Celebrating new chapters

Oct 2, 2026 | HR Corner, Intercom

These colleagues have moved on to a new chapter in their lives. We wish them the very best as they navigate a new adventure, and we thank them for their time and dedication to NMC!

    • Judy Arnold – Financial Aid Specialist
    • Jade Bailey, supplemental employee – Food Service, Back of House
    • Chloe Boeve, supplemental employee – Food Service, Back of House
    • Kayla Burt – Adjunct Certified Flight Instructor
    • Holly Daly, supplemental employee – Food Service, Back of House
    • Justin Deo, student employee – Fitness Center Staff
    • Alexander DeSoto – Adjunct Certified Flight Instructor
    • Tiffany Falls – Adjunct Audio Technology Instructor
    • Ashleigh Fender, supplemental employee – Human Resources Assistant
    • Laura Ford – Adjunct Nursing Instructor
    • William Gullekson, supplemental employee – Aviation Line Crew
    • Everett Howell, student employee – Office Assistant Communications
    • Kyle Hudson – Adjunct Certified Flight Instructor
    • Christine Mac – Math & Science Instructor
    • Cale Markham, student employee – Aviation Line Crew
    • Patrick Quinlan – Director of Facilities
    • Solomon Schultz, supplemental employee – Food Service, Back of House
    • Dafne Yanez, supplemental employee – Food Service, Back of House
    • Scout Yanez, supplemental employee – Food Service, Back of House

Welcome our newest hires!

Oct 2, 2026 | HR Corner, Intercom

These employees recently started working at the college. Let’s welcome them to the NMC community!

    • Laura Kingman – Facilities Project Manager (currently Interim Facilities Director)
    • Danni Fowler, student employee – Writing Center Reader
    • Audrey Nicholson, student employee – Student Life Office Assistant
    • Brian Robinson, student employee – Residence Hall Front Desk
    • William Anders, supplemental employee – Banquet Server, Hagerty Center
    • Melody Jesiek, supplemental employee – Food Service, Front of House
    • Madeline Poplin, supplemental employee – Banquet Server, Hagerty Center
    • Kalley Slater, student employee – Engineering Technology Lab Assistant
    • Candace Windish, supplemental employee – Food Service, Front of House
    • Olivia Russell, student employee – Aviation Line Crew
    • James Delligatti, supplemental employee – Food Service, Front of House
    • Angella Baisden – supplemental employee – Data Analyst
    • Jacob Nardi, supplemental employee – Food Service, Front of House

Internal promotions

Oct 2, 2026 | HR Corner, Intercom

The following employee were recently promoted. Congratulations!

    • Nicole Wenstrup – Financial Aid Specialist
    • Shea O’Brien – Financial Aid Specialist
    • Charles Russell – Painter
    • Chester Kelly – Math & Science Instructor

Strategic Plan update: Strategy 1 in the spotlight

Oct 2, 2026 | Intercom

We continue to make steady progress on the action steps across our strategic objectives. Strategy 1 was presented in depth during Monday’s Board Study Session and Board Meeting—you can view the full Strategy 1 memo here for reference.

Strategy 1 is robust, and finding the right balance to highlight every objective within our allotted presentation time is an ongoing effort. We could dedicate an entire board meeting to Strategy 1 alone!

Key highlights presented from Strategy 1: Future-Focused Education:

AI Goals & Progress: Ryan Bernstein and Terri Gustafson led a two-hour Board Study Session overviewing NMC’s AI goals, current progress, and future opportunities, fielding questions and scenarios from Trustees. Board Chair Mark Keely noted how reassuring it was to have Terri and Ryan leading this charge. Hats off to them both!

Tip: Check out the last few pages of the Strategy 1 memo to view the AI infographic. It was very well received by both the Board and President Nissley and may serve as a helpful model for your own work.

Mission & Values in Action: Marine Technology student Gary T. highlighted his hands-on experience aboard the E/V Nautilus, where he participated in Exploration 178 mapping from Hawaii to Guam. His story beautifully demonstrated the reach of our distinguished programs, the strength of our community partnerships (like the Marine Technology Society), and the impact of our outreach efforts in drawing students to NMC from beyond our region (tied to Objective 3).

Durable Skills: During the faculty report, Brandon Everest and Kristy McDonald shared a timely update on how experiential learning from NMC Next has evolved into a broader focus on durable skills in our current strategic plan. They detailed course- and program-level work to equip instructors with resources, as well as outreach encouraging students to pursue the nEXt endorsement. The Board remains enthusiastic about how this work supports regional employers, differentiates the NMC experience, and balances our AI initiatives (tied to Objective 1).

