California invests heavily in multilingual K-12 education, but that investment rarely translates into clear workforce pathways. CA EPFP Fellow Lorenzo Sianez Jr. and Dr. Alicia Muñoz Sánchez explore how higher education can turn multilingual competencies into real career readiness, using healthcare as a case study. They outline three concrete opportunities for institutions to better connect language skills with California’s workforce needs.

When generative AI (GenAI) first arrived in college classrooms, many institutions reacted on instinct. Syllabi were rewritten overnight with sweeping bans, and campus conversations centered on policing student behavior rather than shaping thoughtful use. However, this “panic phase” is neither effective nor sustainable. Bans are difficult to enforce, quickly outdated, and often erode the institutional trust that good policy depends on.

This blog stems from a collaborative research partnership between EdInsights and Sacramento City College’s Enrollment and Student Services team. Together, they followed the academic journeys of over 10,000 first-time students to understand the role of student services in the completion of transfer momentum points.