This story is part of a series marking the 50th anniversary of SUNY Jamestown Community College's Cattaraugus County Campus in Olean and its impact on the region. Visit sunyjcc.edu/News to read additional articles.
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Tammy Skroback has spent more than four decades of her life at SUNY Jamestown Community College.
She first arrived as a student in 1982, when the college was outgrowing its home in the former elementary school building on Homer Street. Today, the senior student services assistant in the Cattaraugus County Campus Success Center is preparing to mark 42 years as a JCC employee as the college celebrates its 50th anniversary in Olean.
for 42 years.
“You figure the time I went to college here and worked,” Skroback said, “it's way over half my life.”
Skroback earned two degrees from JCC, worked at the college as a student and stayed on after graduation as an employee at the Cattaraugus County Campus.
“It was very small and intimate,” Skroback said of the JCC experience at that time.
As a student, Skroback worked as a switchboard operator. After JCC moved downtown to the former Montgomery Ward department store, she was hired full time in 1985 to continue working the switchboard.
Skroback’s employment at JCC has been marked by movement. She transitioned from the switchboard to a secretary position in public relations, then to financial aid and eventually to her current position in the Success Center nearly 20 years ago.
She also spent two or three years commuting to JCC’s Dunkirk campus for work.
Today, Skroback helps students with placement testing, schedules appointments with counselors, and coordinates the campus’ annual transfer fair and student awards ceremonies.
“I really enjoy helping the students in the beginning and watching how shy and timid they are,” she said. “And by the time they graduate, they're a whole different person. I really enjoy that.”
Skroback’s commitment to JCC extends beyond her daily work. She has spent years as a member of the Cattaraugus County Alumni Association, including a term as president.
She makes sure to stay in contact with students she has met, following their careers and accomplishments while looking for future nominees for JCC’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.
“I enjoy the connections I've made,” she said. “I have some students that I'm still in touch with. My student employees that I've had over the years, I'm pretty much in touch with all of them. I'm going to say probably over half of them I have on my Facebook page. I talk to them and wish them a happy birthday when it's their birthday and keep up with what they're doing.”
As Skroback nears retirement, the next wave of Cattaraugus County Campus employees is carrying on her commitment to the college.
a friendly first point of contact for students.
They include Katherine Abrams and Kaitlyn Caya, student service-oriented specialists who consider themselves “the junk drawer employees” — in a good way.
“If you’re not exactly positive where something goes, ask Kaitlyn or Katherine,” Abrams said with a smile. “We’ll figure it out for you or probably do it. We have become a little bit like masters of everything.”
To which Caya added: “We know a little bit about a lot of things.”
Friendly and inviting, Abrams and Caya are stationed in the heart of the College Center building. Abrams, a financial aid and billing specialist, and Caya, a student services and business operations specialist, are often a first point of contact for JCC students who need help applying for financial aid, registering for classes, paying their bills, or finding another part of campus.
“I want to make sure our students know they can come here, and we’re here to help them, and we’re here to take as much time as we need to help them,” said Caya, a JCC employee for four years. “We never want them to feel like their questions are stupid or a waste of our time.”
Abrams, a 2013 JCC graduate who worked in the student services office while attending college, returned in 2021 after teaching at Bolivar-Richburg Central School. She feels the same connection to JCC as the graduates who have come back to see her two and three years later to chat and check in.
“This is not the career I thought I was going to have in life,” she said, “but one I love so much more than I ever thought I was going to.”
Much the same, it's the students who have kept Skroback at JCC for more than four decades.
“I like to help the students,” she said. “I want to see them succeed. I want to see where they're going to end up.”