All In: Student Pathways Forward
This podcast focuses on elevating community college student voices to shape inclusive higher education and workforce development policies, practice and partnerships that create economic mobility.
All In: Student Pathways Forward
Central Oregon Community College (COCC) & SJI - Student Dray Aguirre, COCC Instructional Dean Jenni Newby & Pathways College & Career Success Coach Marcus LeGrand; SJI Senior Consultant Bri Nguyen & Research & Project Consultant Natasha Bennett
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
This episode features an interview with Central Oregon Community College (COCC) student Dray Aguirre, who offers great insights from his advocacy work at the local, state and national levels focused on student basic needs insecurity. Dray emphasizes the importance of students shaping policies and shares some of his own lived experience as a student facing basic needs insecurity. Dray was highlighted in a recent KLCC NPR story focused on food and housing insecurity among college students in Oregon.
COCC Instructional Dean, Jenni Newby, and Pathways College and Career Success Coach, Marcus LeGrand, talk about college-wide strategies to support students holistically through their Pathways to Opportunity work and how critical it is to listen to students like Dray to understand more clearly where COCC needs to prioritize their efforts.
Bri Nguyen and Natasha Bennett from SJI (Seattle Jobs Initiative) share information on their Student-Centered Design initiative in collaboration with colleges in Oregon and across the country and describe a variety of ways they engage students in this work to improve access to benefits and resources.
Welcome to the All In Student Pathways Forward Podcast, where we're focused on elevating student voices from Oregon Community Colleges to shape inclusive policies, programs, and partnerships. This is Mark Goldberg, the host, and I'm very happy to have the chance to talk with and learn from different Oregon Community College students as well as other higher education leaders. Thanks for listening in. In this episode, I have a great conversation with Dre Aikire, an amazing student from Central Oregon Community College, who's done tremendous work advocating for policies and funding that address student basic needs in security. That's followed up with a discussion with two key leaders at Central Oregon immersed in this work: Instructional Dean Jenny Newbie and Pathways College and Career Success Coach Marcus Legrand. During the last segment, I speak with Brie Wynn and Natasha Bennett from Seattle Jobs Initiative about their student-centered design work in Oregon and across the country. Well, I would like to introduce my featured guest for this podcast episode, Dre Aguirre, who is a student at Central Oregon Community College. Welcome Dre to the podcast today.
SPEAKER_03Well, thank you for having me, Mark. Appreciate it for this opportunity.
SPEAKER_02Well, I look forward to having a conversation with you here and learning from you from your experience as a student at COCC. So with that, I'd love to ask you to talk about your background and your journey to Central Oregon Community College as a student.
SPEAKER_03Originally, I am from California. So I kind of made my way up to life situation, a lot of work and everything. Had many different types of jobs trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I've done stuff from construction to ENT work to cooking and landscaping. Ultimately, it led me to a place where I understood that I want to help people. I enjoy interacting and finding ways to not necessarily better people's lives, but enhance their lives with encouragement of some sort.
SPEAKER_02And so you're pursuing a career in healthcare towards a certain occupation then?
SPEAKER_03Yes. My ultimate goal is to be a practitioner. I would love to just be in there. I just want to be able to travel and help people and learn. I feel like this is my golden ticket.
SPEAKER_02That's great, and appreciate you sharing all of your work experience that to me are skills that you can carry into this profession. So, as you've been a student at Central Oregon Community College, what uh would you say is your biggest success so far?
SPEAKER_03I believe as a student, my biggest success has been opportunities to speak for students who cannot speak for themselves as a lot of advocating. I've been lucky, or blessed, however you want to play with to be able to stand in the academic when it comes to everybody food or housing free or somebody to talk to. I have given this opportunity to kind of share. Along with making friends. As someone who is coming up on 32, I I I feel that's definitely a success.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. And that that network of of friends, classmates is it can really make a difference. And I'm curious as you talked about the advocacy work you've done on behalf of other students, how you got involved in that work.
SPEAKER_03Different type of clubs. I was like, you know, I want to join them to make friends, get to know calls I think about. And so that's when I got to share a little bit of my story with people, uh kind of where I've come from or what I want to pursue, and people wanted to share with me their struggle to open an opportunity where the student government would be able to ask me if I wanted to go to Salem and go lobby on behalf of the House Bill about it that kind of opened the floor where we're at today. Yeah, I think Salem opened the floor to meeting but pardon for other people who heard my story and just reached out personally, uh, would want to go deeply in the speech as well. Share my story at um the Frack conference, which is a America conference. That was probably one of the most beautiful opportunities I had to kind of share for people who were listening.
