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51���� schedules class, advising sessions for Columbia County residents

Story by Meryl Lipman

51���� has scheduled several advising and orientation opportunities for prospective students in Columbia County this winter.

51���� Rock Creek outreach staff will kick off its mobile advising this winter with a visit to Vernonia High School on Jan. 10. This event will be followed by academic advising sessions for Columbia County 51���� students at St. Helens High School on Feb. 15, and Scappoose High School on Feb. 23. The St. Helens and Scappoose sessions will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. and will focus on advising for spring term 2011 classes.

In addition, 51���� staff will hold two comprehensive testing, orientation and advising sessions for high schoolers and community members looking at attending 51����. Those sessions will take place at Scappoose and St. Helens High in spring 2011.

51���� has held several advising, orientation and testing sessions at Columbia County high schools and has brought Columbia County students to visit the Rock Creek Campus in 2010. Said Rock Creek Orientation and Outreach Coordinator David Martinez, who organizes the sessions, “It’s great to see students we talked to last spring, who are studying here now. A connection has been made and we want to see more of that.”

The advising sessions, which Martinez hopes will “provide better access for students from Columbia County,” are designed to support a new round of academic programming that 51���� implemented in the region in Fall 2010.

This winter, four 51���� classes will be held at Scappoose and St. Helens High – Math 65, Health 250, Writing 121, and College Survival 111C. “The feedback has been that we need to do more, but that it does help when we’re in the community,” said Martinez. “The challenge has been in trying to get the word out (about the advising sessions and local programming).”

For more information, contact Martinez at (971) 722-7225, or david.martinez3@pcc.edu