Members of the Clark College Veterans Club and Associated Students were on hand to welcome student veterans to the new Veterans Resource Center. Also pictured are Vet Corps Navigators (and VCAS advisors) Tim McPharlin, far left, and Josh Vance, far right.

Less than four months after the college announced a major grant to help create a Veterans Resource Center, that center held its first public event to welcome student veterans and other members of the college community.

“This is a major milestone for the campus community as we pull together all the resources we have for veterans for their personal, financial, and educational success,” said Dean of Student Success & Retention Matthew Rygg as he greeted guests to the center’s open house, held March 11.

Clark College Bob Knight called the opening of the Veterans Resource Center “a proud day for Clark College.”

“As a vet myself, it is a proud day for Clark College to be opening a resource center for our student veterans,” said Clark College President Bob Knight, who served more than two decades in the U.S. Army. “To have a space where they can sit and meet with each other and get help and counseling is just a little of what we can do and should do for our veterans.”

Vice President of Student Affairs Bill Belden spoke in gratitude of the donors who had made the center possible. These include Jane Hagelstein, a longtime supporter of Clark’s student veteran community who donated $48,000 to help construct and furnish the center; the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington, which donated $30,000 in November to help hire and train staff at the center; and other individual donors who wish to remain anonymous. Belden also thanked Clark College Foundation for its support in making the center a reality.

Tucked into a quiet corner of Gaiser Hall’s second floor, the center is not yet complete–there is more furniture and decor in the works, and the college is still in the process of hiring a staff person to run it. But already it offers student veterans a host of amenities. A comfortable couch sits near a bank of computers available for research and paper-writing; private offices allow student veterans to discuss their educational and personal needs in confidentiality. An American flag stands by the doorway.

Clark College Veterans Club and Associated Students president Megan O’Malley thanks Jane Hagelstein, whose donation helped make the Veterans Resource Center possible.

“For me personally, a lot of it is just having that quiet space that [veterans] can come to where they don’t have to fight for a computer and where they can feel comfortable,” said Megan O’Malley, who is currently serving in the Army National Guard and is president of the Clark College Veterans Club and Associated Students.

About 700 veterans enroll at Clark College every quarter, about 500 of whom use GI Bill benefits to help pay for tuition, fees, housing, books and supplies. They often face unique challenges when they enter college–everything from managing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to navigating the sometimes complex paperwork involved in accessing military benefits. And then there are the not-so-unique challenges, like time management and financial instability. The Veterans Resource Center provides veterans with guidance and help for all of those things in one welcoming, centralized location.

“It’s our way of extending a helping hand to our vets and showing that the community they experienced while in the military is still available to them now that they’re out,” said Clark student Josh Vance. Vance, who served 10 years in the Air Force, now works as one of two Vet Corps Navigators in the center, helping veterans connect with services both inside and outside the college. Additionally, the center houses two full-time staff members who previously worked in the Office of Financial Aid; they are charged with helping veterans (as well as their qualifying dependents) access, understand, and comply with their GI Bill benefits. Six work-study employees also work in the center, supporting the staff and helping  student veterans with questions. All the center’s work-study students and most of its staff are veterans or active service members themselves, helping to create a comfortable and supportive environment for student veterans.

Student veteran Killian Hough and her service dog, Chekov, visit with Veterans Affairs Program Manager Michael Gibson at the Veterans Resource Center open house.

Killian Hough, a quiet woman whose service dog bears a sergeant’s stripes, came to check out the center after reading about it in her student email. She said she would return, and thought the center was a good step toward serving veterans at the college. “It shows that they’re considering veterans, having a place where we can have our thoughts, separate from all the kids,” said Hough, who served in the Air Force during Operation Desert Storm and currently serves in the Army National Guard. “A lot of us, both young and old, we’ve been through a lot, and sometimes we kind of think differently.”

The Veterans Resource Center is located in Gaiser Hall room 216. Its current hours during the regular academic year are 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Hours are reduced during breaks in the academic year. Certifying officials are available 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The center’s main phone line is 360-992-2073.

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley. For more photos from this event, visit our Flickr set.