SPEAKER_02I would imagine that's been a a rich experience with those advocacy efforts, having the chance to testify in Salem and and you said Washington, D.C. as well. So you've talked about your biggest successes, Dre, and in that advocacy work and really building that network of friends at the college. Can you talk about any challenges you face then in pursuing your education?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I am currently a food insecure and houseless student. Um and that has been probably the biggest struggle. Mainly the houselessness, you know, having a place to shower, having basic necessities, loveliness, hygiene, it's important, especially now, but even when I was attending school, I don't want to go to school, attend classes with an odor, that just I don't want to take a joke, but there's a spell of success. So that has been my greatest challenge. I've been trying to find a place myself, and there is a lot of barriers I think away. So I can only imagine what it's like for other students as well. That's a big one out of the world, and that especially after COVID hit the shutdown. Like I used to use the gym for showers because I know the best thing ever. But once COVID hit, it just cut that off and everything stuck. And it was hard to find that type of resource to be motivated in that sense.
SPEAKER_02I I can only imagine how challenging that is overall, and then while you're going to school and trying to focus on your studies. So I hope that there are resources available through the college and beyond that can help you. I guess with that in mind, I'm curious if there's been someone on campus who's been able to help you navigate any benefits and get connected to resources and and if so, how they were they were most helpful to you.
SPEAKER_03I mean, in the beginning when I first started, it was it was just like a flyer on the wall talking about SNAP and how full-time students qualify for the full amount of benefits without having to work. And that's how Michael started that journey of finding the resources. After that, and after making known to uh other people or people are coordinating coach on the campus to also help directly like students find jobs and like different it's been a challenge, so it's hard to talk about at the same time, we want people to match especially the older you work, it seems like because most times people the first judgment is old enough we can go to work and you can balance work in school and things like that all the time. You hear about negative things, but ultimately every person is different. And for me it is it's a challenge. And I say this because when I work, I I give it everything I have. When I go to school, I give it everything I have. So I can't 400% of myself because it doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, I mean that's a really profound way of describing it, that reality and the challenges there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. No, definitely. I've kind of been in a living situation for since 2019. So it's been hard. Finding a place, trying to go find funds, find resources. It's been a challenge. Haven't been that lucky yet.
SPEAKER_02Well, I hope that leads to some stability in in time. You know, I think as you were describing the reality and and how that's been. I'm not sure if you know this, but from a survey across all 17 community colleges in Oregon, there were 63% of students that had indicated facing food insecurity, housing insecurity, or homelessness at some point within the last year. So that's the majority of students that we have in our system, and that's not a result of any individual situation, and that's a result of failed systems and policies that have not kept up with today's college students. I feel like it's important to say that and share that and know that that's a common reality for college students across the state and the country right now, and hope colleges will continue to lean into this and help address these foundational basic needs of students. And even when we're doing that, there's also at times the reality that students are hesitant to seek help or access those benefits that they may be eligible for because they're you know concerned there may be someone else who needs it more, or because of the stigma associated with the benefits. I would love to get your thoughts on that just from your perspective.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, definitely. You hit on a big one that I know so many students, along with myself, actually people in general, especially when it comes to SNAP benefits. Somebody needs that more than me. Even though I'm gonna I'm going hungry for a day or two, whatever, and you always try to find a way to cut themselves out of it, even though it's there for them and the people who really need it. It took me a long time to finally step up like I need help. When we hear outside sources say, you have funding, you've got student loans coming in, you can support yourself. But ultimately, not how it works sometimes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and a lot of those individuals don't understand the total cost of attendance for students, right?
SPEAKER_03True, and it's unfortunate, you know, but that's why I'm glad we're having this conversation.
SPEAKER_02So as you described before, seeing a flyer about SNAP benefits, and as you process that, did that then connect you with the STEP program at Central Oregon Community College?
SPEAKER_03Some of the co-coordinators pushed me that direction because after I found that flyer and advertising snap, then I started like, okay, okay, I have food, but now how am I going to get to the food? I mean maximum, you know, your that's when I got connected with my the whole team called to everybody maybe at the time to be successful. The school has an emergency fund that would be up to $500 actually for a thousand million. $500 does make a difference, and I'm grateful. You know, you guys describe your needs and things like that. Yeah, when it comes to the fund, like you're submitting essentially like a little proposal why you need the money, you know, that's fine. Um, the only issue I had with it, and I got upset one time because they're like asking for receipts and different things like that.
SPEAKER_02Majority of students who are facing unmet financial need are accessing resources. What I've heard from other students too is that colleges need to make it as simple as possible. Because if there's all sorts of extra steps and processes, then it becomes yet one more thing that is not easy to navigate.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, definitely. I mean it's an easy way to turn students away from trying to get help, making it even more of a challenge. I mean, I understand making sure the need goes to where it needs to go, a resource. It is a simpler process without scaring or intimidating any student, then there'll be more people asking for the help that they truly need. For me, that's where that mercy money came from. If you're gonna be asking for receipts and doing all this extra stuff, then I don't need your money. That's how I felt. It only happened once later, I just kind of left it alone.
SPEAKER_02Well, I appreciate you sharing that feedback. It's helpful to hear and an important consideration for colleges as they've had emergency funds and created more resources and support for students. I just want to circle back on that because you've talked about SNAP and then the STEP grant and emergency funds. Have there been any other resources within the college or outside that have helped you out in addressing the cost of college?
