The Apache Next Steps Center
Q: What is the Apache Next Steps Center?
A: It’s a four-year grant that’s allowed us to develop the Apache Next Steps Center and various supports that are available to all current students here at TJC. Through our transfer and career success coaches and the many different types of workshops and events that we hold really help students focus on the planning of what comes after TJC and to prepare for what comes next for them.
Q: What is your role in the Apache Next Steps Center?
A: I have the privilege of being one of four staff members that are a part of the Apache Next Steps Center. As the director, I coordinate a lot of the communication and engagement that we have with our faculty and staff here at TJC, a lot of the other support departments here at TJC that also assist students, but also coordinate the efforts of our professional development trainer and our coaches in the way that they support students to the different events and individualized student sessions that are offered through the Apache Next Steps Center.
Q: How do we know which staff member to make an appointment with?
A: The professional development trainer is actually 100% focused on helping the faculty and staff at TJC and learn and grow new and innovative teaching ways and methods and activities to engage students in the classroom. The other two members of our staff, the coaches, are available to students through the events and the individualized sessions that we mentioned earlier. At TJC, we have someone to help them with wherever they’re at in that journey, and sometimes it might mean utilizing both of those coaches. Many times it may be a student needs to figure out what major they need to pursue that’s a great fit for them. Maybe it’s seeing the different job opportunities and learning about occupational data affiliated with that, or learning interview or job skills. We really focus on the career side, but also the transfer side. The transfer coach helps you choose a university, figure out a major that you can pursue there, and how to actually bridge over to that university, post TJC.
Sherry Fuller discusses the resources available for students in the Apache Next Steps Center.
Q: What should students bring, if anything, to these appointments?
A: Our appointments technically do not require any type of preparation beforehand. We encourage walk-ins depending on kind of the needs of the student as to what may be needed to be done beforehand. Many times our coaches, if a student schedules a session, they will reach out to the student and have a preliminary conversation about what they think their needs might be. If it’s looking at transferring to a university, our transfer success coach likes to dive in and gain extra information and compile things before that session, so that when that student comes in for the session, they’re able to maximize that student’s time, and spend 100% of that time engaged with the student and sharing resources and information, as opposed to looking things up.
Q: How far into the future can you plan with students and their education? Are we talking university or even postgraduate education?
A: So there’s never too late or too early of a time to start. Even if a student is on the cusp of graduating, by all means, come in right away and let’s get started on that. Don’t put it off until they transfer to university. We can definitely help them here, but also the very beginning of that journey, once they’ve enrolled and gotten cemented in here at TJC, we can help them move forward and plan.
Q: What type of workshops do you offer?
A wide variety of transfer-related items that are on how to choose a university, how to choose a major, how to adjust from TJC, going to university setting, or even how to get settled here at TJC if this is your first semester here. So there’s a wide variety of things to really connect students with where they’re at in their journey and plan to move forward. All of our workshops can be accessed through orgsync.tjc.edu or the Apache Access portal that students have on the calendar that’s listed there on that main page.
Q: How can students get to know you and the rest of the staff?
A: We’ve had two business and industry visits this past month; one to Delek refinery, the other to Eastman Chemical. We’ve had engineering students and science students, industrial maintenance and welding. A wide variety of students attend our business and industry visits because that really gives them the opportunity to see a corporation in the works, so to speak, to meet with their HR personnel, to see and speak with people in the roles that they possibly want to be in the future. But it also gives us a great talking point and time to spend with students in those hours that visit occurs, to really build that rapport and to help students feel comfortable about coming in and saying, ‘Hey, I’m needing help with this,’ and us being able to jump in there and say, “You bet we can help you with that.” So just kind of spending time at those events that are on campus, because we also have our transfer fair that’s held each month. We’re available at the beginning of each month to have all these different universities come.
Q: What sort of job fairs can students look forward to in the future?
A: We’re very glad to have brought on in the last month or two Handshake. All of our students have received an email inviting them to access their account and activate that. If they haven’t done that, they can come visit with us, and we can help them make that connection. So all of these thousands of employers that students at the university level have access to our students. So we’re going to start compiling from this list on Handshake, the local employers to come to our in-person and online job fairs that we’re looking to hold in the near future. Currently, we’re building that bank and making those availabilities kind of banking them for our students in the meantime, so that we’re preparing for those great events that we’re really looking forward to holding in the future for our students, but also being able to connect them, not with just part-time or full-time jobs, but internships.
Q: With these job fairs, both online and in person, would you help students with their attire, what they need to wear, what they need to bring, and everything else?
A: Sure, all the above absolutely, through our workshops, those are kind of planned beforehand that have about a 45 to 50 minute concentration on those specific topics that you just listed. But if a student misses that, or maybe they have a concern about any of those things, they’re more than welcome to come in and visit with Randy Roberts, our career coach, and talk about those things, because they’re really kind of the expert in the field, so to speak, that can help that student have the resources and the information that they need to be successful, not only in those job interviews, but those in the future.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?
A: I would just encourage students to connect with our coaches, check out our events, because those are evolving based on the needs of students. If there isn’t something listed that they feel they really need, come by and see us and let us know. If there’s a particular university that maybe you’re wanting to come to our transfer fair, we would love to hear from you, because we want to make sure that they’re going to be there and available to answer your questions to help you that bridge over process for those universities. We can connect you with some workplaces and visit those types of industries if they have an interest or maybe they’ve always thought it would be really cool to visit a particular place or site in the industry. We would love to pursue those for students. We want it to be based on the needs and interests of students. We encourage them to connect with us, to read our newsletter that we send out, and to communicate with us so that we can make it all about them.
*This Q&A has been edited for clarity purposes.*