Rothman's commitment to SMC

Though Vicki Rothman's stint playing Donald Trump for "Career Island Apprentice" was shorter than anticipated after protesters crashed the job fair, she is far from being permanently discouraged. After all, she's a roll-with-the-punches kind of Career Service Center faculty leader.
Take the status quo of student body employment, for instance. Rothman has just co-designed and offered a brand new class for SMC students to sharpen their on-the-job skills called Counseling 16. It is an eight-week exploration of employee essentials such as working relationships with other people, responsibility, time management and teamwork.
"I got a VTEA grant a few years ago to do research on job retention," said Rothman. "One of the areas that the college was scoring low on through the state was that it didn't look like our students were able to retain their jobs."
With that in mind, Rothman set out to identify what successful employees practiced at the workplace in order to develop a comprehensive course of study.
This is serious business to Rothman, who is concerned along with other faculty members that SMC students are going out into the world unprepared to tackle professional pursuits. So, armed with a master's in career counseling from Cal State Northridge, and plenty of practice as an academic and career counselor at SMC, Rothman was chosen to come up with a plan, and Counseling 16 was the result.
Another project that Rothman helped to orchestrate since she came to SMC in 1989 as an intern and was subsequently hired, was the integration of career counseling with the then-separate job center.
The result is what is now known as the Career Services Center, which is where she received her title of faculty leader after completing the year's worth of research that it took to make the center a reality.
"I really have a sense of commitment to this student population because this is the time when people are developing and maturing, or re-engaging in education, or returning, or whatever it is, and I just think that this is really an important part of someone's life," said Rothman. "I chose to be in college specifically because of the kinds of people that are here. I love helping them. I love when I teach. I love my students."
Rothman believes that she sets a good example for her own three sons by working, and sharing her day-to-day experiences with them.
She also makes time for "fun outdoor family activities" including bicycling, hiking, and swimming in the ocean. She said that she is lucky to have flexible hours that allow her to spend time with her family. She also said that she got lucky in love.
"I'm incredibly, incredibly, lucky in the choice that I made in a husband," Rothman said. "He seriously inspires me on a daily basis. He's an amazing partner, an amazing parent, and he has confidence in me all the time."

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