Via The Olympian
Pursuing higher education can be a difficult process, but South Puget Sound Community College just opened a new Welcome Center to make getting started easier.
Located in Building 22, Room 292, the Welcome Center is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday to offer enrollment resources, community space and general support for current and prospective students. Information about the Welcome Center is available on SPSCC’s new Welcome Center website.
“What’s really valuable about this space is that some people come in not knowing what questions to ask because how would you know? You don’t know what to ask because you don’t know what’s available,” said Outreach/Admissions Specialist Program Coordinator Teal Farias.
The center gives students a place where they can ask their big questions about starting college, like how to enroll and which programs and certificates are available. Students also can ask about things like financial aid or VA benefits.
While the Welcome Center might not have all the answers, staff can point students toward the appropriate resources. “We get a lot of questions of, would this be covered with my VA benefits, would this be covered with FAFSA?” Farias said. “And we’re like, we don’t know, but we can point you in the direction or give you the information of how the systems work.”
While the same services are available through SPSCC’s Start Here desk, the Welcome Center provides a space for personalized one-on-one conversations where staff get to know students and their goals. SPSCC opened the Welcome Center after they saw a need for more personalized student support.
“We need a space for folks to sit down, to feel comfortable, to be able to have conversations and to be able to get their questions answered and not feel like they’re in a rush or they’re in somebody’s way because they’re standing at a desk, and there’s a line behind them,” said Erin Rust, coordinator for outreach and recruitment.
SPSCC’s support resources are what make it the number two community college in the nation, staff says.
“It’s spaces like this and innovations like this which are backed by leadership, with resources and chances to try new things to really meet niche populations. That is what really helps us become a leader and number two…” college spokesperson Kati Sagawa said.
In addition to the new Welcome Center, SPSCC also offers evening workshops and tours for students who are unavailable during the Welcome Center’s regular hours.
“We do offer a lot of evening workshops and tours and something we call the Next Steps Workshop, which models some of the work that’s happening here in a quicker pace with computers in a computer lab space, so that’s another opportunity for folks who can’t come during the day,” Sagawa said.
Staff at the Welcome Center also have discussed opening the space for students to decompress.
“Wouldn’t it be cool for it also to be a space for like, queer people that can just come and, like, chill for a second?” Farias said,
“...Like a safe place for folks to come, sit down for a second, take a breath, ask some questions.” Rust added.