Dr. Edythe Abdullah has been president of Florida Community College at Jacksonville’s Downtown Campus for four years but she has worked for the college for nearly 20 years.
“My first job at FCCJ was as an advisor and then I went to being an assistant dean and kind of up the ladder through a number of departments to this wonderful opportunity,” she said.
A native of Jacksonville, she went to Raines High School before attending Valparaiso University in Indiana to study religion. She also has a JD from the University of Florida.
She loves singing, jogging, and reading, and she is very passionate about improving the status of the Downtown campus.“I want it to be a vibrant, engaging education center that people feel comfortable, safe, and revitalized by,” she said.
Responsibilities?
”I have complete oversite of all of the operations of the campus including facilities, student success, instruction, nurturing and developing the entire staff, and creating, monitoring and evaluating the instructional programs and special projects that we offer. I also have college-wide responsibilities.”
Campus programs involved with?
“Some of the things I’ve been involved with are the Institute for Teacher Preparation and Development, the development of the Polytechnic Academy (our adult education program); a new Automotive Collision and Repair Center, which was developed over a year ago in conjunction with DuPont and Toyota; and the Cisco Academy Training Center in the Advanced Technology Center for network security and wireless training.
“We’ve created a new Computer Integrated Manufacturing Program to train technicians. We also have partnerships with GM dealers in the community and a national contract with Anheuser-Busch and other manufacturers in the area to further training for students in those organizations. I’m developing a Great Neighborhoods project to work with organizations in the community to do literacy training, entrepreneur training, and non-profit agency development.
“We have just received partnership with the Northeast Florida Builders Association and the National Home Builders Institute for the implementation and development of a career ladder program for construction workers in our Florida Construction Institute.”
Best part of job?
“I believe that there are two avenues to change a person’s life and one of those avenues is education, because education opens doors. The Downtown campus is very diverse. We have every kind of student you can imagine here, all different races and nationalities and income statuses seeking different degrees. There are over 109 countries represented on the Downtown campus, and we have over 3,400 non-native English speakers here.
“The best part of my job is I get to develop and offer to all different kinds of people the avenue to significantly change their lives and the lives of their children and their families because once you change that one life, everything else is forever changed. This job is a mission and a passion. You have to believe that education can make a difference, and you have to always be struggling to improve and enhance and expand what you are doing.”
Most challenging?
“The most challenging thing is how to manage the resources we have and how to bring in additional resources. Another challenge is getting coverage of FCCJ and how the Downtown campus isn’t a workforce urban school. People are a little afraid that we’re an urban campus even though we’re one of the safest campuses in terms of statistical reports on crime. Sometimes people look at this campus and think that we are not diverse in terms of offering university transfer and other kinds of programs because we have so many workforce programs. So, communicating how much we are capable of and how competent we are in what we do is a challenge.”
Inspired by?
“My college president, Steve Wallace, because he has such a passion for education, such a drive for quality and for reaching the people that can really benefit from what community colleges do and his belief that there is nothing to hard for his staff to do to improve this college and improve the community. He’s pretty awesome in terms of his energy, his brilliance, his drive and his commitment to education. The other person is (author) Maya Angelou. She inspires me because life did not kill the dreams that she dreamed. She did not have an easy life, but she had values, goals, and a passion, and she kept on moving and making a difference no matter what life dished out to her. She loves people too, it doesn’t matter who they are she loves them and believes we can all be one.”
Future plans?
“To open up the charter school, implement an affective alternative teacher certification program at all the campuses, create a early childhood education career ladder program that trains all levels of teachers and workers that work with kids to ensure that they have literacy skills and are prepared for success in college, and to turn this campus into an urban education center that has exceptional relationships with business and industry with community agencies with the churches and the city.”
Organizations?
“I am on the University of North Florida board, I’m a member of Bethel Baptist Institutional Church, Florida Association of Community Colleges, and a Leadership Jacksonville alumni. I’m also involved with Careers in Karate, a program that I and another colleague at FCCJ have created. We do homework assistance and teach karate to 40 kids in the community and raise scholarship funds for them.”
Final thoughts?
“It’s kind of an exciting time to live in Jacksonville because of all of the change and because I sincerely believe that FCCJ is really committed to being a part of those changes and creating really vibrant educated community. I’m really glad to have an opportunity to do that. I’m really glad to be here and be able to make a change.”
— by Carrie Resch