Successful Cape Cod Community College Alumni Share Key Lessons
by Olivia Williams
Sprinkled throughout Cape Cod and beyond, from behind the desk at the Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank to the halls of Cape Cod Regional Technical High School, are people who share something in common. Each is a successful graduate of Cape Cod Community College (4C’s). Kareem Sanjaghi, Erin Orcutt, and Tammy Glivinski came to Cape Cod Community College in different ways. For Sanjaghi and Orcutt, it was straight out of high school, with Orcutt “working full-time and taking classes around that, literally running to campus and back.” Glivinski “had a longtime and well-established career in accounting management” while she was taking classes, and also raised three daughters.
For Sanjaghi, the flexibility 4C’s offered meant that he could study during the day and focus on his passion for playing the drums at night, allowing him to get his Associate’s Degree and a metaphorical “music degree.”
Kareem Sanjaghi
Orcutt loved how the college enabled her to stay on Cape Cod and build that life that she wanted at home which paralleled how Glivinski was thankful that the college gave her the opportunity to complete her studies while not neglecting her other priorities.
All three alumni went on to further their education and future at a four-year college. After graduating from 4C’s, Sanjaghi got a degree in economics at Boston College and now works as a mortgage loan officer at Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank. Orcutt moved on to Bridgewater State University, where she obtained a master’s degree in finance and accounting. Six years later, she got another master’s degree, this time in educational leadership, and is now a business administrator at Cape Cod Regional Technical High School.
Glivinski went from the community college to Suffolk University, where she got a bachelors’ degree in business administration before founding and becoming president of Glivinski Associates, an accounting practice with fourteen accountants and bookkeepers.
All three people trace their success directly back to Cape Cod Community College and stress the passion and accessibility of the professors. Sanjaghi says he appreciated the personal approach that they had in their classrooms. Sanjaghi was especially inspired by his philosophy professor, Dan McCullough, who stressed the importance of learning everyone’s names, a lesson Sanjaghi remembers as he goes to work at Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank.
“You have the amazing benefit of professors from all walks of life,” Orcutt says.
Erin Orcutt
This diversity extends beyond the college employees. “You can find anyone at 4C’s. It was an open door for everyone,” Sanjaghi says. It was these close relationships that taught Orcutt what she considers to be one of her biggest life lessons: to open herself up “to learning with diverse populations and appreciating the knowledge of other people.” Glivinski also stresses the importance of “communication and collaboration in order to achieve together much more than one can achieve alone.”
The only negative aspect of the community college experience mentioned was the stigma that can be attached to it.
“There’s a little bit of stigma, especially when your friends are going away to big schools,” says Orcutt. Sanjaghi adds, “If this college was picked up and dropped into New York City, it would [recieve] a different response…People don’t understand the value of community college.”
Sanjaghi isn’t sure whether he would have gotten into Boston College at the end of his high school career. “I do know I got in with my success at community college.”
“4Cs was everything I needed,” says Orcutt, calling it an “undervalued resource” that raised her confidence. She says that her experience at Cape Cod Community College helped her to evolve from a shy girl to a woman who now spends her time speaking in front of select boards and committees and mentoring other people, someone who is confident enough to handle millions of dollars.
Glivinski agrees: “The management- and people-skills experience I gained from attending classes and labs at 4Cs [was] a great benefit to my career.”
Tammy Glivinski
Because of 4C’s, Glivinski says, “I have become a life-long learner, a critical thinker, a better listener [and] more open to others’ thoughts and opinions.” Sanjaghi, Orcutt, and Glivinski emphasized their gratitude for the experiences they had at Cape Cod Community College. “I have a vivid memory of the pride I felt at graduation,” says Orcutt.
“Your education will open doors that you never dreamed possible,” Glivinski says. “Every degree you earn is yours to keep forever. It is a badge of honor that no one can take away. The value of your education is priceless and you will never regret the sacrifices you make to earn it.”
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