Presented by Seattle College Foundation
Advancements in AI are changing seemingly everything about our lives, from how we search on the internet to how we do our jobs. Yet, even as this technology changes big swaths of the workforce, vital jobs such as nursing, electrical work, early childhood education, social work, construction, and public health still demand more than AI can offer — human hands, hearts, and skills. Students looking for a pathway to these careers can find it at Seattle’s community colleges.
Forty percent of the city’s undergrads attend North, Central, or South Seattle Colleges.
Seattle Colleges students include Anouk Hayami. At 18, she has a passion for the water and is enrolled at the college’s Seattle Maritime Academy. Hayami said she is determined to one day travel the world as captain of a scientific research vessel.
Austie Colombe, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, recently earned his carpentry degree at Seattle Central’s Wood Technology Center. His goal: to be a meaningful part of solving our housing crisis.
After years in hospital admissions, Heather Bardsley aspired for a deeper role as a caregiver. Bardsley graduated from the Colleges’ nursing program in 2025. She pushed through the program even amid a grueling fight with breast cancer and soon will be working in an emergency room as a registered nurse.
It’s students like Hayami, Colombe, Bardsley and so many others who keep Seattle humming. But they can’t do it without support.
About half of Seattle Colleges students are people of color, many from communities long shut out of educational opportunity. Nearly half are the first in their family to go to college. One in five is a parent. Most come from families with less than half the income of University of Washington students.
While you can attend North, Central or South for only about $5,000 a year, tuition is far from the only cost for an education.
Students have to keep a roof overhead, put food on the table and gas in the car. Some need money to pay for childcare.
Enter our baseball team with a homerun idea.
A couple of years ago, while hosting the Major League Baseball Allstar Game, the Seattle Mariners stepped up to the plate by creating Stay in the Game. This initiative helps with scholarships, one-time emergency assistance, and program navigators who guide students down the most direct route to their desired credential. That helps students save time and money.
The Mariners planted the seed. Now others are helping it thrive, and every contribution makes this point: Seattleites are keeping faith with the future, using the latest technology where it makes sense, but also investing in uniquely human skills that have their own special role in keeping this a thriving city.
Learn more about the Seattle Colleges, and about Stay in the Game, here.
About the Seattle Colleges Foundation
The Seattle Colleges Foundation is an institutionally-related foundation serving North Seattle College, Seattle Central College, and South Seattle College. The Seattle Colleges Office of Advancement coordinates and conducts the Foundation's fundraising efforts districtwide to advance the Seattle Colleges mission.