Amador Community College Foundation Celebrates Ten Years Bringing College and Career Training to Amador County

The Board of Directors of Amador Community College Foundation is proud to mark the organization’s ten years of bringing post-secondary education and career training to Amador County and the surrounding region. Originally working under the name ‘The Amador Learning Center,’ since 2015, the Foundation has done business as Amador College Connect and has twice moved to larger spaces to accommodate the growing population of students seeking college and career training. Lynn Morgan, former County Supervisor and current Board member, explains that the Foundation was initially convened by community, business and education leaders to investigate Amador joining one of California’s 73 established community college districts. Morgan shares that Amador, Alpine and Mariposa counties are 3 out of California’s 58 counties not served by a community college district. Today, the Foundation does business as Amador College Connect from its own office on Prosperity Court in Sutter Creek. Each semester over 100 students receive assistance in selecting an online degree or certificate program. The center is staffed 36 daytime and evening hours per week by educational counselors who match student education and career interests to an online certificate or degree program. Trained staff assist with program enrollment, course registration, mentoring, tutoring and students have access to a computer lab, free high-speed wifi and scholarship and internship/apprenticeship opportunities, all at no charge. Amador College Connect administers a Human Services Scholarship program funded by the County’s Behavioral Health Department, an Early Childhood Education Apprenticeship program funded by First 5 and coordinated by Columbia College, and a scholarship program for employees of the Jackson Rancheria Casino Resort. Graduates from those programs are now working, and in some cases leading, social service agencies, substance use recovery programs, early childhood education centers and are advancing in their careers at the Rancheria. Amador College Connect also works closely with area high schools to help college-bound students earn college credit for free while meeting high school course requirements through the state’s Dual Enrollment program. Originally published in the Ledger-Dispatch. Full article: https://www.ledger.news/roots/amador-community-college-foundation-celebrates-ten-years-bringing-college-and-career-training-to-amador-county/article_408b7dd8-1d63-11ed-94fc-5708b898a3aa.html