Janet Schmitt has goals for Sinclair Community College’s Preble County Learning Center (PCLC), and it all starts with the location.
“My goal is for the Center to become an integral part of Preble County,” said Schmitt, the manager of the PCLC.
As it stands now, the PCLC offers only entry-level courses, but the PCLC is partnering with Eaton High School to provide more educational opportunities for their students, according to Schmitt.
Schmitt said the focus of the PCLC is on the students.
“If their goal is to get a bachelor’s degree, we want to help them get started,” said Schmitt. “Our goal is to really continue to grow here in Preble County. If a student just wants to take one class, we want to help them with that.”
Schmitt said she understands that flexibility is a major part of Sinclair’s allure and that’s a driving reason behind the partnership with Eaton.
“We’ll be having chemistry here at the center for lectures, and then using Eaton High School in the evening for the lab facility,” said Schmitt. “I think one of the things that’s really noteworthy here is the amount of community support.”
Schmitt, who received a Master’s of Business Administration from Murray State University, said she has always worked in higher education and helped open the PCLC in August. With the help of the Preble County Youth Foundation, Sinclair was able to add another satellite campus.
“We had about a month to get ready for fall quarter,” said Schmitt. “Ask everybody here, that was a fun month.”
Despite what the PCLC offers, there are differences between it and the other satellite campuses.
“We don’t have a free-standing bookstore, but we do assist students in ordering books online and books can be delivered here,” said Schmitt.
Jared Markland, a student at the PCLC, does not mind the limited-resources that the satellite campus may have. Markland prefers using them “because of not having to deal with all the chaos of the Dayton campus.”
The PCLC launched in the fall with 275 students, a figure that Schmitt said made Sinclair “exceedingly happy.” The winter figures have fallen, but this did not come as a surprise, said Schmitt.
“I really want us to be able to help the traditional college student, but also the un-traditional college student, the people hit hard by the economy,” said Schmitt. “I want us to be a support for them.”