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    Getting Rid of The Stigma Around Community College 1

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    Community colleges often face an unfair stigma that deters students from attending them. This stigma suggests community colleges are not rigorous and that students who attend will not be successful. However, the document provides several examples showing community colleges can be just as academically challenging as four-year universities. It notes famous people like Steve Jobs and George Lucas started at community colleges. The document also shares stories of local residents who attended community colleges and have found great career success. It aims to reduce the stigma around community colleges by highlighting their academic benefits and track records of student success.

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    Getting Rid of The Stigma Around Community College 1

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    Community colleges often face an unfair stigma that deters students from attending them. This stigma suggests community colleges are not rigorous and that students who attend will not be successful. However, the document provides several examples showing community colleges can be just as academically challenging as four-year universities. It notes famous people like Steve Jobs and George Lucas started at community colleges. The document also shares stories of local residents who attended community colleges and have found great career success. It aims to reduce the stigma around community colleges by highlighting their academic benefits and track records of student success.

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    Community colleges often face an unfair stigma that deters students from attending them. This stigma suggests community colleges are not rigorous and that students who attend will not be successful. However, the document provides several examples showing community colleges can be just as academically challenging as four-year universities. It notes famous people like Steve Jobs and George Lucas started at community colleges. The document also shares stories of local residents who attended community colleges and have found great career success. It aims to reduce the stigma around community colleges by highlighting their academic benefits and track records of student success.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    34 views2 pages

    Getting Rid of The Stigma Around Community College 1

    Uploaded by

    api-247231723
    Community colleges often face an unfair stigma that deters students from attending them. This stigma suggests community colleges are not rigorous and that students who attend will not be successful. However, the document provides several examples showing community colleges can be just as academically challenging as four-year universities. It notes famous people like Steve Jobs and George Lucas started at community colleges. The document also shares stories of local residents who attended community colleges and have found great career success. It aims to reduce the stigma around community colleges by highlighting their academic benefits and track records of student success.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 2

    Sarah Banholzer

    Period 4

    Getting rid of the stigma around community college

    With the ever-decreasing acceptance rates of UCs and CSUs, we see many students taking
    advantage of California’s community college system. However, attending one of these colleges
    often carries a stigma. This stigma is detrimental to students’ self-esteem and self-worth and is
    quite frankly, very invalid.
    There is a common misconception that community colleges aren’t “real” colleges or that their
    academic rigor is subpar. However, this could not be farther from the truth. The academics and
    course load at community colleges can be just as rigorous as four-year colleges. The time spent
    at community college will focus on completing many of the same classes that you might take to
    complete your General Ed at a four-year school. Community college is a great option for anyone
    still deciding on a major or career, has limited funds for college, or someone that just doesn’t
    feel prepared to move away and attend a four-year college.
    This stigma seems to be especially high here in Pleasanton. When Amador and Foothill have
    students attending some of the most prestigious schools in the country, such as Harvard and
    Stanford, it can be intimidating to measure up to the feats of these few students. This is why
    students often face embarrassment when electing to attend a community college. This
    humiliation can be so great, that students will leave the area and attend a community college
    elsewhere to avoid the shame of staying home to attend a local community college.
    Although it is not widely discussed, it is believed that approximately one-third of Pleasanton
    students go on to attend a community college. Little is ever spoken of Pleasanton’s dirty little
    secret. This silence is due to the deafening stigma around community college and the damper it
    would put on our community’s image.
    There is another myth surrounding community college - community college students will not
    experience the same success as those that go directly from high school to a four-year college.
    But who would argue that Steve Jobs or George Lucas are not successful? As graduates of De
    Anza Community College and Modesto Junior College, Steve Jobs, creator of Apple, and
    George Lucas, creator of Star Wars, became two of the most significant figures in modern-day
    technology and entertainment industries.
    “​I spent three semesters at American River College (ARC) in Sacramento after leaving UC
    Berkeley after one semester. I did receive my Associate of Arts degree from ARC before
    transferring to Cal Poly SLO,” said ​Amador parent, Jason Novi​.
    After college, Mr. Novi has gone on to lead an extremely successful business career in the
    biotech field. ​Novi is currently the CFO and COO of Unchained Labs.
    Thanks to the Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG), all students who graduate from a
    California community college with a required GPA, depending on the college, are automatically
    allowed to transfer to any campus in the UC system, with the exception of Berkeley, UCLA, and
    UC San Diego. This creates a great opportunity for community college students who may not
    have been accepted to one of these universities out of high school to attend their ‘dream school’
    to graduate with the same university diploma as the person that went directly to that four-year
    university.
    “​I really had no clue as to what I wanted to do after high school or how I was going to pay for
    college. I spent two years at Moorpark [Community College], then I transferred to UC Berkeley. I
    earned my BA in English from Berkeley, then I went on to earn my MA in Education at
    Stanford,​” said ​Amador English teacher, Mrs. Teczon​.
    The stigma that surrounds community college is inaccurate and does not account for the
    multitude of benefits of a community college. This stigma causes students endless amounts of
    embarrassment and humiliation that is completely unnecessary. Hopefully, in the future, people
    will become more knowledgeable of the perks of community college and we can end the stigma
    that community colleges hold in our community.

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