Turning your life around at Glendale Community College, Arizona


Even though I haven't taught at GCC for years, I have great affection for the school. I taught computer software from 2001 to 2009, and what I got to see was much more than that. I saw people who were turning their life around at a Community College.

I apologize for how cliche it sounds - as if taking some classes at a Community College could "change your life", but I saw it happen. And no, I take no credit for it, I was just talking about Photoshop, or Web Design. And I'm convinced that many people were turning their life around in my tiny corner of Arizona, at GCC.

Glendale Community College in 1965. Yes, it still looks like that, the buildings are the same in the center of the campus, and the historic palm trees (that originally led to Sahuaro Ranch) are there.

Glendale Community College, which has been there since 1965, is on Olive and 59th Avenue in Glendale, Arizona. It began as what was then called a Junior College, as a way for students to make a simpler step from high school to college. I myself availed myself of this, by going to Phoenix College for my first two years before I went to ASU. And believe me, it make a big difference, and I'm grateful to have taken that route. I still recommend it: first two years at a Community College (which is what they're called now) then finish up at a University. It's not only less expensive, it's less overwhelming for young people.

But something happened to "Junior" colleges over the years. They expanded from their original intention into places that served the community, not just people making the transition from high school to college. And that's why a Community College is so cool, and why I recommend it to people, even if they're well-striken in years (30s, 40s, and beyond). No, it's not a miracle, but it's a place to turn your life around.

I saw a lot of elderly students, well beyond 19. And their situations were as individual as they were. Some were tired of dead-end jobs, some had gone through a divorce, some just wanted to enrich their lives. And they one thing they all had in common is that they didn't realize that they would see so many other people like themselves on campus.

I like GCC, and I go there often, although now I just use the Fitness Center. And yes, it's open to anyone, you pay for it as if it were a class. If you're disabled, like I am, or are over 65, and your medical insurance has "Silver Sneakers", you can use it for free.

If you don't know anything about your local community college, I have an assignment for you: Go there. If you go to GCC, the visitor's parking is up close to campus and you can walk around there as much as you want. I recommend visiting the Student Union, maybe grabbing a burger while you're there, or a cup of coffee. I like the hot chocolate! Yes, you'll see a lot of young people, fresh from high school, walking around looking as if they knew what they were doing. But don't be fooled, everyone is dazed and confused, and trying to figure it all out. And a community college is a wonderful place for that, at any age.

See you on campus!
If you liked this article, and would like to see more in the future, along with a LOT of cool old photos of Phoenix, please consider becoming a patron of History Adventuring on Patreon. If you're already a patron, thank you! Your pledge makes this happen!

 Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me
Read more