Empowering Future Leaders

I’ve been a school counselor going on two decades with about half a dozen spent directly working with high school students. My advisement when it comes to students exploring post-secondary options has consistently been to go with the least expensive option with offers of the greatest opportunity, if evident. Most of that time the former would be a state school utilizing some sort of program that’s funded by the lottery or other statewide initiative. I didn’t really mention or initiate conversations around attending community colleges except for a way to earn college credit while in high school. 

My first school counseling job was at a high performing high school with an affluent student (family) body. The focus was academic and by academic we were to help students get into Ivy League or comparable colleges. The students were very aware of the messaging and pressure to meet this goal. Many of the conversations around community college outside of the courses offered through our high school cross-enrollment was for students struggling to graduate that wanted to go to college. It was seen as an opportunity to catch up and transfer after a year or earning 30 credits. The messaging was that your high school record was obsolete after you earn 30 hours. The transfer application process to a college with 30 hours only looks at that college transcript. This option was really appealing to a student with lower grades and standardized test scores. The community college had a much more lenient admissions policy and the students were astute enough to avoid the “developmental” classes and begin to earn college credit right out of high school. In some of the advising conversations especially with parents, we would emphasize the smaller classes, dedicated resources for students who need more time to adjust to college life and being closer to home even if they chose to live outside of the home. 

Fast-forward, my most recent high school counseling position was at an alternative school in Washington, DC. The school was the last chance/last effort to support students who wanted to earn a high school diploma. Students were coming from across the District with a myriad of reasons for coming to the school. The challenge was that college or any post-secondary avenue was a distant thought because high school graduation was the Mount Everest. Over 70% of my students were either parents of young children, taking care of younger siblings, or assisting with financially supporting their family alongside a parent or guardian. So, their outlook was focused on survival and high school graduation at best.  For some that wanted a better situation, The University of the District of Columbia was a solid option as a no-denial school with a variety of scholarships and located in the District.

One of my personal criteria for college was that it had to be far enough from home that my parents would have to call before coming to visit and close enough I could get back home in less than a day. My entire view of higher education was a 4-year college or university. The community college was an opportunity to get formal training in a skill or trade so you could earn/demand more money. It was very low on the totem pole of actually providing the tools needed for a non-trade/skill career. 

While earning my Master’s degree, I began to see and understand the important role that community college plays in providing students (of all ages) with opportunities to achieve success in a variety of areas. There are two situations that had the greatest impact on this shift. The first one is when one of my classmates shared his journey to our graduate program in School Counseling. He spoke about being a bad student in high school, dropping out, going back to high school at 19, and how his local community college is what saved him once he finally graduated. His story hit me because even in that setting (5 courses away from graduation). He still felt the stigma of taking a non-traditional route to graduate school, mainly taking the community college route. The best part of his story was when he shared feeling uncertain about telling his students and everyone was like, “NO, you have to tell them all of it!” I believe we had a few other students share they attended community college for a short period of time. The other situation was during my graduate internship at an urban high school I learned about all that they offered to support students. The school had partnerships with three community colleges to provide college level classes for dual enrollment credit, certificate programs for students and staff, and tutors/mentors to support students with classes and general encouragement. It was encouraged and celebrated when students decided to attend one of the schools after graduation to transfer later to a four-year college or university. The big push was it’s not how you start but where you finish that matters. 

In closing, I leveraged my paradigm shift around community colleges in supporting students at the alternative school in their quest for higher education. It took some time and work to realize that community colleges are more than a bump in the road for students. They serve as a launching pad, a life-saving pathway, and an opportunity to start again to create a better and improved life. Community colleges are just as critical as 4-year colleges and universities as collectively they provide a service that should be taken more seriously as they are exposing, embracing, and educating students for their future. 

Keywords: community college, education, alternative school, high school, school counseling

Tweet: Community college programs open the eyes to high school counselors, a launching pad to a successful post-secondary career

Tweet: High school counselor learns the importance of community and building blocks to education can start close to home.