Charting a Community College Career: Challenges and Opportunities

AHA Session 93
Saturday, January 4, 2025: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
Murray Hill East (New York Hilton, Second Floor)
Chair:
Christine E. Eubank, Bergen Community College
Panel:
Brittany Adams, Irvine Valley College
Allison Frickert-Murashige, Mt. San Antonio College
Angela S. Hawk, West Virginia Northern Community College
Sarah Elizabeth Shurts, Bergen Community College
Emily Sohmer Tai, Queensborough Community College, City University of New York

Session Abstract

This roundtable invites attendees to reevaluate the pervasive notion that the community college career, with its 5:5 teaching load, means that professional pursuits and ambitions take a back seat to teaching. The panelists on this roundtable have found that, in addition to teaching’s many rewards, continuing with one’s scholarly work, involvement in faculty and institutional leadership, and engagement in professional associations all offer avenues of professional development. At this session, six community college historians —representing professional experiences at various two-year institutions on the coasts as well as the heartland—will draw upon professional experience as published scholars, administrators; and shared governance leaders to share insights and strategies for navigating various stages and phases of a professional career at a 2-year institution, covering such topics as: creating a firm career foundation, both in one’s institution and in the wider profession; cultivating opportunities for leadership; and growing a research career alongside a demanding teaching load.

This session will begin with a brief summary of the roundtable themes provided by the chair, who will introduce the panelists. This will be followed by five- to ten-minute statements from each panelist who will speak to their own experiences over the course of their community college career. Our goal is to reserve the remaining portion of our session for a Q & A discussion with audience members, so that our session can (a) provide networking opportunities for mid-career community college historians as well as (b) useful information for first-time conference attendees considering a career at a two-year institution.

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