Supporting At-Risk Students: Joy Goodchild provided a detailed look into Objective 4, highlighting our targeted efforts to support at-risk students through Week 3/Week 8 outreach, expanded interventions, and course redesigns. The Board engaged deeply, asking great follow-up questions about expanding reach, potential participation models, the role of the Osterlin redesign, and even options for students to designate a mentor or parent to receive support updates. Expect this discussion to continue as our outreach expands.

Additional Updates & Upcoming Schedule:

  • Strategy 1 Dashboards Complete: Joy and the ORPE team finalized the Strategy 1 dashboards late last week, and we are working to integrate them into the landing page. Dashboards for Strategies 2 and 3 will be developed this month. Thank you, Joy and team!
  • Strategic Plan “Cheat Sheet:” We created a summary graphic that directly links NMC’s mission, vision, and values to our strategic plan objectives. Feel free to use this helpful reference when speaking with community members or external stakeholders.
  • October Look Ahead: Tony Sauerbrey will lead presentations on the Northsky Consortium and the Uncrewed Aerial Systems program. There will be no additional strategic plan updates in October.
  • November 23, 2026: Strategy 2 Presentation — Enrollment and Student Success
  • December 14, 2026: Strategy 3 Presentation — Vibrant College Community

Media mentions for September 28, 2026

Sep 28, 2026 | Intercom, Media Mentions

The following college events and stories have appeared in the media recently. We want to share your media involvement too. Please send information about your NMC-related interview or appearance to publicrelations@nmc.edu. If possible, please include a link to the piece and information about where and when it was used.

Please note access to some stories may be limited by paywalls set up by the media outlet. This includes the Traverse City Record-Eagle, which limits free clicks to five per month. You may also read Record-Eagle articles in the print edition at the NMC Library.

NMC flight team heads to Ohio for NIFA Region 3 contest
UpNorthLive, Sept. 27
MSN Money, Sept. 27 (more…)

Board of Trustees study session and regular meeting

Sep 25, 2026 | Intercom

The NMC Board of Trustees will hold a study session as well as its regular monthly meeting Monday, Sept. 28 in Timothy J. Nelson Innovation Center Room 106/107 on NMC’s Front Street campus, 1701 E. Front Street, Traverse City, Mich.

The study session will begin at 3 p.m. The regular meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. The meeting agendas are  available here.

For more information, please contact the President’s office at (231) 995-1010.

Inaugural gathering of Grand Traverse Deep Listening

Sep 24, 2026 | Intercom, Student Events

in vain Grand Traverse Deep Listening flyerJoin NMC music instructor Dr. Michael Kudirka for the inaugural gathering of Grand Traverse Deep Listening, a new community devoted to communal listening and immersive, long-form musical experiences.

The first gathering takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 25 in the grassy area between the Timothy J. Nelson Innovation Center and Founders Hall on NMC’s Front Street Campus.

For this inaugural event, participants will experience in vain by Georg Friedrich Haas, widely recognized as a major work of 21st-century orchestral music. The piece runs a little over an hour; bring a blanket or lawn chair and settle in as the music unfolds alongside the evening sky, with the sun setting and the full moon rising.

The event is being presented in collaboration with NMC’s Audio Technology Department, which will provide a high-fidelity sound system designed to bring the full depth and detail of the recording to life.

To learn more about this project, visit gtdeeplistening.org.

Success Story: Aviation students seek to raise NMC’s profile

Sep 23, 2026 | Intercom, Student News

Grace Soneral and other NMC aviation program students during a training flight
NMC Aviation students Grace Soneral (left) and Rachael Kornoely at the Air Race Classic

September 23, 2026

When Aviation student Grace Soneral starts looking for her first pilot job, she wants both her own resume and those of her fellow NMC flight students to rise above the pack.

So Soneral (pictured above left with teammate Rachael Kornoely) is co-captaining NMC’s first competitive flight team in more than two decades. In two weeks they’ll head to Ohio as the only community college to compete in the National Intercollegiate Flying Association’s (NIFA) Region 3 competition. A kind of aviation track and field meet, with events both in the air and on the ground, NMC Aviation students pitched the idea of a team to NMC’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which awarded them the funding for a SAFECON (Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference) team last May.

“It truly tests your skills as a pilot and shows that you are willing to go above and beyond,” said Soneral, 20, who started at NMC in summer 2025 and will graduate next spring. “This is an opportunity for NMC students to set themselves apart. Not a lot of two-year programs have that option.”

