Studies in Action

April 2, 2026

COCC students plug into a range of applied learning experiences, putting their training to work while impacting the world around them

A seven-person team led by the Oregon Glaciers Institute hikes across the Collier Glacier in the Cascades, a once-vast saddle of ice that bridged much of the western slope between Middle Sister and North Sister a century ago. They skirt the deep openings, peering in.

Milky blue just below the surface, then dimming into a dark cobalt deeper down, a gaping ice shaft — big enough to swallow a city bus — disappears into the glacier. The sight is stunning. But it’s also quite distressing.

Among them is geology student Carmyn Fortier of Central Oregon Community College. In a white climbing helmet and gripping a trekking pole in one hand and an ice ax in the other, she stares into the abyss of the large “moulin,” listening to the heavy meltwater. It sounds like water pouring through a colossal drainpipe.

Bored with a number of these moulins — deep tubes that funnel surface meltwater straight down, a process that can weaken and erode a glacier from beneath — the glacier is experiencing the continuing impacts of climate change. Its surface has less and less of an accumulation, so the melt-off exceeds the ice production.

The team includes faculty from the University of Oregon and COCC, eager to deploy a new portable laser that was recently developed at the university to gauge ice depth. The compact instrument — fitting into several camera cases — is aimed into the glacier and light reflected by the ice sheet is measured by a photon-counting detector. Fortier is participating through an independent research project at COCC, allowing her to earn college credit toward her geology-focused associate degree.

It’s an exciting day — but attached to a severe reality. At the conclusion of its statewide glacier monitoring project, the Oregon Glaciers Institute found that of the 50 glaciers that existed in the southern Cascades in the 1950s, only 27 still persist. Glaciers provide late-season cold water for streams and rivers, and that resource is vanishing fast.

While eye-opening on a climate-change level, the three-day research trip offered Fortier an enriching experience. She saw mountainous rock formations up close, learned from experts about glacial science, even slept on a windswept glacial forefield. “Staring into a deep moulin was absolutely mind-blowing,” she says. “It felt like something out of the BBC’s ‘Planet Earth.’”

At COCC, independent studies and working internships provide plentiful applied learning opportunities. They even connect students to the greater good of the communities they serve.

Some are optional, such as an internship recently completed by a public health student with the Jefferson County Health Department’s needle exchange program. Many others are required for degree or certificate attainment. These co-op work experiences, or “CWEs,” are diverse and immersive. They’re coordinated by individual programs and range from a nursing student receiving in-hospital training at St. Charles (a clinical, designed for health care fields) to a forestry student conducting bumblebee research with the U.S. Forest Service in the Ochocos (a practicum, designed for specific studies).

Of the 80 career and technical programs available at COCC, 30 currently require this kind of outside-the-classroom learning experience.

“Students get to see what they’ve learned come alive,” explains Roxie Supplee, criminal justice assistant professor and program director, whose students gain real-world practice at places like local police departments, sheriff’s offices and 911 dispatch. “I can teach a concept in many ways, but the real learning happens when students see it in action. It shows them the impact they can have in these fields.”

A recent graduate of the medical assistant program, Gabriel Shapiro discovered something else during his practicum experience, conducted at both St. Charles’ Cancer Center and Family Care Clinic: “I came to appreciate that even with returning to school in my late 30s, I could still absorb and execute new information and processes,” he shares. “I think it’s incredibly valuable to know that it’s never too late to endeavor on a new career adventure.”

Now a certified medical assistant with the Cancer Center, Shapiro gets patients prepped to see their provider, checking vitals, ensuring that all necessary labs or scans have been completed, even assisting with bone marrow biopsies. “What I find most gratifying is having the honored place of being a caregiver to individuals that may be going through the most difficult health challenges of their lives.”

As for Fortier, who hiked out upon the glacier, she went on to graduate with a geology degree from Oregon State University and now, this fall, heads to graduate school at Western Washington University.

Classes for COCC’s summer term begin June 22. Discover how you can put your studies into action at cocc.edu.