Building Belonging: Four Highlights From Cabrillo's Fall 2026 Semester Kickoff
Content by Ryan Haynes, Director, Office of Student Housing, Family Services, and Essential Supports at Cabrillo College
The Fall 2026 semester began and we are less than a year away from opening Cabrillo College's first on-campus student housing. What a whirlwind and a blessing these first few weeks have been. As I reflect on the start of the semester, I wanted to share four recent highlights:
1. CalWORKs, Rising Scholars, Juvenile Justice & Essential Supports Open House:
We hosted an open house for our new shared office space with CalWORKs, Rising Scholars, Juvenile Justice, and Essential Supports. It’s about much more than sharing a physical space. It creates new opportunities to connect with colleagues, strengthen collaboration, and build a greater sense of belonging for our students. Belonging is an essential need, and I’m grateful for the shared space and the people who help foster it.
2. Fresh Market Food Distribution:
We hosted our first Fresh Market of the semester, with staff volunteers from across campus helping distribute free produce and grocery items to hundreds of students within just a few hours. Free food, music, community, and opportunities for students to connect with resources, from public benefits enrollment to learning about the Costa Vista student housing leasing process.
3. First Annual Student Parent Success Month:
September marks Cabrillo’s first annual Student Parent Success Month. This month brings offices and programs from across campus together under a shared vision to better support student parents, with programming, resources, and advocacy throughout September and beyond. We kicked things off with Vice President of Student Services Dra. Blanca Baltazar-Sabbah hosting Student Parent Escucha sessions on both of our campuses, creating space for student parents to share their experiences, needs, and ideas directly with us. These conversations just happened, and I’ve already had the privilege of working alongside colleagues to advocate for and begin addressing changes that came directly from what we heard.
4. Costa Vista Student Housing Leasing Office Open House:
We welcomed the Cabrillo community to the Costa Vista Student Housing Leasing Office Open House, marking our transition into the next phase of the housing process: leasing and beginning to see who will make up the first cohort of Cabrillo and University of California, Santa Cruz students living together at Costa Vista. Costa Vista is a first-of-its-kind intersegmental affordable student housing project located on a California community college campus, and the first California community college affordable housing project to include family housing units and an attached child care center serving up to 64 children.
After such a full start to the semester I'm grateful to find a moment to slow down, rest, reflect, and appreciate how much is taking shape. Cheers to an exciting semester and academic year ahead, together.
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