WRRC-Funded Research Projects Produce Results

Arizona has a special resource to help prepare its students for the increasing number of positions to be opening up in the field of hydrology. In what is a unique commitment for a community college, GateWay Community College in Phoenix offers two water study programs: Hydrologic Studies and Water Technologies. GCC is one of the few community colleges in the nation offering such programs.

GCC got involved in hydrologic studies in the early 1990s when the U.S. Geological Survey provided funding and equipment to enable the school to offer training to help fill the agency’s need for hydrologic technicians. In response, GCC developed an Associate in Applied Science Degree in Water Resources Technology. Students were prepared for careers in the USGS, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Arizona Department of Water Resources and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.

About 1997, in efforts to better respond to expanding training needs, GCC broadened its curriculum, which was highly specialized at that time to serve USGS, to better address the needs of state agencies, municipalities, counties and engineering firms. The curriculum was revised, with the program renamed Hydrologic Studies. A water purification program also was established.In an effort to further serve emerging needs, GCC established at this time an ultra-pure water program to fill positions in the robust semiconductor industry. The training in membrane and ion exchange technology helped the industry meet its critical need for workers in ultra-pure water plants.

GCC’s continued partnership with USGS provides a national scope to the college’s program; GCC serves as a national feeder school for the federal agency. GCC Water Program Director Lisa Young says, “Our students work nationwide in hydrology. We have students in North and South Carolina, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, California and, of course, Arizona along with a number of other states. We are filling a nationwide need.

“The USGS was here last week and reported a need for hundreds of hydrological technicians over the next five years, and there are only three schools to fill the need with on-the-job training.”

The other schools serving a similar need as GCC are Spokane Community College in Washington state and Vermilion Community College in Minnesota. VCC is a sort of sister school to GCC, with USGS having established hydrologic study programs at both colleges. The two schools meteorologically complement each other; GCC is located in the desert and VCC prepares students for work in colder climates.
Young says, “We placed a student in Minnesota who had never been in the snow. USGS paid the student to go there during winter break to experience what it is like to work in the snow. But most of our students are not looking for employment in cold climates. So USGS worked with Vermilion to create a program to fill the needs of the northern US.”

Whether it is the warm weather or its distinctive hydrological offerings, GCC draws students from around the United States. Young says that although GCC’s primary objective is to recruit students from Maricopa County, students come from various areas, including Alaska, Colorado and New Hampshire.
One option GCC students have is to continue work toward a four-year degree. Young says she is working to arrange articulation with NAU and UA, to enable GCC students to transfer directly into upper division course work. She says some of GCC students have transferred into university programs of engineering and geography.

GCC’s steppingstone role works two ways, preparing students for upper division work but also providing students who have degrees and want to broaden their educational background a steppingstone for taking GCC courses.

Young says, “What is unique about our program is that often students with biology, chemistry, geography or geology bachelor degrees, even masters degrees — sometimes in natural resources planning — come to us for the application part of it. We fill a need for hands-on training (that) complements their university education.”

Young says determining the actual number of students in the programs is difficult since students take different paths, with some working full-time and taking a single class per semester while others attend class full-time. Some students complete a program in one-and-a-half years while others take six years. Many students split the program taking classes in both the Hydrology Program and the Water Technology Program.

GCC is meeting a hydrological training need at a propitious time. A generation of leaders and workers in the water field, making up what is in effect a contingent of baby boomers, will be retiring in the next ten years. Young says the training need is acute; a lot of the folks retiring have upper-level positions, with lots of institutional knowledge.

Young says, “The institutional knowledge that will be leaving when that generation retires is really quite extraordinary. We need to be sure that people are trained and have the time to spend with these people before they retire.”

For information about GCC’s programs check http://environment.gatewaycc.edu/