Coming to Bellevue College

 

As students of Bellevue College, we have decided to make a blog detailing certain aspects of our schools culture and practices.  People who are not familiar with institutionalized education may find some of our daily practices odd.  We hope that explaining our reasoning behind these certain rituals may lead a person from a non-institutionalized school background to a better understanding of our culture. 

 

 

 

Welcome to Bellevue College, a beautiful campus located in the heart of Bellevue, Washington.  Bellevue College has an annual enrollment of 37,000 students, and has the highest transfer rate to four year colleges in Washington State at nearly 10%.  Bellevue College was founded as Bellevue Community College in 1966.  In 2009, the people of Bellevue changed the name to Bellevue College.  Bellevue College teaches lessons inside different buildings that are differentiated between by letters (see below).

 

 Within this building are different "classrooms" where instruction from a teacher takes place at a certain time on specific days.  Timeliness is of utmost importance to Bellevue College.  Located within each classroom is a clock to ensure that lessons run along on a timely schedule (See below).

 

 

Clocks are located in every room of every building with the exception of the bathrooms.  It is considered to be very important to your success as a student to arrive on time to classes or other appointments.  To ensure that one arrives in the correct place at the correct time, maps are located throughout the campus to help guide students.

 

 

 As you can see, there are many different buildings on the campus.  Each building holds different classrooms that teach different subjects of study.  Most of the time, a student will have classes in more than one building in a day.  When a student has to move from one building to another, they generally walk.

 

 

Here we see real Bellevue College students walking from one building to another as they change classes!

 

 

There is much diversity at Bellevue College, we have people from many different countries with differing cultural backgrounds.  BC enrolls nearly 1,700 International students annually from over 65 countries. Classes are taught in English most of the time but people can also choose to take classes that teach them other languages such as Spanish, French, Japanese, and many more!

 

 

When students are in class, they are sitting in a "desk" which are situated in rows and columns all facing the front of the class.  The "teacher" stands at the front of the class to teach the lesson to the students.  Out of respect to the teacher and peers, when a student has a question, he or she will "raise their hand" and wait to be called on by the teacher before he or she speaks.  Talking any other way while the lesson is being taught is looked down upon.

An up close picture of a "desk" a Bellevue College student will sit it for class.  The desks are not made specifically for each student, but have more of a "one size fits all" type of design.

 

 

While most lessons are taught in class, teachers choose to supplement the curriculum with "homework".  This additional class work is designed to be done at home.  Students, however, can choose to do this work at home by themselves, or they can join a study group.

 

 

Students at Bellevue College often form groups with similar study interests called "Study Groups".  In this "study group", students will go over a common subject such as Science or Math and work together to create a better understanding of that subject.  Below is an example of a Spanish study group.

 

 

Everyone in the group may bring a different skill set to the group which can help bring a better understanding to the group as a whole.  There are many different types of groups at Bellevue College besides the "study groups".  Some of these groups do not even learn about their classes while in these groups.  One type of group that does not learn about their classes while at Bellevue College is called a "sports team" (pictured below). 

 

Students at Bellevue College join "teams" to participate in "sports" for other students and members of the community to watch.  Every individual on this "team" is assigned a number and a position to play on a "field" or some other type of sports arena.

 

Bellevue College has a "mascot", which is an animal or a person that represents a school and usually is the "team" name.  The mascot for Bellevue College is a bulldog named Brutus (pictured below). 

 

 

As you can see, Brutus is not a real dog.  Brutus is a person in a dog suit.  The person inside the dog suit goes to the sporting events for the school and runs around making a spectacle of him or herself to the enjoyment of the crowd.  This then makes the crowd in higher spirits and more excited for their team.

 

 

 Students do not usually live near the Bellevue College campus so it is necessary to take different forms of transportation to school.  Students often come to class by driving a car, where they then store their car in a "parking lot" for the duration of their time at Bellevue College.  The parking lots are vast fields full of concrete.  The white lines help students to park their car in a proper space to ensure that as many cars as possible can be stored in the "parking lot".

 

If a student does not possess a car, a bus may be used for transportation to and from the Bellevue College Campus.  The bus has different "stops" throughout the campus.  This is where the bus stops it self and people walk off and proceed to walk the rest of the way to their class. 

 

If students cannot afford to drive to school or ride a bus, and they live close to the campus, they will walk or ride a bike.  Bikes have their own storage space (picture below).

 

 

 

As you can see, the bikes have locks placed around the storage space and the bike itself to deter theft.  As you will see, bikes are not the only thing kept safe by locks at Bellevue College.

 

 

 

 Often times students will purchase drinks from a vending machine.  This can include water as well.  Many students also choose to bring water or other drinks from home or drink from other water sources.  You can pay for the water with cash, or you can use a credit card (below). 

 

 

This particular device is called an "ePort" it's purpose is to extract money from a distant "bank account" and to trade it for a beverage. The people at the college use the money, ePort, and bank accounts to trade for things.

 

 Many years ago tools like this pencil sharpener were used every day. Today people choose to use computers to type out their notes instead using pencils and paper. If a student doesn't have a computer they will typically use a mechanical pencil instead that doesn't require sharpening.

 

Most students on campus will carry a laptop computer with them to do work in class. This is a portable electronic device that stores information.

 

Rather than carrying around all your belongings you can store them in these lockers.  The lockers use devices called "padlocks" on the outside to help keep the items safe from being stolen.  People at Bellevue College do not really trust one another.  Even the closets in the class are locked!

 

 

 

A way that teachers convey information to students is to "project" it onto a wall.  This makes faster for the teacher to give more information.  They do not have to write something over and over again.  Instead, the information can be used time and time again.  The above picture shows two types of projectors.  The top projector is an antiquated system that is generally not used by Bellevue College instructors anymore.  Instead, the projector below is hooked up with a  series of cables to a computer and the information on the computer can be conveyed to all of the students in the class at one time.

This device is called a telephone.  To use it, you must deposit a certain amount of money into a change slot.  If the amount of money is correct, you may then press a series of numbers to reach a person or building on another phone somewhere else.  Every  person or building has a unique set of numbers that represents them.  The funny thing is, most people do not use this type of telephone anymore.  This is considered an antiquated system because you are required to stay in one spot while speaking to the other person or building.  Below, you will see what we call a cell phone.

 

Why is this woman so happy, you ask?  Because she can move about freely on her cellular phone!  Cellular phones work the same way as the telephone above except that instead of paying per use, you usually pay a monthly fee to a company that allows you to connect to other people or buildings using the unique number sets whenever you like.  Most students at Bellevue College use this type of phone when attempting to communicate with other people or buildings. 

 

 



 

 

This is an elevator. It is a steel box on various suspension cables that rises and falls according to the push of a button. The conundrum lies in that, next to  this very box, there were stairs. People at the campus seem to insist on having this elevator even where stairs are available. One can only assume they use it for those who cannot walk.

 



The Library is a curious place. Everywhere on this campus, one must trade money for whatever one wants, yet at this Library, students can just borrow books. The friendly library assistance helps locate and catalogue the books that are borrowed.

 



 This device is a portal for the passing of heated air. The need for heated areas and comfort stem from the technology that surrounds this culture. Everywhere you look there are computers, cell phones, music devices, electronic books and pads, portable computers, calculators and all sorts of gizmos. Maintaining the rooms at certain temperatures helps these devices work correctly.