Male: Ladies and gentlemen, the next individual is a trifecta of sorts. He’s a trustee, he’s a treasurer of the Board, and he is an alumnus of the Community College of Allegheny County. Please welcome Senator Jay Costa.
Senator Jay Costa: Thank you very much, Gaye. And let me first say thank you to our co-chairs representative Marshall, Representative Robach, and Senators Boscola and Mantz for putting together the Community College Coalition. The Community College Caucus, because I think it’s really important that we take time to focus on how important our community college is to our economy, to our workforce, but more importantly to our students, and providing them the opportunity. In this first—this week, the first annual competition or completion challenge I think is something it’s also unique, but also generates the excitement on the campuses that’s really necessary to let folks and create the awareness about how valuable the community colleges are. You know, I was blessed. I had a great community college in Allegheny County.
Community College of Allegheny County. Where when I came out of high school, I wasn’t quite sure where I was going to go, what I was going to do. But for our colleges provided a significant low cost and high quality education that allowed me to transition from a community college once I completed my associate’s degree onto a bachelor’s degree and further education beyond that point in time.
And that’s now what we have across 14 other community college systems. Low cost, high quality, opportunities for men and women to be successful, and to be able to provide that baseline of knowledge and support that they need to be able to transition to the next level. And that’s why completing the associates degree is so critically important, because it allows for between the articulation agreement, it allows for the next step to go onto four-year degree, but if that’s not what’s necessary, it allows for a greater earning capacity for people who will be able to do that.
So I’m really thrilled to be here today. I’m going to thank my colleagues for being here, supporting our community college system, and to continue to grow the awareness on how important they are to our commonwealth. Thank you very much.