Paving Pathways for Adult Education

In Jackson and Josephine counties, where 20 percent of residents live in poverty and more than one in 10 adults doesn’t have a high school diploma, the Rogue Community College Adult Basic Skills program helps people ages 16 to 60+ overcome obstacles to continue their education and improve their work skills. The program itself faced a major challenge in early 2017 when state budget cuts...

Fire Science: ‘One of the Best in Oregon’

Community partnerships and hands-on experience are key to many Rogue Community College career technical programs, including the fire science program where student firefighters often work alongside career firefighters as members of an engine crew while completing their degree. That on-the-job experience helps set RCC graduates apart, according to Capt. Ben Kennedy with Jackson County Fire District 3. RCC has “one of the best fire science...

Education: A Good Investment

Rogue Community College is an economic engine for Southern Oregon that generates more than $239 million annually for the region’s economy, according to an economic impact study released earlier this year. The analysis by Economic Modeling Specialists International (EMSI) of Moscow, Idaho, examined data from fiscal year 2015-16 to calculate the impact of RCC’s operations and student spending as well as the higher earnings of...

Veterans Week Speaker Advocates Hope

Victims advocate and inspirational speaker Timothy Jones visited Rogue Community College’s three campuses with a message of hope in overcoming adversity as part of this week’s Veterans Appreciation Week activities. Jones, a U.S. Navy veteran, was sexually assaulted in 1999 while serving on active duty at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan. The experience of being stalked, raped and then outcast by his peers sent...

Auto Technology: ‘It’s Not Just Wrenching’

Anyone who owns a vehicle needs a good mechanic, and RCC’s auto tech graduates are in high demand, according to Pete Ridgeway, co-chair of the RCC Automotive Technology department. “There’s more demand than I have graduates to fill,” Ridgeway said. “The need for entry-level technicians in the auto industry is enormous.” People may not realize college is a path to becoming an auto technician, but...

Meet Board Member Shawn Hogan

Rogue Community College is pleased to announce the addition of Gold Hill resident Shawn Hogan to the RCC Board of Education. Hogan, who fills the Zone 3 Jackson County position, was elected to a four-year term during the May 16 special election. His term expires June 30, 2021. Hogan is vice president of engineering for Linx Technologies, a local manufacturer of advanced electronic devices that...

Why do we #GoPink?

Dozens of RCC students and employees wore pink Thursday in support of breast cancer awareness. There were pink sweets the café, pink balloons in the Redwood Campus fountain, and the library’s skeleton Sam was decked out in a pink boa. But why? “Everybody knows about breast cancer,” one person commented. To be sure, October’s prolific pink campaign is everywhere from your neighborhood coffee stand to the...

Ospreys Athletics Program Takes Flight

Rogue Community College’s fledgling athletics program has taken flight this season, reaching several milestones in its third year with the Northwest Athletic Conference: In August, the college hired its first dedicated athletics director and, in October, the Ospreys men’s soccer team earned its first-ever ranking in the coaches poll and a guaranteed spot in the playoffs. “It’s been a very good couple of weeks for...

Student Project Culminates in Pollinator Garden

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”  ― Robert Louis Stevenson Taking an idea and helping it grow is the underlying theme of a class project that started in the spring and culminated this fall with the planting of a pollinator garden outside the Riverside Campus bookstore in downtown Medford. The garden, designed to benefit bees and...

Rogue Community College Sets a Path for the Future

After more than six months of gathering data and input from the community, business and industry, faculty, students, and staff, Rogue Community College has developed a new strategic plan to guide its work through 2020. “We are so appreciative of the many people who volunteered their own time to participate in surveys, forums and the steering committee,” says Cathy Kemper-Pelle, president of RCC. “It was...