Blue Valley High School graduate Emily Bourgeois is excited to represent JCCC during the fall 2010 semester as a new Cav Leader. She will take an active role in recruiting students and help new students and visitors find their way around campus. The JCCC Cav Leaders promote the college on and off campus, and Bourgeois is one of only six exceptional students to be selected for the position.

JCCC was the right school for Bourgeois because of the small class sizes and individualized attention she receives from her teachers.  “You feel like the professors truly care about your future and recognize each student’s potential,” she said.  Bourgeois is attending JCCC to work on a degree in occupational therapy.  “(Occupational Therapy is similar to physical therapy except I will be working with patients and their fine motor skills (OT) versus gross motor skills (PT),” she explained.

Bourgeois has taken advantage of the counseling services offered in the Student Center to help prepare her for college.  “Darwin Lawyer, a counselor here at JCCC, has been an exceptional help to me throughout the course of my college career,” she said.  “You can tell he is passionate about what he does and really cares about the students.”

After completing the occupational therapy program at JCCC, Bourgeois would like to apply to the University of Kansas for their OT program. “KU’s occupational therapy program is very competitive, and it’s difficult to gain acceptance,” she said. “(The JCCC Counselors) offer additional help in several ways; they offer mock interviews so students know what to expect in a university interview, provide additional information to students so they can prepare well in advance and know the ‘ins and outs’ of the program, and in my case, which hospitals to volunteer at and which officials to contact in order to make that happen.”

Lawyer has kept Bourgeois motivated and encourages her to keep striving for excellence. “(Darwin) reassured me that as long as I keep doing what I am doing, I have a pretty good chance of getting accepted into (KU’s) program,” she said. During her time at JCCC she has been invited to join Phi Theta Kappa, a national honor society for two-year colleges.

JCCC’s counselors and the Career Development Center are located on the second floor of the Student Center. If you need assistance in deciding on a career path or information on transfer courses, visit with a counselor for help.