SPEAKER_03Yes, there has been a lot of opportunities for scholarships. CLCC has a foundation scholarship, which it's for up to four years, which I thought was amazing. So it's like some money I don't have to worry about. It's something that they offer to help support many different students. It doesn't matter their background, it doesn't matter their status. You've had undocumented students receive a scholarship, they want students to succeed. To me, that's that's what COCC has represented. Whatever it takes to have a student succeed. The fact that they actually support students and encourage them has been for me the most impactful experience I have ever had, really.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's wonderful to hear and glad to know that COCC is so student-centered and understands those realities that the majority of students are facing and finding different resources, scholarships, emergency funds, and beyond to do their best to allow students to focus on their academics and not have to struggle as best as they can with those basic needs. I guess on a related note, but I'm wondering from your perspective, Dre, what type of college policies overall could make it easier for students who may be working, may have family responsibilities, parenting, and also, you know, maybe struggling with basic needs and security as we've discussed.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, this is the big one. This is one I'm gonna keep fighting for. I believe that at the beginning of registration, because everybody has to register for a school, put a bunch of personal information in there. I would love for there to include either a person, a class or something. It's probably better one-on-one. But just have some kind of teaching of different resources. It doesn't matter if you're a single parent or if you're a homeless student, or if you're really secure options, then you say that we should get you in the get-go. I've talked to actually other students about it. I asked them what I feel more comfortable or would you feel more competent with it when these resources were presented at the beginning of your college career. Instead of trying to navigate it while trying to study, while trying to figure out class life, and say, yes, do this in the beginning for resources, I would not have as much stress at that time.
SPEAKER_02That makes complete sense to me. And in that initial moment in time, to have the students' full picture and then have someone who's able to help triage and determine what would be the best resources to connect them with can make a difference from the very beginning. On a similar note, I wanted to ask what do you think is the most important thing that educators, career coaches like Marcus and others across the state. And really any staff person or faculty member who's working to help students succeed, what's the most important thing that we can all do to help? In particular for students who are facing basic needs insecurity.
SPEAKER_03One please listen. I know a lot of people will try to help me, but also like unintentionally instead of like pointing the finger and do this and this and this. If I'm being spoken at, I don't did it well.
SPEAKER_02So it sounds like for you just having faculty and staff who are listening and being a guide but not talking at students, but really just being there as a resource as needed. And really working in collaboration with students.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly. Having someone that have uh shared experience, the leans on whoever you want to put in this position, uh, they don't necessarily have to have that experience. They can have a student in the room like myself. Like I'm willing to go sit in the room with them and help another student in that you know in a similar situation. You know, I've been there or I am there. Um let's let's change this, let's work together and make this happen.
SPEAKER_02That is really great advice. Having a staff member, faculty, or another student who's had similar lived experiences there to assist, to listen, to offer, support makes a difference.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_02So in thinking about students, if there are other students that are listening into this podcast, what advice would you give to other students at either Central Oregon Community College or at other community colleges from your own experience?
SPEAKER_03Well, the biggest advice is don't be ashamed of where you're at. Go and speak to somebody. There will be always somebody there for trying to help you. So don't be ashamed to ask for help. Don't be ashamed of the situation you're in. From what I know, at least of my college, my little community college, they're there to help me succeed. I have a lot of support and a lot of that because I spoke out. So that's probably my biggest advice is don't be afraid to speak out.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for sharing that, and I appreciate that encouragement for other students. So, as you've talked about the importance of listening to students, Dre, and I'm wondering if you have ideas on how colleges can listen to students better as they are looking to develop policies and programs that put students in the best position to succeed in college and beyond.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, definitely. Actually, since you're talking about listening, the group of us students spoke on this subject of how we can establish policies as we're going to school and then we're trying to come up with these policies that can be overwhelming, but they're necessary. Students should be the ones establish these things because we know what our needs are. Having the student government come together with other students, how we can make things work and have the support from like the faculty or staff, like basically even from behind, let us students come up with ideas, allow the students to create a framework that'll come up with something that we think can work. We have the support from our faculty or teachers or whoever it is. I think that would be the strongest thing. And you know, it's our experiences that create this policy we want.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. And uh having students generate those solutions and policies is the most dynamic way of that happening because you are navigating through these systems and you know you talked about student government and giving students the opportunity to drive that policy work.
SPEAKER_03I mean to me that's gonna be the key. I believe that students will always need to be involved to continue to keep up with the cost of change. That's important.
SPEAKER_02So, Dre, I'm I'm wondering if you could talk about how your experience at Central Oregon Community College has been impactful in in your life.
