It's fitting that the American Association of Community Colleges and Phi Theta Kappa announced the 2001 Centennial Scholars last month. While community colleges celebrate their centennial, I am celebrating the one-year anniversary of this column. While that's not exactly a historic date, this column does happen to be the only one of its kind on the Internet. There's no one else covering the junior college beat.
Someone has to make a contribution.
The AACC news item about the awards notes that many of the recipients are adult learners returning to school and either resuming a career or beginning a new one. More than half have consistently earned 4.0., and 25 percent of the recipients plan to enter the health care field. This is great news, since the medical field is scrambling for new talent, particularly in nursing. Luckily, the winner from California, Golda Gacutan from Skyline College , plans to become an attorney rather than a community college teacher. I didn't fail to notice that the scholar from Indiana, interestingly enough, was named Christina Johnson .