Experience as a Gavilan student was a catalyst to working at the college

Published in the Aug. 19 – Sept. 1, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life

By Samantha Harmon

Linda-at-Gavilan-(3)

Photo by Marty Cheek
Linda Bernabe is the new instructional site director for Gavilan Community College’s campus in Morgan Hill.

When it comes to the ins and outs of education in Morgan Hill, Linda Bernabe is on her way to becoming the community’s resident expert. The El Salvador native moved to California — and straight to Morgan Hill — when she was 17 and began attending Live Oak High School. Now several years and a few degrees later, Bernabe has found a way to put her expertise to good use — serving as the new instructional site director for the Gavilan Community College campus in Morgan Hill.

After graduating from Live Oak, Bernabe knew she wanted to pursue a career in education. While her high school experience was a good one, she recognized that not all of her classmates felt the same way.

“I never had a problem as a student. I was lucky that I really liked school,” she said. “But I would see other students with a lot of potential fall through the cracks and not make it, especially within my community, which is the Latino community.”

A deep understanding of and commitment to the community led her back to Morgan Hill to start her career.

After receiving her associate degree from Gavilan, Bernabe transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where she continued her studies in education. While she has called a handful of other towns “home” temporarily, she has always felt a special connection to Morgan Hill.

“I did get to travel and see other places, and now I value how Morgan Hill keeps growing and the fact that it’s clean and you don’t have to worry about things like parking,” she said with a laugh. “After being in bigger cities like San Jose, you start to appreciate those little things.”

As Morgan Hill evolves and grows, the Gavilan site – located downtown at the Community and Cultural Center — is working to help the population do the same, by providing an accessible post-secondary education option to all residents. It is through this site that Gavilan provides Morgan Hill students with an affordable path to their associate degree and then the resources to transfer to a bachelor’s degree program, if they so choose. The site offers nearly all of the general education classes students need to receive their associate degrees, while providing Morgan Hill residents a reprieve from the constant commute to the Gilroy site or to other community colleges in the area.

Bernabe cites her own experience as a student at Gavilan as another catalyst for her decision to work in post-secondary education. “After my experience with an instructor here at Gavilan College, I thought, ‘This is a great population,’” she said. “Students who do come to college are there because they want to be, so you can probably work better with those students.”

Her drive to better the community that had given her so much as a student made the choice to work in administration that much easier for Bernabe, who enjoys being able to support the students outside of the classroom.

“The work teachers do is amazing, but I work better in administration, knowing all the things that happen behind the scenes, because there are a lot of regulations and mandates that we have to follow,” she said. “Knowing all of those things makes it easier to give the best service to the students.”

Although she believes Gavilan is an invaluable resource, Bernabe knows there are challenges ahead in her position. Students who are already enrolled in classes do not take full advantage of resources like tutoring, librarian visits, or on-site counselors, which could ultimately mean canceling those resources, while potential students from Morgan Hill opt to attend community college in other parts of the Bay Area, which leads to class cancellations.

These challenges do not scare Bernabe. She welcomes them as opportunities to grow and reach deeper into the community.

“I wasn’t always a model citizen (of Morgan Hill), so this position is making me do that,” she said. “Now I know some members of the Chamber of Commerce and local government, so it’s really nice to know what’s happening, how decisions are being made, and to be up-to-date on the changes the city is going through. It has been really rewarding in that sense, and is pushing me in the right direction.”