TCC Magazine - Tacoma Community College

student
profile
What
keeps me
going is
the
support.
Earnestine Jenkins, a bus driver for the
Clover Park School District for 20 years,
is completing TCC’s Associate in Applied
Science degree in Logistics.
18 TCC Magazine Fall 2008
Transportation
and Secure Logistics
The answer
to a career
dilemma
Earnestine Jenkins is a people person. The 20-year
veteran bus driver for the Clover Park School District
also loves the freedom, variety and challenge of being
on the road. This year her route is special needs kids;
she picks them up at their homes and takes them to
their school and back again. It’s a job she especially likes.
“You learn to care about people and care about the
situation,” says Earnestine. “I think I have a knack
for working with people, and in this job there are lots
of personalities and needs.”
For eighteen months a couple years ago she also
worked in the bus dispatch office, filling in for a fellow
employee deployed to Iraq. “I loved dispatching,” says
Earnestine. “If I got another job that is one of the first
I would look at.”
Earnestine says she got into bus driving because she had
three boys and wanted to be home with them. “Driving
bus I could be there after school and in the summers.”
When her sons grew up and moved out, it became her
goal to stay on, and retire at 55 with 20 years on the job.
That was the old economy. Enter the new economy:
“Now I have 20 years on the job, but I’m 10 years from
retirement,” says Earnestine.
One Sunday a couple of years ago, Earnestine Jenkins
saw a story in the newspaper about a new program
at TCC. “It was a big spread about the relationship
between Tacoma Community College and the Port
of Tacoma,” said Earnestine. The story talked about
the need for people trained in distribution, shipping,
and logistics. “It said TCC offered a certificate and an
associate degree in Logistics.”