Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News
March 7, 2018
Thirty years ago, newly-named Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce chairman Kevin Schlueter was preparing to graduate from NMC. Now, as he embarks on his latest leadership challenge, he continues to credit the college and hopes to illuminate the sparkle from the “gem that we have in Traverse City” to the Chamber’s 2,000 member businesses.
“Everything that I have, I owe to NMC,” said Schlueter, 49, also the president and CEO of Kalkaska Screw Products. “It’s just flat-out factual.” Here’s how NMC is woven, both professionally and personally, into Schlueter’s life:
- Scholarship – a Presidential scholarship covered the St. Francis High School graduate’s bills. The scholarship required him to keep up his GPA, which in turn meant he was admitted to the competitive Michigan Technological University, where he earned a bachelor’s in engineering in 1992. A master’s at Central Michigan followed in 1998. Neither degree, Schlueter says, would have happened without first graduating from NMC, in 1988.
- Family – Schlueter met his wife Leana when both were students at NMC. They have two children, son Cameron and daughter Lydia.
- Industry – In the eight years he’s led Kalkaska Screw Products, the company has increased employment more than sixfold, from 19 to 125. In his Chamber role now, Schlueter wants to play a liaison role between the manufacturing industry and the economic development and business community to help boost the skill set of potential employees. He sees NMC as well-positioned to do that. “It’s not just a local college that perhaps is affordable. The education is superior,” he said.
In addition to his Chamber leadership, Schlueter also serves on the NMC Foundation Board, the Scholarship Open golf committee, and the Alumni Relations steering committee.
“I’ve got an opportunity to give back, and I like doing that,” he said. “Every time I stretch my comfort zone a little bit, I grow as a human.”
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News
September 14, 2016
It was just another day in Anatomy and Physiology class, until instructor Nick Roster told students working in groups that the first group to finish a task would win five points.
The effect was immediate and obvious. Students leaned in across the lab tables, their body language showing focus, intensity and concentration as they worked together. By making the task into a race — a basic gamification concept — Roster simultaneously challenged and motivated students, fostered collaboration and self-directed learning.
It’s those kind of results which led the science instructor to completely rebuild his A & P course on gamification principles. He received an NMC Foundation grant to pilot the idea in 2015, and in spring 2016 moved completely to a gamification structure.
“I’m using some of the game elements and an (online) platform to run the whole class,” said Roster.
While the structure is a natural fit for students who grew up trying to get to the next level on PlayStation or Xbox, Roster said such gamification concepts as leveling up are ideal for learning.
“What this allows for is mastery learning. There’s no 70 percent,” he said. “Student performance is better because they have to get it right.”
They have to get it right — eventually. The level-based structure of his class allows students to practice until they gain the knowledge or skills necessary to advance. Failure is not the disaster that it would be on a midterm or final exam.
“This allows students the opportunity to fail, or get it wrong, or misread the question, and still be successful,” said Roster, whose e-mail signature includes a quote from Einstein: “I never teach my students, I only give them the opportunity to learn.”
Anatomy and Physiology still includes a traditional hands-on lab, though much of what was the lecture format of the class can now be conducted online. That allows students to progress at their own pace, and frees up class time for questions and discussion.
Roster has discussed the potential to apply gamification concepts with colleagues in NMC’s Business, Aviation, Computer Information Technology and other science disciplines. He says he knows one group that hopes the idea spreads: Students.
“My student reviews have never been better,” he said. “They’re hoping or wishing other classes were structured this way.”
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News
January 16, 2019
NMC’s board of trustees: Front row: Rachel A. Johnson, Jane T. McNabb; middle row: K. Ross Childs, Michael Estes, Kennard R. Weaver; back row: Douglas S. Bishop, Chris M. BottFine-tuning the qualities desired in NMC’s next president with input from stakeholders, developing a presidential profile and managing the search timeline are among the immediate tasks facing Pauly Group, Inc., the presidential search consultant college trustees selected this week.
Trustees’ selection of Pauly Group, an Illinois firm with extensive experience in Michigan, was unanimous. Current NMC President Timothy J. Nelson will retire at the end of this year after assuming the office in 2001.
“Hiring a president hasn’t occurred for 19 years,” said board chairman Chris Bott, noting that only one current trustee, Ross Childs, was involved with Nelson’s hiring. “They’re a great firm to guide us through this process.
