夹克的故事
Becky and Mike Will and their daughter Jennifer Grindstaff are a close, colorful family who clearly enjoy spending time together. Laughter comes easily and they don’t hesitate to tease one another or make jokes at their own expense. 虽然这种动态并不罕见, the family’s comradery is a notable advantage because the three all work at the same organization: beat365平台.
Mike started part time on the maintenance team in 2018, looking for a way to spend his time after retiring from his fulltime career.
“I was retired for about three months when I told Becky, “我得找点事做, 我快疯了,’”迈克说.
在那次谈话之后不久, 迈克在JWCC开始了他的工作, doing a little of everything as the jack of all trades he naturally is. 他的工作职责包括修剪草坪, 耕作的雪, driving COVID samples to Springfield and whatever else he is asked to do. 在他生命的早期, he also completed the truck driver training course offered by JWCC, which he used in various ways throughout his career.
Jennifer is an assistant professor of language, literature & 人文学科. While she doesn’t actually remember her first time on campus, Jennifer began her official relationship with the college as a student, before getting hired as an adjunct instructor in 2008 and finally on to a fulltime faculty position in 2016. 作为一名教员, Jennifer has worked to grow her area and she is excited about the future of the program.
“我们有一个很棒的英语节目. We have been expanding our literature offerings with more specialized courses, 哪个是我个人感兴趣的领域. I introduced a Horror Literature course, which I teach every other year. Mr. Terry is teaching a sports literature class,” said Jennifer. “This is cool because a lot of times in 100- 200 level lit courses, 你不会得到那些专门的话题. They are more generalized literature classes. You don’t see those special topics in general until you get to the 300-400 level courses with all other literature majors. 因此，我们正在拓展业务，这是令人兴奋的.”
但, even adding the years Jennifer spent as a student and faculty member to Mike’s years of service, the two can’t compete with Becky’s standing at the college.
Becky Will works as the coordinator of the Learning Resource Center. Her job duties include scheduling classrooms, supervising testing rooms and working with online students, 在许多其他任务中. 这些年来，她一直在工作, Becky has earned a prominent distinction as the longest-serving staff member currently at JWCC. 1986年入职, she has helped to serve thousands of students as they achieve their educational goals.
When Becky Will began her career at beat365平台, the college was a different place. 字面上的. 位于第48街和缅因街交汇处, JWCC是一个小得多的组织, 还没过十年呢.
Over the years, Becky Will has seen some major events and changes incorporated on campus, including:
从打字机到计算机的发展.
“I was just happy when I started to have an electric typewriter! I had used manual typewriters in school before that.”
校园网络的普及.
“I don’t really recall the exact moment when we got the internet. I think it was something that kind of slowly was incorporated. 但 we definitely didn’t have it when I started here.”
JWCC目前校园的建设.
“Becky was proud to work at JWCC when the new building was done. 看起来真的很正式.“迈克.
在线课程的整合.
“这是一件大事. We had offered Open and Distance Learning up to that point, but online classes really felt like the future.”
The transition of power from six different college presidents and countless board members.
“I have served under every single JWCC president. 我从保罗·希思开始，然后是. 键. When leadership changes, you do see a change on campus, but we have also seen continual growth. I think we are definitely on the right path. JWCC在社区中得到了更好的接受. 有一段时间, JWCC had a bad name…it was a community college and people didn’t think it was equal to a four-year college. They didn’t think you could get the same education here. 但 that has been changing and our acceptance is better now than it has ever been.”
毫无疑问, the college has made immense progress over the years, 实现项目数量的增长, 校园, 活动经费预算, 学生入学及其他. 从历史的角度来看, the three family members all have different perspectives on what the enjoy most about JWCC.
“The thing I like to see the most, is the 劳动力发展中心. There are a lot of kids who have no reason for a four-year college degree. They do just as well to take the HVAC training or the truck driver training,” said Mike. “WDC, graduates can walk into a real good paying job and not have the great big bill associated with a four-year degree. 我知道那里有焊接设备. 我看到了他们所做的一些工作. They turn out some real good welders, mechanics and truck drivers out there. 对我来说，这是最大的影响.”
“Generally, I mostly teach transfer students,” said Jennifer. “我是第一代大学生. I really like that we do have a lot of first generation college students. I have a lot students who are parents coming to school and who are older coming back to school. 他们认为他们做不到, or maybe they tried when they were 18 but are now they are 30 and coming back. 我太喜欢了.”
And though she has more than enough years under her belt to retire, Becky has no plans for that.
“我喜欢我在这里的工作. I have always loved my job here from day one. 这就是我现在还没有退休的原因. Because honestly, I have love coming to work here every day.”