By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
Wednesday was a night of jubilation as the Crawford Success Center celebrated providing post-secondary education in Crawford County for one year.
With classes beginning at the Success Center in August of 2015, the celebration of the cardinal year of the building which offers local residents a stepping stone towards their future drew out administration from North Central State, teachers from the building, students who attended class at the Success Center, as well as a few of the community members who helped make the building a reality.
Director of the Crawford Success Center Erin Stine spoke about the first year at the Success Center as well as a few of the courses offered.
“There is a lot really in the first year we served just shy of 200 students. This fall we have 100 students. That is 300 students here in Crawford County that we have been able to offer a post-secondary education to. We house the GED program here, we house the adult diploma program, we have initiatives through the Crawford: 2020 Vision program and the Crawford Partnership like Supervisor Bootcamp, Crawford Works, CU Lead. They are all being housed here, so we are doing an amazing job creating pathways for people.
“We were developed as an access point into college, so people are getting their start here. So we are really trying to make sure the classes that we are offering are the perfect entry point into college,” Stine added. “So the classes we are trying to offer consistently each semester are your entry level English, math, speech, and psychology.”
Professor Carin Irwin, who teaches Navigating College as well as reading and writing courses at the Crawford Success Center spoke to those in attendance Wednesday evening. During her speech Irwin said she had felt the key to the Success Center was the hours that the staff spends with the students teaching them, tutoring them, helping them build their confidence, and more.
“I love teaching here because it is a supportive community, I love my students, and I find that the Success Center is applicable, because that is what happens, the students find success here,” Irwin said.
Students Jeremiah Wylie and Desiree Siggler spoke about what the Success Center has meant to them as students.
“When I first started college, I was very scared, I didn’t know what college was. I grew up in Shelby in a small, close, dense neighborhood, and I walked into the Crawford County Success Center it is not just a college, it is a family from the director to the professors to the secretaries,” Wylie said. “They care for about you emotionally, they care about you academically, they want you to succeed.”
“Coming here, they are literally like my family, I love them all. They all understand how I learn, how I work, how things are, and I actually love the (main) campus too, because the people are really nice there,” Siggler said.
North Central State College President Dr. Dorey Diab spoke on the Success Center.
“It will always feel great when you have a winning situation like we do in here. It is about the partnership with the community with the college, and raising educational attainment, because when you raise educational attainment and people are able to find a better job, they are able to improve their standard of living and quality of life. ”
The Crawford Success Center was the culmination of a collaboration of numerous groups with its roots in 2011 when Crawford County community leaders met with North Central State College. In April of 2014 it was announced that the Crawford County Board of Commissioners would be providing space at the former Board of Elections building for the lease of $1 per year. After a $2.2 million facelift the Crawford Success Center opened its doors to students in August of last year while the renovations to the building were still taking place.
Former Crawford: 2020 Vision Director Dave Williamson was one of those community leaders who played a hand in bringing the Success Center to Crawford County.
“It was part of the Vision Statement, we had hoped that we could influence enough people to get it done by 2020, and actually it began to happen in 2015. So we felt we did it in half the time, but it is more the matter of the right thing to do and the right decision to people who gladly came together to support it. And you can see why when you see the kids as well as the adults enter here in classes and it really adds to their lives.”
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