Key to the entire search will be creation of a profile of the desired candidate. Pauly Group will help trustees develop a process to obtain comprehensive input to that profile
“It’s important we don’t do this in a vacuum and alone,” Bott said. “We truly want input from all the stakeholders — faculty, administration, staff, students, community members, alumni, Foundation.”
Trustees cited the depth of Pauly Group’s experience in Michigan as among the factors that set the Springfield, Ill.-based company apart from three other finalists interviewed last week. In its references, Pauly Group cited the placements of the current presidents of North Central Michigan College in Petoskey (2018), Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor (2017) and Mott Community College in Flint (2014).
The search, which is expected to take about six months, comes on top of an already-busy year for the college and Nelson. During his final year leading NMC he has identified the following areas as some of his priorities:
- Completion of the Timothy J. Nelson Innovation Center.
- Securing key leadership positions including the Dennos Museum Center and Great Lakes Culinary Institute
- Implementation of tools for assessing and analyzing student success initiatives
- Successful completion of accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission and the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing
- Progressing with Experiential Learning initiatives
- Expanding alternate revenue streams including professional learning and fundraising
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News
October 11, 2017
NMC welding students Andrew DuBois and Michael StolarczykSome NMC welding students are getting a dose of American history on top of this semester’s classes.
They’re helping to restore Civil War markers placed on the graves of Union Army veterans in northern Michigan cemeteries. Thanks to an instructor’s idea, the extracurricular project is increasing their skills and their citizenship, one cast iron star at a time.
Adjunct electrical instructor Jeff Morse is a member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, a national group that works to honor the memory of the soldiers killed between 1861-65. A feature of the Union graves the group charges itself with maintaining is a cast iron star flagholder, inserted into the ground with double spikes.
A Civil War marker repaired by NMC welding students“Over the years they became no match to power lawn mowers and brutal northern Michigan winters. Many markers became rusty and either one or both of the spikes had been broken off,” Morse said.
He mentioned it to welding instructor Devan DePauw, who agreed to take on repair as an extracurricular project with student volunteers. Students cut off the double legs, grind and prepare the stars for welding, and then weld one spike in a new, center position.
It’s an opportunity to learn new techniques from the typical steel-to-steel welding they do in class.
“Cast iron is notoriously difficult to weld,” DePauw said. Students are learning a “brazing” technique that uses a bronze filler to weld the spike back on.
It’s also an opportunity to apply their knowledge for a greater good.
“I like doing stuff that matters. This epitomizes that,” said Michael Stolarczyk, 18, of Traverse City.
“I just think it’s a good cause,” said Andrew DuBois, 28, of Flint.
Group member Scott Schwander, who has been cleaning the headstones as well, returns the repaired star flagholders to the graves. He started with Oakwood Cemetery near main campus, where about 300 Union veterans are buried. The Robert Finch Camp of which both Schwander and Morse are members serves 16 northern Michigan counties and estimates that more than 1,000 Union veterans are buried in the five-county Grand Traverse region.
Camp commander Ted Matti, sees the project as a win–win.
“Being they’re in a welding program, they have to work with various kinds of metal,” he said. “Any time you can get involved with anything in the community of historic significance, or helping others, that’s all part of being a citizen in the community, and that’s a good lesson, too.”
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News
June 17, 2015
When the National Cherry Queen is crowned next month, Hannah Beaudry will be hoping the luck of the pine tree is on her side.
The NMC student is one of four finalists vying for the 2015 crown. If she wins, Beaudry, 19, will become the fifth queen within the past decade with NMC connections.
“Being able to have a college experience in beautiful Traverse City, Michigan, is such a blessing to me. Hopefully there’s a lucky charm with NMC and cherry queen, but who knows,” said Beaudry, a 2013 Elk Rapids High School graduate who is studying elementary education.
She’ll finish her NMC classes in December and then go on to complete her bachelor’s through Central Michigan University at the University Center.
The Cherry Queen scholarship would cover the remainder of her tuition costs, she said.
“It would be life-changing to earn that scholarship and graduate college debt-free,” she said.
At NMC, Beaudry’s favorite instructor has been history professor Jim Press.
