Catherine Powell

As spring semester is coming to a close and graduation is approaching for much of the students, we will all be saying farewell to one of our very own Catherine Powell. Powell’s journey started at Chabot College in 1981 when she enrolled as a student and then got a job as a student assistant in the counseling department underneath the supervision of Judy Young. Powell loved her experience in both her classes and work.

Years later after Powell transferred to CSU Hayward and graduated,  she got married, was waiting to join the credential program with the plans to teach elementary school and start her family.  She later on decided that she wanted to work with adult learners. Knowing that she wanted to work with adults, Powell initially looked up jobs at Chabot College, remembering her experience as a student assistant.  

While being an Instructional Assistant at the Valley Campus, and after applying for several jobs at Chabot, Powell was hired in September 1989. She was hired as a full-time instructional assistant for the reading center under the wing of Arlene DeLeon.

Powell was a part of many programs. Her involvement included the Reading and Writing center which ended up evolving into the WRAC Center. With the WRAC Center came along  CAI for ESL classes which then lead to English classes. Powell’s main role was in assisting in classes that met up in the computer rooms, taking oversight of the tutors, the daily drop-in tutoring as well as English 115.

20 years after her involvement in English, she saw a new opportunity to become the Administrative Assistant to what was known before as Arts and Humanities. Powell was very excited about this new role that she was now taking on. Even though she was sad about missing her student’s, little did she know that Arts and Humanities would become a huge part of her life here at Chabot College.

As we go deeper into who Catherine Powell is and how greatly she impacted Chabot, let’s take a moment to recognize her for all of her achievements. She was a part of the college governance, and she was part of the group that had founded Chabot’s Classified Senate, served as a senator, secretary, president and currently representative to the senate, worked as a union officer and negotiated contracts.  Powell also participated in many college committees and severed as a co-chair of Staff Development Committee, PRBC and now PRAC. Lastly, she has received the Chancellor’s Award several times over the years, and one accomplishment that stuck out the most to her was back in 2009 when was she nominated and won the “Carlson Award.”

As we close out spring semester and finish the school year strong, Catherine Powell will be missed dearly, not only by the Chabot staff and all her colleagues but from all those students that she came across and made huge impacts on.  We thank you for everything you have done for us over the many years you’ve been at Chabot. We wish you well in your retirement. You will be missed and will always have a place here in our Chabot College Community.

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