VaHigherEd.com

VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 15 - This week’s podcast features Virginia Western Community College student Stephen Jennings, who is finding the community college a great place to receive hands-on training for a third career in radiology.

Listen by clicking on the audio link above or downloading the link to VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 15.

Subscribe to this podcast through a feed
Or listen to this podcast on itunes

VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 13- This week’s VaHigherEd podcast features an elite group of community college students, members of the “First Virginia Team,” named by the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society as the “top ten” two-year students in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

These “top ten,” along with more than 50 of their high-achieving peers who comprise the All-Virginia Academic Team, were in Richmond April 16 for the annual PTK Honors Luncheon, where they were recognized as the best and the brightest of Virginia’s community college students.

These students are not very different from any Virginia community college student. They are looking for transfer options, looking for affordable, quality higher education close to home. They are taking advantage of sometimes the only opportunity available as they seek a better future. They have found those opportunities – and they have risen to the top of their class.

Stephanie Umphlette attends Rappahannock Community College as a dual enrollment student – while finishing high school at the Governor’s School in Warsaw. She’ll graduate from RCC in May – before she graduates from high school in June.

Cynthia Spencer had been out of school 20 years when she decided to commit to an engineering career – starting at the Loudoun Campus of Northern Virginia Community College.

David Dutton, profoundly deaf since birth, has overcome many difficulties to attend complete his education at Lord Fairfax Community College, where he has started an American Sign Language society.

And Samantha Cousin made a conscious decision to save on college with two years at Tidewater Community College before a zoology career takes her to Idaho State University.

Pictured from left to right: Stephanie Umphlette (RCC); Cynthia Spencer (NVCC); David Dutton (LFCC); Samantha Cousin (TCC)

See all members of the First Virginia Team.

Subscribe to this podcast through a feed
Or listen to this podcast on itunes

Jacob Neal, honored last week as part of the USA Today First USA Team and also the “New Century Scholar” for Virginia, will be leading a group of Virginia’s best and brightest community colleges students tomorrow when they are all honored at the Omni in Richmond.

Fifty-one two-year students in all are part of the Virginia team, and on Wednesday, the top “10″ will be named as the “First Virginia Team.”  Jacob automatically earns a place at the head of the First Virginia team by being named the top-ranked community college scholar in Virginia.

If you want to be overwhelmed, just read through the achievements of this year’s group of award winning students.

Piedmont Virginia Community College has had four national team members in the past nine years.

VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 12- The horticulture program at Virginia Highlands Community College provides Navy veteran Jillian Holcombe with what she calls the best educational experience of her life. One of the highlights:  A recent coastal ecology research trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, a life-changing trip that allowed her first-hand knowledge of ecological marvels. A blog about her experience is available on her Myspace page.

“I think I’m getting a better education right here at Virginia Highlands than I would be if I were at a traditional four-year university,” she says. She’s saving her GI Bill for when she transfers, and looking for a future career in horticulture therapy.

Subscribe to this podcast through a feed
Or listen to this podcast on itunes

VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 11 - Community colleges provide doorway to career.  Armen Grigoryan, a dentist from Armenia, is starting over to earn his way back into dentistry - using Virginia Western Community College as his first step. 

Grigoryan was featured in the Roanoke Times in May when he graduated with his associate’s degree in dental hygiene.

 Subscribe to this podcast through a feed
Or listen to this podcast on itunes

VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 8 - Aspiring economist and honors student Steve Agarwal of NVCC’s Alexandria Campus talks about how small classes and top notch instructors add up to a high quality education at Virginia’s Community Colleges.

Tune in for the eighth in a series of podcasts featuring Voices from Virginia’s Community Colleges. Click on the audio icon at the top to hear the podcast. Or, click on the podcast title to download and listen on your own computer.

 Subscribe to this podcast through a feed
Or listen to this podcast on itunes

Over the past two months, more than two dozen students have been highlighted in blog posts here at VaHigherEd.com. (To see them all, just select “student stories” under categories at the right.)

Their stories are varied; their backgrounds diverse. But they have one thing in common: they attend a Virginia community college. They attend community college to start a career, to start a college degree, to stay close to home, to save money. Some wanted a smaller setting — where the professors know your name. Some were homeschooled. Some plan to take advantage of guaranteed admission agreements.  Most agree the choice they’ve made has opened up opportunities for them they might otherwise have missed.

I’ve been priviledged to tag along with a few of them as they made their treks to the General Assembly, to share with legislators the differences that community colleges have made in their lives. Legislators were impressed.

It was a visit to Sen. Philip Puckett’s office that really it hit home.  It was the Senator who brought it up.  Glancing around at the students from New River Community College, he saw the results of an investment. 

“When Governor Godwin asked us to create the Virginia Community College System, he was asking us to make an investment,” said Sen. Puckett.  There wasn’t a ton of money laying around, he added, but they made an investment in the future.

That investment 40-plus years ago, in 1966, brought Virginia’s Community Colleges into being.

The students who traveled to Richmond this year — and thousands more like them back at the colleges — represent the investment paying off. They will change the commonwealth.

Here’s a little bit about what former Governor Godwin said back in 1966:

“If we look at the numbers of potential students, and if we also look at the relative costs involved, the implication is clear that a community college system is the quickest, and the most efficient, the most economical, in fact, virtually the only way the future of young people can be met.”

Governor Godwin, the investment is paying off, the future is being met. It is embodied in these students who have made “Everyday Day (a) Community College Day.”

