Coos Bay, OR – Southwestern Oregon Community College announces the names of students who excelled winter term for the 2021-2022 academic school year. These students are being recognized with placement on the college’s Dean’s List (DL), Honor Roll (HR) and Academic Excellence (AE) list.
• Academic Excellence – students must receive a GPA of 4.0 in at least 12 credits
• Honor Roll – students must receive a GPA between 3.5 and 3.99 in at least 12 credits
• Dean’s List – students must receive a GPA between 3.0 and 3.49 in at least 12 credits
Coos Bay, OR – Spring Into Action! There’s still time to apply for college and financial aid for summer and fall terms 2022.
To help get you started, Southwestern is hosting open house events (virtually and in-person) April 18 and 19, 2022 for Coos and Curry County residents. Events take place between 5 and 6 pm. All events are FREE! In-person events will be held at the Coos campus, 1988 Newmark, Coos Bay.
Community members can join sessions to speak with financial aid advisors or admissions representatives. Parents of local high school students are also highly encouraged to join faculty breakout sessions along with their student. Take a campus tour! Explore your career options, apply for admission, and get help to complete your FAFSA.
Win Free Tuition* – Anyone who attends at least one faculty breakout session (either in-person or virtually) will be entered into a drawing to win one term of free tuition for either summer or fall term for the 2022-2023 academic year. Faculty sessions take place between 5 and 6 pm both days.
View all events and sign up for a session here. Registration is not necessary. Drop-ins are welcome.
Questions? Call or text 541-240-8227, or email admissions@socc.edu, and a representative will respond promptly. We hope to see you there!
*Please Note: Eligibility restricted to non-current undergraduate Southwestern students in Coos and Curry counties who have not taken classes in a year or more. Waiver cannot be combined with any other form of tuition waiver.
Coos Bay, OR – Coos Bay, OR – Southwestern Oregon Community College’s popular Geology Lecture Series continues for the 2021-22 academic year with a series of talks covering “Relationships Between Elakha (Sea Otter) and a Sense of Place on Oregon’s South Coast” a conference honoring the life and legacy of Chief Don Ivy. Join us on Saturday, April 16, 2022 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. At the time of this news release we expect to be live in the Hales Center for the Performing Arts on the Coos Bay campus and also streaming via Livestream at the college website (https://livestream.com/swocc/geology2021-22).
This conference brings together a number of experts including Bob Bailey (President of the Elakha Alliance) delivering “Elakha Alliance: Bringing Sea Otters Home”; Dr. Roberta “Bobbi” Hall (Oregon State University, Emeritus) discussing “With the Coquille Indian Tribe — and the Sea Otters”; Dr. William “Bill” Robbins (Oregon State University, Emeritus), author of Hard Times in Paradise: Coos Bay, Oregon with “The Floodtide of EuroAmericans and the Disruption of Elakha”; and Dr. Loren Davis (Oregon State University) talking about “The Importance of the Devils Kitchen Archaeological Site”.
The talks will be followed by a panel discussion/question and answer session with our speakers. Our conference is dedicated to the life and legacy of Chief Don Ivy. When Chief Ivy was recognized as the Southwestern Oregon Community College’s Distinguished Alumnus in the Spring of 2021, several individuals associated with the Elakha Alliance were in the virtual audience. The idea of hosting an event on the south coast involving Elakha and sense of place conceived. Following Don’s passing in July 2021 we began to plan a conference dedicated to many of the tenets that Chief Ivy lived by, among them recognizing the cultural identity of Native Peoples of the region, supporting education, improving community, and fostering a greater awareness for land stewardship. It’s our intent that those attending will go forward with a better “sense of place”. It is also our hope, that like Don, we will all go out and “think deeply, make an impact, share our knowledge and go on to encourage others to do the same.”
In addition to our speakers, representatives of The Coquille Tribe, Elakha Alliance, South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, and The University of Oregon’s Charleston Marine Life Center will be present in the Hales Center lobby before and after the lecture.
All lectures in the series are free. The final speaker in the series this year will be Dr. Ron Metzger (Southwestern Professor of Earth Sciences) on Saturday, May 21 at 7:00 pm with “The Final Lecture? Oribatid Mites, Conodonts and Musings from Nearly Four Decades in the College Classroom”. Lecture Series Sponsors include DB Western, Southwestern Foundation, The Mill Resort and Casino, and the American Geophysical Union.
For additional information or to submit questions prior to the talk contact Ron Metzger at rmetzger@socc.edu or 541-888-7216.
It’s been a long and winding road for Justin Wolf to reach the status of Executive Chef. Born and raised in Medford, Oregon, cooking was always a big part of his family and life. Even his senior project in high school involved cooking, teaching kids how to help with dinner. And as long as we’re mentioning family, Justin’s father, Michael works at the SWOCC Curry campus!
Because his culinary journey began at Oregon Coast Culinary Institute (OCCI), graduating with honors in 2011 at age 19, we were very interested in ‘the rest of the story’. We caught up with Chef Wolf at his new gig, Executive Chef for Partake in Grants Pass. He had just finished baking the bread for the day and had a short break before preparations for the evening’s delicacies began.
OCCI: So first, tell us about the new restaurant, Partake Shop & Lounge.
Wolf: I’m so excited about Partake. It’s different. It’s not your average restaurant, lounge, or shop. It’s a bit of all three. We’re doing an upscale, small plate menu in the lounge, along with signature cocktails. I’m in charge of developing the menu and it’s constantly evolving.
We also have an international bottle shop and wine tasting room on the premises. And in case that’s not enough to temp you, we house an artisan cheese shop too – which sells a lot more than just cheese. I bake the bread daily for the lounge and the cheese shop. And to top it off we’re located in a gorgeous historic building in downtown Grants Pass. We opened our doors on November 23, 2021.
