The Adult Education Program Offers Opportunities for Lifelong Learners
By Anshi Aucar
City College offers a wide variety of classes for life-long learners and students looking to transfer to a four year college, many of whom are enrolled in the college’s Adult Education program.
The Adult Education program is funded by the state of California through its membership in the San Francisco Adult Education Consortium.
There are three different types of “adult” programs: the first is the Working Adult Degree program, which is designed to get participants an associate degree in three years or less; the Adult Education Non-Credit program offers classes that were created to help people learn English and prepare for citizenship tests; and finally, the Older Adults program provides classes at the San Francisco Main Library for life-long learners seeking to learn new arts or just enhance their skills.
“For those who want to pursue a more academic education, having one department covering both credit and non-credit allows for a seamless transition,” said DSPS professor Robert Fitch, who pushes the education philosophy of life-long learning.
The San Francisco Adult Education Consortium is an education program that coincides with existing programs and helps ease the transition into post-secondary education, as well as accelerating students’ progress toward other academic or career goals.
This program offers ESL courses and resources, transitional studies, DSPS and methods of obtaining High School diplomas for its participants.
ESL student, Noe Matute, said the classes offered are “excellent classes and the professors are well prepared. The ones that I have gotten are really good.”
The Adult Education program is also aligned with the greater San Francisco community as well. City College and the Excelsior Senior Center have collaborated to offer a class called “Body Dynamic & Aging Process” for those interested in the topic.
For students who weren’t able to attend high school in the United States, this program offers a means for them to obtain a high school diploma and transfer to City College credit classes.
Although adult education classes have been affected by the college’s recent class cuts, students are still generally grateful for what programs and courses are still offered.
More information on the Adult education Consortium can be found on sfadulted.org.