Spotlight on Ohlone
NUMMI Students
By Andrew Cavette, Staff writer.
Thursday, December 6, 2007 — Monitor.
If Tseten Dolkar looks like she hasn’t had much sleep, she can be forgiven. A student at Ohlone College, Dolkar also works full-time at the NUMMI automobile plant in Fremont.
“It is absolutely crazy,” Dolkar said, “I don’t recommend it to anyone who needs to get a lot of sleep and cannot sacrifice their weekends because you have to be really well-planned with your schedule.”
Dolkar is now in her second year at Ohlone and though she did have to drop one class, she said, “I’m so grateful to be in school right now. When I’m at work, I’m thinking about school.”
Dolkar is not the only student to balance a full workload at Ohlone while working at the auto plant. In fact, Ohlone has a long-standing history of collaboration with the NUMMI plant. The NUMMI Theater in the Smith Center is named after the plant.
President Doug Treadway recently visited NUMMI to speak with them about contributing to the capitol campaign for the Newark center. According to Treadway, Ohlone once offered enough courses at the plant for workers to get an associate degree. Ohlone would send professors to the NUMMI plant to teach the courses onsite. The program ended two years ago due to budget constraints.
Dolkar is currently a temporary worker at the plant. Like many of her coworkers she is contracted for a six-month stint before NUMMI decides if they want to hire her more permanently. She said she enjoys working at the plant, but is also keenly aware of the time constraints it puts on her life.
Dolkar said, “You have to prioritize. You learn along the way the things that are really important: school, work and your health. You are managing your time, no one is telling you what to do [with your own schedule]. If you slack off at school you suffer grade wise. If you slack off at work they might not call you back.”
There was a period last year when Dolkar got out of class at 3:20 p.m. and had to be working on the line at 4:30, which meant she often had to be at the plant by 4 p.m. in order to be ready to work. She said the timing was difficult.
In Dolkar’s experience the Human Resources Department at NUMMI has been very helpful in accommodating her school schedule.
She said, “Everyone is really supportive. Everyone who knows I’m going to school asks me constantly about how I’m doing [in my classes]. Because I’m going to school, HR is willing to work with me on minimizing my [work] hours. It’s a huge plant, but after all it is made up of people.”
Dolkar said she is going to college so that she will not need to work at the plant forever. She often reminds herself “It’s either school or this. I’m lucky; for some people they have no other options. Go to school, get your degree because if you don’t go to school, this is what you’re going to be doing for the rest of your life... until time gives up or your body gives up.”
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