Page 47 - Southern Oregon Magazine Summer 2021

Cathy Kemper-Pelle

PRESIDENT ROGUE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

RCC meets community needs

steve boyarsky
jerry hagstrom

Q: WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE ROLE OF ROGUE Q: WHAT IS RCC DOING TO PROMOTE STUDENT SUCCESS?
COMMUNITY COLLEGE IN SOUTHERN OREGON?
CATHY: Students in poverty are the least likely to finish college.
CATHY: By design, community colleges are open enrollment. There Poverty trumps race, ethnicity, age, gender, everything in terms of
aren’t requirements to get into Rogue, we’re accessible to everyone. completing programs. We have several strategies that are changing how
We’re an inexpensive pathway for people who want to start a uni- we do business. Guided Pathways allows us to streamline our curricu-
versity degree. More importantly is the workforce development that lum and really focus on program completion. It is very outcome-based
we’re involved in. The COVID pandemic has caused job losses, and we and reduces the time it takes for a student to get a degree. We have
don’t know yet which jobs will return. Many people will have to be created meta-majors that are large employment categories such as:
retrained. And there are literally thousands of jobs in this area unfilled
because there aren’t enough local people with the skills to fill them. • Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)
That’s where Rogue Community College comes in. We are positioned
to train and retrain people. In a post-COVID world, that’s extremely • Applied Technology
important for our economic recovery.
• Health Professions and Public Safety

• Business
Q: WHAT IS A RECENT EXAMPLE OF A WORKFORCE
TRAINING PROGRAMS AT ROGUE COMMUNITY • Social and Behavioral Science and Education
COLLEGE?
• Art, Humanities, and Communications
CATHY: We are designed to be agile and respond quickly to local
needs. A perfect example is the need for construction workers. After the Our majors fit under these larger categories. Many students have a
fires in Talent and Phoenix, the construction industry reached out to us vague idea of what they want to go into, like healthcare, but they don’t
to restart a construction program. The previous program was closed as know what part of healthcare. Guided Pathways streamlines the course
a result of the Great Recession, because building stopped and students work for students to be successful.
didn’t see a future in it. Now we need construction again. And we need
it fast. We created a short-term, basic construction skills training pro-
gram that’s up and running right now. We have cohorts of students in
six-week programs. That’ll get students the basic skills to get into the Q: HOW DO YOU SUPPORT STUDENTS WHILE THEY ARE
workforce immedi- AT RCC?
ately. That’s the kind
of thing we do. CATHY: We have created a completely new way of supporting our
students. In the past, students would fill out their application and then
While we’re doing wait to see an advisor. Assignments to advisors were random and not
the short-term consistent from visit to visit. We flipped that completely. Now, stu-
training, we’re also dents are assigned an advisor who is a specialist in their meta-major.
totally rebuilding And they are also assigned a financial aid coach and a faculty coach in
our construction their meta-major. Each student has three staff members who get to
program. We’re working with the Medford School District and the know them and their challenges. The real beauty of community col-
city of Medford in the redesign of a warehouse in downtown to be a leges is we get to know our students and understand what’s happening
skills training center. Kids can get started in the construction trades in their lives outside of college. We can help deal with life challenges.
while they’re in high school, and then further their training at Rogue We connect them to food banks, housing, mental health counseling,
Community College. It’s a great partnership. whatever resources they need to deal with life.

summer 2021 | www.southernoregonmagazine.com 45