St. Petersburg College hosted the first of two State of the College events, in which SPC President Dr. Tonjua Williams invited local citizens and partners to come out to hear about the ways SPC is working for students and the community.
After a welcome from Jesse Turtle, SPC Foundation Executive Director, and Tashika Griffith, Clearwater Campus Provost, Williams took the stage at the Arts Auditorium, She discussed how SPC supports its student population, which numbers around 42,000 each year, who collectively boast a 78 percent success rate. Williams noted that SPC’s students are non-traditional, with and average age of 27, and a majority working while in school.
“It’s not our mission to be Harvard or Yale,” Williams said. “We have a totally different student demographic, and we’re set up to help anyone with a high school diploma or a GED and warm blood in their veins.”
Williams went on to outline services that support students in their journeys, including free tutoring, food pantries, clothing closets, free mental health care, bus passes and programs that target certain types of students, like Women on the Way and Brother to Brother. She also thanked the SPC Foundation for the $2.2 million in scholarships for students last year.
“Our average student is trying to figure out if they should feed their family or their mind. We have to focus on the folks who are struggling,” she said. “That’s what St. Petersburg College was built for.”
Williams then turned the conversation to SPC’s social and economic impact on the community, noting that SPC supports 17,547 jobs in Pinellas County, adding 1.2 million in income. She also noted that added income from student spending is $50.2 million dollars.
“It is a big deal,” she said. “And we’re here to serve.”
She also discussed SPC’s three-year strategic plan, as well as the college’s dedication to filling local jobs and its ability to adapt quickly to the rapidly changing workforce needs in the area.
“Everything changes overnight,” she said. “As we’re speaking, Amazon, Google and other business are coming up with new programs, jobs, and tactics. We’re hustling trying to make it happen.”
Williams presented next steps for the college, which include enhancing communication with local businesses and organizations, community building that decreases generational poverty, removing barriers to education and obtaining resources and tools for the economic success of the community. She concluded with a request to the community: Help SPC remove the barriers to education.
“There are hundreds of thousands of people who are unemployed and uneducated,” she said. “Help us remove those barriers so that we can get them into careers where they can change the trajectory of their generation. Help us break those barriers to help people who have been told no for a long time.”
Williams held a second and final 2022 State of the College on April 14 at the Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg. Watch this event on YouTube.