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| Gearing up for hybrid cars, fuels |
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In 2003, the U. S. Department of Energy estimated there were 930,538 vehicles running on an alternative fuel or a gasoline/diesel hybrid. With that number on the rise, the need for certified technicians for these vehicles is on the rise as well. (read entire story here...) |
| Father, daughter chart career paths at KVCC |
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Neither Gordy Boelman nor his daughter, Katie, expected their backyard conversations under the stars would translate into walking down the hallways of Kalamazoo Valley Community College, saying “Hi!” as they passed on their respective ways to classes. (read entire story here...) |
| Father-daughter duo travel different roads to KVCC degrees |
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With a last name starting with S, how did Darryl Salisbury move to the front of the line to become Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s first graduate in 1969? A false start at Western Michigan University and time in the Air Force when he enrolled in the extension program at the University of Maryland is how, he said. When KVCC welcomed its pioneer class in the fall of 1968, he enrolled with an accumulation of credits. “I graduated ahead of my class and went back to Western.” Like father, like daughter — almost. (read entire story here...) |
| Crossing to Jordan |
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It was a job in a shoe store — not a bolt from the blue — that inspired Cassandra Hunter to join the Peace Corps. Hunter, who graduated from KVCC in 1999, traveled to Jordan on July 7 to begin a two-year stint in the Peace Corps. She says she still remembers the conversational couple that piqued her interest in this altruistic agency, which was founded in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. (read entire story here...) |
From life’s potholes to a full ride to K-College:
A Tribute to Mentoring |
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Without mentors, Anthony Norris says he wouldn’t be where he is today – 41, but feeling like 20, a regular attendee at Narcotics Anonymous meetings and embarking on a four-year scholarship to Tulane University. It’s why, speaking during his KVCC commencement in May, he implored the audience to become mentors. (read entire story here...) |
| For Debbie Ball-Borton, CareerSource did its job – forging a career |
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After 20 years in sales, Debbie Ball-Borton is used to mixing it up in the business world. She faced the biggest challenge of her life, however, last winter when she stepped in front of a classroom to begin a new career as a teacher. “I may be 43, but I felt just as scared as if I was 22,” says Ball-Borton, who walked, wobbly-kneed, into Hastings High School last January to begin four months of student teaching. (read entire story here...) |
| It’s still a wired world, thanks to ‘Elec Tech’ |
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In a world that seems to be becoming increasingly wireless, it’s still good to know how to be wired and how all of that works. With that in mind, KVCC’s program in electrical technology has added a new hands-on course to train the current and next generation of “Cable Guys and Gals.” (read entire story here...) |
Karate, Kids and Calculus
It’s Sheila Eisenhauer’s World |
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Sheila Eisenhauer confessed that if she didn’t have her husband and children, she’d still be a student in karate. Yet, if she hadn’t worked toward her black belt in the first place, she might never have met her husband. “I haven’t trained in a quite a while,” Eisenhauer said, “but I would like to start again and train my daughter.” (read entire story here...) |
| Washington Post reporter ‘discovers’ community colleges |
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It is time for a shameful confession. Despite all I have written about college admissions, college lessons and college life, there is one higher-education topic I almost never touch. That is community colleges. I am not alone. My newspaper rarely writes about these two-year institutions that prepare students both for jobs and for transfer to four-year universities. The other newspapers and magazines I read rarely write about them. Television? Forget it. (read entire story here...) |
Careers in HVAC
They’re cool, they’re hot, and they go with the flow |
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Unless global warming throws the planet’s climate completely out of whack, folks in Miami and Phoenix will always want that chilled air circulating in their homes during the dog days of summer, and their friends in Michigan and Chicago will need its heated counterpart to beat back the arctic winds of winter. (read entire story here...) |
| Meet Trio, the canine caregiver |
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The healing effects of the human-canine bond are well known. But experiencing that bond through the work of a therapy dog is a special affair. KVCC English instructor Vikki Dykstra and her dog, Trio, have teamed up to share that experience with resident. (read entire story here...) |
| Sleeping in Seattle, she travels all over teaching software |
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If you don’t know where you are going, you will most likely end up some place else. That has never been an issue for KVCC graduate Katie Conor. She knew exactly where her road would lead while she was still in high school. (read entire story here...) |
| The power of mentoring points to dream of exciting career |
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Instead of a more traditional career in “office work,” Charity Kolhoff of Otsego is exploring a more exciting line of work in electrical technology.
