JCCC has hired Dr Andrew W. Bowne to be its new presidents, we caught up with current president, Joe Sopcich as his tenure wraps up, to ask what his experience was like as the head of the college.
(Joe Sopcich) “My favorite thing that I’ve done here was being an adjunct professor, because you got to teach. And the reason that was so much fun was because you got to interact with students. One night a week, three hours, two hours and 50 minutes, and you got to work with students. You got to learn about their lives, about their challenges, of what adversity they were dealing with as far as coming to school, as well as joys in their lives. So, you got to expand peoples horizons, and the thing about that is even years later, you might get, like, a thank you email from a former student, that’s very rewarding.”
After being with the college in some capacity for 28 years, President Sopcich reminisced about his tenure.
(Sopcich) “What you miss most is, you know, the buildings are beautiful, the grounds are really very nice, the college has so much going for it, but what really matters are the people. And I know I’ll miss interacting with people. Students who come here, people who work here, so many bright, bright individuals with incredible passion for doing what they believe in and that is to help students. That’ll probably be the biggest thing I miss.”
A person can accomplish a lot in 28 years, so what is President Sopcich most proud of about his time at JCCC?
(Sopcich) “Everything that’s happened here, obviously it’s my responsibility, and it has been my responsibility, but its not like I actually did a lot of things myself like that, right? Kind of impossible to do. But you want to take credit for all the good stuff, and then you want to shy away from anything that might be considered not so good.”
“I’m pretty proud, if you look at some of the spaces we’ve created for students; for example, the Co-Lab didn’t always exist. The Co-Lab is where the culinary school used to be. And now it’s a student place, where there always seems to be students, there always seems to be people in there doing something, presentations, what have you. It’s kind of fun seeing that come together. Even if you look now where they put turf out in that courtyard, you have an opportunity to see students doing some fun stuff, playing volleyball, whatever. That makes you feel really good.”
President Sopcich has done a lot for JCCC in his time here. He helped green light both the FADS building and the CTEC building. He also helped JCCC celebrate 50 years in the fall. From The Campus Ledger, I’m Landen Fields.