Season change ushers in fall classes at Clark College

Steve Banks, 45, stood in line at the advising office. The Washougal resident owns a small upholstery business and is pursing a business degree. He is the sole employee but hopes to grow his business.

“I want to expand my knowledge so I can make good, educated choices,” Banks said. “Business law was helpful last year. I’m sure my accounting class this quarter will help, too.”

It was the first day of college for Brianna Gadair, a recent graduate of Skyview High School. She said she was nervous, but by the time her 8 a.m. English class ended, her butterflies had settled down.

In a break between classes, she stopped by the Tech Hub in Cannell Library to get help logging onto her Clark College email account. Employee Takumi Washiya helped solve her password problem.

Washiya, a recent Clark graduate with an associate degree in management information systems, has been working part time in the Tech Hub. The former international student at Clark recently received his permanent residency and now is looking for a full-time information technology position.

“If a student is swamped by technology, needs help resetting a password or logging in, anything technology, we can help,” said Isobel Lennox, 25, a Tech Hub employee and Clark student pursuing a Web design degree.

Lennox turned to help Omar Alsalamah, 22, a new international student from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who could not access Clark’s wireless Internet signal on his smartphone.

He arrived from Saudi Arabia on Saturday. He said he chose Clark at the encouragement of two friends from home who are Clark students. In choosing his English words, he turned to his smartphone, typed on an Arabic keyboard and said he sometimes seeks help from his phone’s Arabic-English and English-Arabic dictionaries.

“Someone told me starting at Clark is good for international student. Learning English,” Alsalamah said. “Classes are small.”

For the first time, Clark College has more than 200 international students.

This quarter, Clark College has its largest Running Start class of more than 2,000 students. Sitting together near Gaiser Hall waiting for their next class were Samuel Sacco from Skyview High School; Colin Beauvalis from Skyview High School; and Jeremy Matheny from Hudson’s Bay High School. The 16 year olds talked about their reasons for pursuing a college degree at the same time they complete high school.

“I wanted to get away from the norm,” said Sacco, who hopes to eventually earn a doctorate in physics.

Matheny said he wanted to “get a head start on college.” After he earns his associate degree at Clark, he plans to transfer to either Washington State University or Oregon State University to pursue a business degree.

Beauvalis said he plans to eventually earn a doctorate in biology.

Tasha Borland, 17, stood in line in Gaiser Hall awaiting her student identification card. It was the first day for Borland, a recent Seattle transplant who is finishing her General Educational Development certificate before entering Clark’s nursing program.

Borland is among 1,021 transitional education students working toward a GED or other pre-college programs.

“I tried high school. Then online high school. Then alternative high school,” Borland said. “It just didn’t work.”

Once she completes her GED, Borland plans to work as a certified nursing assistant while attending Clark to pursue her dream of being a nurse.

“Two more math levels, and I’m there,” she said.