General Equivalency Diploma (GED) is an alternative route to receive a high school diploma offered by the state of Illinois. It is offered to people who must leave or drop out of high school for a variety of reasons but want to come back to earn the GED because all jobs require at least a high school diploma, if not a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate degree.
Lake Land College (LLC) is offering the GED courses and exams through the Adult Education program. According to Deanna Clark, who is the current President of the Alternative Education Club on campus as well as a tutor in the Tutoring Center at Webb Hall “LLC offers the tests and free GED prep classes through the Adult Education program.”
Clark mentioned “Each test costs a student $36 to take for a total of $144. However, the Alternative Education club is currently running a fundraiser of selling goodie bags that include granola bars, chips, candy, stickers, and a Coke product (the only place on campus you can get Coke products due to the College’s deal with Pepsi) to offset the costs of the GED test.”
She further explained “The tests are offered through the proctoring center at the Tutoring Center in Webb Hall. The GED test consists of four sections, language arts, science, social studies, and math. Regarding the testing format of whether it is true/false, multiple choice, matching, essay, short answer, etc., it depends on each individual test.”
She stated that the Alternative Education Club “Is a club to support students who took an alternative path to Lake Land College, including but not limited to, GED/HSE, homeschooling, pathways, non-traditional or international students, but anyone else who wants support and fellowship is welcome to join!”
She cited “There are multiple class locations including Lake Land’s main campus, Effingham, and more. I do not have specific student counts as that is under Adult Education’s authority, but each class tends to have around 15-30 students from what I have heard.”
She clarified “The GED test is a government program so the same type of test offered here on campus is the same throughout the United States. The club is donating a total of $432 of our proceeds to the Opportunity Fund; a fund Mercury Bowen (They/Them) developed to help students who are facing financial barriers in education that are not inherently covered under regularly distributed scholarships.”
“They set aside a section in this fund for us to donate our funds to be used specifically for students pursuing their GED and others are welcome to do the same. Employees can set up automatic withdraw from their paychecks to be donated to this fund, (they can contact Mercury Bowen for specifics on how) and direct donations can be made through the LLC Foundation.”
“We have already received an overwhelming amount of support from staff, some even choosing to donate an entire test worth ($36) to the cause. The amount Alternative Education club is donating is enough for three full students to afford to take all four GED tests. We hope to see others choosing to donate to this cause as it is so close to our members. Many of us are GED graduates ourselves (me included.)”
Clark is currently a sophomore and majoring in environmental science. In addition to being the president of the Alternative Education club, she is also president of Phi Theta Kappa, an honor’s society program as well as being a tutor in the Tutoring Center.
Previously, she was a Navigator News reporter, president of the environmental science club, TRiO ambassador and international club member.
If interested in contributing to the Alternative Education (Al. Ed.) Club fundraiser, you can contact Deanna Clark by e-mail at [email protected] or by her work phone at 217-234-5277.
