Joliet Junior College - Shield Yearbook (Joliet, IL)

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powfey Dean of Ioliet Juhior College

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The Joliet Junior College was begun many years ago as a free public institution. Until recently two main forces have been at work which have shaped its development. The first of these is the tradition that it be free and public, thus available to any citizen of the District. This basic concept has been, and still is, a corner-stone of the Joliet Junior College and the junior college movement across the country. The second major force has been the broadening of the purpose of the junior college. Originally the junior college was aimed at aiding those students who planned to go on to other colleges. This is still a major function of the college, but it now serves equally well those who need further training in the area of business, industry, technical education and homemaking. Thus. the second major force shaping the junior college has been the broadening of the curriculum to meet the demands and needs of the community. This type of program has benefited the community and the individual. Now a new element is entering the picture. Until recently, the Joliet Junior College was numerically a very small part of our educational program. Over the last three or four years this has changed to the extent that the junior college is a relatively large educational unit. In addition. it is growing far more rapidly than any other phase of public education today. Thus, what might have been considered a branch of the main stream of the local educational picture has now itself become a major part of the main stream. This rapid rate of growth places additional burdens on the present structure of the junior college. but more important, the sheer force of numbers has made it clear that a junior college educational pro- gram is no longer just a convenience. The junior college has rapidly become a necessary part of the educa- tional program of the Joliet area, Thus in one sense, the junior college, here and across the land, has come of age as a vital educational offering. ,Wan-Mihai

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In this industrial and agricultural DesPlaines Valley the Joliet Junior College has stood as a citadel of opportunity for all those who wanted to do more with their lives than they could simply grow into. Under- lying the philosophy of this college has been the idea that educational opportunity is important for all of the children of all of the people. Not all people want to grow intellectually, but those who do eventually decide that in order to become masters of their own destinies they must take charge of their own develop- ment by using the best resources at hand. Hundreds have turned to the Joliet Junior College for aid and guid- ance in growing as their own insights dictated. People have learned that here is a place where they can convert their wishes into action, that in order to convert ideas and materials into units of greater value they must accumulate more usable knowl- edge and be ambitious to act on it. The Joliet Junior College has kept as the foundation stones of its citadel of opportunity those early American traits so closely associated with our beginnings-equalitarianism, independence, honesty, inven- tivness, manliness or womanliness, and initiative. From these foundation stones have risen many areas of training and service. Thousands of people from this valley have touched these stones and have become gre at, each in his own way. This is the Joliet Junior College-Americas oldest public junior college. This is America in action.