After serving the Foothill-De Anza community for over 30 years, Stephanie Pham, Academic Skills Center program coordinator of the Student Success Center, will retire at the end of this year.

Pham’s position consists of hiring student tutors for fellow students who are interested in a little extra support throughout the course of their studies.

Pham said she was happy to be able to support students in their academic journeys over the past five years. The relationships she developed with the tutors were also memorable.

“We are fortunate that we have such a wonderful group [of students] who are very committed, hardworking and smart,” said Pham.

Pham said the decision to retire was not easy, because she did not feel ready to. But given De Anza’s current layoffs and budget cuts, she decided that retiring early was the best choice for her and her colleagues.

Pham will receive a pension package once she retires.

She said she would continue looking for work with hopes to return to De Anza as a temporary employee in the near future.

“I love to work at De Anza,” Pham said, “with the experience that I have, I feel strongly that I am able to help and support the students here.”