From left, Rotarian Dan Heitzenrater introduced JCC VP Jessica Kubiak, center, who was welcomed by Marion Beckerink, club president.

Jessica Kubiak, vice president of academic affairs at Jamestown Community College, spoke to the Rotary Club of Jamestown recently.

Kubiak joined JCC in 2010 as the inaugural coordinator of experiential learning. In her years with JCC, she oversaw areas including undergraduate research, the honors program, service learning, and student internships. She then spent several years as a full-time faculty member in the English department on the college’s Cattaraugus County Campus.

She has been a program coordinator and director, and she served for two years as the Dean of the Arts, Humanities, and Health Science division. Jessica has won state and national awards for her teaching of first-year writing and recently earned her Ph.D. in English with a focus on rhetoric and composition from Old Dominion University in Virginia. She currently lives in Allegany, N.Y.

Kubiak said she was born in Olean and grew up in Bradford. Her early life and adulthood were difficult. She did well academically throughout her youth, however she dropped out of college to help her mother. After getting married and having two children she returned to college for her undergraduate degree. She was offered an opportunity to go into a PhD program but could not go due to her being a single mother and taking care of a sister who was undergoing cancer treatment. She eventually earned a master’s degree from Buffalo State.

Kubiak has a set of core beliefs and values. Everyone can learn; learning is a function of emotional engagement and reflection; school should not be disconnected from life; knowledge should reflect diversity. Although she is in her first year as a dean, she has been at JCC for 15 years. The college has a plan for expanding credits for previous learning and experience. Kubiak believes one needs to combat student inertia, however challenges include the lack of state support, she said.

Questions from Rotarians included what programs she would add to help students to which she replied a good first step would be to find out what each student’s goal is. She was also asked whether she felt they were being successful in increasing enrollment. Kubiak responded that the funding from the state is flat, but counties are increasing aid.