HAROON ATCHA FOR COLLEGE OF Du PAGE TRUSTEE
Like many students in DuPage County, the College of DuPage was my only option for higher education when I enrolled there over a decade ago. I had barely graduated high school and had spent the two years afterwards working difficult, physically demanding jobs. But community colleges admit everyone; and CoD admitted me.
Twelve years on I hold a Ph.D. in Political Science, work as a Data Scientist and have devoted the better part of my career to the betterment of community colleges. You see, my experience at CoD taught me the importance of truly public higher education. My classmates at CoD were single-parents, disabled folks, kids struggling with severe poverty and others, like me, who had done poorly in other academic venues. In short, we were the types of people unlikely to be accepted at selective-enrollment colleges.
But my classmates were also a true representation of our county and its people. I’m running for the Board of Trustees at the College of DuPage because I believe that public education is for everyone. It’s a belief that I picked up at CoD and one that I’ve carried with me ever since. It’s why I worked as a researcher at Salt Lake Community College, why I continue to teach Political Science and Statistics in a college classroom and why I’ve publicly advocated for our students at CoD since I was a student there.
On or before April 4th, you have the option to choose between three candidates for the College of DuPage Board of Trustees. If you believe, as I do, that public higher education should serve everyone in our district, vote Haroon Atcha.