WSUV’s Butch T. Cougar and Clark’s own Oswald the Penguin, as well as volunteers and Student Ambassadors from Clark College, were on hand to greet guests at College Goal Washington. Photo: Matthew Hunt/Doghouse Graphics.

On January 26, Clark College hosted a College Goal Washington event in Gaiser Student Center, attracting approximately 250 guests–more than any other such event in Southwest Washington.

College Goal Washington (also called “College Goal Sunday”) is a state-based volunteer program that provides free information and assistance to students and families who are applying for financial aid for post-secondary education. Financial aid specialists from both Clark College and Washington State University Vancouver were on hand to help families fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Volunteers were able to provide assistance in both Spanish and Russian, as well as in English.

The afternoon-long event included three break-out sessions: “Getting to College & Succeeding,” “Financial Aid 101,” and “Scholarships.” Translation into Spanish and Russian was also provided for these sessions.

Financial Aid Program Coordinator Kendra Graham contributed this article.

Clark College hosts numerous job fairs at its main campus each year, all of them open to the public.

Clark College hosts its second annual Summer Job and Internship Fair from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, March 4, in the Gaiser Student Center. The event is designed to help job-seekers find summer internship and employment opportunities with Portland- and Vancouver-area employers.

New this year, the college is partnering with the Vancouver Housing Authority (VHA) to co-sponsor the fair. According to VHA Community Involvement and Employment Manager Bridgette Farnbulleh, the VHA has organized its own summer job fair for the past two years, but was eager to join forces with the Clark College.

Clark College’s job fairs draw dozens of employers and hundreds of job-seekers.

“We wanted to connect with Clark College because of the educational aspect,” Farnbulleh said. “We wanted our youth to be on a college campus, and to understand that the kind of job you get is closely connected to the education you get. We’re trying to break the cycle, to make sure that just because they may have grown up in poverty doesn’t mean they have to live in second-generation poverty themselves.”

“I’m looking forward to this year’s job fair,” said Sarah Weinberger, Employer Relations and Job Developer at Clark College. “We have already doubled the number of registered employers from last year, and the collaboration with the VHA will make our event even stronger. Previously, the Summer Job and Internship Fair was held in May, but many employers had already hired for a June start date by that point. We are now holding the event in March because it’s when students need to start planning for summer employment.”

Positions offered at the fair may be full-time, part-time and in the case of internships, they may be paid or unpaid. There will also be a mock interview room set up to help job seekers prepare for real-life interviews.

The Summer Job & Internship Fair is sponsored by Clark College Career Services and the Vancouver Housing Authority. The event’s Gold Level sponsor is LaborWorks. Some of the employers who will be at the event are Boys & Girls Club of Southwest Washington, Entercom Portland, Firestone Pacific Foods, LOWE’S, Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, Trackers Earth, and YWCA Clark County. There are over 30 registered employers currently, with room for more. The event is open to any company or organization offering internships or summer employment, but space is limited so interested employers should act quickly to register.

A list of participating employers is available on the Career Center’s Pinterest page.

The event  is free and open to the public. Clark College is located at 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver, Wash. Driving directions and parking maps are available at www.clark.edu/maps.

If you need accommodation due to a disability in order to fully participate in this event, you should contact Clark College’s Disability Support Services Office at 360-992-2314 or 360-991-0901 (VP), or visit Gaiser Hall room 137, as soon as possible.

Elizabeth Christopher contributed to this article.

Photos: Clark College archives/Jenny Shadley

Professor Deena Godwin, far left, with Honors Program students Patrick Hardy, Christopher Yoong, Alida van Breda, Jason Langley, Lynne Rochelle, Jennifer Campbell, and Ben Putnam.

Clark is well known for providing its students with hands-on learning opportunities in career-oriented fields like nursing, dental hygiene, and automotive technology. Even so, you might imagine that the highly academic and cerebral Transfer AA Honors Program would be too elevated an atmosphere for “learning by doing.”