“He made us think in such an amazing way. He really focused on critical thinking,” she said. “The way he lectures is like he’s telling a story, and it just made history so interesting. And I did not love history before that.”
On July 10, Beaudry will hope to make National Cherry Festival history, walking away with the crown first awarded in 1925.
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom
April 22, 2015
At just 21 years old, Traverse City native Nick Alpers has checked off a lot of life’s milestones already. He’s earned his bachelor’s degree, married, and is working full-time in his chosen field of mechanical engineering.
The 2012 NMC graduate is unique in another way, too: Alpers, who graduated summa cum laude from Saginaw Valley State University last year, has zero student loan debt.
Zero as in zip. Zilch. None. As in, a stark contrast to his peers. Statewide, 63 percent of Michigan’s 2013 bachelor’s graduates took on student debt, according to the Project on Student Debt. On average, each owes more than $29,000.
What’s the difference? Simply put, motivation and NMC dual enrollment.
Dual enrolled in 2010
Alpers dual-enrolled in NMC as a senior at Traverse City Central, back in 2010. He took 28 credits that year, more than half of what he needed for his engineering certificate, all paid for by his high school. He attended NMC for another year and worked in the math lab before transferring to SVSU in 2012. There he completed the last two years of his bachelor’s in a year and a half. Now, his paycheck from Nexteer Automotive, a Saginaw manufacturer of steering columns and gears, belongs to just him and his wife Kaitlyn (Green) Alpers, a pre-physician’s assistant student at SVSU.
“I know that some people are in their 30s and still paying off debts. Now I can allocate that money to something else,” said Alpers.
Financial and academic advantages
Besides the financial advantage, Alpers speaks highly of NMC’s academic rigor, noting that his GPA at Saginaw Valley was higher than at NMC.
“It was definitely worth it. It helps you to prepare,” said Alpers, whose two older brothers also attended NMC. “I came down here and I thought (SVSU) was a breeze.”
Not too far down the road, the “something else” might be getting home. Kaitlyn, who also dual-enrolled at NMC for her senior year in 2011-12, has her eye on a master’s PA program that Grand Valley recently started at NMC’s University Center.
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News
Adult learner champions inclusion of nontraditional students
April 7, 2021
This Saturday, Amber Marsh will find out if she’ll spend the next year as a vice-president of an organization seeking to advance the success of more than 200,000 community college students in 11 countries worldwide.
It’s a position the Kalkaska County resident, licensed cosmetologist, mother and NMC student never imagined herself seeking two or three years ago. But the difference NMC’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa (PTK), the international community college honor society, has made in Marsh’s own life has compelled her to try and advance its mission still further.
“I know this gives people tools for success,” said Marsh, who’s president of NMC’s chapter. “(PTK) is an organization that has helped me to grow, push me, challenge me.”
It’s been a decade since an NMC chapter member has sought international office, said chapter adviser Kari Kahler. She believes Marsh, one of three finalists for NMC’s district vice presidency, has a good shot at being the first from the college elected to the international level.
“She has embraced the ideals of Phi Theta Kappa. Her heart is service,” Kahler said, adding that under Marsh’s leadership, NMC’s chapter was just named the most distinguished among 31 chapters in Michigan. “She’s just in it for all the right reasons.”
While the conference is mostly virtual, Marsh and other finalist candidates will be in Orlando for the vote.
With this year’s election prioritizing inclusion, Marsh thinks she’s a fitting candidate. She’s studying business administration and hopes to one day start her own business in the beauty industry.
“I want to be a voice for nontraditional students, for trade students,” she said.
Marsh’s interest in advocacy and policy traces to a 2019 conference she attended at the Roosevelt Institute in New York as a Forge Fellow. She’s now on the national leadership board for the institute founded by the former U.S. president. PTK invited her to present on her trip, and wound up extending an invitation for membership, which requires at least a 3.5 grade point average.
“I didn’t think I could afford the ability to be in a scholarly organization,” said Marsh, who also runs a food and clothing pantry at Forest Area Schools, where she graduated from high school and where her two children now attend, and founded a women’s conference in Kalkaska.
But she’s found PTK dovetails well with her interests in community. One project she led was sewing reusable cloth face masks for residence hall students, to reduce the waste of disposable masks. She’ll be joining the NMC Foundation Board as a student member, and is also a member of the strategic planning steering committee launching this month.