And much of the credit goes to a wired world of mentoring she was connected to via the family of her boyfriend. (read entire story here...) |
| The care and feeding of Michigan’s manufacturing economy |
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The face of today’s manufacturing worker is that of a person with hand-eye coordination who likes to build things, can surf the Internet with ease, and navigate safely through video games and other computerized technologies. Compare that to the Age of the Baby Boomers when a strong back, nimble fingers, the ability to work long hours at repetitive tasks without complaint, and no more than a high school diploma could elevate a worker to the middle class. Brain power has replaced brawn power. (read entire story here...) |
| Eureka! Dan Williams found it at KVCC |
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If education opens the door to understanding oneself, then Dan Williams, born in 1957, found the key late in life and has learned a lot about himself. It’s led to several degrees, including one from the University of Chicago, a rewarding career, and parenting a daughter through college. (read entire story here...) |
What's the Future?
A workforce shortage or a skills deficit? |
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Baby Boomers have been throwing their weight around for years now, and that trend will continue as they shift that weight out of the labor market. What this transition means for students and other job seekers has elicited a variety of projections and opinions. The recent book “Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People,” interpreting Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, forecasts a major labor shortage in the United States by 2010. It estimates there may be as many as 10 million more jobs available than there are people in the workforce at that time. (read entire story here...) |
| Screening center will also screen for biotech careers |
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With the Kalamazoo area positioning itself to be a hub in the state’s efforts to become a world leader in biotechnology and life-science enterprises, the KVCC Michigan Technical Education Center (M-TEC) will be home to unique educational opportunities in these fields. The Michigan High Throughput Screening Center will be operational during the 2005-06 academic year in the college’s M-TEC near the Texas Township Campus. More people can solve the Pythagorean theorem, crack the DaVinci Code, and figure out Rubik’s Cube than know what a high throughput screening center is. (read entire story here...) |
| Worker climbing back in life after three-story fall |
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It was October of 2002 when Scott Chamberlain had a life-changing experience. Falling nearly three stories while working on a construction project in Oshtemo Township, he reached for anything he could grab to break his fall. The effort was futile. Everything he grabbed gave way, and he crashed to the ground in an instant, suffering severe damage to the right side of his body and face. (read entire story here...) |
| Service Learning – field trips with a message |
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Remember those field trips for fun learning back in elementary grades? Those kinds of experiences, which today are grouped under a national concept called “Service Learning,” carry more than a few kicks. They pack a powerful message. (read entire story here...) |
| Profiles: |
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| PROGRAMS OF STUDY |
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Arts &
Communication |
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Arts and communication careers are related to humanities and the performing, visual, literary and media arts. These careers are interesting to people who value creativity, are imaginative and innovative, enjoy communicating new ideas to others, are skilled writers, and/or seek self-expression through singing, dancing or acting. (see course list here...) |
| Business, Management, Marketing & Technology |
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These careers are related to all aspects of business including accounting, business administration, finance, information processing and marketing. They require leadership, organizational, math, computer and sales aptitudes and skills. (see course list here...) |
| Engineering/ Manufacturing & Industrial Technology |
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Working with tools, equipment and other kinds of machinery is important to people in these careers. These highly educated and skilled employees are results-oriented, accurate, curious, inventive, hands-on and self-motivated. (see course list here...) |
| Health Sciences |
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These careers are related to the promotion of health as well as the treatment of injuries and disease. They are best suited for those wishing to work with people and those who care about helping others. Examples of careers in this pathway are physicians, nurses and dental hygienists. (see course list here...) |
| Human Services |
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Careers in Human Services include the areas of child care, civil service, education, hospitality and the social services. Valued and respected workers in this pathway include counselors, teachers, religious leaders, and public safety officers. (see course list here...) |
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