Posted by Susan Hayden

James Krigsvold wants to study archaeology. After he graduates from Rappahannock Community College with an arts and sciences degree he wants to transfer and major in anthropology at the College of William and Mary. Last summer he attended the college’s Archaeological Field School. “That experience really sold me on the idea.” He participated in the excavation of the Werowocomoco site  (more simply known as “Wero”), in Gloucester County–home and political center of Chief Powhatan in the early 17th century. Excavations of the site have revealed it dates back to the Archaic period (8000 B.C. - 1200 B.C.).

For James, the history-rich area that encompasses the service region of RCC has special significance. James is Pamunkey Indian from his mother’s side of the family. The 25-year-old student says, “So far, we have traced our family back to the 1700s.” He enjoys speaking about the history of the tribe and has taken part in the annual ceremony to the Governor’s Mansion to honor the treaties made in the 1600s. The Mattaponi and the Pamunkey tribes give gifts to the governor on the day before Thanksgiving in lieu of taxes on the reservation lands. 

As a child, James lived on the 1,200-acre Pamunkey Reservation adjacent to King William County, where his grandmother still lives. After graduating from high school, James moved to Florida and attended the University of Tampa. “I was not as motivated as now, and it just didn’t work out,” he shares. After three semesters, James returned to Virginia and for the next few years worked in construction and became a brick mason–something he continues to do part-time.

“I was too smart and was not using my academic potential,” says James about his decision to return to school. He says there is nothing wrong with construction, but decided on another path and RCC was a good starting point.

James also wants to minor in political science. Speaking with Del. Harvey Morgan on a recent visit to the General Assembly, they candidly discuss the hurdles the Virginia tribes have encountered over the years. Although eight tribes have been recognized by the state, the Virginia Indian tribes have yet to gain federal recognition, due in part to a decision in the early 20th century. Virginia removed the category of “Indian” from birth and marriage records — resulting in a “record genocide.” In 1999, Virginia’s General Assembly agreed to HJ Resolution 754, urging Congress to grant federal recognition to the Virginia tribes. Says James, “I want to get involved and help as much as I can in these kinds of issues.”

Posted by Carol Kyber

Daniel Matison is one busy, resourceful, responsible, and energetic young man. After graduating high school, the New Kent County resident took a year off to work in the restaurant industry. Now, as a student at Thomas Nelson Community College he is bartending to finance his education. “It’s a tough schedule,” Daniel admits, “but I’m determined to do well.”

Daniel says TNCC was the right choice for him. The oldest of six siblings, he wanted to stay close to home and help his mother with his younger siblings, especially after she had to return to work. Before that she home schooled the oldest kids for their three years of middle school. “She really put me through the paces in math,” says Daniel.  I guess that’s what you get when your mom is an electrical engineer, but I’m really good at math–it prepared me well.” 

Daniel doesn’t hesitate to tell his personal story with legislators. He explains how important community college has been for him. “With a large family money is tight, so if it wasn’t for TNCC I probably wouldn’t be in college.” He also says his TNCC experience has helped him to grow by leaps and bounds, giving him time to become more directed.

Working toward a degree in business administration at TNCC, Daniel’s goal is to pursue a degree in international relations at William and Mary. In preparation, he is taking a course this semester in political science. “The class and the professor are so interesting and completely engaging,” he exclaims. 

One goal Daniel has is to join the Peace Corps and travel around the world sharing his skills and knowledge. He loves to meet people from different countries. A serving job at a resort in the Williamsburg area gave him a glimpse of that with exposure to international tourists and foreign student who are employed through work-study programs. “I love talking to people–asking them about their life and culture.” he says. “That’s where and how I met my wife. She was a work-study student from Thailand.” Daniel further explains how they carried on a long distance relationship for awhile, It was a great experience to be able to visit her and travel to Thailand. “I had $350 for the month, but through the generosity of her family and friends, it was enough. They are wonderful people.”

Another international experience Daniel had was during a missionary trip to the Ukraine when he was 15, serving at an orphanage. He says it was a memorable and moving experience for his group. “It was something to know we were giving the kids only the second shirt they had ever had in their lives. You walk away realizing and telling yourself, “I have a really nice life.”

Posted by Carol Kyber

Diane Belcher is one of many New River Community College  students who will graduate this May and transfer to Virginia Tech.

Except Diane built a house, married, raised a family and served 10 years on the Floyd County Board of Supervisors before she finally got her chance to go back to school.

“This is something I’ve always wanted to do. I can’t tell you what it’s meant to me,” she says of her experience at New River, where she will earn a human services degree that allows her to achieve her dream of helping others.

Without New River, she’d still be wishing she had received a college degree. Without New River’s internship program, she wouldn’t be working at Virginia Tech in the intergenerational lab that combines elder care with child care in a mutually beneficial relationship.

Diane started college at a business college in the 1980s after high school, but left to concentrate on her job helping run a bed-and-breakfast. Now, she brings so much more experience with her when she sits in a class.  “I’m here because I want to be,” she says.  “I soak it all in.”

Her 4.0 grade-point-average sets an example for her children in 7th and 8th grade — and they will be there to see Mom get her diploma.  “It’s hard to ask your kids to get good grades if you don’t do it yourself,” she says.

At 42, she’s amazed at the diversity of students community colleges serve.  In Richmond this week visiting the General Assembly, she tells legislators she sits in class with ”students 20 years older than me — and students 20 years younger than me.”

She gestures to her fellow students as examples of the latter. Also visiting with New River’s delegation are two homeschooled students attending college for the first time — and loving it — and a recent high school graduate who could have picked a prestigious four year school, but didn’t want to be “just a number.”

Visiting from Germanna Community College is a naturalized citizen from Haiti studying to be a male nurse. “Without community college, I could not be a success,” says Robinson Exume. 

Diane Belcher enjoys her position as an older adviser and motivator for the younger students. There’s a place for all of us, she says. To change the world, she says, “it takes us all.”

Posted by Susan Hayden