Jesse Schaefer of Blue Mountain Community College helps students and adults in John Day reach their higher education goals.

JOHN DAY — Tucked in the basement of the Grant County Education Service District building in John Day is a resource for high school students and adults looking to enhance their higher education and career goals.

Jesse Schaefer of Blue Mountain Community College and Ashley Armichardy, of Eastern Oregon University are there working to help students and adults achieve their dreams of college success.

The pair, working for their respective institutions, help high school students earn early college credits by providing teachers with materials at the local high schools or through online general education courses.

“It saves them time and it saves them money because typically, in this area, all the high schools will pay for those classes for those students,” Schaefer said.

“I think that the options for early college credit for high schoolers are really cool and can make a big difference in someone’s life path,” she said. “It’s possible for someone to graduate from high school with an associate’s (two-year) degree. That’s not for everyone, but for someone who is confident about their goals, it’s a very cool opportunity for them.”

Schaefer and Armichardy also focus on workforce development by connecting with local employers to find out their needs. They share that information with local educators, students, parents and adults interested in pursuing various career goals.

“On my advisory board, there’s representation from the hospital and the Forest Service and from Grant County Economic Development,” Schaefer said. “They would tell us, ‘This training would help us have qualified folks,’ or something like that. I just try to find out a way that the college could partner with them to meet that need.”

Another part of the work they do is to provide community education to residents. Students, young and old, can take classes to learn a new skill for either fun, educational enrichment or to help with their professional work, such as cooking lessons or learning a computer program.

“Those are non-credit classes,” Schaefer said. “They could be for a skill or they could be something for fun. It could be like motorcycle riding, learning to use a software program or a cooking class. They could learn a new skill that could be something practical to apply to your job.”

A small computer lab across the hall from their office allows students to take SAT prep courses and proctored tests.

Schaefer says she enjoys her new job, which she began in April after Armichardy took on a position at Eastern Oregon University as regional adviser full-time in addition to her work as a regional outreach and innovation staff member.

“I started in Jesse’s position in 2010 and, in 2017, I took on both roles at EOU and BMCC, and as of November ’22 I’m full-time with EOU,” Armichardy said. “It’s not just for adults, but we’re expanding to the high schools in our community, making early college credit possible for them.”

Armichardy said she’s helped hundreds of people reach their higher education goals.

“I’m very proud of just being able to support these students no matter what their goals are,” she said. “We’ve done proctoring for other institutions, so if EOU doesn’t offer it, we can support them in their goals to connect them with a college or university.”