5/12/2024 via Google

5/12/2024
via Google

I attended Vernon college culinary program in WichitaFalls, Tx at Century City campus & my instructor was Erika Gitchell. This has had to be the worst experience as student I’ve ever had, especially as an African American/black student. Cooking is a hobby of mine that I love & enjoy. When I heard Vernon had a culinary program I was ecstatic & looking towards making cooking apart of my future. When I first started I had such an open mind, after the first month when we got to the Burkburnett campus my love for the class shortly changed. Erika had a very nice nasty attitude towards me, did not give the same attention she gave to the other students. There was also another African American student in the class that she began to treat worse & started pinning the rules that everyone agreed to against her BUT those same rules did not apply to the other students even though it was in the contract. She was very disrespectful towards her and soon kicked her out of the program. It should have been other students that got kicked out because of their attendance as well but she was very understanding and lenient with them. That was the first moment I realized I’m going to have to stay strong and ride this out & be on my best behavior. There was also an incident that happened that made me want to absolutely quit. A certain topic came up that is very inappropriate for a culinary class. A student referred to my race as “dark skinned” while discussing Juneteenth & Erika Gitchell looked at me agreeing with the student shrugged her shoulders & asked me the only black student in the class at the time, “what do you expect us to call you?” At that very moment I felt defeated & disrespected. What could I do? The reaction I wanted to give out could have costed me everything. What do I do ? I paid out of pocket for this program? I immediately took my issue up with andrea the student counselor. Andrea was still fairly new at the time, but she was helpful & empathetic, she couldn’t really do much for me or maybe she just decided not to. I feel that more action could have been taken. There was no apology & the incident was very inappropriate. Erika did not apologize she just was being overly nice for the next two days, which is your typical person that’s sees no wrong in their actions & won’t take accountability. This program was not only uncomfortable for me but it was not educational, it was truly a waste. I feel this group of students including me got the short end of the stick as far as educational purposes. Only thing I took from this class was how to make bread. In other words, if you are an African American student I do not recommend you take this class especially if Erika Gitchel is the instructor. She was very distasteful towards me & another student. I hope this can help or reach someone to make a better choice I sure wish that I did. It’s sad that we still have to deal with racism in 2024. Not only are these people police officers or nurses but they’re our teachers too.

7/30/2023 via Google

7/30/2023
via Google

Very helpful staff from the front door to where I needed to be. Clean facility with a beautiful open space. Nice place for a junior college in a medium-sized city.

2/1/2023 via Google

2/1/2023
via Google

Probably the worse colleges I’ve ever been to. I went to Vernon College because it was a community college, and it was a little bit cheaper. But the school was very fishy. For some odd reason they do not have you go to the financial aid off or va office to get your stuff done before enrollment or before class start. They try to cram everything together and it’s all messy. Because if this you have to wait in line and that takes up your whole day then they have you go be with the speaker. Listening to the speaker is unnecessary. All that time your with them and the new members you could have walked around the college to be familiar with the classes and rooms. Plus a lot of classes they give you some don’t even count as credit. I’ve had one class that was a computer class. The guy suggested it for me and that it’s part of my major course credit. After I had a death in the family I was having problems and I was waiting on books. Just to find out I didn’t even need the class. The credits didn’t count. I dropped out of that course but it messed up my aid because it was after the deadline. Don’t go here. They waste your money