SPEAKER_03For starters, I have been lucky to have the greatest teachers. Every teacher I've had has And the the style that they teach has been something up and accepted too. So that has been amazing. But the ultimate thing that is impacted me the most in a positive way is the support. There is so much support with all the clubs I was involved in. There is so much support there as well. That's made my time at COCC or call so far worth it.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome to hear, and I'm glad that that's been your experience at COCC. So as we wrap up, is there anything else, Dre, that you'd like to share about your experience at COCC for this podcast episode?
SPEAKER_03Yes, for me, it's just I've had an opportunity to get to know a lot of people, a lot of faculty. And you know, just being kind. I know it's kind of cheesy, but just showing that you care to get specificated. For me, I'm always trying to be kind to everybody and then doing so. I've I've got to meet so many great people. I got to talk to like a different administrators in the offices. And I didn't know their positions. I didn't really know who they were. I just knew there were just people working at the college to try to make it better for us. And you know, there's a few like the president and the team, I didn't know who they were or their position follows. But being nice, they were nice back, and then I found out who they were, and oh, okay, there's there's someone uh important what I just said doesn't mean nothing but to me it just was awesome.
SPEAKER_02No, it means a lot, and it's not cheesy at all about being kind, and I think it sounds simple, but it it's profound. Regardless of position, power, just treating people with kindness and respect goes far. That's what I'm hearing you say.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly. You said it beautifully.
SPEAKER_02On that note, I would just say thank you to you for having this conversation with me and being so open and honest about your own experience and sharing your wisdom of what colleges can do more to be student-centered and to walk alongside students and support them and simplify that process of connecting students with benefits in a way that's not stigmatized and promotes all of those opportunities. Dreya, I'm inspired by your advocacy and your passion for this work, and I just want to thank you for taking the time to have this conversation with me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, most definitely. Again, I appreciate this opportunity and humble listening. And then you get to amplify it continuously. So thank you, Mark. I really again appreciate the opportunity.
SPEAKER_02For this segment of the podcast, we're taking a different approach. And rather than following up the interview with Dre and our students with the college president, I thought it would be really interesting to gain perspective from key staff at Central Oregon Community College who have been immersed in this work in support of students and also leading the development of the Pathways to Opportunity Initiative and the STEP Grant, Career Pathways Grant, and other projects. So I'm really thrilled to welcome Jenny Newby, who's the instructional dean with oversight of all of those programs and initiatives to the podcast, along with Marcus Legrand, who is the Pathways College and Career Success Coach, who's worked with Dre and many other students. It's great to have you both on, and Marcus as well, who teaches at the college in human development college success. So I think you both will bring really interesting insights to this conversation. So welcome Marcus and Jenny.
SPEAKER_05Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Mark.
SPEAKER_02Glad to be here. Yeah, so just to kick us off for listeners who are not as familiar with Central Oregon Community College, I was hoping, Jenny, that you could share a brief overview of COCC for folks who don't know the college.
SPEAKER_05Sure. So COCC is located in Central Oregon. The college has about a 10,000 square mile service district and it encompasses full counties, three of them, Deschutes, Crook, and Jefferson, and portions of Wasco, Lake, and Klamath. We have four college campuses: Bend, Redmond, Madras, and Prineville. The college serves somewhere around 8,000 credit students per year and about 7,500 non-credit students per year. The city of Bend is the largest population, thus, the largest campus is in that location. And we also serve very many rural communities in central Oregon. So we have an interesting challenge in that we have to serve rural and somewhat urban, although I wouldn't call Bend extremely urban, but the most urban center of the central part of Oregon.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and relative to some of those more rural communities, it is urban and it's hard to fathom a district that supports 10,000 square miles and all of those communities and regions. And then it's interesting too to have almost as many non-credit students as credit students at the institution.
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_02So I would love to just get your overall reactions to the conversation I had with Dre earlier in this podcast episode.
SPEAKER_01Personally, I thought it was phenomenal to hear his perspective on not only the options he has for himself to be here and how the support he has garnered since he's been here as well. It was good to hear that he's done so much advocacy work as well. Being here at the college has empowered him to be able to do the things he did. But at the same time, it was great to just get the Nodre and his background and what he's been through and what he needs to try to continue to survive. And I think it amplifies why we do this work because it lets you know that college is not just you attending classes and paying your tuition, that there's some other things that you're going to need to be able to be successful. And to take the stress away is great that we have these supports in place to be able to help these students be able to thrive.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely, Marcus. And it was inspiring to hear from Dre how much he has valued and appreciated the support that you've been able to provide. And then also, like you said, just how active he's become in ensuring as best as he can that other students who are facing similar challenges, that their voices are heard, that there are policies in place and advocacy to really support students holistically.
SPEAKER_01Most definitely. And I think the other thing you have to look at is that I know a lot of students miss the human connection in terms of, you know, being able to do it in person. And I'm glad that we're going to be able to do that in the fall for these students because a lot of them have been suffering not only physically but mentally in terms of what's going on. But I think hopefully what we've learned from this is that we need to look at some of the systems that we currently have in place and look at how we can change them that's going to be able to allow us to be a little bit more nimble and flexible to make sure we continue to service the need of students.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so some of those takeaways from this remote learning. Any additional reactions, Jenny, that you had from the discussion with Dre?
