Coos Bay, OR – Southwestern Oregon Community College is offering free GED® and Adult Basic Education classes Spring Term 2022. These classes prepare individuals to take the GED® exam and update skills to enroll in college or career training programs. Students enrolled in these classes can build a pipeline to enter college, training programs, and jobs in high-demand career areas.
We will have three options for GED® and Adult Basic Education classes next term:
1. Morning GED® Class – Monday through Thursday from 9am-11am
2. Afternoon GED® Class – Monday through Thursday from 12pm-2pm
3. Evening GED® Class – Tuesday through Thursday from 5pm – 8pm
All classes will be live and in-person on the Coos Campus. The afternoon classes will be live and in-person on the Brookings Campus. For students who cannot make it to either campus, the classes will be also offered via Zoom during all three sessions.
Spring Term starts March 28, 2022 and ends June 9, 2022. To register for orientation and classes, please email Adult & Pre-College Education at apce@socc.eduor call 541-888-1593.
Coos Bay, OR – Southwestern Oregon Community College’s popular Geology Lecture Series continues for the 2021-22 academic year with the talk “The Health Effects of Air Pollution, Why Do We Care?” by Dr. Tong Zhu, Peking University, at 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, March 8, via Livestream from the college’s website (https://livestream.com/swocc/geology2021-22). Dr Zhu joins us as a speaker in the inaugural year of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) College of Fellows Distinguished Lecture Series.
A Q & A session with the speaker will follow the lecture. Advance questions may be sent to Ron Metzger at: rmetzger@socc.edu.
Dr. Tong Zhu is the Dean and Cheung Kong Chair Professor at College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, and the director of Environmental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China. Dr. Zhu earned his BS and MS degrees from Peking University and doctorate from Wuppertal University, Germany. Dr. Zhu’s major research areas are atmospheric chemistry and environmental health. He has been Primary Investigator on more than 20 National Natural Science Foundation of China and Ministry of Science and Technology of China projects. He was elected as an AGU fellow in 2019 and has been serving as a consular of the State Council, People’s Republic of China since 2020, and a member of AGU board of directors since 2019. Dr. Zhu has broad research interests and has published more than 350 peer-reviewed papers, covering Megacity and Regional Air Pollution, Fundamental Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Biogeochemistry, Health Effects of Environmental Pollution in many of the leading scientific journals. Several of his publications received wide media attention in the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Chemical & Engineering News, Guardian, Reuters, BBC News, ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News.
The focus of Dr. Zhu’s talk involves the fact that annually, 4.2 million deaths around the globe are attributed to the exposure to ambient air pollution. Good air quality is thus essential for human health and the environment, and critical to achieve the UN 2030 Sustainability Development Goal (SDG) 3: Good Health and Well-being. Additionally, the improvement of global air quality can also help achieve other SDGs, such as SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, and SDG 13: Climate Action. Due to the complex variables and processes involved, formulating air pollution control policies is a complicated challenge. The fundamental understanding of the formation of air pollution, as well as tools to understand air quality, including online monitoring networks and numerical model simulations, are essential in improving global air quality.
All lectures in the series are free and are archived for later viewing. Future talks for Spring 2022 (available via Livestream, stay tuned for updates on whether we will also be before a live audience) include a conference Honoring the Life and Legacy of Chief Don Ivy that focuses on Relationships Between Elakha (Sea Otter) and a Sense of Place on Oregon’s South Coast. Speakers currently scheduled include Dr. Roberta Hall (OSU), Bob Bailey (Elakha Alliance), Dr. Loren Davis (OSU), and Dr. William Robbins (OSU). The conference will be looking at the history of Elakha, Native American history and a “sense of place” revolving around Oregon’s south coast. The final speaker in the series this year will be Dr. Ron Metzger, Professor of Earth Sciences at Southwestern, 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, the Southwestern Foundation, The Mill Casino & Resort, 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.
NOTE: Press release originated with the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA)
For Release on Tuesday, January 24, 2022
Richmond, VA – The Southwestern Oregon Community College men and women’s swimming teams have been selected by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) as a Scholar All-America Team. The men and women posted GPAs of 3.29 and 3.43 respectively to earn the honors. In total, 728 teams from 450 colleges and universities earned the honor. Those with a GPA of 3.3 or higher will now become eligible for the Intercollegiate Coach Association Coalition All-Sport Academic Standings.
Greg Earhart, CSCAA Executive Director highlighted Southwestern Oregon’s achievements noting, “Coach Bullock has done a tremendous job. These 39 men and women are some of the best ambassadors that Southwestern Oregon and the NJCAA could ask for.”
Coach Sandra Bullock reflects, “I am proud of the team’s dedication to strive for excellence in the classroom. This is a legacy that has been passed down from the class of 2016, setting the expectation from the very beginning of SWOCC Swimming. A foundation that has been carried on for 8 years now. I’m thankful for the student-athletes who believe in what we are doing and give their best effort in the classroom as well as in the pool. They came here to study, swim, and be a part of something bigger than themselves and they are getting it done in the classroom as a team!”
Southwestern’s Athletic Director, Dr. Mike Herbert praised Coach Bullock’s leadership of the team. “This is all Coach Bullock. It was her leadership, drive and high expectations that led to this accomplishment. The athletes did their part as well, and should be acknowledged, but it doesn’t happen without her leadership.”