“I just have a passion for PTK and how it grows community at NMC,” Marsh said.
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News
November 13, 2018
The spirit of Thanksgiving and the holidays is extending out from campus to the community, with several charitable projects now underway. There’s still time to pay it forward with a donation of food or a warm jacket, and mark your calendar to enjoy a free family day at the Dennos Museum Center Nov. 23.
Student Blake Bandrowski, marketing director for NMC Professional Communications students’ sixth annual Food for Thought food drive, said students will take a wallet full of $5,500 in donations on a mega grocery shopping trip this weekend, aiming to fill up a semi-truck before Monday’s distribution.
“On Sunday we will be spending all the money we got through donations,” Bandrowski said.
Since mid-October, students have also collected food on campus and at special events. This year’s drive benefits four pantries that help students and their families. A 2016 Northwest Food Coalition survey revealed more than 2,000 children in the region are food insecure, which can be a barrier to learning.
The food drive is an experiential learning project that enables students to help the community by practicing professional communications skills — like soliciting donations.
“That’s the great thing about the class. Not only are you helping people, but you’re learning the skills by actually using it,” Bandrowski said. “It is legitimate work experience.”
Through Monday, community members can donate non-perishable food and personal hygiene items at red collection bins in the Tanis Building and Osterlin Library on main campus; University Center; Hagerty Conference Center and Parsons-Stulen on Aero Park campus. More info »
In addition to the food drive:
NMC’s Bookstore is leading the third annual Hoodies for the Homeless through November 21. Donate new or gently used outerwear — hoodies, coats, snow pants all welcome — at the bookstore, now located in the Health & Science Building, and get a coupon for 30 percent off one regular priced apparel item. All items donated will go to the Goodwill Street Outreach program for distribution to people in need.- NMC Student Life and Learning Services are teaming up with student leaders to offer Stocking Stuffers to students, a successor to the former Giving Tree program, which offered holiday gifts to students for seven years. In the new program, students will fill out a short application requesting extra assistance to shop for their children/dependents this holiday season. Approved students may choose gift cards from Meijer, Target, Kohl’s or Books-a-Million. Donations to the program are sought by Dec. 3 and can be made online.
- The Dennos Museum will open its doors to the community with free admission on Friday, Nov. 23. Museum hours are 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News
September 15, 2015
Record donation makes expansion possible
It was time for something big, Diana and Richard Milock decided.
NMC today announced the largest single gift by living donors in college history, a $2 million gift to expand the Dennos Museum Center. That gift also happens to be the largest ever for the Milocks, stalwart cultural philanthropists whose touch is evident everywhere in northwest Michigan, from Milliken Auditorium to the Bijou Theatre to the YMCA.
“We saw this as an opportunity to have a major impact on a community resource that we think is really important to the life of Traverse City. We’re really just so excited to be able to do this,” Diana Milock said.
The 9,000-square-foot expansion will house two new galleries intended to be named, respectively, the Gene Jenneman Permanent Collection Gallery and the Diana and Richard Milock Sculpture Gallery. The former honors the museum’s founding director. Under Jenneman’s quarter century of leadership the Dennos has built a strong permanent collection of works, but most sit in storage.
“We have wonderful works of art and there just isn’t room to show them,” Diana Milock said.
Art lovers and collectors themselves, the Milocks have supported both the Dennos and NMC’s Great Lakes Culinary Institute for more than a decade. Diana Milock has a special affinity for sculpture, which will be evident in the expansion. Windows lining one wall of the expansion will connect the new sculpture gallery to existing outdoor sculptures that surround the museum.
“I love outdoor sculpture. If we have access from the interior to observe the exterior, it’s a natural to fill that in,” she said.
The donation will also fund loading dock and storage improvements and a new classroom space.
“This gift from the Milocks speaks strongly to the support that Northwestern Michigan College has earned from this community and our shared desire to strengthen NMC’s role as a leader in providing cultural opportunities,” said NMC President Timothy J. Nelson.
“I am pleased to see this next step in the direction of the Dennos take place in our coming 25th year,” Jenneman said. “With these permanent collection galleries we will be positioned to make our art collection more accessible on an ongoing basis and to develop more defined connections to the College’s academic programs.”
Preliminary architectural drawings are complete. NMC hopes to bid the project in early 2016, the museum’s 25th anniversary year, and break ground later in the year.