SPEAKER_05Well, I really loved hearing what Dre had to say, and I agree with Marcus. He just is a natural advocate. And I was really impressed with his ability to be so humble, but not afraid to seek out help, and that he encourages other students to do so. The resources that we have at COCC with the STEP program and with Pathways to Opportunity and with Marcus's role as the success coach are really helpful to students. You know, I love that he can encourage students to seek him out and get help. That's what we're there for.
SPEAKER_02For sure.
SPEAKER_05I also love that he's been tapped, you know, at the state level to advocate for students, the hunger-free Oregon and just testimony at the state. I just thought that was really impressive that he was willing to do that, especially during COVID, to be able to advocate for students who have food insecurity.
SPEAKER_02State and national level, how rich that experience was, but how beneficial it is to many other students as well. So I'm gonna shift back to Marcus and from your vantage point as the Pathways College and Career Success Coach, and then also as a faculty member at the college. I'd love to get your perspective on what faculty and staff have to shift in their practice and policies to better support students holistically.
SPEAKER_01I think a few things. One, I hope they listen to what Dre was saying. Because even though he's advocating for students and advocating for himself, I'm hoping the faculty and staff understands that you have to meet students where they are. Every student has not had the privilege of maybe possibly having a mother, father, or other family members who basically have been to college. Some people are basically trying to do this as single parents, some people are doing this, living from their cars, doing this, sleeping on people's couches. They need to really hopefully take the time to do their due diligence and listen and meet these, like I said, meeting students where they're at, because many of them may not know how these things work. A lot of the time I spend a lot of work helping students budget and understanding that tuition and fees are one part of your educational process. But you still need to live, you still need to eat, you need to still have housing, you still need to have a job and other resources to get to this point. That's why I always advocate for trying to find a way to have supplemental resources for them to be able to continue to go to school. Senior leadership positions, step away from where you're at. I'm not gonna say you're Ivy Tower because I don't want to be discriminatory, but what I want to say is meet them where they're at, okay? And come and talk to them and show them that you're human and understand where they're coming from. Because some students had to go to work, they have a family now, and now all of a sudden they're 26, 27 year old, and now they're trying to go to college and balance these things. This is a great opportunity for us to be able to look at the current systems we have in place and definitely try to check them and fix them where they need to be.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's really helpful. And I think your comments on just meeting students where they're at. So students are coming in with more complicated lives and expenses, right?
SPEAKER_01And another thing to add to that is balance of life. Childcare is always a big issue, right? Because if we ask many women in society to continue to do their jobs and try to take care of the uh childcare, unfortunately, we don't ask the males to do that enough. We don't ask them to sacrifice and do the necessary things because a lot of the students that I work with, guess what? Many of them were single moms, right? And they had to give up something to be able to do something, or they're going through a divorce, or something's happening to them, or they had to go back and revamp their skills, be able to make ends meet. And then you and you're trying to do that is very, very tough. So, what I'm trying to say is, hey, males out there in the world, look at what you're doing, take the time to be able to work with the people that you're working with and make things happen. You understand you have to be a part of the situation to make things happen for these people who are coming to school. So uh, and yeah, I'm calling people out on that. Yeah, because I had to do the same thing, so I'm asking them to do the same thing too. I had to sacrifice and do it. And you know what? It takes some time. We always say it takes a village to raise your kids, but it also takes the awareness of being present and being a part of what happens to make sure things happen.
SPEAKER_02Well stated, Marcus, and thanks for calling that out. So, Jenny, I want to shift to you and know as an instructional dean at the college and leader there who has overseen the Pathways to Opportunity initiative from the very beginning. I'm curious for you what's been the most impactful action that the college has taken through your collective pathways to opportunity efforts to close opportunity gaps, support racial equity, and create economic mobility for students.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think for me, the single greatest thing that we've done is to hire the success coach position. I think it's really unique in that it's not an academic advisor and it's someone who can work directly with students to help them identify resources to help reduce barriers beyond tuition and fees so that they can stay in school. Additionally, we had a pathways to opportunity team at the college, and we had representation from all over the college. So from instruction, from student services, and from other areas of the college. And that group came together and we identified that one of the things that we could do was to create a basic needs syllabus statement. And I feel like that was very impactful because it was a way to get a message to students in a format that they're used to seeing. So every class you take, you have to have a syllabus. And it was something that we encouraged faculty to put on their syllabi, and so many faculty did it. And we got a lot of traction with students around that. Marcus got a lot of phone calls and emails after we started putting that statement on syllabi, letting students know that we have resources and we can help them.
SPEAKER_02Information in a course syllabus is such a strategic way of getting that to students, right? I mean, first day of class, if faculty are going through their course syllabus, and so to have that front and center day one demonstrates to students that there are resources available and here's how you can access them.
