Student Issues / Attending College

Academics, extracurricular activities, housing and more: be savvy about all facets of attending community college. Get tips on making the Dean's list. Find ways to benefit from community college outside the classroom. Analyze the latest data on graduation and employment rates. Plus news from journals, blogs and more.

View the most popular articles in Student Issues / Attending College:

Theater Opportunities at Community Colleges

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Theater Opportunities at Community Colleges
Powerful acting and theater programs are available at your local community college.

Whether students choose to study theater and performance as their major, or students simply want to pursue acting as a part-time hobby, community colleges provide students with an array of performance opportunities. With formal audience-based stage events, and small-circuit drama clubs, students can become involved in the study and practice of acting, drama, and theater by engaging in some of the diverse opportunities at local community schools.

Acting and Theater Opportunities

Seminole Community College (SCC)

At Seminole Community College, students can engage in an array of performance opportunities with the SCC Theater Program. Here, SCC “Combines the education and expertise of an outstanding faculty with a well-rounded curriculum that is built on the foundation of a liberal arts education.” During the instructional school year, students are provided with multiple opportunities to act and perform on stage, while students can also participate by working in one of the many technical positions. These hands-on opportunities are designed to provide students with faculty and expert guidance in order to prepare students for their futures in the performance arts.

As SCC asserts, the greatest benefit and advantage of their unique program is, “The opportunity for immediate student involvement both onstage and backstage. From set construction to sound design, we stress active participation from our tech students and those interested in performance.” If working on the technical elements of theater, students will gain experience by utilizing equipment, learning about the different responsibilities, while also learning the

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The Value of Mentoring Programs in Community College

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The Value of Mentoring Programs in Community College
Learn about the variety of mentoring programs available in community colleges, and why you may want to be involved as a mentee or mentor.

Community colleges across the country have implemented specific support programs to stimulate student support and success. Often referred to as “mentor services” or “mentor programs,” community college mentors can be paramount leaders for guiding and encouraging younger students. Mentors are often older community college students who have demonstrated specific academic or professional successes in their collegiate studies. By sharing their knowledge and insight with new and younger students, community colleges have designed powerful programs to enhance the success of all students and campus members.

What is a Mentor Program?

While each community college has its own unique mentoring program, the general concept focuses on pairing a new or young student with an older, more experienced student. Oftentimes, mentors will guide new students by helping them set their schedules, by providing campus tours, or by offering to serve a new student as an academic tutor or study buddy.

When engaging in a mentoring program, mentors are considered to be the “experts” in their field or organization, while mentees are the more novice and less experienced organization members. In the case of community colleges, mentors are normally students, although may often also be professors, while mentees are new and younger students or students who may need special support services, such as ESL support, transfer support, and so forth.

This video offers a look at the peer mentoring program at Guttman Community College.

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Alternative Spring Break: Programs and Opportunities

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Alternative Spring Break: Programs and Opportunities
Instead of visiting a party destination this spring break, consider attending educational and philanthropic opportunities offered through your community college.

Alternative spring break is an opportunity for students to engage in service-oriented trips to help struggling groups of individuals, areas, or communities. While fun should always be in the equation of spring break, you can also make a difference during your vacation.

As spring break becomes an increasingly travel-based event for millions of students across the country, community colleges are embracing alternative spring break programs in order to provide students with local, national, and even international opportunities to spend a week having fun, while also making an impact on a specific area. By engaging in these programs, Life-Changing Travel asserts that students can “Come back with a tan, an impressive addition to your resume, great stories, new friends and a fresh perspective not only on Spring Break but on the world!”

This video offers some alternative activities for spring break activities.

Community Colleges and Alternative Spring Break Opportunities

Central Piedmont Community College

As Central Piedmont (CPCC) describes, “Alternative Spring Break (ASB) is a low-cost service trip that provides students with an opportunity to participate in meaningful service activities, learn more about community issues, and have fun.” By engaging in the variety of ASB programs, students can choose from an array of projects that are “designed to encourage civic responsibility.”

In the past, CPCC students have taken trips up and down the Piedmont coast, traveling to Atlanta, Georgia to help homeless

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Will You Graduate From Community College? Factors that Influence Success

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Will You Graduate From Community College? Factors that Influence Success
Learn more about the factors that can influence whether you graduate from community college.

As you enter into your freshman year of community college, are you already imagining your earned cap and gown on graduation day? Despite goals and ambitions of completing a community college program, research conducted by the academic journal Community College Review reveals that there are specific factors that may indicate whether or not freshman students return to subsequent semesters while continuing to complete their degree.

As the authors David and Renea Fike reveal, “Though it costs more to recruit new students than it does to retain current students, institutions often focus on student recruitment rather than student retention […] Institutions budget for recruiters and associated expenses such as travel and recruiting materials. Recruiting is essential for getting students enrolled. But once they are enrolled, what are institutions doing to retain them?”

Why is Student Retention Important?

According to Fike, student retention is important for various significant reasons. At the basic level, retention rates are necessary for a school’s financial stability and sustained academic progress. Adding to this, “The federal Higher Education Act may use graduation rates as a measure of institutional effectiveness.” On a more personal level, students deserve to engage in a positive collegiate experience, where they are able to “complete their academic goals, and enter the workforce.”

Analysis of Community College Students and Graduation Expectancies

Currently, the average attrition rate of community college students is approximately 41% from the first to the second year of school. To improve the success of students and school performances,

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Community College Counseling: Academic and Personal Support

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Community College Counseling: Academic and Personal Support
Your community college is an excellent resource for support; learn about the academic and emotional support available to you on campus.

As a rising number of students enroll in community college programs, the support of a community college counselor is becoming increasingly vital. As researcher Preston Pulliams from the ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Personnel Services supports, “The emerging role of community college counseling is actually an expansion of traditional roles: Community college counselors are becoming learning agents, student developers, and resource managers.”

Traditionally, community college counselors focused on “providing personal counseling, vocational guidance, and social support for the traditional community college student.” However, as student enrollment grew, and the student populations become more academically, socially, and financially diverse, counselors have shifted their focus: “To meet the needs of these new students, community colleges are reinstating testing and placement, dismissal and probation policies, general education requirements, and select admissions programs.”

Community Counselors and Systems of Support

Learning Aids

As Pulliams further explains, “The emerging role of counseling involves helping students to complete their academic objectives […] Counselors must perform the roles of student developers and learning agents.” Adding to this, “counselors must communicate to students the importance of skill-building and other academic requirements and help them understand the value of their academic endeavors.”

Counselors, as learning aids, can help serve students of the community college as academic supporters; counselors have access to all of the school’s resources and tools to help students find specific and interpersonal support and assistance. For example, if a student is struggling with specific math concepts, a counselor can guide

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