By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

South Seattle College‘s president says she is not interested in having her college continue as “one of West Seattle’s best-kept secrets.”

Dr. Monica Brown‘s speech to the Rotary Club of West Seattle on Tuesday was, as she explained, part of a campaign to get out into the community and spread the word about the college she’s been leading for almost half a year. “173 days,” she declared with a smile.

We start with our video of her full speech (the cash handover at the start was a donation to the Rotary Foundation’s “Happy Bucks” fund):

Dr. Brown talked with us about her background when we interviewed her in the fall, so we won’t recap too much of that. She is the eighth permanent president of SSC since it opened in 1969. She came here after more than 20 years at Montgomery College in the Washington, D.C., area. She told the Rotarians she had no idea her “life’s work” would someday take her across the country to Seattle.

At the time Dr. Brown was hired, Seattle Colleges chancellor (and former SSC president) Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap was hiring presidents for all three of the system’s schools. “That seemed bizarre but was actually brilliant … she wanted to create a cohort of three to work together to lead the (system) … as an educator, I love cohorts … as a student, I did well in cohort models.”

One of the lessons she’s learned in the past five-plus months is that SSC is not very well-known. Dr. Brown insists that she’s “not interested in South being the best-kept secret in West Seattle” – among other reasons, its work deserves to be better-known, she said. “The work we do helps position students for success, their families for success, and ultimately it supports the community and economic development.”

Plus, it has a beautiful 63-acre campus on a hill, she noted, issuing another invitation for everyone to come visit.

What else they should know, she told the club, is that “student success is not only about what happens in the classroom”: Students have “many needs,” particularly since the pandemic, “greater basic needs, greater mental-health needs,” even food needs – these are all needs that can get in the way of learning if they go unmet, and Dr. Brown said the same trends have been seen nationally.

She spoke enthusiastically about the “opportunities” at SSC, especially in the “skilled trades” like aviation maintenance, diesel/heavy equipment, landscape and horticulture, and various apprenticeships. She also had praise for the school’s “wonderful <strong>Wine Academy.” And South has more-traditional academic programs as well, such as transfer programs that send students to schools such as UW to complete their four-year degrees. Some have even transferred to her former school, Georgetown University, she noted with extra pride. Dr. Brown touted the high success rate of students transferring to four-year programs from colleges like hers. And the success can start even earlier – South serves high-school students, she reminded attendees, with the Running Start program, currently serving more than 400 students – by the time those students graduate from high school, they already have an associate’s degree from SSC too.

Dr. Brown then offered to answer questions. Asked for more info about the student population (more than 4,000 as of fall), she said the average age is 28. Is the Seattle Chinese Garden part of the school? No, it’s a “separate entity,” though it’s adjacent to the north edge of campus. SSC administrative-services vice president Hip Nguyen added that the Astra Lumina light show at the garden is in its second season, continuing into March, and attracted 120,000 visitors its first year. That helps raise awareness about South, he said.

Then Dr. Brown had a question of her own, about how the Rotary would like to connect with her school – “it’s why I’m getting out in the community, to meet people, to think about ways we can support West Seattle,” and about ways the community can support SSC students. Just before her speech, Rotary leaders had mentioned a long past history of close ties between the club and the school, with some SSC presidents having held membership in the club. Could Dr. Brown commit to having a campus rep join the club? She countered by again inviting Rotary leaders to come to the campus, suggesting a meeting, lunch, and conversation about partnership opportunities.

She then was presented with gifts – a book of photos by world-renowned West Seattle photographer Art Wolfe, and a miniature Peace Pole.

NEXT WEEK: At the noon Tuesday (January 28) lunch meeting, Seattle entrepreneur and former NBA player James Donaldson will be guest speaker. Contact the club if you’re interested in attending. (They had three visitors this week, one of whom mentioned hearing about the club on WSB.