Meet our New College & Career Navigator: Patty Villar!
San Mateo Adult School now has something new to help you move forward, one step at a time, to make your college and career dreams come true: a College and Career Navigator!
What does “navigator” mean? A navigator is the person who finds the way. Ships and airplanes and exploration teams have navigators. The navigator checks the maps and looks ahead to find the best way forward. Our navigator will help ESL students find the best way forward to college and career.
Who is our new College and Career Navigator? Some of you already know her. She is Patty Villar. She has been our English Learner Specialist, helping students register for ESL classes and giving them orientation tours and taking them on trips to visit College of San Mateo. As many students know, Patty is a very kind and organized person. She has helped many students at our school.
In her new role as Navigator, Patty will help students with their transitions to career and college. Her goal is to make their path clear and smooth, helping students map out the best route to their destinations. She will help students set career and academic goals and find the support they need, on or off campus, to reach them.
She will also stay in touch with students after they move on to college or career. Sometimes when we try new things, we meet new obstacles. Patty will be there for advice and support if that happens.
You might wonder about Patty’s own college and career path. Patty is a “local girl.” She grew up in San Mateo and went to Hillsdale High School. She went to the College of San Mateo for two years while working at a bank. From there she transferred to the College of Notre Dame in Belmont where she got a degree in business and economics. She worked in the corporate world for a while as an IT person at a consulting firm. And then she moved into the world of education, working in administrative support at Notre Dame and then College of San Mateo. As you can see, Patty knows a lot about our local community, colleges, and careers. Like many SMASrs, she also knows about family. Patty is a working mom to three sons.
Her new office will be in Room 28, where Distance Learning is now. Until she is officially moved in, she will be at her usual desk in the Smart Center, where she will help the new English Learner Specialist learn their job.
Patty will be at work during the Summer Break. In the Fall semester, she will work Monday through Friday, including one evening a week - probably Tuesday evening. Most days, she will work from 8 am to 4 pm.
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