December 20, 2006

Making every minute count
Degree Partnership helps Jessa Irzyk get four-year degree from two-year school

By KATHY GRAY
of The Chronicle

     In March 2007, when Jessa Irzyk finishes attending Columbia Gorge Community College, she’ll come away not with a two-year degree but with a four-year degree from Oregon State University.
     Irzyk is attending both CGCC and OSU through the Degree Partnership Program and will earn her bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences with a minor in fisheries and wildlife.
     Irzyk lives in Moro and works at the local Soil and Water Conservation District.
     She started her college career at Portland Community College, earning a two-year transfer degree, then entered Oregon State University as a junior.
But instead of moving to Corvallis, where OSU is based, Irzyk moved to Sherman County and entered the Degree Partnership Program, attending on-campus classes at Columbia Gorge and taking online classes through OSU.
     “I was ready to start trying to get into the workforce,” she explained, “and I had done an internship at the [Sherman County] Soil and Water Conservation District in the past. I was tired of ‘broke-student syndrome.’”
     The arrangement has allowed Irzyk to make her education better fit her living and working needs: a chance to work in her field at the conservation district, enjoy more affordable living arrangements in Sherman County and still get a bachelor’s degree at one of Oregon’s major universities.
     Flexibility is one of the key advantages from Irzyk’s perspective.
     “It’s really flexible, in that I can work and go to school and have that flexibility,” she said. “But it’s kept me really busy. I work all day and come home and do four to five hours of [school] work.”
     During fall term, which ended Friday, Irzyk took second-year Spanish two nights a week at Columbia Gorge, then took her other Oregon State classes online. In general, she carries a 3/4 to full-time class schedule while also working full-time.
     However, with few scheduled class times, it also means Irzyk must serve as her own taskmaster to make sure she completes the classwork within the allotted time.
     “It’s really easy to put aside,” she said.
     For example, one instructor required only that the work be handed in by the 10th week of class.
     “I won an award as the first student who waited until the ninth week to hand anything in,” Irzyk said with a smile, the latest in class history.
     That’s not her normal operating procedure, Irzyk noted.
     “I usually get my schedule and write everything down — what I have to do when — so it’s easy to look them over,” she said.
     While studying online at a distance presents a few special challenges, it also has helped Irzyk improve some of her skills.
     “One thing is, I’ve definitely improved on research and out-resourcing [tracking down other sources of information],” she said. “When I have a question, there isn’t always a teacher to ask.”
     Oregon State does allow access to its online tutoring program, noted Mike Taphouse, academic adviser at Columbia Gorge.
     “If you’re taking online classes at OSU, you’re able to access it 24 hours a day,” Taphouse said.
     Columbia Gorge Community College partners with five universities for dual degrees: Marylhurst University is the newest, joining Oregon State, Concordia, Portland State and Oregon Institute of Technology, Taphouse said.
     While the basic rules are the same at each four-year college, specific degree availability and provisions vary between the institutions.
     The program can be a real benefit in terms of financial aid, Taphouse noted. Aid is based upon whichever school is designated the home school.
     “Students taking classes at both usually use the four-year school as the home school,” Taphouse noted.
     Some of the other benefits of the program include:
     - one application process for both schools,
     - advising available from both schools,
     - access to more classes,
     - opportunities to access services and participate in college life at both campuses.
     “Another good thing is when students finally decide to stop taking classes at the two-year school they’re already considered students at the four-year school,” Taphouse said. “There’s nothing they need to do.”
     And there’s no distinction between degrees obtained online and those obtained on campus, he added.
     “We’re finding more and more students not wanting to relocate and wanting to finish their degrees here,” he said.
     Schools such as Oregon State also provide an equivalency table, which allows students and their advisers to know exactly what a class at Columbia Gorge will transfer into at the four-year institution.
     “I recommend that students talk to an adviser from the four-year school, take what they can here and what we don’t offer, take it at the four-year school,” Taphouse said.
     More information about the Degree Partnership Program is available by calling Taphouse at 506-6026 or emailing mtaphouse@cgcc.cc.or.us.

On the Net:
Columbia Gorge Community College
www.cgcc.cc.or.us