Germanna president extols community's importance in education during forum

Dr. Sunithi Gnanadoss, who teaches at Germanna and is one of WDF’s current directors, moderated the discussion with Gullickson, who took on Germanna’s top job in 2017, becoming the school’s first female president. Gullickson’s background includes five years as president at Spokane Falls College, in addition to teaching in a vocational college setting and earning a Doctor of Education degree with a specialization in higher education policy, administration and leadership.

Gullickson shared that her upbringing on a farm in the Midwest instilled values that helped her to become aware of the issue of diversity at an early age.

“We were all from pioneer families who believed strongly that every person had value and that no one person was better than another,” she said.

Gullickson explained that when she arrived at Germanna, she was intentional about listening and letting the community itself become the driving force for the school’s vision.

“When you’re new at a job, you don’t come in on day one and say, here’s my 15-point plan and we’ll see you in a while,” she said. “So I spent a lot of time listening to people. I spent time in Orange County because Orange County has its own personality, its own needs, its own character.”

Part of the learning process meant recognizing the diversity of communities that exist within the region that Germanna serves.

“We serve a very large area, about the size of Delaware,” Gullickson said. ‘Every county is different. Every locality is different, and so I needed to understand the different communities. I needed to understand the different histories of the communities.”

Gullickson also is passionate about making sure that the courses that Germanna offers will meaningfully improve the lives and career prospects of its students.

“We have to have programs that really meet the needs of the future,” she said.

Meeting those future needs means staying at the forefront of growing industries that offer competitive wages. During Gullickson’s tenure, the school has added and expanded in-demand programs like cybersecurity, pre-engineering and nursing.

The college also has grown its dual enrollment programs, which allow students to earn college credits while still in high school. Germanna currently offers dual enrollment courses in partnership with Orange County High School. Thanks to $200,000 planning grant from the Virginia Department of Education, the college is working to build a new dual enrollment program in Orange, Madison, Culpeper and Rappahannock counties which will allow students to get an early start on a career in education.

“The students will come out of Orange County High School; they’ll already have two years of college and some of that will be education courses,” Gullickson said. “Then they can just transfer to a university and in two years they’ll be done. That way, we begin to keep people in the service area and keep them at the school, because the teacher shortage is real and it’s not going anywhere.”

Gullickson said that Orange County students who are interested in the new education-focused program may be able to enroll as early as this fall.

Another key component of addressing diversity at Germanna is recognizing that many students may need additional help to succeed, Gullickson shared. The college boasts a wide array of support services, from tutoring to 24/7 mental health counseling and a website that helps students find out which forms of public assistance they qualify for. When other needs have arisen over the years, Germanna has provided everything from gas station gift cards to diapers and internet hot spots to make sure that no student is forced to give up on their education due to an unfortunate circumstance.

Gullickson described Germanna’s approach as “student-centered,” meaning that the school aims to meet students, who come from different walks of life and may be facing a variety of challenges, exactly where they are at.

“Every day in your own life, you’ve had good days and bad days, good years, and bad years. That’s the way our students are. Sometimes we catch them when they’re in a good year and sometimes we catch them when they’re not,” she shared.

Gullickson said that Germanna also seeks to recognize needs in the greater community and create programs that mutually benefit students and the surrounding population. The school currently has plans to build two new healthcare facilities — one each in Locust Grove and Stafford — and both locations will include community healthcare clinics.

“Both of those facilities will have an open wellness clinic where the community can come in and get their ears checked, check their sugar, get their blood pressure taken, get their teeth looked at. The reason we’re doing that, particularly in Locust Grove, is that it’s kind of a healthcare desert, especially for the uninsured, and there are many people in rural areas that don’t have insurance.”

Gullickson shared that Germanna’s mission to educate a diverse group of learners ultimately helps the entire student population to have a more fulfilling educational experience. Typical students at Germanna range from recent high school graduates to older adults who are returning to school after raising a family, changing career paths, retiring from the military or coming to the United States.

“There are all these different ways of looking at things, all these different opinions,” Gullickson said regarding the educational value of having an increasingly diverse student population. “We want people to come and challenge each other. Challenge each other’s way of thinking. And then out of that comes growth. And that’s really what we do.”

All WDF programs are free and open to the public. While the topics and speakers vary, Gnanadoss said that attendees can always expect “a new voice, a new dimension that we haven’t thought of or something that’s enlightening.” To sign up to receive newsletters and information about upcoming events, contact Ellen Wessel at ellenkwessel@gmail.com or (540) 222-3439.