OCCI: We checked out the menu on the website. It looks amazing. So now . . . let’s back up a bit and talk about the start of your career. Tell us what factors influenced your choice to come to OCCI for your culinary training.
Wolf: I love the coast, crabbing, fishing, the outdoors, the lake. As a family we used to visit the coast a lot when I was a kid. I still come as much as possible with my wife. And I love cooking with seafood so OCCI’s location was great for that. Being from out of the area, I needed to live on campus which ended up saving me a lot of money. I was looking for the most cost-effective culinary training. It was perfect, close enough to home, not too close, not too far away.
OCCI: Can you share something important that you learned at OCCI that you draw on now in your work?
Wolf: I remember distinctly my Interpersonal Communication class. That class proved invaluable when it comes to working in a kitchen with a lot of different people. My time at OCCI also taught me how to run an efficient kitchen.
OCCI: Do you remember a particular experience you had while at OCCI that really had an impact on you?
Wolf: One of the concepts that I was exposed to at OCCI that has really influenced my work is the farm-to-table principle. I’m committed to local, sustainable, and renewable practices. I also learned about the French sous vide technique of cooking. It’s a method where food is sealed in a pouch and then heated in a water bath. I saw it first demonstrated the day I toured OCCI. I’m obsessed with it and use it all the time.
OCCI: Chef Randy Torres was your instructor. What do you remember about Chef Torres?
Wolf: Chef Torres is very knowledgeable and approachable. I was intimidated by him at first because of his vast and impressive experience. But when you get to know him, he’s great.
OCCI: What was living in student housing like?
Wolf: Living on campus was fun. I made some great friends I still stay in contact with. I used to bring home leftovers and trade with the baking and pastry students that lived upstairs.
OCCI: Why would you recommend OCCI to people considering a career in the culinary arts?
Wolf: It’s an exceptional place! Especially for young people, who need to get a good base foundation of culinary skills.
OCCI: Now the experienced sage gets to pass on some advice to the younger set interested in a culinary career . . .
Wolf: It took a lot of trial and error for me to get where I am today. I wasn’t afraid to leave a situation if I wasn’t growing. If it’s not the right fit, it’s time to go. Just look at my resume. I’ve worked at a lot of places and learned something different from each experience.
And . . . don’t take no for an answer when you find a restaurant you want to work at.
Does a delicious career in the culinary world sound good to you?Contact us today at 541-888-7309.
Sam Jennings (pictured) got his start in computers playing video games. It helped being inspired by a relative who worked at Nintendo. And, he excelled in math.
“If you have kids, definitely try to encourage them to look in to computer stuff. The earlier you encourage them, the more time they have to learn it at their own pace. That really helped me,” Jennings said.
When his family moved from Spokane, Wash., to Curry County, a great counselor at Gold Beach High School got him into an internship with the school district’s IT department. That cemented it – Jennings wanted to work in computers.
Now, the 18-year-old is enrolled in Southwestern’s Computer Science program, speeding down the path to an inspiring career. Get this: He and classmate Brayden Harlon have landed an amazing paid remote internship opportunity with a California company specializing in marine technologies thanks to Jamie Mason, SWOCC computer science professor. Mason consults with the firm. He knew they could not hire enough developers, and he had two highly skilled students who needed a challenge.
“My mission is to ensure students are properly challenged,” Mason said. “For some, solving real-word industry problems is the right level. Everyone wins when the right match is achieved.”
Brayden Harlon
For Harlon, that fascination with computers started with a writing assignment in 7th grade, suggesting what classes he wanted in school. Soon he was researching programming languages and learning programming on his own. Like Jennings, he eventually scored a year-long internship with Reedsport School District’s IT specialist.
Real-life work experience
Students of all skill levels enroll in computer science classes, but with advanced students like Jennings and Harlon, Mason wanted to challenge them. He connected them with Desert Star Systems, a company that develops systems for divers and trackers for fish and marine mammals, acoustic recorders, acoustic modems, and underwater geolocation systems.
“Brayden and Sam are fantastic additions to the Desert Star team. Training new engineers and developers is often a laborious and time-intensive process, but these students are already contributing substantial usable code and documentation after only one month on the job, and part-time at that!” said Desert Star founder and CEO Marco Flagg.
Jennings said being immersed in a real-life professional environment is challenging. They have had to do research and learn fast. They work with smart people. They love it.
Harlon sees a computer career with NASA in his future, or maybe a small game development company. Jennings? He plans to graduate from Southwestern, join a professional programming team and work on his bachelor’s degree.
Why SWOCC?
Both Harlon and Jennings wanted to attend their local college. Harlon relied on his advisors to help guide him in classes. And, with opportunity grants, tuition assistance and other aid, both say SWOCC makes sense financially.
They also recommend others pursue computer science classes, and want people to encourage their children and students they know to learn about computers.
“Give it a shot,” Jennings said. Programming “seems really intimidating at first. … There’s an initial learning curve, but once you figure it out, it’s not intimidating.”
And, “if you get an internship, take it,” Harlon said. “There are no negatives.”
Learn about Computer Science career pathways: Connect with an advisor at 541-888-7636 or email SWOCCbound@socc.edu
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Coos Bay, OR – Coos Bay, OR – Southwestern Oregon Community College’s popular Geology Lecture Series continues for the 2021-22 academic year with a series of talks covering “Relationships Between Elakha (Sea Otter) and a Sense of Place on Oregon’s South Coast” a conference honoring the life and legacy of Chief Don Ivy. Join us on Saturday, April 16, 2022 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. At the time of this news release we expect to be live in the Hales Center for the Performing Arts on the Coos Bay campus and also streaming via Livestream at the college website (
