Learning Communities

The boosters who built Lower Columbia Junior College knew their community could not survive if people went someplace else to educate themselves.

This is doubly true today. Change accelerates. The assault of new information, media and economic uncertainty threatens to fray and unknit the fabric of lives and work. And it’s happening with startling speed. For years the saying in Longview was, “It’s not your daddy’s job anymore.” Now, for many downsized, globalized and traumatized workers, “It’s not even your job anymore.”

OJL On-the-job Learning, not just Training. Employers and unions are re-emphasizing mentoring and hands-on, experiential instruction in the workplace itself. And they’re offering subsidized courseware options for employees to continue their schooling, too.

HYBRIDIZING The evolved LCJC, now Lower Columbia College, offers a varied curriculum for all ages. The college has formed ambitious partnerships with four-year colleges to offer Bachelors as well as its two-year Associates Degrees.

OUTREACH Information institutions, like libraries and museums, are reaching out more and offering hands-on learning to their constituencies, “taking it to the street,” especially with younger learners.

DIVERSIFICATION Public schools are meeting the challenge of changing demographics and higher job expectations. They’re diversifying their curricula, improving graduation rates, and setting up pathways to the workplace available to every learner.

The result is more than saving jobs and creating workplace readiness. It’s a commitment to quality of life and to building and maintaining a sense of community.

Vidal Villagram owes a lot of his success to getting his hands dirty.

“I was worried that my English wasn’t good enough,” he told us, with the assistance of an interpreter, “When I started out in the classroom I didn’t know what they were talking about. But I started to review all the auto components here in the shop and then when I got to the lab I understood.”

Vidal’s two-year Associate’s Degree in Automotive Technology will culminate a long and challenging journey for him and his family. That journey also highlights the capability and adaptability of the modern community college, its ability to personalize learning and skill building.

“I was injured in a roofing accident, fell off a building,” said Vidal, “in 2018. My arm was very badly injured.” The Washington Department of Labor and Industries gave Vidal a financial settlement which included a provision for rehab and re-training.

“I could only do lighter work, no heavy lifting, so I decided to learn about electrical systems in vehicles,” he said. The college would help facilitate ESL learning, too, and connect Vidal with an interpreter when needed. LCC even directed Vidal into its I-BEST program (Integrated Basic Education & Skills Training) which offers faster-track classes and additional learning resources.

“I have a wife and three children. This will make a huge difference in our lives,” said Vidal.

Nicole Page showed us some of her cutting and welding chops.

“I was completely oblivious when I was in high school. I knew that I liked shop classes, which was wood shop, but not a lot of other stuff,” she said, holding up a cautionary hand. “Better stand well back from here. You can’t predict exactly where the sparks are going to fly.”

Today’s powerhouse community colleges like LCC provide a world of educational options beyond “taking a class in my spare time.” The resources brought to bear are impressive — assessment, career planning, financial assistance, mentoring — with results tailored to personalized success.

Nicole eagerly explained the benefits of thinking outside the box and not limiting your dreams. “I didn’t realize I had the wherewithal to work in an industrial setting. I mean a big industrial setting.” Nicole, who now works as a fitter for Longview’s J.H. Kelly, is on track to join the ranks of journeyman welders. She credits a lot of her success, and adaptation to the workplace, to her training at LCC and also to her union, Local 26. “A lot of people don’t realize how much your union takes care of you,” she said. “We have about 3,000 people in our union, and part of the job description is training the other guy.”

In this case “guy” is appropriate, since in her entire tenure Nicole has worked with only two other women. “That’s what I mean about not limiting yourself.”

Asked what’s the most important quality in her trade, she was quick to answer: communication. “You need to be able to work with, and talk with, everybody in that work environment. For safety’s sake, and to do the job right.”

Nicole admits she could have enrolled as an apprentice without the Associate’s Degree in Applied Science from LCC, but would not have had the background knowledge — in everything from the chemistry of metals and reading plans to business math, computer skills, and on-the-job safety — that underpins her success and came with her degree.

“I really like to fix things,” she said. “It’s very satisfying.”

LCC’s contemporary campus is a beehive of activity and aesthetically a delight. If you haven’t visited lately, it’s a far cry from the square box on Maple Street that personified Longview’s college for much of its early history.

In February the College announced plans for a $42 million, multi-story vocational skill center “built for the long haul,” according to LCC President Chris Bailey. The 18-month construction process is expected to begin in February 2024. Bailey told Longview’s The Daily News, “We’re trying to appeal to students who maybe don’t want to go to college…to have younger students who are maybe more vocationally minded.”

Since the pandemic, community college enrollments are down all over the state, and of particular concern is the slump in admissions and attendance for young men. Only 28 percent, less than one-third, of LCC students are male.

An innovative approach to this challenge is opening up the new voc center — which also includes the phrase “transitional studies” in its title — to high school students looking to map career paths. Ironically Longview, a town where the trades have always flourished, faces a dire shortage of these well-paying, secure jobs it’s relied upon for decades.

Every week or so Danielle Robbins loads up her car and takes her show on the road.

“We call them traveling trunks,” she said. “My job is to make history come to life for these kids. And if they can handle stuff, and see stuff, they become much better learners.”

Robbins is Education and Public Programs Coordinator for the Cowlitz County Historical Museum. “That just means I get to play with kids. Teachers have enough to do. I can supplement what’s coming out of the textbook and try to make it come alive.”

Robbins’s curriculum is objects she gathers from the museum and a PowerPoint program weaving it all together. She tells stories and encourages discovery. “Kids are more and more visual learners,” she said, and although she presents to a variety of ages, says the 3rd grade to 5th grade zone is “prime” for curiosity and appreciation.

“Kids aren’t afraid to apply themselves, and look things up they’re interested in,” she added. “I don’t think books will ever go out of style.”

Danielle works with teachers to dovetail her special presentations with ongoing curriculum.

LCC’s campus is dramatically built up and modernized. Students enjoy a state-of-the-art fitness center with climbing wall, and public spaces for formal and informal gatherings.

“My goal is for the teachers to tick off as many boxes as they can. I try to pick stuff kids can handle and play with. There’s a magnetic attraction when you add touch and feel.”

“I don’t want to hear about history being boring! I’m trying to break that habit of thinking when they’re young.”

Robbins is happy to report the Museum is open and invites everyone — including parents and grandparents, as well — to make museum visits a lifelong learning habit.

Meanwhile, she’ll be in the back room loading up the next trunk.

At right: Hal Calbom at R.A.Long High School photographing the bust of the school’s benefactor, is a third generation Longview native and R.A.Long High School graduate. He works in public affairs television and educational publishing. Next month he begins his sixth year photographing and writing Columbia River Reader’s People+Place feature. He is co-founder of Columbia River Reader Press. Reach him at hal@ halcalbom.com.