Two days after I attended graduation, I found myself seated at my kitchen table with a big cup of coffee and maybe five minutes of quiet to read (scan, really) the Sunday paper. (Before I had a child, this used to be one of my favorite things to do but now it happens maybe once a month, if I’m lucky.)
On the front page, there was an article about CSCC entitled “At the Crossroads,” and it discussed how CSCC is changing, and how we’re setting enrollment records, but how we’re still not reaching “enough of the people who experts say need education the most: working adults.” The article echoed a lot of the things I’d heard on Friday, particularly the things Ohio’s Treasurer of State, Kevin L. Boyce, had to say.
Encarnacion Pyle, the writer of the article, states that: “Without qualified workers, Ohio can’t attract and grow business,” and she adds that “Education also translates into higher pay.”
Kevin Boyce told the graduating class that the blue collar jobs that used to support a family are disappearing and that education is going to be key in the new economy. He emphasized the importance of an educated workforce in attracting jobs to our region.
The article profiled several older adults, and the roles they sometimes play at the college: transfer student, displaced worker, and those in search of a second career.
In order to attract and retain older students, CSCC is expanding online and accelerated course options, opening a new campus in Delaware, Ohio, and recruiting older students at “charities, churches, GED centers and even the unemployment office.” Statewide, tuition has been frozen at all Ohio public schools for the last two years, and the budget currently before the legislature would continue that tuition freeze at community colleges for the next two years, which is fantastic news for all of us students.
It was also interesting to me to hear that more than half of community college students work more than 20 hours per week, more than a third are the first in their families to go to college, and that thirty percent have children at home.
To me, it seems that CSCC is all things to all people. As the article noted in the “Student profiles” section: “Teens who are looking for job skills, high-school graduates who want an affordable bridge to a four-year college and older adults who need retraining are all potential Columbus State Community College students.”
Last Friday, there were graduates from 49 different career and technical programs, ranging from early childhood development, to real estate, to digital design and graphics, to the many varieties of allied health and nursing programs. If you were at spring graduation, you heard Dr. Moeller tell the crowd that Columbus is full of CSCC graduates, working in all lines of work, and in all industries.
Everybody’s welcome here, and we’re here for such different reasons.
