A Learning Journey: Sampling the College buffet
Paul Harvey
Issue date: 6/10/09 Section: Opinion
This quarter is most likely my last at Peninsula College, three and a half years after first setting foot on these academic grounds. It's been a long journey, not all of it aimed specifically at degree paths I wanted to spend the rest of my life in. As my college funding dries up and I'm urged back into the working world, I'd like to take this moment in the last piece I expect to write in class for PC to reflect upon my experiences here and in doing so, perhaps inform or inspire those whose journey is just beginning.
My path to college has never been a smooth nor easy ride. I am the only child to divorced parents, and after they separated when I was but a toddler, I grew up in a single-parent household into my adult years. I share these details with you because the income of a single-parent household leaves little room for college funds, something that many fresh faces from high school seem to take for granted.
After a traumatic academic experience and failings of the California school system, I was forced to pursue my GED as my local high school was literally "over enrolled". Without any significant savings, SAT scores or even high school transcripts, I gave up on the prospect of higher education and spent several years working the thankless retail circuit.
A series of elements came together in nigh serendipitous harmony. The sudden success of my father who invited me to come live in Port Angeles with him, a college trust left to me by my aunt and grandparents, and the opportunities of Peninsula College came together quite unexpectedly and thrust the prospect of higher education into reach.
I began at the bottom. The COMPASS test told me everything I had already suspected. Math, which I had always been bad at, was still abysmal. Reading and writing, which I had kept up with through my computer hobby, were approximately college level. With computer science requiring college level math, I resigned myself to a first quarter of pre-requisite classes.
My first quarter was inspiring. General Studies 100, also known as College learning skills, was my very first class and it introduced me to Janice Gardner, or simply "Jan" as her students know her. Within the first few sessions of class, it became extremely evident to me that Jan is one of those teachers I had often heard about but never before encountered back in my K-12 experience in California. A genuine smile and honest rapport with students illustrated to me a person who had pursued their academic goals and now chose to help others with theirs.
My path to college has never been a smooth nor easy ride. I am the only child to divorced parents, and after they separated when I was but a toddler, I grew up in a single-parent household into my adult years. I share these details with you because the income of a single-parent household leaves little room for college funds, something that many fresh faces from high school seem to take for granted.
After a traumatic academic experience and failings of the California school system, I was forced to pursue my GED as my local high school was literally "over enrolled". Without any significant savings, SAT scores or even high school transcripts, I gave up on the prospect of higher education and spent several years working the thankless retail circuit.
A series of elements came together in nigh serendipitous harmony. The sudden success of my father who invited me to come live in Port Angeles with him, a college trust left to me by my aunt and grandparents, and the opportunities of Peninsula College came together quite unexpectedly and thrust the prospect of higher education into reach.
I began at the bottom. The COMPASS test told me everything I had already suspected. Math, which I had always been bad at, was still abysmal. Reading and writing, which I had kept up with through my computer hobby, were approximately college level. With computer science requiring college level math, I resigned myself to a first quarter of pre-requisite classes.
My first quarter was inspiring. General Studies 100, also known as College learning skills, was my very first class and it introduced me to Janice Gardner, or simply "Jan" as her students know her. Within the first few sessions of class, it became extremely evident to me that Jan is one of those teachers I had often heard about but never before encountered back in my K-12 experience in California. A genuine smile and honest rapport with students illustrated to me a person who had pursued their academic goals and now chose to help others with theirs.
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