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News
October 25, 2017
A new food pantry is set to open on campus next week, a local step toward addressing the food insecurity that college students face nationwide.
The NMC Food Pantry operates out of the basement of the Osterlin Building and is available to all active students starting Nov. 1, said Paul Kolak, an NMC counselor and member of the pantry steering committee.
Students won’t have to physically access the shelves, however. Instead, they’ll fill out an online form stating their household size and needs. Student volunteers will fulfill the orders anonymously, and recipients will be notified when their order is ready for pickup — hoped-for turnaround is 24 hours — at the Student Success Center, also in the Osterlin Building.
“We’re just trying to be really discreet with it,” Kolak said, adding that the pantry will aim to feed people for about three days.
“We’re not seeking to be a grocery store. This is a supplement,” he said.
In August, a study released by the Urban Institute reported that 13 percent of community college students were “food insecure” in 2015. Food insecurity is defined as reduced quality of diet and access to nutrition.
In a typical NMC class of 40, that 13 percent translates to five students. Consequently the NMC Food Pantry has dubbed all food drives the Minus Five project. The first was held Oct. 10 with faculty and staff donating during the annual Professional Development Day.
The pantry will also be supplied by other sources, including the NMC Foundation, the Northwest Food Coalition, which supports several dozen regional pantries, and a Grand Rapids-area organization called Feeding America. Besides non-perishable food items it will also stock health and hygiene items such as soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste.
NMC business students have conducted a food drive as an experiential learning project for the last five fall semesters, and employees have donated food at the annual college holiday party. Now, both those efforts will help keep dignity and convenience right on campus.
“The closer the food pantry is, the better utilized it is,” Kolak said. “It’s an issue of pride, and of transportation in some cases.”
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom
November 25, 2015
Pop quiz: In your first year as a professional farm manager, the challenge Mother Nature most likely will throw at you is:
- A bitter cold, vine-damaging winter
- A late May frost, just as buds are forming in cherry and apple orchards and on grapevines
- An unprecedented August thunderstorm, complete with fruit-hammering hail
- All of the above
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.”
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom
November 9, 2016
In addition to reading, writing and arithmetic, this semester, NMC students are collecting food donations, swinging hammers and X-raying teeth.
Service learning projects, which engage the whole class in a project that also benefits the community, have a long history in many academic areas at NMC. Here’s a look at some underway this semester, and how to help or participate yourself:
Food for Thought food drive – The fourth annual event organized by NMC business students runs through November 19. Regional pantries have come to rely on the event, which seeks to collect enough non-perishable food and hygiene products to stock more than 45 pantries throughout northwest Michigan through the holiday season.
“It’s not just a blessing for some pantries, it is survival,” said Val Stone with the Northwest Food Coalition.
Donations are accepted on campus and at several community collection sites, including at Technology Exploration Day this Saturday, Nov. 12, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Parsons-Stulen Building.
Dental X-rays – Dental assistant students began their annual free X-ray project this week. Patients referred by their dentist may receive a free set of complete X-rays, valued at up to $200 per set. Instructor Beckie Wooters expects between 80 and 90 patients to take advantage before it wraps up Dec. 8.
“We get a lot of patients that are returned to us when they’re due for these X-rays, because they enjoy the opportunity to meet our students,” Wooters said. The program has been offered since at least 1995.
Students will also be using new digital equipment in all three screening rooms, enabling them to e-mail X-rays directly to patients’ dentists. The digital images mean less radiation exposure for patients, too, Wooters said.
Garden shed – In October, Construction Technology students finished building an 8-by-12-foot storage shed on the property of the non-profit TC Community Garden, located at the Grand Traverse Commons. Previously, the garden had a small, old shed which didn’t offer sufficient space or security, garden president Kimberly Conaghan said.
“We’ll be able to upgrade our tools and have a lot more autonomy to store our own equipment,” she said.
The shed’s green roof and permeable surrounding pavement integrates with an adjacent rain garden, making the whole project a demonstration of the garden’s mission of education and sustainability.
“There’s kind of a cycle that’s happening there with green infrastructure,” said Conaghan, who estimated the value of materials and labor at $25,000.
It’s the second shed students have built; the first went up at the Grand Traverse Conservation District in 2015. NMC alumnus Nate Griswold of green building company Inhabitect assisted with the project, too.