Guess again: As the students in Prof. Deena Godwin’s Honors Small Group Communication class explained during a presentation on December 5, their experience with conquering a real-life challenge not only taught them how to apply the theories they’d learned in the class to an actual problem, but also helped prepare them for the sort of situations they’re likely to encounter in their work lives, no matter what field they wind up in.

The students were given an assignment at the beginning of the quarter: Come up with ways to introduce more Clark students to the Honors Program, a newly developed course of study designed to provide high-achieving students with challenging coursework to prepare them for pursuing higher degrees at four-year institutions.

None of the students had difficulty with the actual goal. As Honors Program students themselves, they knew first-hand the benefits of participating in the program: the chance to take academically challenging classes with other high-achieving students, the Honors credential on their transcripts, one-on-one mentoring with a faculty member, the freedom to really delve into a topic of interest through a capstone project, and scholarship opportunities through the Clark College Foundation’s Honors Program Scholarship.

But while the students were happy with the goal of the assignment, they were less sanguine about the format, which involved working in groups of three to five. (After all, the course is called Small Group Communication.) Many students originally balked at the idea of group projects, fearing that their classmates would not perform to the same high standards they set for themselves. “I came into this really scared because I knew it was a big part of my grade, and my grade is everything to me,” said Jason Langley.

What the students discovered was that their challenges of working in a group were not the ones they’d feared: For the most part, students did their work. Rather, the problems were ones encountered in many workplaces: conflicts in vision, differences in communication styles, negotiating between bright individuals who were accustomed to dominating their work groups, coordinating busy schedules, clarifying tasks and goals. This is when the tools they were learning in class came in handy. As the students continued their presentations, terms like “setting expectations” and “going back to our norms” began sneaking into their language.

In the end, the groups came up with varied ways of achieving the assignment’s goal, ranging from presentations to College 101 classes to a brief video outlining the Honors Program’s advantages. While the students encountered unexpected challenges–one group wound up having to dismiss a member, after weeks of mediation–they all agreed that the class had taught them valuable skills.

“Although we had a tough time working together as a group, I personally believe we’ll be better students and future employees because of this experience,” said Patrick Hardy, who was in the group with the dismissed team member.

Clark College Foundation CEO and President Lisa Gibert, who attended the presentation, agreed. “I would say you had the more valuable experience in many ways, because you are experiencing what you’re going to experience in the real world,” she said.

Student Ben Putnam said he planned to use the skills he’d learned through this assignment in future group work. “The next time I’m assigned to work in a team, I’ll be the weird guy who says, ‘Yeah, let’s write these rules down before we start,'” he said with a grin.

For more information about the Transfer AA Honors Program, visit www.clark.edu/honors.

Photo: Clark College/Hannah Erickson

Pathways Peer Mentors, left to right, Julie Mercado, Mark Damian, Alana Leon-Guerrero, Jamie Brindley-Bagent, Chantear Song, and Seunghyun Roh

Students who enroll in Basic Education at Clark College often find themselves facing a host of challenges.

What kind of challenges? “Oh my gosh, there are so many!” exclaims Pathways Peer Mentor Jamie Brindley-Bagent. “Everyone has different stories: if you don’t have money, if you don’t have parents to help you, if you don’t have a place to stay, if you think of yourself as dumb.”

Thankfully, students enrolled in Clark’s Adult Basic Education–as well as its English as a Second Language and IBEST programs–can turn to their Pathways Peer Mentors (PPMs) for support and advice when the road gets rough. PPMs are fellow students who have successfully transitioned from ABE, GED, and/or ESL programs to college-credit academic classes at Clark–or who are first-generation college students. Their unique experience gives them insight into the challenges faced by their peers, allowing them to provide necessary support, guidance and encouragement to help those peers stay in school and achieve their long-term educational goals.

This year’s Pathways Peer Mentors are:

Jamie Brindley-Bagent, 19, grew up in Vancouver. She is studying criminal psychology and hopes to earn her master’s degree in this field, eventually becoming a detective. “I know it’s really hard to go to college and I want to show people that they can do it,” she says.

Mark Damian, 17, grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia. He is pursuing an associate transfer degree, with the goal of becoming an engineer. A Running Start student, he enjoys working as a Peer Mentor because “there’s a lot of opportunity to make new friends.”

