January 27, 2006
Volume 41, Issue 14

 

Wickham helps students care

By Nick Ngo


For the past six or seven years, Carol Wickham, instructor of medical office, has helped students get involved with the school by giving them extra credit points to attend special school events.

She read about the subject of retention, on how to keep students in school and got to thinking about what she can do to help students connect to Mt. Hood Community College.

“One of the things that it said was when students become attached to their college, and know more about their college, they’re more likely to stay,” Wickham said.
At first Wickham offered extra-credit points for students who go out and interview other teachers. She recommended they go try to interview someone who was either in the physical education or art department, just so the student would know where those departments are. Then she realized that it didn’t make the students get involved with the school.

Later on, the extra-credit assignment evolved from students interviewing teachers to participating in events. From that point, Wickham started offering extra-credit assignments for students to attend events that happen on campus.
She understands that students have a busy life and it would be hard to find time to attend events or find information available to them offered by the college. That’s why she started offering extra-credit points for finding time and attending school events.
“I found if I attach extra-credit points, students are more likely to participate,” Wickham said.

It could be any type of special event, she says, like attending a Genesis jazz concert, going to school plays, sporting events or attending the Black History Month events. She doesn’t count club meetings as an event; it has to be a special event on campus.
“I try to keep track of what’s going on on campus,” Wickham said.
When she receives information about events, Wickham would post them up on a bulletin board in the lobby area of Allied Health.

Students can earn up to 20 extra-credit points, as each assignments is worth a possible 5 points. Once they go to an event, students must write a paper and submit it within a week. Her requirement is that they write it using college level writing, meaning proper punctuation, grammar and spelling.

“It isn’t something that they can slop together and put in, they have to use college level writing,” Wickham said.

Wickham teaches the classes diversity in health care, medical terminology, work behavior for health services and medical transcription. In each of her classes, about a third of the students volunteer to do the assignment. She says that at first students could be scared to try something new, but once they try it, she would get positive feedback of how it was a good experience.

“I think many of them start out with, ‘this is good I can get some extra-credit points for my grade,’” Wickham said. “But when they go, which is my whole point, then they realize what this college has to offer and start doing other things, too.”

Besides using extra-credit assignments to help students tie in with the school, Wickham is also on the Access and Diversity Committee. The committee was formed to open up access of the campus to everyone in order to help everyone feel comfortable. Within this committee, there are other sub-committees. For example, there’s a sign committee that makes sure there are different languages posted on signs.

Wickham is on the sub-committee that helps teacher incorporate more diversity related activities into the curriculum. They look at the techniques that experienced teachers use in the classroom to help student feel a part of the school. Then they teach the techniques that work to all faculty members.

She wants her students to look into the Health and Wellness Center for extra-credit points. The Health and Wellness Center offers a lot of resources to help students locate affordable health insurance and health care. She wants her students to find this out to show them that it’s there for help, and that they should utilize the tools the center has to offer.