Articles - Winter 2010 - return to index
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Displaced worker overcomes a layoff and math phobia for a green career offering stability, high earnings, and growth opportunity. |
Kevin Barrett Retrains for an Energy Career
-By Chris Cunningham
Kevin Barrett is completing a degree program that he walked away from years before.
He was enrolled in manufacturing technology classes at Lane Community College when his employer began laying off workers. That was the nudge he needed to return to college full-time to complete his Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer degree.
Barrett, 37, had always intended to finish the degree program he started in 1990 at a community college in southern California. But every time he thought about returning, fear kicked in.
“I was quite scared,” he says, especially about taking math. “The last time I took math was in eighth grade. That was one of the things holding me back.”
This time, he took a chance and enrolled in Allison Cunningham’s summer term math class. She put him at ease. “No matter where you were in your level of understanding, she would always work through the problem from beginning to end.”
Now, Barrett is in Lane’s honor society. He’s maintaining a 4.1 GPA while working as a student aide in the Workforce Development Center on campus, a county program available to the general public.
His job—administering career aptitude and personality tests and providing information on pay scales, educational requirements and job outlooks for dozens of industries—has given him “an opportunity to look at careers and projected employment needs,” while reinforcing his sense that his interests lie in the field of environmental science.
Barrett expects to earn his AAOT degree in spring 2010. After that, he plans to enroll in either Lane’s two-year Energy Management program or a science-based program at a four-year college.
Whatever the outcome, Barrett is grateful that Lane’s supportive atmosphere has nudged him closer to his dreams.
“Getting that AAOT degree is a lifetime goal,” he says. “Because I started it so long ago and didn’t finish, my main desire is to ensure that I have that.”
For AAOT degree information, go online at 2011sitearchive.lanecc.edu/collegecatalog/degrees.html.