Alana Leon-Guerrero, 21, is originally from the island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands. Currently studying for her Associate of Arts degree, she plans to transfer to Washington State University Vancouver after graduating from Clark. “I decided to become a Pathways Peer Mentor because I want to help people and let them know that there are a lot of resources on campus.”

Julie Mercado, 21, began at Clark taking ESL classes; she currently is enrolled in the I-BEST Academic program, which allows students to enroll in academic classes while simultaneously receiving Adult Basic Education assistance within the class. A native of Guadalajara, Mexico, she came to the United States at age 18. “Now that I am a Pathways Peer Mentor, I get the satisfaction of seeing how we help people,” says the aspiring elementary teacher.

Seunghyun Roh is from South Korea, where he learned to enjoy helping students during his time as an English tutor. Now studying at Clark through International Programs, he decided to become a Peer Mentor because he “wanted to have more experience with people from other countries.” He hopes to become an engineer.

Chantear Song, 26, grew up in Washington state. She is studying elementary education. “My goal for the future is to be a bright, influential teacher for students,” she says, adding that she chose to become a Pathways Peer Mentor to “challenge myself, get out of my comfort zone, and help people.”

This year, the PPMs have begun using a new tool in their work: bright-orange “Look for the Good and Praise It!” appreciation note cards. These notes offer students, staff, and others a vehicle for offering thanks and encouragement. “It’s one thing to talk about the power of appreciation; it’s another thing to experience its uplifting, invigorating impact,” says Marilyn Sprague, PPM Program Coordinator. “With the appreciation note cards, PPM mentors have a simple, easy-to-use tool guaranteed to build ABE/ESL students’ confidence.”

The notecards are available in the Pathways Center (TBG 229).

Story co-written with Suzanne Smith

Photo: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Billy Henry began lifting weights as a teenager, an experience he found so empowering that he decided to create a nonprofit dedicated to promoting athletics and physical fitness among the blind and visually impaired.

Cast your mind back to your high school physical education classes and ask yourself: How many of those activities could you have done blindfolded? Basketball? No way. Relay races? Only if someone made significant changes to the way it was organized. Dodgeball? Please.

Small wonder, then, that almost 70 percent of all blind or visually impaired school-aged children in the U.S. never participate in any sort of sport, physical activity, or physical education program. The result is that many miss out on opportunities to boost their confidence, teamwork skills, and both physical and mental health. But thanks to Clark student Billy Henry, all that’s changing in the Pacific Northwest.

Henry, 21, is the executive director of the Northwest Association of Blind Athletes (NWABA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating opportunities for blind and visually impaired people to participate in sports and physical activities. He founded the organization in 2007, when he was all of 15 years old.

Henry, who is legally blind due to a congenital condition called optic nerve hypoplasia, might well have become part of that 70 percent of non-active youth if he hadn’t discovered the sport of powerlifting in his teens. Energized by what he calls the “life-changing” boost in self-confidence and strength provided by competing in this sport, he decided to create the NWABA to share that feeling with other blind and visually impaired people.

“I just saw a real need in the community,” says Henry. “There are a lot of challenges to blind and visually impaired people joining sports and physical activities, and I wanted to give them that opportunity to gain confidence and self-esteem to carry into other parts of their lives.”

The organization started small, with just six people practicing powerlifting in the Henry family’s garage; Henry’s parents would make dinner for the team twice a week. “I got a couple friends to be on the board of directors—it took some arm-twisting,” recalls Henry, who at the time was attending Hudson’s Bay High School. “I sat down with a friend to fill out the 32-page IRS application for 501c3 [nonprofit] status. Fundraising was really challenging. We held a lot of bake sales.”

The effort paid off: Over the next six years, the organization grew in leaps and bounds. In 2012, more than 1,000 blind and visually impaired people participated in NWABA events, which now include activities like judo, tandem cycling, swimming, track and field, skiing, baseball, golf, and an adaptive form of ping pong called showdown. With an operating budget of $150,000, the organization has expanded its reach to Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana; this summer, it hosted the 2013 National Goalball Championships, featuring a sport specifically developed for blind and visually impaired athletes.

