Picking up the PACE Program helps students graduate in two years

liams said. “It’s great that the classes are just twice a week.”

As the late graduation rates increase and the transfer rates decrease, some students lose the hope of transferring in two years with less debt. Pierce students don’t have to face this dilemma without receiving the proper guidance.

The Program for Accelerated College Education, (PACE) is a program offered at Pierce College that aims to gives students the ability to graduate and transfer in two years. Classes are condensed from 16-week classes into eight-week classes, with each class meeting one evening a week and every other Saturday.

Hailey Williams, a 19-year-old general studies major, is participating in the program so she can work and successfully transfer in two years, without falling behind in her schooling. The program’s shorter classes give her the time to study and work, which allows her to make money to help support her grandmother.

“It helps to keep an open schedule for study time and work, and get my education at the same time,” Wil-

Williams recommends PACE for any students who don’t have time to be fulltime or even part-time students and need the extra time in their lives for work or their personal lives.

The director of the program, Arthur Gillis, agrees that the program is great for working students. Gillis has been the director of the PACE program for the past eleven years. He sets the curriculum, sorts out the classrooms, gets the instructors, and solves general issues.

Gillis said the eight-week class focus is the core of the program’s success, allowing students to learn quickly and move on to the next course while still remembering previous material from past courses.

“We have had one of the highest retention rates, highest success rates, highest graduation rates, and highest transfer rates out of all the programs at Pierce,” Gillis said. “We pay attention to our students like there’s no tomorrow.”

Gillis says the only possible downside to the program is the large class sizes

– though he assures students that each and every person is taken care of and made to feel welcome despite that.

Lupita Narkevicius, a senior offi ce assistant and offi ce manager for PACE, does quite a bit in the program. She manages the website, takes care of phone calls and paperwork and helps students who need academic advisement or who have other questions regarding the program answered.

“I think the program is one of the best kept secrets,” Narkevicius said. “The program has been on campus for twenty-fi ve years and it really allows students who want to transfer in two years and working adults to really achieve whatever higher education goals they may have.”

Narkevicius said some students take one or two courses in the Pace program to get classes out of the way, but she thinks those who do are really missing out on the opportunity they could be getting from experiencing the program in its entirety.

The next orientation, which is the only prerequisite needed to join PACE, are on Dec. 15, at 6 p.m. in the Great Hall.

Her-story class Students learn about women’s acheivements in history

George Washington. Thomas Edison. Albert Einstein. Benjamin Franklin. The Wright Brothers. Aristotle. These are but a chosen few from an extensive list of influential people in history. The other aspect that they have in common? They were all male.

In a world where men have dominated history textbooks, museums, and classes, History 52 The Role of Women in the History of the U.S, introduces students to some of the lesser-known, but just as influential, historical figures: women.

Sheryl Nomelli, a historian and instructor at Pierce, said her interest in women’s history arose when taking a class similar to History 52.

¨I found myself fascinated by the information, and also angry,¨ Nomelli said. ¨I had never learned, in my entire educational experience, about any of these women.¨

Inspired by her college history professor, Nomelli changed her liberal studies major to history. She now teaches three different history courses at Pierce, including History 52, which she began teaching in 2012.

¨Every class was a revelation that inspired me but also infuriated me,¨ she said about a women’s history course.

When History 52 was first implemented at Pierce in the 1990s, only two classes per semester were offered and none during winter and summer intersessions. Now, because of Nomelli’s urging, Pierce offers up to five per semester, including winter and summer intersessions.

“Women’s history is crucial to all colleges. At the college level, we should get students interested in more areas of history than U.S. or Western Civilization,” Brian Walsh, history instructor at Pierce, said. “While those classes are important, students need to be exposed to new perspectives.”

Nomelli’s favorite topic to cover in History 52 is the changing legal status and political standpoint of women through the years, because it can help people better understand, as well as dimin- ish, gender inequality.

“We’re no longer femme coverts. We’re not legally owned by our husbands when we get married. But, at the same time, we still don’t have that equality yet,” Nomelli said. “Until people realize this, how can they vote for change, initiate change, or try to implement change if they’re not aware that women today make 78 cents to a man’s dollar?”

Beginning with the early colonial era and finishing with present day, History 52 focuses on women’s cultural, social, and political history.

“We need women’s history to counter the Eurocentric male focus of traditional American history,” James McKeever, Pierce College history department chair, said. “If it wasn’t for History 52 and classes like it, most people would leave college thinking all women have done is knit a flag, refuse to give up a seat on a bus, and marry a president.“

Flores said that after taking both History 11 and 12 she decided to take History 52 because she immensely enjoyed Nomelli’s lecturing approach.

“She gives us the information, tells us exactly what we need to know, and expects that we study, show up on time to class, and pay attention. Easy as that,” Flores said. “Her atmosphere in the class is just like her: very patient, comforting, and very understanding.”

History 52 will be offered Monday through Thursday during the upcoming winter intersession. In addition, there will be three options to take Nomelli’s women’s history course in the spring 2016 semester, once on Mondays and Wednesdays, and twice on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“Professor Nomelli’s classroom is an open, safe place for students to ask questions, get involved and learn something that they didn’t know going into the room that day,” Walsh said. “Students will leave the class with a newfound appreciation with how far women have come in fighting for equality and how much further the movement needs to go.”