‘Eagles Perch’ a place to study, work, unwind

WOODLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Woodland Community College offers students a gathering place

Some Woodland Community College students study or prepare for class in the ‘Eagles Perch’ at the school while others check their emails or phones.

Cassidy Ruiz, a student at Woodland Community College enters the ‘Eagles Perch’ at the school where she prepared for an upcoming class. PHOTOS BY JIM SMITH — COURTESY

Image

By Jim Smith

Special to the Democrat

Tucked away on the far eastern side of Woodland Community College is a room without a view that draws dozens, if not hundreds, of people daily.

The “Eagles Perch” is the equivalent of a university “student union,” where students can study, meet up and talk about classes, read or meditate if needed. It’s located in Building 800 of the college at 2300 E. Gibson Road.

Adorning the walls are colorful pennants from colleges like San Francisco State, UCLA, UC Davis, Fresno State, Sonoma State, Sacramento State and Cal State, along with numerous posters and artwork.

More practically, “The Perch” has several dozen deep-plush chairs and sofas along with plenty of seating centered around desks and workstations where students can recline and read or meet up and do homework.

There are also numerous flyers about upcoming college activities, clubs and job offerings.

Just as pragmatic, there’s also a microwave for “grab and go” meals, a copy machine, a lending library and small rooms that can be used for meeting space and personal meditation.

At one desk, first-year student Cassidy Ruiz is organizing a binder for an upcoming class. It seems like a small thing, but “The Perch” has a hole punch and enough space to lay out her many pages until she can collate them.

“I come here pretty much every day between classes,” the Woodland High School graduate explains. “Sometimes I do homework and sometimes I sit on my phone if I need to take a break between classes.”

Meanwhile, a group of three men is playing a video game as well as reviewing for an upcoming class. Other students are seated individually reading, working on their laptop computers, making notes or checking their phones.

Against one wall is a filled bookcase with signs encouraging students to “borrow … read … return … donate … repeat” along with two posters encouraging everyone to “BELIEVE” and “Enjoy The Day.”

Overlooking all is a wall sign stating: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. Nelson Mandela.”

Student ambassadors Aspen Newman and Matthew Borrelli are on scene offering help if needed while they work on their own projects or listen to music.

“We plan events and keep the place organized and set up the grab and go, and art table as well as set up for larger events,” Newman said, pointing to the nearby meeting rooms and meditation room, which was in use.

The number of students varies throughout the day, Newman added, with regulars who come all the time and others who drop in to get some food.

Borrelli said the number of students peaks around 12:30 p.m. or a little after that before starting to dwindle. Newman put in that those numbers climb when students are getting out of classes.

“At some events we get huge numbers of students,” Newman continued. “At our informational tabling event we had 60 to 80 students come through. It really depends what’s going on.”

The numbers really don’t matter, however, both Newman and Borrelli indicated, as long as students have a place to go to catch up and decompress from their daily coursework.