Clark student Billy Henry became interested in weight lifting while still in high school, in part because the sport allowed him to compete on an even footing with sighted athletes. Here he holds a trophy from the World Association of Benchers and Dead Lifters.

Henry now operates out of an office in downtown Vancouver, which he moved into in the fall of 2010—the same time he enrolled at Clark to study business administration. “I chose Clark because it allowed me to stay local and I knew it had a good reputation for its disability support services,” says Henry. “They’re phenomenal. They’re really experienced with working with blind and visually impaired students and understanding each student’s individual needs.”

Clark College Director of Access Services Tami Jacobs says that the college has a high proportion of students who are blind or visually impaired, in part due to its proximity to the Washington State School for the Blind (just a block away from Clark’s main campus) and its strong working relationship with the Washington State Department of Services for the Blind. Jacobs says she and her staff work hard to provide a welcoming and supportive learning environment for students of all abilities. Jacobs says she has been impressed by Henry’s work ethic, both in class and with the NWABA. “He is driven, passionate, and looks for solutions outside of the box,” she says.

“It’s interesting, because at the nonprofit I get a lot of hands-on learning,” says Henry. “And at the same time I do learn a lot in my business classes that I’ve brought into the nonprofit. Reading financial statements is much easier since I’ve taken Accounting.”

Henry has taken a mix of in-person and online classes, noting that online classes offer certain advantages for the visually impaired. “I struggle with math, and I really like [taking] math classes online because I can go back and watch a video lecture over and over, and get as close to the screen as I want,” he says. “That’s more challenging in a room with a whiteboard. But I also really like the personal interaction that you get in the physical classroom setting.”

Henry expects to graduate from Clark in 2014 and plans to attend Washington State University Vancouver afterward to earn a bachelor’s degree in business. Meanwhile, he plans to continue growing NWABA, even if that means eventually handing the reins over to someone else.

“It’s hard, because I want to keep doing the work,” he says. “But getting my education is very, very important to me as well.”

Eventually, he would like to earn a master’s degree—either in business or in health care administration. When someone mentions that health care organizations could probably benefit from his unique perspective, Henry chuckles softly.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too,” he says.

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

HIIT student Rachel Cribben says the ability to pursue a bachelor’s degree without leaving her home in Vancouver is “extremely important” to her success in the program.

In a move that will provide residents of Southwest Washington with the opportunity to train for high-paying jobs in a rapidly expanding field, Clark College and Bellevue College have signed an articulation agreement that allows students at Clark to earn a bachelor’s degree in Health Informatics Information Technology (HIIT) from Bellevue through online and remote classes—without leaving the Clark College campus.

“In our ongoing conversations with regional employers, we realized there was a need for Health Informatics Information Technology professionals and responded quickly to that need, but we also realized that there would be a need for students to take their education to the next level,” said Debra Ortiz, director of allied health programs at Clark College. “This is a great opportunity for students to stay here in the region and get a bachelor’s degree in a rapidly growing field.”

Health Informatics is the science of managing electronic health records and coordinating the computer information systems used by hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, and health care professionals. HIIT professionals work in customizing software for large health care institutions, as well as in data analysis, training clinicians on how to use computer systems, database management, and many other related fields. Demand for these skilled professionals is increasing as more and more health care organizations switch to electronic records-keeping, and as the graying Baby Boomers spur an increase in demand for health care. Indeed, the Bureau for Labor Statistics predicts that demand for HIIT specialists will increase by 21 percent between 2010 and 2020—a rate that’s 50 percent higher than average job growth in all fields.

Clark introduced its HIIT program in winter 2012 in response to regional workforce needs. From the beginning, the program was designed to allow graduates to transfer to four-year institutions, including the Oregon Institute of Technology. However, this new agreement with Bellevue College allows students to continue paying in-state tuition while pursuing their Bachelor of Science degree; because the classes are offered online or remotely, the agreement also allows students to complete their four-year degree without leaving Vancouver.

