Academic excellence thrives at community colleges
Community colleges recently received noteworthy recognition in President Barack Obama's State of the Union address - having been singled out as a key career pathway for working families.
There are many reasons why community colleges educate nearly 12 million U.S. students each year. While reasons such as value and accessibility are prompting more Americans to choose community colleges, it is academic quality that makes community colleges among the smartest choices in higher education.
Quality is a concept that can be difficult to define, but it is evident at the more than 1,200 community colleges nationwide. You can see quality in small class sizes and faculty who are dedicated to teaching. You can see quality in state-of-the-art learning environments and cutting-edge curricula. And you can see quality in the community college alumni who attain incredible success.
According to statistics from the Chronicle of Higher Education, nearly one in five Americans earning doctorates in 2008 had attended a community college during their postsecondary education.
At Waubonsee Community College, academic excellence is a strong value. Students learn from highly qualified faculty who bring real-world experience to the classroom and who know their students as individuals.
Waubonsee also invites nationally known speakers and guest lecturers to enrich our students' learning process. For example, in 2009 former Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert taught a leadership series that gave students an opportunity to understand the workings of local, state and national government. The popular series, which is scheduled to repeat this spring, also featured other political leaders to educate and inspire students.
Waubonsee's classroom experiences are enhanced by world-class facilities where students have access to advanced technologies. The college's Science Building, which opened in 2006, and the Academic and Professional Center, which opened in 2007, offer unparalleled academic tools and are models for the entire region. Another example is that Waubonsee is the only community college in the state where the ceramics program features a fifth-century style Japanese Anagama kiln.
New Waubonsee campuses in Plano and downtown Aurora will include sophisticated science labs to provide increased access to quality programs and to enable students to earn a complete associate degree at either of those campuses.
Outside of the classroom, a Waubonsee education is supplemented with opportunities to put the theories from textbooks into practice. Accounting students give back to the community and gain invaluable experience preparing tax returns through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.
Web design students also learn while helping local organizations by designing new Web sites for groups such as Aurora's Hispanic Heritage Advisory Board. And, student government leaders and Model Illinois Government participants have participated in civic engagement discussions with former U.S. Representatives through the Congress to Campus program.
These are just a few examples among many of the types of real life learning that take place at Waubonsee and at many other community colleges.
Economic forces are leading more families to consider community colleges to earn career-oriented degrees or to complete the first two years of a bachelor's degree. Students of all backgrounds and educational goals are finding that community colleges offer a commitment to academic excellence that rivals, and often surpasses, much costlier educational options.
If you are looking for a quality education, make a smart choice - choose a community college.
• Dr. Christine Sobek is president of Waubonsee Community College.