SPEAKER_05The other thing I would say related to that is that the success coach position is unique because it not only resides at the college, but also Marcus pre-COVID, he co-located in our work source centers and also spent time at the Department of Human Services each week. So he was making those connections with the agencies in the community that can help students get those resources. And he had a person right there that he could point a student to directly. And I think that that's really critical, really different from some of the other roles that we have at the college and really trying to address those barriers that students are facing beyond paying for college.
SPEAKER_02Totally. And understanding that community colleges can't do it alone, right? So those community partnerships are extremely important. And so to have those relationships and co-location, I would imagine, have made a huge difference. Yes. So I have one last question I wanted to ask you both. And as you started, Jenny, in describing the geography of Central Oregon Community Colleges district, it's a huge area and has varied populations, as you said, like ranging from small rural communities to Bend. And I think Bend is always interesting because it's had, from my understanding, an influx of wealth and population in migration, where in some of the rural communities it may have been the opposite. And then we also know during COVID there's been disproportionate impact on various populations, so communities of color, those who were least educated formally, women, as we talked about too, and then also rural communities. And so I'm just curious how COCC has been able to prioritize access to higher education leading to college completion for rural communities and others that have been most impacted by the recession and by the COVID pandemic.
SPEAKER_05So I think that's always a challenge, considering that our largest campus is in Bend, which is the largest population. When I started at COCC 10 years ago, they had just opened the campuses in Prineville and in Madras, which is a huge statement to those communities that the college is there to serve those communities. I think with COVID, it really pushed the faculty and staff at the college to pivot in a way that they may not have had to in the past and really considered new ways of delivering instruction. Being the individual who oversees the adult basic skills program at COCC, this is the first time ever that we had offered any kind of remote learning. And I was concerned about technology access for students, but and I still think that's an extreme challenge. However, I was amazed at how many students in that program came forward and said, can we continue to have this kind of access to instruction? Because I actually can't come to a campus, or could I have hybrid learning where I can come one day a week and then I can have it remote another? And I think it's really pushed some of our career and technical ed programs to think about how can we deliver something that always is hands-on and in person in a remote environment. So I think it's gonna be interesting to see how the college moves forward.
SPEAKER_01Coming from a student perspective, I think two things have to be understood that most students are very resilient. They want to be disciplined and want to know what's going on. They want instruction. So if you give them what's gonna happen, I think that was a lot of students concerned. They didn't know what was gonna happen. You know, I'm not saying they weren't weren't transparent, but be a little bit more deliberate in telling them here's what's gonna happen. And that would give them more insight. The second thing is that people have to realize a lot of students were not used to learning online. Most students don't take classes online, they're used to having in-person instruction, and they've been doing that since kindergarten. So you got to understand they had to actually pivot not only mentally, physically, to be able to have instruction and understanding what they were gonna be receiving. And then to piggyback what Jenny was saying, our instructors have to do the same thing because you have some some instructors who never had to ever teach online. So now you basically are asking a person to do the same thing. They've never had to teach online. So now they have to learn not only the different technical aspects of it, but also still give instruction, still try to do tests, still try to be able to do necessary things to be able to make sure that the students you're getting the content down as well. So there were so many different ways they had to learn how to understand that. So from a student, they really struggled because also they had to pivot in a way where many of them were used to going to class, go to work, drop a kid off at school. So now you're having to be home with that kid, do your homework yourself, try to find out if you got laid off, trying to figure out if you're gonna be receiving unemployment insurance. There were so many different things and so many other variables that came to them that they weren't used to. So I think we'll, like Jenny said, what can we do better? How can we put things in place? So now if something does happen like this again, we already have these things in place and be ready for it. And like I said, back again, students are very resilient. They'll tell you what they need, but you gotta ask them. You gotta make them a part of the process. Because if now that they're a part of the process, they will definitely tell you, hey, I would love to have this more. Because now going back to some of the old ways we did things, students be like, no, I was learning really well that way too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's a lot to what you both said on the resiliency that students have as you started with Marcus, and being able to really ask students what they need and then be responsive to that and recognizing, sort of bring it back to rural students that the access is going to be a key point there. This whole podcast is really anchored in student insights and perspectives and suggestions. So I think it's a fitting way to wrap up and appreciate you both taking the time to share your work with students and with these programs and initiatives that have been developed to help students holistically at Central Oregon Community College.
SPEAKER_05Thank you. Thank you for having us.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for allowing us to be able to point a different opinion on it too. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02I'd like to welcome my next guest to the podcast today, Bri Wynn and Natasha Bennett from Seattle Jobs Initiative, otherwise known as SJI. And Bri is a senior consultant at SJI, and Natasha is the research and project consultant. And both Bri and Natasha have been leading and immersed in the student centered design initiative that SJI has been working on for some time. I'm glad to have you both on the podcast.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thanks so much for having us.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I know you'll share more about SJI, but I know SJI is a nonprofit organization that focuses on regional programming, does policy and research work, as well as national consulting and technical assistance across the country. And so look forward to hearing more about your work and have enjoyed having the opportunity to collaborate with both of you and with SJI through the years. With that, I'll start. I know that SJI has provided amazing support to Oregon, assisting with the development of Oregon's community college step consortia, and more recently with your expertise in student-centered design related to benefits access and Oregon's Pathways to Opportunity initiative. I'm wondering if you could share a brief overview of SJI as an organization and your current work concentrating on student-centered design. And we'll ask Bree to respond to this question.
