News

Pat Sublette, Ph.D. recently joined Columbia Gorge Education Service District (ESD) as Superintendent. Pat moved to The Dalles from the Umpqua Valley where she served Douglas as Assistant Superintendent. While in the Roseburg area Pat directed Special Education and led regional program development in support of early learning and students experiencing behavioral and/or mental health challenges.

Pat also facilitated a community-wide application for the Umpqua Blue Zones Project. (The Dalles is now a Blue Zones community as well ) She holds a doctorate in School Psychology and has a broad background in education. Her experiences include administration in public and private education along with teaching in the university system.

Students participating in Washington State’s Running Start (RS) program will be glad to hear that the much-anticipated U.S. Government course will be offered Fall term at Columbia Gorge Community College. The U.S. Government class, taught by CGCC instructor Dr. John Copp, will be held Mondays and Wednesdays from 1 to 2:50 p.m. on the Hood River - Indian Creek Campus.

Running Start courses are needed at many Washington high schools to fulfill graduation requirements. Running Start provides academically motivated students in Washington high schools an opportunity to take college courses as part of their high school education. Both high school and college credits may be earned for the completed courses.

Columbia Gorge Community College president Dr. Frank Toda and the college Board of Education have reached a mutually acceptable separation agreement. The board unanimously approved the agreement at a special board meeting Tuesday, Aug. 15.

Under terms of the agreement, Dr. Toda will officially wrap up 16 years of service to the college on Sept. 29. The board will begin an immediate search for an interim president while it recruits nationally for the college’s next chief executive.

Participants, volunteers and sponsors of Columbia Gorge Community College Foundation’s 18^th Annual Founder’s Cup golf tournament helped raise approximately $18,000 for Columbia Gorge Community College Foundation’s student scholarship fund. This scholarship benefit was sponsored in part by Columbia State Bank.

Levi’s Custom Concrete/Beam Excavation and Gorge Networks teams earned first place trophies in the tournament at Indian Creek Golf Course on Saturday, Aug. 5. Levi’s Custom Concrete/Beam Excavation won the low gross category and Gorge Networks took home the low net prize. Google Home and Columbia State Bank (Team A) won second place awards, while teams Toole Carter Tissot and Coats LLP and YouTube won third place awards. 

If you drive east from The Dalles, it doesn’t take long before you start seeing wind turbines dotting the landscape. On the bluffs overlooking the John Day Dam, just outside the borders of the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area, these white giants rise 300 feet toward the clouds, their sleek blades cutting gracefully through the air as they rotate in strong Gorge winds.

When it began in 2007, CGCC’s Renewable Energy Technology program was the first community college training program for technicians on the West Coast. Since then, it has prepared hundreds of wind turbine technicians to install and service these lofty machines.

Beginning in Fall 2018 the nursing program at CGCC will begin using a statewide curriculum developed through the Oregon Consortium for Nursing Education (OCNE). This is in use by several OCNE partner schools as well as the Oregon Health & Science University School of Nursing.

“We are transitioning to OCNE because it is important to keep our nursing curriculum updated and current,” explains Doris Jepson, CGCC’s nursing program director. “Joining the OCNE group will help us do that, as we will be working with faculty from 10 other Oregon community college nursing programs and OHSU School of Nursing. There is a national emphasis as well as local employer emphasis on having nurses achieve a bachelor's degree, and OCNE is a way to streamline that pathway.”

This summer brings a change in elected leadership to Columbia Gorge Community College, as four new board members took their oaths of office on July 11.

Registration for fall term credit classes is open NOW! Classes fill quickly, so please register early. The Summer/Fall schedule is available on campus or at www.cgcc.edu/schedule

Columbia Gorge Community College held its 2017 commencement June 16. A capacity crowd in the Fort Dalles Readiness Center celebrated students’ achievements with a theme of “Moving Forward,” as inspired by writer C.S. Lewis: “There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

Student marshals Gilbert Cooksey and Summer Bogard led the processional. In addition to the 159 students receiving the Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer, Associate of Science, and Associate of General Studies degrees, students earned degrees and certificates in accounting and business, medical assisting, nursing, renewable energy, and early childhood education. In all, students from the Class of 2017 received 272 collegiate degrees and certificates, and 50 GED diplomas.