57 Washington community-college students earn four-year degrees

This is not your typical class graduating with bachelor's degrees: One student had a baby midway through her studies, a second had to leave class whenever his employer paged him, a third had listed a four-year degree on her "bucket list" of things to do before she dies.

What unites this group of Bellevue College students is an excitement that they have finally earned a baccalaureate degree.

"It's kind of a dream come true for me," said Carrie Richardson, 40. "I was getting to a point in my life where I was not sure I was ever going to be able to do it."

The class of 19 students, who will graduate next week with bachelor's degrees in radiation and imaging sciences, are breaking new ground. They are among 57 students from across the state who this month will be the first to get four-year degrees from Washington community colleges.

Most of the students are working adults looking to improve their prospects for leadership in their given occupations. Many have juggled classes with both work and family obligations.

The students are part of a pilot program, approved by state lawmakers in 2005 and launched two years later, that allowed four community colleges to offer a limited number of four-year degrees in specialized fields.

Since it began, the program has expanded.

Yet just where the role of a community college stops and the role of a university begins remains contentious.

Jean Floten, the president of Bellevue College, this year backed an ambitious bill in the Legislature that would have reinvented the college as a hybrid institution offering a wide range of four-year degrees to hundreds of students.

The plan ran into opposition from the University of Washington and other universities, who argue the state should do a better job of investing in existing universities before adding more. The bill died in committee.

Floten, however, went ahead with a symbolic name change, dropping the word "community" from the middle of Bellevue College. And she plans to continue the fight.

For Richardson, the idea of expanding the role of community colleges makes a lot of sense.

She said there are many great workers in health care and other professions hampered by the fact they can get only two-year degrees in their chosen fields.

"I would love to go to the UW, but the UW has nothing to offer me," Richardson said. "I didn't want a generalized, umbrella degree. My degree is focused on radiology sciences, and I need that expertise. I need to know how to run that department."

Richardson said the timing of the classes, which are in the evenings, coupled with the online component — which accounts for about 40 percent of the course load — enabled her to keep working full time.

Classmate Serena Bennett, who gave birth to her daughter while studying, echoed those sentiments.

"Once, I did an online test at 3 a.m. I was up anyway, feeding the baby," she said. "I was going to wait until the morning, but I was so irritated anyway, I just did it."

Patrick Willis, 44, said his twin 14-year-old boys have a new appreciation for his work now that he sits down after dinner and does his homework — just like them.

Willis, who works in the UW Medical Center's radiology department, said he's had to leave or miss several classes after getting paged.

And for Katherine Olson, 53, who also teaches diagnostic ultrasound classes at Bellevue College, getting a bachelor's degree is one more item to cross off her bucket list.

"Now, I'm thinking about getting my master's degree," Olson said. "Studying brings out the best in people, it keeps you stretching. Some people do crossword puzzles. I'm going to do my master's."

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com