In the farthest corner of the Agriculture-Allied Health building, you will find four ladies wearing t-shirts that read “There. Their. They’re not the same.” who are ecstatic about English.

Louise Torkelson, Jean Dederman, Debbie Deming-Heineman and Doris Wilson make up a team of teachers who run the Transitional English department at Northeast Community College.

Northeast provides Transitional English and Transitional Math to students as an opportunity to reach college level skills in reading, writing and math before being forced into regular college level classes. These courses allow the students to move seamlessly into regular college programs. The goal is to be able to make this transition in just one semester.

The classes are offered to students who seem to be struggling or that may have low-test scores in a specific area, however; they are also offered to non-traditional students who are returning to Northeast and may want to “brush-up on their skills.”

According to National Statistics, 20% of the population needs extra assistance in English courses.

Northeast also offers the Transitional English Writing Support course, which provides students in regular core college classes to receive weekly assistance with their writing assignments and speeches.

According to Torkelson, former students report that they were able to save time, and received a higher grade in their core college cases by having this weekly support.

Although many students do not know about these courses, these ladies have been working together for almost 20 years, helping students to make their transition easier.

If you are interested, contact Louise Torkelson at (402) 844-7346, or stop by the Transition Lab: room 238 in AAH, Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m.