On the surface, it might not be surprising that BCC salutatorian Kaitlyn Barry got an A in the first class she ever took at the College, followed by an A in the next class. And the next. But it was surprising to Kaitlyn. "I thought, this is insane! I had never gotten higher than a C in any of my high school classes," Kaitlyn recalls.

Embracing the unexpected twists of life, Jay Ogle transformed his associate degree earned in Human Services into the foundation of his dynamic approach to business development. ... "I chose BCC for its accessibility, affordability and the fact that I was able to integrate the huge time commitment of school into my working life."

When Laurie Vilord decided to change course in her career, she tackled it with gusto, earning a Medical Coding Certificate and a Health Information Management (HIM) Certificate from BCC in just one year. "I don't really recommend that, but I'm kind of an overachiever," she laughs.

It's no secret that community colleges offer a quality education at a fraction of the price of traditional four-year schools. But for some, the cost of textbooks can be prohibitive. Open educational resources (OER) are free resources available to anyone and an alternative to high-cost textbooks, which are a barrier for many students.

Sometimes it takes being in the right place at the right time. When Geoffrey Tabor, Coordinator of Transfer Affairs/Articulation, first visited BCC in 1995, it wasn't by invitation.