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Resources for the atypical student
STOR Y A N O ,P H O T O BY IA N V A N O R D E N
MANAGING EDITOR
Apprehension upon beginning college is no new issue. M any who first arrive on a
college campus will feel overwhelmed, perhaps out of place in the new environment.
Those that often have the m ost trouble, though, are the ones that do not fall into
the typical college age bracket. Those who are returning to school after a break, or
perhaps those who are skipping ahead.
Joan Jagodnik, an academ ic and career coach at CCC focuses on helping these
students with their transition. The Clackamas Print spoke w ith Jagodnik about what
issues these students face, and w hat resources are available to help them succeed.
TCP: Tell m e a little about yourself.
A: I ’ve been here just a little over a year,
in this position. I started in November
2017. I actually worked here previously
eighteen years ago, in a different advising
role. In betw een tim es I w orked at
Portland State University and Marylhurst
University and I think I even worked for
Portland Com m unity College for a while
in between there. So, always kind of in
that student services, doing advising, all
student service kind of roles. I love the
com m unity college, I actually attended
Clackamas Com m unity College right out
of high school and so was very happy to
work here before and happy to come back.
It’s a great place to be.
Q: Tell me about your role here. W hat do
you do specifically?
A : So , m y title is academ ic and career
coach. There are, I forget how many of us
with that title and primarily we work for
student services but there are some of us
that are distributed to different areas. So,
we have one of our advisors who focuses
on working with student athletes and one
in one of the more career technical areas,
so different specializations.
M ine is working with students in our
adult basic skills areas w hich includes
English as a second language, adult basic
ed, GED, and then developmental writing,
the word 90 classes. I work with those
students who are students who are in the
ESL and GED programs who are getting
close to fin ish in g those program s and
startin g to th in k about tran sitio n in g
to college course. For exam ple, when a
student starts tak in g their GED class,
there are four of them to take and they
usually don’t take them all at once, some
do, but when they start taking them and
are feelin g pretty confident that they
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are go in g to pass them then we start
talking about what their next step is. So,
if all they needed was their GED, their
fine, their good to go, they just needed
it for their job or whatever, that’s great.
But if they are thinking about changing
careers or jobs, or a career path, need
some training, I just help them with that
process and w hat that looks like and
how to fund that. How to find finances,
financial options to help pay for that.
Q: W h at are som e unique issues that
those kinds o f students run into?
A: It’s all over the board. It really depends
on the student. There are some students
who might be more traditional high school
age and for whatever reason high school
just didn’t work out for them and they
just come to do their GED and they’ve
got a path and th ey know w hat their
doing and th a t’s fin e. Or h igh school
just w asn’t for them and they do their
GED but they have no path and so to
help them figure out what is their next
step. We actually have a lot of students
who are in that 16-17-y e a r-o ld range
and th a t’s kind o f & challenge to fit
them into the programs that will fund
students of their age or that’s kind of an
appropriate path for them to go down.
Other students, their all over age wise,
what’s happening in their life. A big factor
is confidence, often. T h at’s often w hy
they’ve never come back or why they’ve
started and stopped, started and stopped
and are trying again. Which is greatthat
they are trying again. So, trying to help
them build that confidence that they can
move forward. Once they finish their GED
it’s like yes, you can actually do college
classes and help them move forward at
that. Finances are often an option. One
o f the program s I w ork w ith we have
a grant funded program for students
_____________________ _
Joan Jagodnik worked for a variety of colleges in the Portland Metro
area including Portland State University and Marylhurst University
before returning to CCC.
who are receiving SNAP benefits, the old
food stamps benefit to help pay for some
classes, to help pay for transportation,
books, and those other things that are
hard to fund sometimes.
Q: W h a t’ s a u n iqu e issu e s y o u n ger
student would face? Someone who isn ’t
o f college age?
A : O ften , it ’s the not really know ing
what they want to do yet. Trying to find
some exploratory classes that they can
take. Depending on what their history is,
whether work is a realistic option, finding
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a living wage. It can really depend on what,
their home situation is like, whether they
have a stable home situation or not.
Q: If you could give one piece o f advice to
every student, w h atw ou ld it be?
A: Come and talk to me. D o irt be afraid
to ask questions and get some direction.
There are a lot ofpeople here to help and
can get you on that right path. We don’t
always have the bandwidth to reach out
to every student but if you reach out to
us we will definitely be there.
F e b ru a ry 6, 2019