NEWS
B Y K E L LY K E N O Y E R
The Shedd Institute
www.theshedd.org - 541.434.7000
Michael
Feinstein
t!
To e n to i S g tu h dents
Thursday Nov 10
Fre
LCC’S WOMEN IN TRAN-
SITION PROGRAM CELE-
BRATES 30 YEARS
W
hen Tiffany Triplett joined the Women in Transition (WIT) program at Lane
Community College, she says she was recovering from addiction and a di-
vorce. “I was in the drug court program when I was in the WIT classes and
it complemented my treatment program so much,” she says.
LCC’s WIT program says it offers empowerment and solidarity for
women making changes in their lives, and has helped women become self-sufficient
emotionally and economically for its entire duration. It celebrates its 30-year anniversary
Wednesday, Nov. 16.
Triplett graduated from the LCC program in the fall of 2015, and she’s now a 4.0 stu-
dent who plans to pursue a masters degree.
Triplett spent three terms in the WIT program and says the women’s center has become
her home base at LCC. “There’s not a week that goes by that I don’t walk by one of my
peers from the WIT program on campus.” Triplett says she has become close friends with
many of the women from the program,
and some even attended her wedding
last summer. “Any woman in my life
who could benefit from any piece of it,
I’m always encouraging them to try it
out.”
The seven-credit class, first in a set
of three, focuses on life and career tran-
sitions. “It gives you language and more
concise ideas of how transitions work,”
— M A RY S P I L D E , LC C P R E S I D E N T
Triplett says. Women work in groups
to discuss the problems they face and
“how to give self-care and cope through
hard transitions,” she adds. According
to Triplett, women of all ages and all stages in life are part of the program. “The WIT
program is really for anybody.”
The 30th anniversary will include light refreshments, a raffle and speeches by gradu-
ates and faculty. LCC president Mary Spilde will be one of the speakers at the event.
“It’ll be a great opportunity to celebrate all the people who’ve participated in Women in
Transition and the difference it’s made in everyone’s lives,” Spilde tells EW. According to
Spilde, more than 6,000 women have graduated from the program in its 30 years, and that
provides a great benefit to both the college and the local community.
Spilde says she looks forward to the anniversary because she began her work in com-
munity colleges at a similar program at Linn-Benton Community College. “I’m partial to
these types of programs that help women come to college,” she says. “They open doors for
people who maybe didn’t get a shot to go to college in high school.”
There are many people who think about going back to college but they’re scared or
don’t feel they have what it takes,” Spilde says. “This program provides access.”
The anniversary will take place from 3 to 5 pm Wednesday, Nov. 16, at Building 1,
Room 202, on the LCC main campus. Tiffany Triplett says she will be there: “I’m looking
forward to seeing all the women who come and the joy that they have when they see the
friends they went to class with. The bonds we made in that class were amazing.”
‘I’m partial to these
types of programs …
they open doors for
people …’
Friday
Nov 11
Riley
Etheridge Jr.
Chico Schwall’s American Roots
Karen Warren
Sponsor
American Masters
Charlie Poole & Memphis Minnie
Wednesday Nov 16
Carl Woideck Jazz Heritage Project
A Night of Blues & Ballads
Friday Nov 18
eugeneweekly.com • November 10, 2016
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