FORKS — Peninsula College trustees moved their April meeting 60 miles west from Port Angeles to the college’s Forks campus, where it heard from director Rebecca Schwartz, students and an instructor about some of the programs, successes and challenges at the extension site that was established in 2014.
Holding events — like a performance by the Quillayute Tribe drum group that featured music, dancing and sharing from elders that drew more than 100 people — and engaging students by creating a positive campus environment in Forks are critical elements in building and enhancing its role on the West End, Schwartz said during the meeting on Tuesday.
“We want to continue to grow. We want to be the center for cultural connections in Forks. We want to be able to spread that mission of PC for inclusivity in our community,” Schwartz said, by improving the college experience for students through one-on-one tutoring, sponsoring activities like a Christmas party and by being a supportive place for learning and study.
“It’s really hard for our students to get to PA for activities, so we try to do things out here,” Schwartz said. “We want to create a sense of student life and create connections because that’s one of the things that gets to them come back.”
The Forks campus serves students and the community on the West End, Schwartz said, by offering courses and support that address particular educational, economic and cultural needs.
For example, the college’s Commercial Driver License (CDL) class is entirely covered by grants this year, allowing it to waive the entire $6,000 tuition and enable students to enroll for free. It’s a pathway to a well-paying job with logging and other companies in the area that have a great need for individuals with a CDL license, Schwartz said.
“Without that funding, we may not have had more than one or two people be able to come in and take it,” Schwartz said. “It opened up doors for people who would never have been able to have that option because of the price tag. This upcoming class already exceeds the number of seats.”
Courses in flagging and customer service training also have proven to be popular with students and local employers, Schwartz said, and a women’s self-defense course offered through its community education program will be offered this spring.
Schwartz said she anticipates the college’s new natural resource program that teaches students about forest and habitat restoration, fisheries management and GIS mapping will be popular as well.
Among the challenges facing the Forks site are the West End’s spotty and weak internet service, which limits some students’ abilities to take online classes and complete assignments. However, the college has provided hotspots for students, Schwartz said, as part of an effort to provide equity of access.
Second-year Running Start student Riley Smith told the board her experience at Forks started out a little rough, but she is now on track to receive an associate of arts degree this spring,
“I was nervous and I didn’t know what to expect from college,” Smith said. “The tutor helped a lot. It’s nice to have a place to come and work instead of being at home with all the distractions.”
Schwartz introduced the board to Janet Lucas, who has spent her career at the Peninsula College campus teaching English and now travels to Clallam Bay Corrections Center to teach a baking class.
Lucas said that, having spent more years in the restaurant business than in academia, she was not only qualified to lead a cohort of eight students in making cakes, breads, pies, cookies, pizza dough, crumbles and focaccia, she was thrilled to do so.
“This is something I’ve been doing for about a year and a half and I absolutely love it,” Lucas said. “It is great fun and it’s serious work.”
Lucas said the skills students learn can help them get jobs in an industry that is critically in need of good workers, and it provides a creative and challenging outlet to their daily routine.
“Every one of them has come up to me and said at some point, ‘When I am in this kitchen, I don’t feel like I’m in prison.’”
The trustees will travel to the college’s Port Townsend extension site at Fort Worden for its May 9 meeting.
From the President’s report:
• The statewide walkout by Washington community and technical college instructors, staff and students Tuesday did not impact Peninsula College. Walkout organizers wanted pay equity for part-time staff, and for the Legislature to fully fund cost-of-living adjustments and mental health counseling for students.
“I’m happy to report that our faculty will not be participating in a walkout; they will not be disrupting classes,” President Suzy Ames told the board. “They absolutely recognize that, yes, it’s important to rally and lobby and the students come first, but that’s not the case on every campus.”
• College officials are in conversations with personnel at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory campus in Sequim to develop a summer science internship program for native youth that would start this summer in Sequim and at its Hanford site. Details had not been finalized, Ames said.
• Ames said the college’s 2022 Fall Spectacular was so successful — almost too successful — that it is considering re-thinking the event for next year by holding it earlier so that those interested in taking classes could register immediately instead of having to wait until winter, and turning it into a more community-wide celebration.
More than 4,000 people attended last October’s Spectacular, which featured tours of classrooms, free balloon rides, presentations from instructors and laptop giveaways.
“It was an amazing success and a very exciting day,” Ames said. “We came up with some options that we’re now exploring, and we’re looking at moving it to September in order to capture some enrollment for fall. We’re also reaching out to community partners to see if they might want to join with us.”
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.
