PORT ANGELES — For the first time ever and thanks to a partnership with Olympic Community Action Programs and Pierce College, Peninsula College is offering a dental hygiene program in Port Angeles.
What makes this program unique, said college President Tom Keegan, is how students in the course will receive instruction at a dentist’s laboratory — currently being built at Armory Square –from instructors at Pierce College in Lakewood.
This setup is doable thanks to interactive television technology, Keegan said.
“This is a pretty cool story,” Keegan said.
“While students are going to be getting access to a dental hygiene degree, low-income residents will also have access to dental care at the dental office.”
Tim Hockett, deputy director at Olympic Community Action Programs, said the dental office will be finished in time for the start of the fall quarter.
“We’ll have six students here in the fall,” said Hockett, adding that the fall quarter’s course is full.
What students in Port Angeles are sure to notice is all the construction work, Keegan said.
“We expect around early September to begin the demolition of the residence hall and construction of the new science center,” Keegan said.
“And library renovation is set to start in spring.”
New courses in PT
A slew of new courses — and changes — are being cooked up for Peninsula College’s fall quarter that starts Sept. 23.
At the Port Townsend college office, for example, students now have extra options to take credit and non-credit courses, said Deb Johnson, dean of Jefferson County education services for the college.
“We’ve been trying to increase the array of offerings students can take,” Johnson said.
“This year, we have more online courses in the county, for which students will be able to meet the [Port Townsend-based] instructor face-to-face, or talk with them via telephone or through e-mail.”
One of these online offerings is an accounting and finance class, which Johnson said the college has always had a high demand for, but could never create enough classroom space to satisfy.
The Port Townsend-based college campus, located at Fort Worden, also will offer a new round of workshops aimed at the business community.
“We’re going to do a successful-staffing workshop … designed to help managers hire and retain the best people,” Johnson said.
“And we’re also doing a business-with-baby-boomers workshop.”
