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At the front table, Teddie Grizzle (l-r) and Dr. Rachael McClain worked on a painting of a dragonfly in front of the moon at College on the Square’s First Thursday Paint Night this past week. At the back tables are Paula Barbee and Judy Atkins. Nathalie Kelley, not shown, was the class instructor. College on the Square has recently resumed classes.
Although Western Texas College’s College on the Square has been staffed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the college’s downtown location has not held its usual classes. Until now.
Tuesday, College on the Square held a Tuesday Night Art class — its first class since shutting down.
“Normally that class we would have over 30 people, but with social distancing requirements to be safe, we’ll only have 16 students in class,” said Margo Mitchell, WTC’s Director of Workforce Development and Continuing Education. “Masks are being recommended but we’re not requiring them.”
The class kicked off a three-part series, Mitchell said. College on the Square held its First Thursday Art Class Thursday evening. That class involves a meal for those who attend, and is also available online.
“Typically we’ve done it kind of buffet style,” she said before the class. “This time, the meal will be individually packaged with containers for each person.”
Mitchell said College on the Square offers more than just art classes.
“We have kind of a three-pronged approach with what College on the Square is all about,” she said. “One, we are a community service to the town of Snyder, so we make our space available for all kinds of meetings. We offer these community enrichment classes, like art. We’ve got cookie decorating, we kind of do some fun classes like that. (And) craft classes around the holidays.”
Mitchell explained the two focuses of the campus.
“Our other two prongs, which are what we’re really funded for through the state, is workforce training and continuing education,” Mitchell said. “So with workforce training, we have a CDL program, we have a welding class coming up, we do computer basics. So we offer a variety of classes like that that would be considered workforce training. We’re kind of the non-academic side of the house, if you will. There’s the academic side on campus, where you go and get your college credit or you get your associate’s degree, whereas we offer certificates.”
Occupational training within specific industries is also offered.
“The other thing that we do is continuing education. That’s mostly classes that we can offer to people that are customized to their business or their group,” she said. “For instance, we’ve done trainings for child-care workers. We host a lot of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) safety classes, then for TDCJ (Texas Department of Criminal Justice), we train their correctional officers. I can work with a company if they need that training, and I can build that class.”