Here is an informal account of the Northwestern Michigan College Board of Trustees meeting Monday, November 23, 2015.
Details on the actions items and reports are contained in the Board Packet available online. (more…)
Are you looking for career opportunities? Find it here! jobs.nmc.edu. Current openings include:
Custodian 3rd Shift
Supplemental Learning Services Office Assistant (more…)
Please return the Blue Coordination of Benefits Form from your open enrollment packets to Hollie in HR if you have not already done so. Email, or inner-office mail is fine!
Health Savings Accounts– if you are new to the High Deductible Health Plan for 2016 please be sure you open a Health Savings Account at a bank of your choice and report the Account and Routing Numbers to HR. We will not be able to deposit your contribution from NMC without this information. Thanks! (more…)
Kudos to the following people and departments! (more…)
The following employees are celebrating an anniversary soon. Please join us in congratulating them! (more…)
TRAVERSE CITY — Enjoy the sounds of the holiday season with NMC’s performance ensembles at one of the following shows in December:
Read more about NMC’s performance ensembles, which include students and community members, and music programs »
Jeffrey Cobb
NMC Director of Music Programs
(231) 995-1338
jecobb@nmc.edu
Q: What are NMC Learning Communities and how do I get involved?
Join the conversation. (more…)
Pop quiz: In your first year as a professional farm manager, the challenge Mother Nature most likely will throw at you is:
Nathan Kulpa, a 2015 graduate of the NMC-MSU plant science program, will tell you the answer is D. But on the eve of Thanksgiving, the traditional culmination of the growing season, the Leelanau County native is sanguine about his first year as the farm manger of Peninsula Farms.
“I kind of enjoy the challenge. Being in farming my whole life, I understand that years like this happen,” said Kulpa, 22, who also helps on his parents’ farm. “On the good years you’ve got to prepare yourself for the bad years so you’ll be around.”
Brian Matchett is the coordinator of the program, which offers students an NMC degree plus an MSU certificate in one of four agriculture specialties. While the weather dealt growers a “triple whammy” this year, Matchett said that on the positive side, vegetable production was minimally affected. Also, the network of markets for growers — farmers’ markets, distributors like Cherry Capital Foods and CSAs — all continued to expand.
So are the options in the plant science program. Since Matchett took over in 2013, he’s restructured and updated the curriculum, adding more required courses to some areas and allowing more elective flexibility in others. All of the changes were made based on feedback from the agriculture industry, which provides one in every five jobs in Michigan.
Bethany Newell is enrolled in fruit and vegetable production, one of the redesigned certificates, and worked at two different CSAs over the summer. She’ll graduate next spring, completing a lifestyle change her family embarked on in 2010 when they moved north from Flushing, where she worked in the cable industry for ten years.
“I was very unhappy working indoors every day. It was tough on my soul,” said Newell, 35. “Moving up here and getting into farming, it’s so peaceful being outside, and working in nature.”
Next up for the plant science program is a new certificate in agriculture operations-crop production, and a partnership with NMC’s Aviation Division that will enable plant science students to take unmanned aerial systems courses as electives. Their “classroom” would be the cherry orchards of the Horticultural Research Station that MSU operates in Leelanau County. Matchett says it’s a chance to pioneer the emerging technology of unmanned systems in a new application – specialty agriculture.
“We have all the pieces right here and it’s a perfect fit for our assets,” Matchett said, citing NMC’s leadership in unmanned systems, MSU’s in agriculture and the dominance of cherry production in the Grand Traverse region. “It’s such a unique opportunity we have here.”
Key to making it happen was the redesign of Matchett’s job, from a half-time position funded by MSU to full-time funded jointly by MSU and NMC.
“That allowed me to commit more time to network with the different departments at NMC,” he said. “We’re excited for the next couple years.”
