Everett Community College

Posted by James Monroe 
 
At our regular meeting, Friday, April 24, 2009, David Beyer, Ph.D., President of Everett Community College and Christine Kerline, Ph.D., Executive Director of the University Center of the North Puget Sound, gave a presentation on the current state of Everett Community College.

Originally founded as Everett Junior College in 1941 with about 120 students, the College has grown substantially over the years. Today the college serves about 19,000 students annually at the main 40-acre campus that was established in 1958 in North Everett as well as at several satellite locations throughout Snohomish County including college classes offered at Lake Stevens High School and on the Tullalip Reservation.

EvCC offers more than 60 university transfer majors as well as more than 30 technical/vocational programs. Enrollment is up 12% this quarter, in large part to the challenging economic times we are in. Many people are actively gettting retrained in a variety of fields to be able to continue working.

The College continues to expand with the first of four major buildings--Whitehorse Hall--opening in 2007. The next is Gray Wolf Hall (photo above) which opened three and a half weeks ago and houses Communications, Social Sciences, Humanities and the University Center of North Puget Sound.

EvCC administers the University Center which provides bachelor's and master's degree programs in our region. The College works in collaboration with Central Washington, Eastern Washington, Western Washington, Washington State and Hope International Universities as well as The Evergreen State College to provide these degree programs in a variety of subject areas. These programs are done through classes on campus, online, interactive video conferencing and a hybrid of these.

The actual campus has grown over the last few years. They have acquired land east of Broadway for future expansion. Part of this involved a land swap with Providence Medical Center. The College will be building a new athletic complex as well.

They concluded their presentation by highlighting aerospace engineering student Rachael Humberg of Lake Stevens. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected her for an internship at the Dryden Flight Research Center in California. She is the first community college student in the nation to intern at Dryden.

Click here for more information about Everett Community College.