 This year's opening week and professional development day will focus on community, equity, collaboration, and inclusion. Highline College has a rich history and a deep commitment to the community. Since Highline's beginning in 1961, community members have counted on Highline to meet their educational goals close to them. As we embark upon the 2018-2019 academic year, let's take a moment to reflect on why serving our community and its needs is still as important, if not more so, than it ever has been. Our core theme three, build valuable relationships and establish a meaningful presence within Highline College's communities, promotes collaboration with community partners to identify needs and develop, implement, and maintain programs based on those needs. Let's take a listen to what some of our partners have to say about our collaborations. Well, the greatest thing that we've been able to accomplish working together with Highline College is just so many different areas of work. We've had students from the college in at the food bank volunteering here to help give out food to families in our area. We serve over 900 families a month, so that's a lot of work to accomplish. We've had the Highline College professor has been working with us to develop new nutrition standards for all of the food banks in South King County so we can be giving out healthier food than we once did. We've been working with the Urban Agriculture Department also in that same program trying to bring in more fresh foods into the food bank and developing Elk Run Farm. And then finally, and maybe biggest of all, we've been able to start the new college pantry. Over 30% of college students around the United States are food insecure, which means that they don't necessarily know where their next meal is coming from and so we're really excited to be able to bring some food on to the campus and help those students be successful in achieving their educational goals. Highline has helped us in so many ways here at Microsoft in the supported employment program. One of the key ways it continues to help us is provide manager training for those companies and those managers who are new and in fact existing in the program. They help those managers really understand the best way of hiring individuals with developmental disabilities. They help us with understanding how to work with them when they get in the job and they help us connect with the coaches that the supported employees work with. One of the greatest things that our partnership has started and achieved is the showcasing of our American Indian and Alaska Native communities and really centering and honoring the experiences and contributions of our Native students in South King County Highline and Federal Way and beyond and making sure that our students who identify as American Indian and Alaska Native that they feel honored and that they feel that they have equal access to higher education and that they're able to contribute in really meaningful ways with our Native Student Success Summit and work that we've centered here on Highline College Campus including some literary events and arts events and storytelling. We're making sure that Native people, Native educators and leaders and students all feel like they have a home here at Highline College and in Highline and that that partnership between Highline Public Schools Native Education Program and the college is going to stay strong for a long time in honor of them in honor of our tribal nations and in honor of our shared work together. So the greatest thing in my opinion is the kids now have a chance of playing soccer in a different venue which is fantastic to their development. We're on hard ground and that will help them with their speed of play. This abandoned area has been converted into some futile courts and that's going to be really beneficial to their development. The partnership between Highline College and Port Jobs Airport University Program brings the college experience right here to the SeaTac Airport. It's a unique and robust model and there's no other airport in the country that provides this type of program. The partnership between Highline College and Special Olympics has not only provided opportunities for the athletes to participate in sports but it's also really set an example for colleges all across the state of Washington on how much you can impact the lives of people with disabilities by giving them opportunities to participate in sports. The University of Washington Tacoma and Highline College have had a longstanding partnership but recently this partnership has really risen to new levels when we together have worked with the City of Federal Way and Federal Way Public Schools to open an educational center in downtown Federal Way. The partnership now is achieving new heights. There are a lot of needs and barriers for the clients that we serve but the main and important that I would like to mention is improving their English language and then short term certificate programs that Highline brings here and we provide the space and the classrooms and Highline bring the teachers. That will help them a lot. We do it together and there is need for it always. Certainly we'd love to continue the partnership that we have with Highline. As Microsoft thinks about expanding our program nationally and then internationally we'd love to get your help on connecting us with your peers out there and the best practices that are beyond the Look of Puget Sound region so you can help us be more impactful not just in our community but on a bigger stage. In addition to the collaboration for the educational center in downtown Federal Way I can see our institutions continuing to deepen their collaboration in the future by making our degree programs more seamless. What I mean is working together to make the transition from one institution to the other institution as easy as possible for the benefit of our students. So I look forward to increasing enhanced partnership with Highline College moving forward. We think it would be great to work together with Highline College more providing job training for our clients, life skills like financial planning to give them confidence and help them maximize their resources in life and really make a dent in poverty. Our continued partnership with Highline College we would love to bring more core classes such as math and leadership to the Airport University program. Honestly we want our partnership to grow because we love Highline College. Our community partners are an extension of who we are and who we strive to be. Like an elaborate puzzle each piece is vital to achieving our mission. As we go forth into this new year remember to thank those partners you work with every day. Together we can continue to strive towards our collective vision and create the educational crossroads where dreams are shaped, communities are created and excellence is achieved. Go Highline!