Pop quiz: In your first year as a professional farm manager, the challenge Mother Nature most likely will throw at you is:
Nathan Kulpa, a 2015 graduate of the NMC-MSU plant science program, will tell you the answer is D. But on the eve of Thanksgiving, the traditional culmination of the growing season, the Leelanau County native is sanguine about his first year as the farm manger of Peninsula Farms.
“I kind of enjoy the challenge. Being in farming my whole life, I understand that years like this happen,” said Kulpa, 22, who also helps on his parents’ farm. “On the good years you’ve got to prepare yourself for the bad years so you’ll be around.”
Brian Matchett is the coordinator of the program, which offers students an NMC degree plus an MSU certificate in one of four agriculture specialties. While the weather dealt growers a “triple whammy” this year, Matchett said that on the positive side, vegetable production was minimally affected. Also, the network of markets for growers — farmers’ markets, distributors like Cherry Capital Foods and CSAs — all continued to expand.
So are the options in the plant science program. Since Matchett took over in 2013, he’s restructured and updated the curriculum, adding more required courses to some areas and allowing more elective flexibility in others. All of the changes were made based on feedback from the agriculture industry, which provides one in every five jobs in Michigan.
Bethany Newell is enrolled in fruit and vegetable production, one of the redesigned certificates, and worked at two different CSAs over the summer. She’ll graduate next spring, completing a lifestyle change her family embarked on in 2010 when they moved north from Flushing, where she worked in the cable industry for ten years.
“I was very unhappy working indoors every day. It was tough on my soul,” said Newell, 35. “Moving up here and getting into farming, it’s so peaceful being outside, and working in nature.”
Next up for the plant science program is a new certificate in agriculture operations-crop production, and a partnership with NMC’s Aviation Division that will enable plant science students to take unmanned aerial systems courses as electives. Their “classroom” would be the cherry orchards of the Horticultural Research Station that MSU operates in Leelanau County. Matchett says it’s a chance to pioneer the emerging technology of unmanned systems in a new application – specialty agriculture.
“We have all the pieces right here and it’s a perfect fit for our assets,” Matchett said, citing NMC’s leadership in unmanned systems, MSU’s in agriculture and the dominance of cherry production in the Grand Traverse region. “It’s such a unique opportunity we have here.”
Key to making it happen was the redesign of Matchett’s job, from a half-time position funded by MSU to full-time funded jointly by MSU and NMC.
“That allowed me to commit more time to network with the different departments at NMC,” he said. “We’re excited for the next couple years.”
Read NMC instructor Susan Odgers’ latest column in the Traverse City Record-Eagle here. (more…)
Presenting the Jazz Lab Band and Jazz Big Band, both directed by Laurie Sears and featuring an evening of music by Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter, Henry Mancini, Jerome Kern and Benny Carter! Sunday, December 6, 2015 at Milliken Auditorium at 7:00 p.m. (more…)
The Dennos Museum Center at Northwestern Michigan College will present, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet on Saturday, December 5, 2015 at 8 PM in Milliken Auditorium. Tickets are $27 advance, $30 at the door and $24 for museum members plus ticket fees. Tickets may be purchased on line at www.dennosmuseum.org or by calling the box office at 231-995-1553 or My North Tickets at 800-836-0717. (more…)
Are you looking for career opportunities? Find it here! jobs.nmc.edu. Current openings include:
Custodian 3rd Shift
Supplemental Learning Services Office Assistant (more…)
Open Enrollment Window closes on Wednesday, November 25, 2015 at 5pm. Please be sure you have completed your enrollment.
Open Enrollment Information on the Employee Site can be found here. (more…)
Kudos to the following people and departments! (more…)
The following employees are celebrating an anniversary soon. Please join us in congratulating them! (more…)
Please join us in welcoming these new additions to our NMC staff! (more…)
Taking place on Thursday, November 19- This is the day to quit! Because when you win one day, you can win them all.
Stop by Student Health Services and see human lungs and get the resources you need. Trade in your tobacco for a surprise! (more…)