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For the past decade, labor experts have outlined the need for education beyond high school to compete in nearly every industry. Some careers require years of higher education to earn the advanced degrees needed to work in the field. More typically, other careers rely on workers with associate or bachelor’s degrees. However, job seekers often forget that many careers can be effectively launched with the first step in higher education — the certificate.

Welcome to Waubonsee Community College’s new monthly column in the Kane County Chronicle. Each month, a member of our faculty, staff or student body will author a column highlighting the work of the college and its impact on our community. 

The Institute for College Access and Success’ Project on Student Debt reports that in 2011 four-year college graduates averaged more than $26,000 in student debt. Educational and financial experts are deeply concerned about the amount of debt students are incurring to complete bachelor’s degrees. While unemployment rates for those who complete a degree beyond high school are considerably lower, this debt can still have a long-term effect on these graduates’ success for years to come. Major life decisions such as getting married, having children and buying a home are often delayed due to remaining student debt. 

Have you ever traveled to a foreign country where you don’t speak the language? The entire experience can be disorienting. Figuring out how to navigate the environment, order food at a restaurant or even use an automated teller machine can be frustrating. For some students, going to college is equally foreign. 

Across the country this fall, many colleges and universities reported a decline in student enrollment. Pundits and analysts are rushing to explain this new trend, often focusing on the decreasing number of high school graduates, the economy and, perhaps the largest factor, the increasing cost to attend higher education. For years now, declining state and federal support has been a major factor in causing the average college tuition to grow at a much higher rate than overall inflation. However, textbook prices, which have also been on an upward track, are another key part of college affordability.

Community colleges offer a wide variety of courses and programs that help students learn new skills, earn degrees and certificates, and enter the workforce or transfer on to a four-year institution. Traditionally, this work has been supported through state and local support and increasingly, tuition. The pursuit of grants provides colleges with a way to increase their impact on the local economy through immediate and long-term benefits as even more community members are given an opportunity to realize their full potential.

College students across the country are transitioning from high school to higher education, learning how to navigate their college schedule and taking tentative first steps toward future success. Many others are returning to the classroom after an extended absence. While these fresh experiences are exciting, they are also remarkably important. Research now shows that a college student’s first year largely determines whether or not that student earns a degree.

Bold innovation can originate from a single organization or even one person’s mind. But more often than not, ideas come to fruition with help from others. Collaboration often delivers on the classic axiom that there is strength in numbers. Whether on a small scale with two colleagues working on a project or with crowdsourcing participants from all over the world, collaboration brings diverse skill sets together to create and transform. This is a traditional hallmark of higher education and is embraced at Waubonsee Community College.

People from all walks of life and from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds represent our friends and neighbors, our colleagues and classmates. In a diverse community and an increasingly small world, relating to and working collaboratively with all people are necessary skills to succeed in today’s workforce. Waubonsee Community College is committed to making diversity, inclusion and equity vital parts of a student’s experience and our college operations.

A recent report from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) begins with the direct, but data-supported, statement, “The American Dream is imperiled.” A product of the 21st-Century Commission on the Future of Community Colleges, the report, “Reclaiming the American Dream: Community Colleges and the Nation’s Future,” outlines the challenges facing our country and the measures needed to reclaim the American Dream. The goals in the report are lofty, but doing nothing is not an option. Nothing less than the future of our country is at stake, and community colleges will be at the heart of future success.