2008 Woodie Awards
Missing the Community in College
Trevor Owens
Issue date: 6/13/06 Section: Opinion
What makes a college a "community" college? Is there a rule here, or do we just accept anyone? It seems less like a community, and a whole lot more like a support group.
Not that that's a bad thing, I mean this has got to be the best support group anyone could find. You can take classes that will benefit your eventual emancipation from this comfortable purgatory. I do like this school, and I have definitely enjoyed my time here, but it feels like there are far more lost souls around here than people with a plan.
I had a plan, I swear. I was not quite 18, just out of high school, without a clue what to do next. Where to go then? Simple: community college; a place where I can go to discover who I want to be, and where I should take my life.
With this ideal in tow, I packed my bags (so to speak) and headed for Cypress College.
The ensuing four years have been the absolute definition of a comedy of errors. I started, stopped, and flustered; restarted, only to fail again. This seems to be a theme common to community college students. People around here take the scenic route to their dreams. We just have less focus overall, I guess.
It's not a pheomena that is exclusive to the JC system, and there are a lot of exceptions to this rule. I know more than a few students who are right on track with their dreams and ambitions.
Good for those of you who are moving on; but it lends a feeling of ambivilence to the school experience for the rest of us.
According to the Associated Students, about 407 students voted in the recent election.
Wow, 400 students participated out of almost 18,000 total students currently enrolled here. I'm the farthest thing from a math major, but by my calculations, that's a little over a percent of the school.
That is a good summation of the indifference prevailent in this environment. It sometimes feels like no one knows the other people in their classes very well, and nobody cares to. Friendships forged here are by definition transitory.
I don't feel that way, personally. The community college experience has been kind to me. It
Not that that's a bad thing, I mean this has got to be the best support group anyone could find. You can take classes that will benefit your eventual emancipation from this comfortable purgatory. I do like this school, and I have definitely enjoyed my time here, but it feels like there are far more lost souls around here than people with a plan.
I had a plan, I swear. I was not quite 18, just out of high school, without a clue what to do next. Where to go then? Simple: community college; a place where I can go to discover who I want to be, and where I should take my life.
With this ideal in tow, I packed my bags (so to speak) and headed for Cypress College.
The ensuing four years have been the absolute definition of a comedy of errors. I started, stopped, and flustered; restarted, only to fail again. This seems to be a theme common to community college students. People around here take the scenic route to their dreams. We just have less focus overall, I guess.
It's not a pheomena that is exclusive to the JC system, and there are a lot of exceptions to this rule. I know more than a few students who are right on track with their dreams and ambitions.
Good for those of you who are moving on; but it lends a feeling of ambivilence to the school experience for the rest of us.
According to the Associated Students, about 407 students voted in the recent election.
Wow, 400 students participated out of almost 18,000 total students currently enrolled here. I'm the farthest thing from a math major, but by my calculations, that's a little over a percent of the school.
That is a good summation of the indifference prevailent in this environment. It sometimes feels like no one knows the other people in their classes very well, and nobody cares to. Friendships forged here are by definition transitory.
I don't feel that way, personally. The community college experience has been kind to me. It
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