SPEAKER_00Sure. Yeah, so as you mentioned, SJI is a nonprofit organization, and we focus on supporting people from underinvested. Communities in building sustainable careers and in getting the education and training to do so. And this is something that we've been doing for over 20 years now. And you also described our student centered design work or mentioned it. And uh Natasha and I are on the student center design team, and we work with colleges and other training institutions as a partner and as a collaborator. And our work in this space focuses on centering student voices and student feedback and solving problems and building solutions based on what students are telling us. And this is something that Dre spoke about a little earlier. And Dre brought up a really important point, which is that college systems were originally designed with a certain type of student in mind. And many students today don't really fit that mold. And so this is something that we intentionally focus on in our work. With our college partners, we look at how we can adapt practices and policies to meet the needs of today's students who we know are diverse and who don't reflect these outdated models of who a college student is. And so keeping this top of mind, I think, is a really key part of building equitable student success.
SPEAKER_02That's really helpful. So with this student-centered design process, come to Natasha here. I know you've done work with a variety of colleges. And I'm wondering if you could talk about what you've seen as being most impactful or impactful ways that you've engaged with students in centering their voices in this work.
SPEAKER_04Sure. Thanks for the question. And that's a really important part of our work. I mean, just thinking about Dre's experience, you know, and Dre has a clear goal in mind and wants to commit to that goal. We hear from Dre that there's kind of a need to proactively integrate benefits access work into an intake process, for example, and in ways that aren't haphazard. Because we think that's so important, we're currently working with a handful of colleges in an effort to help streamline access to benefits for the students. So this looks like a one-year-long academies, and each college has identified a particular benefit or resource that they're focused on. You know, for example, SNAP employment and training, financial resources, and academic planning resources. And these colleges chose these resources because they think that their students aren't accessing them or using them to the fullest extent. And so our work with these academy colleges is to help identify why that's the case. And that really relies on student feedback. And so we're finding that the student feedback we're receiving has been really insightful. What we're getting from students is helping us vet our assumptions about what's happening with students. For example, we have colleges who came in thinking that a particular part of their process was difficult for students to access, when in fact it was the case that students didn't really have the time to engage in the process in the first place. And so by engaging those student voices and those experiences, we're able to think a little more carefully about that. They're also, you know, helpful to identify key assumptions and beliefs that we have about students and then their access to benefits and resources. One of the things that we're finding is that for many students, it's almost automatic to think that they don't qualify for something. So students might hear a word scholarship, for example, and think that it's automatically for straight A students, or they might hear fluid benefits and think that others need the resource more, or that they'd be taking benefits away from someone else. And those are the kinds of insights you can't get without really engaging how students are thinking and feeling about resources. Sometimes students are concerned about stigma or what it means or what it says about them as a person if they're using certain resources or benefits. And these things aren't easy to uncover, but it's important for us to really think about it and for colleges to know about them so we can address them intentionally and in a way that's actually going to make an impact, right? In a way that resonates with students.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for sharing that and inspiring to hear there's a whole academy of colleges that are working together with SJI to get at benefits access with their students. Did you want to add more, Brie?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I just have one other example of a way in which we've included students in another project. Something really impactful that we did was hold joint solution design sessions. And those were with students and staff and members of the administration. And I think this was really enlightening for everybody involved because we don't often have that combination of people in the same room or in the same virtual space working together on solution development. And we had a student who was involved tell us that it was great to be able to give their input and also to be able to connect with staff and hear staff input. And this is something they they mentioned in the session evaluation. And then we also had a staff member mention that they want to continue having sessions like this one, to continue sharing ways to reach students and to review how the college is currently reaching students. So this was a new paradigm for the college, and we really hope that the college will be able to continue this going forward.
SPEAKER_02So that's inspiring to hear, and I hope other colleges will consider that type of model, either facilitated through SJI or organically on their own, but to have that combination and that dialogue with all of those stakeholders, but really centering in students is powerful. It really is. So I think building on that, I know the student-centered design process that SJI facilitates is multifaceted. And I'm wondering if you could provide a clear example of how this has looked at one college and helping improve and streamline benefits for students. Wonder Brie if you want to take a stab at that.