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News
June 7, 2017
NMC officials tour the Yellow River Conservancy Technical Institute campus in 2014NMC instructors will pioneer NMC courses in Chinese classrooms next week, the culmination of a partnership five years in the making.
They’ll teach two Water Studies courses and two basic construction courses to about 40 students at the Yellow River Conservancy Technical Institute in Kaifeng, China. The two-week courses are the first in a sequence to be completed later this year. Scott Swan and Brian Sweeney will teach in English with interpreter support.
“We are delivering our courses there for the ability to augment their training with our coursework,” said Hans Van Sumeren, director of NMC’s Great Lakes Water Studies Institute, who’s traveled to China twice since 2015 as NMC has nurtured the partnership with the three-year technical school. Van Sumeren and Construction Technology director Dan Goodchild will round out the NMC contingent to plan delivery of the second part of the sequence, set for late fall or early winter.
“They’re very well positioned to do the terrestrial mapping,” Van Sumeren said. “We bring the competencies needed to work in and under the water.”
The June courses are Blueprint Reading, basic carpentry, Underwater Acoustics and Sonar and Great Lakes Research Technologies. Besides connecting with a school with a growing enrollment – Yellow River’s surveying program enrolls about 1,800 students – Van Sumeren said the partnership could afford NMC students both a study abroad opportunity and a chance to apply their coursework in a completely different geographic environment.
China’s large, fast-flowing rivers flood frequently and catastrophically, Van Sumeren said. The Yellow River alone has flooded 1,500 times in last 2,500 years, wiping out millions of people. NMC students could study what the Chinese have done to turn floodplains into protected cities.
“Those are things we can’t show students in Grand Traverse Bay or other Great Lakes waters,” Van Sumeren said.
Both instructors, who are making their first trip to China, said they’re looking forward to the teaching experience.
“It’s going to be incredibly different,” Sweeney said. “I thought it’d be a fun adventure.”
“It’s an opportunity that not only can further the goals of the college, but for me to expand as an instructor, branch out beyond the comfort zone,” Swan said.
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News
January 30, 2019
Faculty and administrators from a Chinese technical school traveled to NMC for training earlier this month, another milestone in a one-of-a-kind international partnership that is now rounding the midpoint of its first stage.
NMC and the Yellow River Conservancy Technical Institute have an agreement under which NMC instructors teach construction and marine technology classes to three cohorts of Chinese students in China. The first cohort of about 50 earned their NMC degrees in spring 2018, the first time a community college had delivered a technical, applied program internationally.
The second cohort will wrap up this spring. After the third cohort completes in 2020, NMC will consider whether and how to move forward with student exchanges.
“These first three years, we’re just focusing on getting this initial delivery done, so we can build toward what it would take to have our students going there, or perhaps their students going here.” said Hans Van Sumeren, director of NMC’s Great Lakes Water Studies Institute. “This has never been done. It’s kind of like going to the moon, but we’re just orbiting the Earth a few times first.”
Key to advancing the partnership is joint professional development. On this month’s orbital pass, Yellow River instructors visited NMC’s Aero Park campus for training on marine technology and construction technology equipment.
On the marine technology side, Yellow River recently purchased the same underwater ROV that NMC owns for their campus in Kaifeng, China. NMC instructors will be able to use the ROV when they return to China in April for the fourth of six planned instructional delivery sessions.
NMC facilitated shipment of equipment within China for the previous cohort. Yellow River is also investing in sonar equipment and software. Instructors will return to Traverse City in June for additional training.
“They are really taking our support and building out a degree,” said Van Sumeren. He added that NMC’s new land surveying degree, offered beginning this fall, was informed by Yellow River. The Institute has the largest surveying program in China.
“Building an international team like this, we’re able to broaden our perspective,” Van Sumeren said. “We’re highly focused on integrating the land component into our degree to make much stronger graduates, industry-ready.”
On the construction side, the Chinese group was introduced to both hand and power tools used in basic carpentry.
“Most of their equipment all has to do with concrete,” said Dan Goodchild, Construction Technology coordinator.
Instructor Brian Sweeney will make his third trip to China this spring to teach construction courses. He says the challenge of teaching internationally has made him a better teacher at NMC.
