A Tale of Two Students: Building a Culture of Engagement in the Community College

In this article, the authors present two stories that depict the best and worst of times experienced by today's community college students. Within these narratives are both vestiges of the past--pieces that some colleges have yet to fully discard--and exemplars of a potentially brighter, more engaging future. While they are fictitious, these vignettes describe composite student experiences, both positive and negative, that are not atypical in community colleges. The stories are supported by findings from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and from twenty-four student focus groups conducted by CCSSE staff in 2003 and 2004. The authors hope that these vignettes will convey the importance of accurately understanding students' experiences at each college as they are told through systematically gathered evidence. In particular, the stories reinforce the critical importance of engaging students--connecting them early and often to one another, to faculty and staff, and to the subject matter of their studies. If nothing else, the stories emphasize the reality that in community colleges, given the multiple commitments of their students and the challenges they bring with them to college, engagement does not happen by accident but by design. (Contains 3 notes.)