SPEAKER_00Yes, of course. So I'll talk about a project at a college where benefits access was a part of what we did. And there were also a couple of other interventions that we worked on there. And so in this project, the goal was to better and more deeply understand the part-time student experience and what could be done to support part-time students in reaching their educational goals. So we engaged in an in-depth research process, and that involved speaking with students via focus groups and also speaking with the staff and faculty that work closely with them. We also analyzed quantitative data and conducted a literature review to see what other promising practices there were in this area. And then we assembled and we synthesized all of these pieces of research to really understand and to paint a holistic picture of the current state. And through this process, we came away with some key insights about the opportunities that existed for us. So one opportunity that we identified was around providing information to students about their course loads in a student-friendly way. And there are several considerations that are important to think about when students are choosing how many credits to take. And then another opportunity that we focused on was benefits and resource access and how we could make this more accessible to students. So we've learned from students how valuable resources are, but they typically have to know where to go and what to do to access these benefits and resources. And sometimes the onus is really on the student themselves to seek out the resource. And this isn't always easy because, as we know, uh students have a lot going on in their lives. And then the last opportunity that we found focused on faculty and the importance of faculty as key connection points for students. They're often the people at the college that students interact with the most. So they're really well placed to connect students to benefits and resources.
SPEAKER_02That's really interesting to see how you've been able to work with that school. Is there anything more, Natasha, you wanted to add to this example?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So, like at this college, we help design collaboratively with the team a web page using applied behavioral science principles that really walks students through these various factors and opportunities when it comes to their course load. How long will it take to complete your degree given how many credits you take per term, when factoring in employment and family? So all of those various factors are listed in the website and prompt students to think through it to make the best decision for them. Before the website went live, we actually sent it to a group of students to see what they thought about it. So we had them look it over, we had them reflect on their own course taking behaviors and provide recommendations for how to improve the website and make sure that it's really using salient language and really what they think about. So then we took that feedback and integrated it into the final web page.
SPEAKER_02So building on that, I wanted to ask you, Brie, if other colleges or different workforce development organizations are interested in connecting with SJI on the student-centered design process. How could they go about that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, absolutely. Anybody can contact us. We're always happy to talk, and we really mean that. We love connecting with colleges and partners. We love to brainstorm and share notes and help and share perspectives. So the best way would probably be to look at our website. We have a website and a blog where we share more about the student-centered design process and our work and notes from the field. And that's at studentcentered design.org. So studentcentered designallone word.org. And people can contact us through the forum on the webpage or can email us or tweet at us and we can connect that way.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's great. I would imagine from the work you're doing with multiple colleges and the academy, you're continuing to deepen your own expertise with each college focused on benefits access or benefits navigation.
SPEAKER_00Yes, absolutely. I think that's one of the most enjoyable parts of our work is the ability to connect and work with so many different colleges to facilitate connections as well, and to all share learnings that one or more colleges can then adapt to their own context. I think that's one of the richest parts of our work.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's great to hear. And one last question and can start with Natasha. How can all of the student-centered designs support students like Dre from COCC and lift up his experience to put his recommendations into action?
SPEAKER_04One of the really important things I think that come out of your conversation with Dre is his recommendation to include students in the process of driving policy and driving those changes. That's exactly what we believe is important too, right? Including students in that process of driving policy and changes. We also know that colleges have a really diverse student body, and that means talking to students who aren't just in leadership or student government positions. You know, we think this is really important, especially when there are key decisions being made or when policies and practices that impact students are being developed. And I think as we saw this past year, colleges are really trying to think about how to serve students in these adverse times. And so those are the kinds of opportunities and moments for integrating students into those policy changes or practice changes can be really helpful.
SPEAKER_00And Bri, do you want to add anything to that? I would just add that work like this also involves a mindset shift toward believing, really believing that students hold the knowledge and the key to their own success. And I think what this looks like in practice is engaging with students in the process of making changes, as you were just talking about, Natasha, engaging with them in a way that taps into and really centers their knowledge and their wisdom and their lived experiences. And I would also add that including students, and especially those students who've been historically excluded or overlooked, including them in this process of redesigning services and programs, it's a really fundamental way to ensure that colleges can meet the needs of all of their students. Given that colleges are open access and they are able to be accessed by so many students, it can sometimes be a challenge to meet the diverse needs the students have. And so by intentionally engaging these diverse voices, colleges can have a better sense of how they can really support students and a diverse body of students in the best way.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's really well stated and appreciate both of your perspectives there. And I think back to the conversation with Dre and his suggestion of allow students to create the solutions and walk alongside us and guide the process. So with that, I just want to say thank you to you both for joining me on the podcast, for sharing your expertise, and would encourage any and all listeners to connect with SJI because I know how valuable the work that you're doing is on student success.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Mark. Thank you so much for this opportunity, and thank you also for the work that you're doing as well.
SPEAKER_04Thanks so much for having us. It's really been a pleasure.
SPEAKER_02Thanks, Natasha, and Rick as well. Well, that will do it for this episode of All In Student Pathways Forward. This is the host, Mark Goldberg, and just wanted to say thank you for listening in. We'll be back in a few weeks for the next episode and hope to see you then.