Two-year aviation programs are in fact the exception to the rule, as Soneral found out in June flying in the Air Race Classic, an all-female point-to-point race that this year covered more than 2,700 miles across the Midwest and South. She and her teammates discovered that NMC’s program, which allows students to fly in their first semester, is a structure other students wished they had.

“It was very eye-opening,” Soneral said. “We love NMC. I am proud to be an NMC student and so grateful for a program structure that gets us flying right in our first semester.”

Alex Modrzynski“You’re getting in a plane a lot faster,” her NIFA co-captain Alex Modrzynski (left) said of NMC’s two-year structure. Last year’s addition of a new hangar and eight new planes, which enabled Aviation to double its enrollment, also makes it timely for NMC to raise its profile now.

“We’re rivaling, in our fleet size, other schools in the country,” said Modrzynski, 32, who will graduate this semester. “I love it. I don’t think there’s anywhere more beautiful to fly than northern Michigan.”

NMC’s support of the team via the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship also aligns with the college’s strategic goal to provide real-world learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom. The flight competition team was one of six projects OIE funded in May. Applications for a fall round of funding are open through Oct. 15.

“My voice was taken seriously and I was supported by the program,” said Soneral, who advocated for the team.

Under the coaching of flight instructor Joel Cairns, NMC will compete against Ohio State University, Western Michigan, Kent State, Bowling Green and Fairmont State in simulation events, written tests and preflight checks, all ground events, at the competition Oct. 4-9 in Bowling Green. Next year, when WMU hosts, they hope to enter flying events.

“We want the safest pilots we can have out there,” Modrzynski said. “This is a great way to do it, and have a little fun.”

“I grew so much as a pilot on the Air Race. I’m going to be a safer, smarter pilot in the future because of this,” Soneral said.

Accessibility in Action: Accessibility Starts With Us

Sep 22, 2026 | Accessibility in Action, Intercom

What digital accessibility means and why it matters

Accessibility is part of everyone’s work at NMC, not just the responsibility of IT or the Digital Accessibility Committee. This first issue of a new newsletter from NMC’s Digital Accessibility Committee introduces the basics of digital accessibility, explains why accessibility matters, and provides an overview of the federal accessibility requirements. We’ll also introduce the four principles of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the accessibility tools available at NMC to help you get started.

We don’t expect you to fix everything at once; we are striving for progress, not perfection, and every little bit we do helps! (more…)

Posting on campus

Sep 22, 2026 | Intercom, Student News

Planning to hang flyers or share materials on campus? Before you post, take a moment to review the college guidelines so your message can stay up—and reach the right audience.

    • Post flyers and posters only on designated bulletin boards (one per board, max size 11” x 17”). Include the sponsor name and contact info on all materials.
    • Only one copy may be placed on any designated bulletin board. Posting must not cover up any other posting or information.
    • Posting on doors, walls, vehicles, or other surfaces isn’t allowed and may be removed.
    • Non–date-specific postings may be removed after 21 days; event flyers come down after the event.
    • Only the individual or entity responsible for posting the material or NMC Security may remove materials.
    • Printed literature may only be distributed in designated areas.

For more information, view the full Posting (D-505.13) policy.

Thanks for helping keep our campus organized and welcoming!

A Celebration 75 years in the making

Sep 21, 2026 | Hawk Owl Helpers and Heroes, Intercom

Thanks to the 75th anniversary Celebration working group, for hosting a fabulous showcase event Saturday at the Hagerty Center. Led by Rachel Urkowitz and Peg Jonkhoff, work group members included Carolyn Andrews, whose Construction Technology and Welding students created centerpieces; Mark Howell, Cari Noga, Laura Stevens and volunteers Debbie Edson, Pam Horne and Laura Oblinger. NMC Audio Technology students performed to an enthusiastic crowd and Foundation staff ensured the event was executed flawlessly.

Who’s been a Hawk Owl Helper or Hero for you? Let us know at publicrelations@nmc.edu!

Media mentions for September 21, 2026

Sep 21, 2026 | Intercom, Media Mentions

The following college events and stories have appeared in the media recently. We want to share your media involvement too. Please send information about your NMC-related interview or appearance to publicrelations@nmc.edu. If possible, please include a link to the piece and information about where and when it was used.

Please note access to some stories may be limited by paywalls set up by the media outlet. This includes the Traverse City Record-Eagle, which limits free clicks to five per month. You may also read Record-Eagle articles in the print edition at the NMC Library.

Spilling the tea on decades of success
Northern Express, Sept. 19
(more…)