From bilingual tutoring to esports: Unique communities find a home at JCC

When most people think of community colleges, they imagine a place where students go to get their basics done: complete their general education requirements and maybe pick up a few skills that will help them land a job or prepare them to further their education. Johnston Community College’s campus serves as home to unique communities that make students feel a part of the JCC family. There is a lot of campus life which includes academic clubs, men's and women's basketball, esports and even a program for bilingual students to help other, predominantly Spanish-speaking, students access course materials in their native language.

"JCC has always been a place where people from all walks of life can come and get an education," says Derrick Arnold, athletics director and esports coach. "The pandemic has made it a little more difficult to engage with students, but we're excited to have everyone back on campus in the fall. Our clubs and organizations are incredibly diverse, from cultural clubs to interest-based clubs like the gaming club, paralegal club and leadership club. We provide a well-rounded atmosphere for all of our students."

Arnold is especially excited about the new esports program at JCC. "Esports is huge," he says. "It's been around for a long time, and it's only getting more popular. It's starting to take off at larger colleges, but it's still fairly new from a collegiate standpoint. It's a sport, and we treat it like any other sport. I get calls and emails weekly from other colleges about what we are doing with our esport program and how they can bring something similar to their campus."

Esports is just one example of the unique communities that represent what JCC is all about – giving students a chance to succeed, no matter their background or circumstance. "JCC has always been open arms for our students," says Arnold. "If we don't have something, we'll try to get it."

This philosophy of inclusion in the JCC experience extends past extracurricular clubs and continues into the classroom. In the Ciencias Tecnología Ingeniería y Matemáticas (CTIM) program, Aaron Brickman, chairman of the Department of Natural & Computer Sciences, Engineering and Math, connects his students to learning materials that they can more easily understand. "For some, things were just not connecting, especially those where English was a second language. I was finding out that bilingual students would be going to different sources looking for help in other languages than what I would provide, which was in English, and this is how it all started," said Brickman.

When Brickman was unable to vet the quality and accuracy of those Spanish-language programs, he started CTIM.

Johnston County has one of the highest Spanish-speaking populations in the state, and because of this, Brickman realized the importance of this program. "I realized that I could better help my students by providing research materials in Spanish as well. It just seemed like the right thing to do. We got some sponsorship money, and now we're able to offer stipends to bilingual students who can help translate materials into Spanish. Now when students are learning, they can see materials in English and Spanish, and I feel this has allowed the students translating these materials to become more connected to JCC as they are giving back to their community."