With the spring quarter coming to an end, graduating EvCC students are patiently awaiting graduation day and are ready to take the next step into their educational and professional careers.

A college graduation is not only a commemoration that one should be proud of, but it’s also an important milestone in each of our lives. While these milestones create a pathway to our future, we also reflect on the opportunities and things we’ve learned from it.  

Being a community college, EvCC offers many different programs, classes and opportunities hoping to successfully transition and prepare students for a 4-year university, trade school, and good jobs in the workforce.

“I think EvCC definitely helped me transition from high school to university because I feel like if I would have gone to a university, where it is really big, I would be kind of lost,” said Melissa Angeles, a graduating EvCC student.

An abundance of EvCC students have chosen a community college not just for financial reasons, but for the ability to be able to explore career options and then choose a university or career that specializes in that specific major and/ or degree.

EvCC started a new program in Fall 2018, called “EvCC Pathways.” This program was designed to work with students throughout their time at the college. Pathways are groups of related degrees and certificates, such as STEM and this is to allow students to have support and help from advisors in their specific majors.

While life after graduation can seem intimidating to say the least, students feel that EvCC has prepared them for their future endeavors in many ways. Civil Engineering student, Isaiah Funston said, “I’ve been really happy with my time here, I think I’ve learned a ton, and gotten a lot of hands-on experience as well. Instructors have time to just… pour into the students.”

During their time at EvCC, students really appreciate the clear-cut classes that specialize in their majors and allow them to really get a feel for what they’d want as a career in the future.

“All of Ken White’s classes really helped me prepare. Right now I’m in his Public Speaking for Educators class and that has really helped me because it really focuses on you becoming a teacher, instead of necessarily… making sure your speech is perfect, it’s more about finding yourself in front of the classroom,” said graduating student, Taylor Dewing.

Kinesiology student, Jael Hudson, mentions, “I’m going to transfer to Whitworth University. I’m a competitive ballroom dancer and I really wanted to learn more about the body and I took a class on sports nutrition here and that was really fascinating.”

For more information on EvCC’s Pathways, visit the Entry Advising Center in Rainier Hall, Room 108 or make an appointment with an advisor at [email protected].