Loyal Allen Jr. is on a mission to make Highline College more accessible to residents all across the Northwest coast, even though it’s already considered to be one of the most diverse community colleges in the state of Washington.
Allen is the director of Workforce Education Service, a department at Highline that offers funding and other support services to students who want to retrain for a new career, earn a high school diploma or study English as a Second Language.
For Allen, who attended Highline College as a track star and later earned his bachelor’s degree from Seattle University, the opportunity to return to his alma mater to help students realize their dreams has been most gratifying.
“Students trust the rest of the staff and myself to work for them,” says Allen. “It’s an open door policy and (we) don’t want to turn away any student, or any community member, without giving them something.”
Over the years, Allen has become a visible cheerleader for the college, bringing Highline’s resources to bear to help poor and working-class communities access education and workforce opportunities.
The issue is intensely personal for Allen, a first-generation college graduate.
He watched his mother slowly transition from a low-income job to stabilizing herself in the middle-class while working at COSTCO so that she could support his endeavors as a student-athlete.
