deep reflection, connection, and growth. Whether you’re new to restorative justice or seeking to deepen your practice, this hands-on, heart-forward experience invites you to remember, resist, and rise.

Mosaic of Liberation: Disability in Every Life: From imposed barriers to collective care, our shared experiences create a new picture of belonging presented by Dr. Stephanie Crosby

This interactive workshop invites participants to explore disability not as a limitation, but as a vital force for creativity, community, and change. Through a guided, reflective process, we will each design a personal “tile” that honors our lived experience with disability — past, present, and future. Together, we will examine how systems of power have shaped our lives, and envision the world we want to help create: one rooted in care, justice, and inclusion. Come create, reflect, and reimagine with us. Disability is not apart from us — it is a part of the future we are building together.

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