A pair of West Coast teams led the way. Caltech’s women and Pomona-Pitzer’s men’s teams posted GPA’s of 3.97 and 3.87 respectively. The two were a part of fifteen SCIAC schools to earn the honor. For the second-straight Fall, Harvard’s men led Division I men while Brianne Globig’s Toledo squad topped the women’s list. Both teams posted 3.79 GPAs. Among Division II schools Lees-McRae and Lenoir-Rhine each posted 3.80 GPA’s to lead all Division II women’s teams while Missouri S&T (3.68) led the way among Division II men’s programs. SCAD-Savannah’s women (3.72) and Keiser’s men (3.53) were tops among NAIA schools while Southwestern Oregon led all NJCAA teams with a 3.43 women’s and 3.29 men’s GPA.
Seven teams earned the honor for the first time. These include men’s teams at the University of Nebraska Omaha and Alderson Broaddus. Five women’s teams – Farleigh Dickinson, Mount Saint Mary (NY), Husson, Moravian and Alderson Broaddus – were named to the team for the first time.
Founded in 1922, the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA), is the nation’s first organization of college coaches. The mission of the CSCAA is to advance the sport of swimming and diving with coaches at the epicenter of leadership, advocacy, and professional development.
Coos Bay, OR – Southwestern Oregon Community College is excited to announce it has received $32,182 to expand its veterans center on the Coos Bay campus and increase support for students at its Brookings campus. The funding is part of an Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs (ODVA) grant package totaling $600,000 to expand Campus Veteran Resource Centers at 15 community colleges and public universities throughout Oregon.
“I feel very fortunate that we have received the support for our Veterans Resource Center this year from ODVA. We wouldn’t have one on campus if it wasn’t for them,” said Shana Brazil, Southwestern’s Veterans Service Coordinator.
Veteran Resource Centers are vital in helping veterans transition from military service to college life. The center’s staff help veterans complete their educational and vocational goals and successfully transition back into the civilian workforce and community.
The College received $54,092 in 2018-19, which helped develop and open the resource center on the Coos campus. ODVA then gave the college $72,460 to support services the following year.
This new round of funding allows Southwestern to move the Veteran Resource Center to a larger space that includes a study area and the Veterans Services Coordinator office. The larger area will allow for more variety of uses by veterans, and their families will be welcome in the center as well. Brazil and her volunteers also will be able to increase the center’s hours, staying open until 8 p.m. three-days a week.
In addition, the grant will fund additional outreach and student support. This means opportunities to host on-campus speakers, trainings for staff and faculty, a suicide prevention seminar, and increased veteran events. The grant will also help to meet students’ basic needs by providing snacks in the resource center, emergency lunch vouchers for the dining hall, and emergency gas cards.
It’s good news for veterans in Curry County as well. The grant will fund quarterly trips by the Veterans Service Coordinator to the college’s Brookings campus. Veterans and their families living in Curry County can meet with the coordinator to get help filing VA paperwork, filling out financial aid forms, and registering for college courses.
For more information regarding Southwestern’s Veterans Services, please call 541-888-7236; email vets@socc.edu; or visit www.socc.edu/veterans.
Why not do something you love and make a career out of it? Quinn Allen asked herself that question a couple years ago. She was doing fine with a 15-year career in the restaurant industry, but she was ready to try something new. Why not, right?
“I’ve always had a huge love for forests. I was born and raised in Oregon and I’m very proud of our forests,” she said.
Quinn lives in Port Orford, and thought about going to community college. She flipped through SWOCC’s certificate and degree options. A forestry certificate looked good. She leaped forward, knowing she could complete entry-level training in one year and keep working full-time.
Hands-on experience
At a small college, there are many opportunities to learn and get involved. Quinn took advantage of an internship with forestry instructor Tasha Livingstone to develop brochures for SWOCC’s forestry programs. She met with students considering the forestry program and made a presentation to eighth-graders. All the while, Tasha forwarded opportunities for internships and job shadowing to help Quinn succeed.
“Tasha was amazing. She did a great job adapting and rising to the challenge of what COVID presented,” Quinn said. “She was always there answering questions.”
Job connections
Most forestry companies want students with a four-year degree, but not everyone starts there. A networker, Quinn became involved in the Coos County Chapter for Oregon Women in Timber. She graduated in June and got a seasonal job with the Coquille Watershed Association as a weed technician.
While doing that work, she took a webinar and learned about Sudden Oak Death, a pathogen killing trees and bushes in Curry County. She got to talking with Oregon State University Extension Service staff, and mentioned there is nothing on social media about the problem. It was not long before Quinn was producing content for Extension staff to post to social media and creating an info-graphic on the issue for landowners.
About that networking? Through SWOCC, Quinn connected with Pro Forestry Consulting in Coos Bay and landed a job. She soon will be training to become a timber cruiser, her dream all along.
“I’m so much happier outside in the field, in the forest,” she said.
Quinn, who always seems to be smiling, takes that happiness home to her 6-year-old son, who “gets to see Mom happy.”
These days, she comes home from work tired, a good tired. She plans to stay involved with Oregon Women in Timber. And, this year she returned to one of SWOCC’s forestry classes as a guest speaker to encourage others to stay on the path to their careers in forestry.
“The forest industry does really need more people in it, up and coming people,” Quinn said.
– JOB STATS –
$71, 325 – Average annual southwestern Oregon Forester wage
$41,661 – Average annual Forest Technician wage
3.9% & 3.6% – Projected increase in Forester and Forest Tech jobs here