“I go with the assumption they will not understand anything I say. Everything has to be presented visually or hands-on,” said Sweeney, who teaches in English with the support of a team of four interpreters.
That habit has translated back to his classes in Traverse City.
“I put a lot more pictures in my presentations, because that seems to be the best way to transmit information,” Sweeney said.
NMC began the partnership with Yellow River in 2012 as part of the strategic directions determined by the college Board of Trustees to prepare learners for success in a global society, establish international competencies in the area of freshwater and deliver learning through a networked workforce.
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom
January 20, 2016
Engineering students will battle both biting cold and much bigger universities when they head to the U.P. for the annual Blizzard Baja endurance race next month.
Sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers, Baja endurance races are a longstanding tradition for NMC’s Student Engineering Club. Michigan Technological University will host this year’s winter race on Feb. 13.
Teams design, build and race cars over a snow-covered course, competing for the most laps in four hours. In 2015, NMC was the only community college to participate and tied for sixth place. Historically the Hawk Owls have performed with the best of their four-year brethren, including a first place finish and a couple third places. With three of the four drivers returning this year, including Jonathan Lindfors (above) the team is feeling good about their chances.
“Everything does work. Now we’re being picky, trying to squeeze out every last drop of performance that we can,” said mechanical engineering student Drew Johnson, 32, one of the team’s veterans.
Since they’re re-using the 2015 car, they’ve had the advantage of driveability since the end of November, he said. Last year, the car wasn’t completely assembled until the end of January.
The “picky” adjustments include a new engine, a stripped-down and re-welded suspension (it broke during the 2015 race) and a new paint job, from purple to white.
“Maybe a little bit of camo, to blend into the snow, so the other teams can’t see us,” Johnson joked of the paint choice.
While the track is competitive, the race pits aren’t. Johnson said that teams pitch in to help each other with repairs when cars break down.
“We’re here to learn,” he said. “This is a very hands-on application of what we learn in class.”
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom
December 7, 2016
With a global opportunities fund scholarship deadline coming up Dec. 16, prospective study abroad students might not have to wait for Santa to get what they want for Christmas.
NMC sends more students to study abroad than any other community college in Michigan and ranks 12th nationally for short-term study abroad participation. The global opportunities scholarship helps make that happen for students like Eillie Sambrone, who studied abroad in Costa Rica last May.
“I’ve barely traveled within the States,” said Sambrone, 20, of Canton, Mich. Prior to the trip, her furthest trip south was to Cedar Point in Ohio.
Cost is a limiting factor for many aspiring study abroad students, underscoring the importance of the scholarship. In fact, more than 80 percent of 2016 trip participants received the global opportunities scholarship. The $1,000 award further motivated Sambrone to set up a crowdfunding campaign to help cover the $3,000 total trip cost, plus missing work while traveling.
It was all worth it. Sambrone completed her associate degree in freshwater studies and is now enrolled in the NMC-Western Michigan Freshwater Science and Sustainability bachelor’s program. She expects to graduate in 2018.
“I want to travel a lot more. Everything was so different, and you had to continuously adapt and be flexible,” she said.
In particular, she wants to build on her Spanish skills. The trip required a “boot camp” Spanish course which whetted her appetite for the language.
“For me, it was a stepping stone,” she said. “Being able to speak another language is invaluable.”
The global opportunities scholarship requires a 2.5 grade point average. Applications are due Dec. 16.
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News
September 25, 2019
Marine Technology student Max CroweA pair of conferences at the Great Lakes campus over the next week will advance national dialogue in two key program areas, showcase NMC’s top-tier marine technology (pictured) and culinary programs and facilities, and offer students an early glimpse at career prospects.
Great Lakes TechSurge: Lakebed 2030, a regional conference of the Marine Technology Society (MTS), will convene at NMC’s Great Lakes Campus Oct. 1–2. Internationally recognized for its conferences and technical symposiums, host cities for other upcoming MTS events include Houston, Seattle and Rio de Janiero, Brazil. The Traverse City event is held in parallel with a global initiative, Seabed 2030, which aspires to map the bottom of the world’s oceans by 2030.
Great Lakes Water Studies Institute Director Hans Van Sumeren, the Great Lakes section chair of the MTS, said he proposed the conference here to be sure the lakes weren’t left out of that initiative.
