by Maryssa Rillo
Ventura College offers a higher education that is accessible to all and paves the way for students to succeed in the future through many ways of support. On Monday, April 29th, I took the Pirate’s Life for Me Campus Tour and had the opportunity to learn what it was like to be a VC Pirate.
Anne Paul King, Executive Director of the Ventura College Foundation, began the tour by informing the attendees how the foundation helps its students.
According to King the foundation gives away 300 scholarships which is about $600,000 to students a year.
“We help provide access to education through our promise programs which is a public private partnership that provides tuition between financial aid and philanthropic gifts to now 1,200 students a year,” King said.
After learning a little about how the foundation provides aid to students, the rest of the attendees and I were taken to the Student Services Center.
During our walk to the Student Services Center, Gerardo Pantoja, Director of Major and Planned Giving, explained how the foundation’s Promise Program works.
“The promise provides that first-year tuition cost to first year students. You’ll see at different schools’ various types of programs, but ours is set up so that way If you’re a first-time student at any point of your career or your life, coming here to Ventura College, you are eligible for that funding,” Pantoja said.
According to Pantoja, 40% of VC students are the first in their family to attend community college and the Promise Program is designed to help those students.
“This program develops a comprehensive education plan because we know how important that is – having that road map for them to know where they have to go and what they are supposed to do,” Pantoja said.
Students can learn about these different programs and speak with someone about an education plan in the Student Services Center. Inside the Student Services Center is the student connect center, career center and the counselor’s office.
According to Pantoja the Career Center provides various types of aid to students, from job fairs to workshops for resume building and interviewing skills.
After visiting the Student Services Center, we walked to the Library and Learning Resource Center. There, we were able to see the computer lab and learn about the resources provided by the library.
The computer lab has many computers for students to work on when they need.
“You know with the 70% of the folks that are served by the foundation that come from families that live under the poverty line, this is vital to close equity gaps. Because, just about every student has a phone but that may be the limit of their technology and that might be the limit of their Wi-Fi,” King said. “This is very important to our students so that everybody has access to a computer.”
The library at VC also has programs to make sure that higher education is as easily accessible to all. According to King, books are more expensive than tuition at VC, so this is important.
The library has a lending library and a reserve collection. According to Pantoja the lending library allows students to check out up to three books a semester for no charge. The reserve collection has every book a student may need available to check out for either two hours or over-night.
Overall, Ventura College has many resources and programs available to students in order to make sure they succeed.
Ventura College offers campus tours the last Monday of each month from 12 p.m. – 1 p.m. with the exception of December and May. To schedule a campus tour contact Jaimee Hanna at [email protected] or at (805)-289-6161.