“We’re thrilled to have this opportunity to collaborate with our colleagues at Clark so that we can offer students convenient access to our online courses,” said Dr. Pamela Charney, program chair of Healthcare Information Technology & Management at Bellevue. “This will give students from Clark a clear pathway to professional success in the exciting new arena of healthcare IT.”

Rachel Cribben is one of those students. Cribben, 27, earned a certificate for medical billing and coding shortly after graduating from high school. But after she and her husband separated in 2011, she realized that she would need to get a degree to be able to support her two daughters, ages 3 and 5. Her mother, who works at Clark, told her about the HIIT program.

Cribben says HIIT is a good fit for her personality and interests. “I like the healthcare field, but I’m more of a behind-the-scenes kind of person,” she says, adding that she hopes to find a job in a hospital’s information technology department and eventually manage her own team of specialists there.

Cribben says the material has at times been challenging. “I’m taking Intro to Local Area Networks right now, and I opened up the textbook and saw all these pictures of wires and diagrams and thought, ‘How am I going to learn this?'” she says. “But then I saw a picture of a [network interface card] and I recognized it from when my brother built my computer. I realized I actually knew what it was already, and it made me think, ‘OK, I can do this.'”

Cribben plans to earn her associate degree from Clark in 2016 and her bachelor’s degree through the Bellevue partnership a year after that. For her, the ability to be able to complete her degree without relocating–and primarily through online classes, so that she can continue to care for her children while being a full-time student–is crucial to her success in the program.

“It’s extremely important,” she says. “I want to do this, and I want to do it well. I want to show my girls that you can do anything that you put your mind to.”

Photo: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Members of Clark’s Phi Theta Kappa chapter, Alpha Sigma Phi, hand out CollegeFish goodies at the Involvement Fair to increase awareness in the program.

As tuition at many four-year institutions continues to soar, many students have realized the value of spending their first two years of college at a community college. New studies show that the majority of community college graduates who go on to four-year colleges do so successfully, and the economic advantages of the “2+2” plan have been publicized in the media for years.

But while many students enter Clark confident in their transfer plans, they sometimes begin to feel lost or overwhelmed at some point in the process. After all, aren’t they supposed to be focusing on their time at Clark, taking in all the school has to offer? Well, yes—but early planning is critical to transferring successfully.

So where does a student even start? There are a number of resources available to students: Advising Services, the Career Center, our WSU Vancouver Transfer Coordinator, and so on. And this fall quarter, a brand-new tool will be available for Clark students who have indicated they intend to eventually transfer.

CollegeFish.org is a free database and transfer-planning tool for community college students that’s been developed and maintained by Phi Theta Kappa (PTK), the honor society for two-year colleges. CollegeFish was originally developed for members of PTK to use in their planning; however, through a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant, PTK was given the opportunity to refine the tool and open access to all students in specific pilot states.

Clark College is one of several colleges in Washington that are partnering with PTK to roll out CollegeFish access. CollegeFish allows students to create a personalized profile of their transfer institution preferences–size, location, major, and cost–and provides recommended transfer matches based on those preferences. CollegeFish also creates a Transfer Success Plan for students, so they can customize their higher education journey and manage it to stay on track. Lastly, when students access CollegeFish.org, they have the opportunity to search for more than $37 million in transfer scholarships.

Clark PTK advisor Melissa Sinclair says that staff and faculty will soon receive an email with some basic information about CollegeFish.org, as well as an invitation to a training session to learn more about the website’s functionality. Eligible students will receive an email in October alerting them to the resource.

Photo: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Student-athlete volunteers at the 2013 Penguin Nation Charity Golf Tournament with Athletics Secretary Senior Marla Derrick, second from left.

More than 120 golfers converged on Royal Oaks Country Club for an afternoon of fun on the links in support of Clark athletics in late August during the Penguin Nation Charity Golf Tournament. The winning team—finishing 12 under par with a score of 60—was led by Quail Construction owner Jon Girod and his son, Jai, who plays for Clark’s baseball team.

More than 120 golfers participated in the 2013 Penguin Nation Charity Golf Tournament.