“Mapping in general provides multiple users the ability to better understand impacts,” said Van Sumeren, including fisheries, invasive species, navigation and coastal resiliency, or changes due to climate impacts and water levels.
“Things that are real in the Great Lakes today,” said Van Sumeren, who estimated less than 10 percent of the Great Lakes lakebed has been mapped at high resolution. The conference will allow MTS members from academia, government and industry to discuss and prioritize what data to collect and how to do so.
“It won’t happen unless we have the conversations about prioritization and collaboration,” Van Sumeren said. “It furthers the opportunity for everyone to help shape what we’re doing.”
Great Lakes TechSurge comes on the heels of Farms, Food & Health, set for Thursday–Sunday at both the Great Lakes Culinary Institute and the Hagerty Center. It’s the second time the campus has hosted the event connecting farmers and local food advocates with health care providers. NMC chef instructors will offer culinary medicine training for accredited healthcare professionals in addition to speakers, workshops and a vendor expo.
Last held in 2017, a new addition to this year’s event is student scholarships. NMC student Maya Koscielny, who is studying both culinary sales and marketing and fruit and vegetable crop management, will attend thanks to an NMC scholarship that covers her registration fees.
“People just need to be made more aware of the health implications,” of their diet, said Koscielny, who hopes for a career in sustainable farming practices. She’s even going to trade in her Saturday morning free time to attend.
“I’d rather be going to (the conference) than sleeping in,” she said.
Registration for Farms, Food and Health is closed, but the public is welcome to attend the free expo from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Hagerty Center.
Meanwhile, Marine Technology students have the opportunity to see their research published via a poster symposium, and attend a career fair that’s part of Great Lakes TechSurge.
“They’re actively looking for students with our skills,” Van Sumeren said of the attendees. NMC offers the nation’s only bachelor’s degree in marine technology in the nation. Begun in 2015, the program just had its largest fall enrollment to date. A total of forty students are enrolled including Max Crowe, pictured top, conducting mapping and surveying work in Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior this summer.
“The student success is building momentum,” Van Sumeren said.
Great Lakes TechSurge is still open for registration and include speakers and demonstrations from NMC vessels and in the Great Lakes campus harbor.
Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom
March 16, 2016
Credits in early childhood development were all that stood between Karin Cooney and advancement to the director position at Traverse City’s Angel Care child care. Yet Cooney needed to be at work Monday through Friday.
NMC’s child development program solved her conundrum. The classes are nearly all scheduled in hybrid formats, meaning limited face-to-face sessions, most offered evenings or Saturdays, with required online work in between. This semester she’s taking Human Growth and Development, which meets five Saturdays a semester. It’s been ideal.
“The class makes it seem like you’re a part of something, but I have the flexibility to do the coursework when I have the time,” Cooney said. (Above, students in a Saturday morning English class.)
Registration for the fall semester begins today, and students will see more courses are being offered in hybrid formats, also known as blended, which combine the benefits of face-to-face classes with the convenience of online.
Last fall, nearly 17 percent of NMC courses were offered in either online-only or hybrid formats. Such courses also mean fewer commutes, saving students time and money. Kalkaska resident Amber Marsh, 35, is enrolled in a hybrid English course that meets Thursdays, and an in-person class that meets Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“I am reluctant to take a course that mandates three drives into town,” Marsh said. But she added that some in-person is important. “I am leery to take an all-online class, as I have had such great success with the hybrid/face to face interaction.”
Social Sciences instructor Cheryl Bloomquist said converting what was originally an entirely face-to-face course improved the delivery. Originally the Human Growth and Development course was offered seven Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The intensity left students brain dead by 2:30, she said.
In 2011 she converted the course, which now meets from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. five Saturdays, with additional content online.
“This hybrid combination is so much better in terms of piecing the information out,” Bloomquist said.
Time management in hybrid courses isn’t always easy for students, Bloomquist acknowledged. Last semester, she experimented with ending her face-to-face sessions in a computer lab so students could begin the online work with her available as a resource.
“That was really quite successful,” she said. “When they leave class, they’ve started their work.”
Cooney has been so impressed with the child development program that she’s contemplating requiring certain courses for her staff of 15, who care for 50 children.
“I’m willing to juggle my employees, so they can get the knowledge,” she said. “It only helps us.”
