“Hello, my name is Nicole Perez and I took a class at community college. Yes, I admit it honestly and openly. I took Astronomy I, every Thursday with other students ranging in age from 16 to 60 and I am proud to say that I received an education equal to that of a university. Because I’m in high school, it was free.
There’s a big misconception about the legitimacy of a community college’s education. The idea that it is second rate or the equivalent of a “dummy education” is distorted. I must admit that I once harbored these feelings. However, my personal experience as one of the students at Los Angeles Community College (LACC) has changed my perspective.
The first step was the hardest
Taking my first step on the campus was probably the hardest part. I felt stupid and ashamed for taking a class at a community college. Is my teacher going to be dull? Is the class going to be elementary? Am I ever going to be able to get a good job? I know the last question seems a bit far-fetched but I have always had dreams of going to a big university and becoming something special.
I thought the value of education that I received at LACC would be challenging enough for a monkey but not for a student with a 3.8 G.P.A. like myself. I am not the “dummy” that most people believe community college is for and I didn’t want my Astronomy I class to be the same as high school astronomy classes. I imagined a classroom similar to our everyday surroundings and a funny-looking professor in glasses and a smoking jacket. I feared that my classmates would mock me for my youth and alienate me from their cliques.
So there I was, my first day. I stepped into the room and there were countless rows of desks and a bearded man in jeans and a T-shirt at the front of the classroom. I sat next to a man named Benjamin. We started talking before class and I found out that he is in his early 30’s, he is going back to college to get a better job. He chose LACC because it’s inexpensive. Benjamin’s favorite food is an interesting combination of lasagna and taco sauce (yuck!). After this in-depth food conversation, our teacher said “Hello, welcome to the first day of your life and the first day of the universe.” He went on to explain the importance of space and the relationship between our everyday lives and the atmosphere around us. He told us we would typically read 100 pages a week and have a test every other week!
‘The truth is out there’
“The truth is out there” was his favorite saying and his teaching style was… different than what I was used to. In fact, I think it made astronomy alive and vivid. The most memorable class session I had was when we went to the roof of LACC and looked out into space through the eyes of huge telescopes. It was beautiful! It made all of the hundreds of pages of astronomy knowledge gained seemed real. I never thought that I would love taking astronomy and that I would love taking it at a community college. The college that I looked down upon, the teachers that I thought were boring, and the education that I thought was second rate was in fact everything that I didn’t expect.
Life at a community college was definitely more challenging than the easy laid-back high school life. That’s why I decided not to take any college classes my senior year, so I could focus on my advanced placement work. Don’t get me wrong, we had a lot of fun. Only this type of fun was more… fun. We were treated like equals, no matter what our age and we were made responsible for our own actions. As for being able to fulfill the dream of going to a “big” university, it is still very possible. As a matter of fact the University of California and the California State University (like UCLA or CSUN) systems accept hundreds of transfer students from community colleges every semester.
All in all, none of my dreams have been smashed to smithereens and my pocket book has been saved from extinction. So please trust me folks, community college is not for dummies! Rather, it’s a chain of schools designed to work around your needs and is an option everyone should definitely keep open. Remember, the truth is out there. 🙂
By the way, did you know that high school students also can take classes at the Cal State schools? At my school, they must be seniors with a good GPA to be eligible for the program.”