By Ryan Lallo
CCC Journalism Program
CAMDEN – Honors courses are held at the Blackwood and Cherry hill campuses but not at the Camden City campus of Camden County College.
“Unfortunately not enough students are interested but plenty of them are eligible,” said Dean Gary Divens. “The students may not be confident enough to take the courses or they may be worried the courses will be too challenging and end up affecting their GPAs negatively. This makes them not want to take the risk and they end up sticking with their regular classes.”
The Camden City campus had held honors courses in the past but stopped offering them because of low enrollment.
Saralyn Long, a junior at Camden County College, was on the dean’s list for two semesters at the Camden City campus. She said she would have been interested in taking honors courses if she had known more information about them and if they were available at the Camden City campus.
“I was a little worried that the honors courses would have been too difficult for me, so I never bothered with them. I also knew they weren’t being held at this campus and I couldn’t commute to the Blackwood campus due to time constraints and financial issues because I use public transportation,” Long said.
Thyecia Griffin, a sophomore at Camden County College, made the dean’s list for one semester. She said she was not aware Camden County College offered honors courses at any of its campuses.
“Had I known about the honors courses, I would have considered commuting to the Blackwood campus to take them,” Griffin said.
Bruce McCarthy, a junior at Camden County College, has been on the president’s list for three semesters at the Camden City campus. He said he would have taken honors courses all three semesters if they had been offered at the Camden City campus.
“I know the Blackwood campus offers honors courses but I couldn’t commute there because of time constraints and financial constraints. It takes too much time and money to travel back and forth from Blackwood every day on public transportation,” McCarthy said.
Divens said he believes the students at the Camden City campus need more awareness about the honors courses and programs.
“The students need to know how important the benefits of taking those courses are and what they can do for their academic and career goals in the future,” Divens said.
Dean Gary Divens works on a transcript in his office at the Camden County College Camden City campus. By Ryan Lallo, CCC Journalism Program