There were a variety of contests during the game to keep it fun and competitive. The men’s longest-drive winner was Mick Hoffman; women’s longest-drive went to Jeanne Caswell. Scott Munn won the closest-to-the-pin contest by coming within 13 inches of the cup.

From the moment the golfers were greeted at their vehicles by Clark’s soccer teams, to dinner with volleyball and baseball players and track-and-field athletes, the participants learned how much Clark’s student athletes and coaches appreciated their support.

Royal Oaks and its membership graciously welcomed the players to its beautiful, tree-lined course for the annual Penguin Charity Golf event. Premier sponsors included Wacom, US Bank, Homewood Suites, Sterling Bank, Adidas and Columbia Credit Union.

Vice President of Administrative Services Bob Williamson, left, and Vice President of Student Affairs Bill Belden get ready to hit the links.

Additionally, tee sponsors included Clark College Bookstore, Biggs Insurance, The Blind Onion Pizza, NY Life, Keil Enterprises, First Pacific Associates, Exercise Equipment NW, Residence Inn, and Moss Adams. The hole-in-one car sponsor, Dick Hannah Kia, provided a silver Optima on the course.

No holes-in-one were made, but funds were raised in support of Clark’s student athletes to ensure their bright futures through scholarships, high-quality education and facilities.

Story submitted by Rhonda Morin and Vivian Cheadle-Manning
Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Faculty volunteer Carole Makewich helps student Tamika Taylor shop for textbooks.

For Alex Adrian, the thing he’s looking forward to most about taking classes at Clark College is something he won’t be doing–namely, rote vocabulary quizzes.

“I would finish them in, like, half the time provided,” said the Hudson’s Bay High School student. “It was really boring.”

Alex was one of 214 Running Start students to attend the Clark College Bookstore’s Running Start Open House on August 27. Running Start is a Washington state program that allows qualified high school students to take community college classes for credit during their junior and senior years, potentially earning an associate degree while still in high school.

Father-and-son duo Peter and Alex Adrian were getting ready for Alex’s first year at Clark by attending the Running Start Open House.

“It’s such a great opportunity, especially for bright kids like Alex,” said Alex’s father, Peter Adrian, who had brought his son to the open house to shop for textbooks. Peter added that, with two younger children at home, the opportunity to save on college tuition for Alex was also appealing. Running Start tuition is significantly lower than standard college tuition.

Some 1,771 Running Start students are expected to attend Clark during the 2013-2014 academic year–a record number. Each year, the Bookstore hosts an open house before fall quarter begins so that students and their parents can become familiar with college systems, including Tutoring Services, Clark College Libraries, and ASCC (student government). Additionally, Bookstore staff set up informational stations where visitors could learn about how to best use the Bookstore’s services.

“This is a three-quarter textbook,” Bookstore employee Ali Hallenbeck told a small crowd gathered at the “Affordable Textbook Options” station as she held up a massive, hardback tome with Japanese writing on it. “If you’re only taking one quarter of the language, it’s probably cheaper to buy this,” she added, holding up a thinner, soft-cover workbook.

“The main reason for the open house is to give students a chance to visit the bookstore and learn about how to find out what books and supplies will be needed for their classes,” said Bookstore Secretary Senior Leah Skeen, who organizes the event every year. “Students are taught how to use the book list and supply list. The secondary purpose for the event is to provide a fun, inviting atmosphere to welcome the students to Clark, help them feel comfortable starting a new school, and let them know the resources available to them. The open house is a time to build relationships and let students know were here for them. Hopefully, after attending the event, they feel more confident and prepared for their first day of class at Clark.”

Bookstore buyer Kaina Barba helps students out at the technology desk.

It seemed to be working for Fort Vancouver High School student Tamika Taylor. She decided to enroll in Running Start to accelerate her ability to join the U.S. Navy, where she hopes to become a cryptology technician, a field that appeals to both her love of math and her sense of tradition; both her grandfather and father served in the military. When asked what she was looking forward to most about her time at Clark, she unhesitatingly answered, “Math class.”

And did she feel at all nervous about taking on the challenge of college while still in high school? Taylor looked around the Bookstore for a second, then smiled and said, “Not really, no.”

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley