Visual Communications invites pro-bono project submissions

Dec 5, 2022 | Intercom, Student News

TRAVERSE CITY — NMC’s Visual Communications department invites area non-profit groups to submit graphic design, art direction and new media projects for consideration as pro bono class projects during the spring semester.

Part of the Visual Communications curriculum, the class project is free to the non-profits selected. The goal is a real-world assignment that allows students to interact with clients and exposes them to the commercial printing and production worlds, including film and new media production, creative advertising, graphic design and packaging. Projects will be completed by the end of the spring semester in April 2023.

Potential projects could include logos, brochures, ad campaigns, packaging, graphic design, branding, posters, infographics, announcements, invitations, film, motion graphics, animations, exhibition design, TV commercials or anything relating to visual communications, commercial art, illustration and film or web design. The department is especially interested in conceptually-driven projects that will offer the students substantial opportunity for interaction with the client and process.

Please include the following in your submission:

• Description, tone and purpose of the design work requested, as well as the targeted audience you identify being associated with this work / your organization.
• List out EACH piece (logo / brochure / short film, etc.) that make up the ideal whole of your project. Other pieces may be identified by your student team or elements may be excluded based on their contracted plan or suggested in place of ones on this list.
• Ideal completion date between February 28 and April 25. All projects will be completed by April 26. Feel free to stagger dates individual elements might be due.
• Ideal time for mid-way progress check meeting in March.
• Budget: While there is no fee for the services students will provide, organizations must provide funds for printing / production expenses. NMC is happy to coordinate printing / production and get quotes under all budgets, and the students should be included in this step as it gains them experience in obtaining production quotes.

Please submit project consideration requests to instructor Caroline Schaefer-Hills at cschaefer@nmc.edu by January 6.

Release date: DECEMBER 5, 2022

For more information:

Caroline Schaefer-Hills
Visual Communications chair
(231) 995-1334
cschaefer@nmc.edu

Success story: NMC adds fifth water-related program

Nov 30, 2022 | Intercom, Student News

November 30, 2022

A new associate degree in water quality environmental technology coming next fall will expand NMC’s leadership in water-related career preparation as well as meet the needs of the new blue economy.

The new Wet Tech degree will be the only one of its kind in Michigan. It will utilize existing core and surveying and unmanned aerial systems courses, as well as create new courses in environmental site assessment, aquifer sampling, and groundwater monitoring. An internship is also required. NMC’s Board of Trustees approved it unanimously last week.

“This program will focus on training a workforce supporting the direct monitoring and cleanup of waters within the Great Lakes watershed and focusing on the direct impact to the quality of our water resources,” said Great Lakes Water Studies Institute Executive Director Hans Van Sumeren (above).

He said that nationwide, the U.S. EPA has documented 294,000 waste sites. Cleanup of those sites will generate more than $200 billion in economic activity, meaning graduates will find a strong job market.

“The water quality/environmental technician program intends to provide training for a skilled workforce that will be ready to respond to this growing need,” Van Sumeren said.

It joins four other NMC water-related degrees and programs:

• An associate’s and a bachelor’s in Marine Technology, the only one in the world, created in 2012 and 2018, respectively
• An associate’s in Freshwater Studies, the first in the nation when it was created in 2009.
• The Marine Center – professional development and training in marine systems, geospatial technologies and land surveying. 
• Great Lakes Maritime Academy – Trains deck and engineering officers for the commercial shipping industry. Bachelor’s degree offered since 2012; program founded in 1969.

NMC also partners with Western Michigan University to allow Freshwater Studies students to earn a bachelor’s degree in freshwater science and sustainability, and with Lake Superior State University for Fisheries and Wildlife Management and Conservation Biology.

Creation of the new degree is also part of NMC Next, NMC’s strategic plan. The Huckle Family Foundation will provide $100,000 over two years for equipment and other program support.

College to offer state’s first Wet Tech degree Fall ’23

Nov 30, 2022 | Intercom, Student News

TRAVERSE CITY — A new associate degree in water quality environmental technology coming next fall will further expand NMC’s leadership in water-related degrees and programs as well as serve industry demand in the new blue economy.

The new Wet Tech degree will be the only one of its kind in Michigan. It will utilize existing courses from surveying and unmanned aerial systems programs as well as create new courses in environmental site assessment, aquifer sampling, and groundwater monitoring. An internship is also required. NMC’s Board of Trustees approved it unanimously last week.

“This program will focus on training a workforce supporting the direct monitoring and cleanup of waters within the Great Lakes watershed and focusing on the direct impact to the quality of our water resources,” said Great Lakes Water Studies Institute Executive Director Hans VanSumeren.

He said that nationwide, the U.S. EPA has documented 294,000 waste sites. Cleanup of those sites will generate more than $200 billion in economic activity, meaning graduates will find a strong job market.

“The water quality/environmental Technician program intends to provide training for a skilled workforce that will be ready to respond to this growing need,” Van Sumeren said.

It joins four other NMC water-related degrees and programs:

• An associate and a bachelor’s degree in Marine Technology, the only one in the world, created in 2012 and 2018, respectively
• An associate degree in Freshwater Studies, the first in the nation when it was created in 2009.
• The Marine Center — professional development and training in marine systems, geospatial technologies and land surveying.
• Great Lakes Maritime Academy — Trains deck and engineering officers for the commercial shipping industry. Bachelor’s degree first granted in 2014; program founded in 1969.

Creation of the new degree is also part of NMC Next, NMC’s strategic plan. The Huckle Family Foundation will provide $100,000 over two years for equipment and other program support.

Release date: NOVEMBER 30, 2022

For more information:

Hans Van Sumeren
NMC Great Lakes Water Studies Institute Executive Director
(231) 995-1793
hvansumeren@nmc.edu

Success Story: Restaurant Week chefs earn chops at GLCI

Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News

February 19, 2020

Ten years ago, Traverse City started Restaurant Week with 18 restaurants offering special menus.

Fifteen years ago, NMC’s Great Lakes Culinary Institute moved to brand-new bayfront facilities, including Lobdell’s Teaching Restaurant.

Ten years before that, in the mid-1990s, NMC’s culinary program made a distinct shift to focus on the art and craft of cooking.

Those culinary ripple effects will crest next week, when Traverse City’s tenth annual Restaurant Week takes place with more than doubled restaurant participation. Fully one-quarter of those 40 restaurants count GLCI alumni as owners or in kitchen leadership roles. At other restaurants, current GLCI students and other alumni can be found as line cooks, sous chefs and managers, all collectively contributing to Traverse City’s stellar reputation as a food and wine destination

“Just the fact that we have so many incredible restaurants, (GLCI) is one of the sources behind it,” said Colleen Paveglio, marketing director at the Traverse City Downtown Development Authority.

The DDA originally organized Restaurant Week to be a shot in the arm to business during the lull of midwinter. To say it worked is an understatement, said 2014 Culinary Institute graduate Fletcher Gross (above), a chef partner in HM Group. Their five restaurants — Slate, Sorellina, McGee’s 72, McGee’s 31 and Harrington’s by the Bay — all participate.

“Restaurant Week is literally like pulling a week out of the middle of July and putting it in February,” Gross said. “It’s one of my favorite weeks of the year, because we can showcase what we do best.”

Gross credits GLCI for giving him the skills not only to become a chef, but to build a career in the restaurant industry. He joined HM Group in 2011 and bought into the ownership group in 2018. 

“I learned how to be a better manager,” said Gross, 26, who handles all the purchasing for the five restaurants and trains the head chef for each kitchen. Between them, the five restaurants employ around 100 people this time of year, a figure that will double in the summer. 

 “I’m very grateful for my restaurant career,” Gross said.

He also pitches into whichever kitchen is expecting the highest volume in a given week.

Next week, that may be a tough call, as reservations pour in.

“People look forward to it,” Paveglio said.

Besides the HM Group restaurants, the others participating in Restaurant Week with GLCI alumni connections are Minervas, PepeNero, Smoke & Porter, The Good Bowl and Towne Plaza.

Success Story: NMC provides a path for student government president

Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News

September 15, 2021

Edris Fana speaks at the 2016 NMC CommencementLast month, 2016 NMC graduate Edris Fana expected to see his parents for the first time in eight years, when they were to travel from Kabul, Afghanistan to Traverse City for his wedding to fellow alumna Emma Smith.

Instead, their wedding date, Aug. 15, became the day that Fana’s home country officially fell back to the Taliban, the Islamic military regime that resumed control of Afghanistan amid the final withdrawal of U.S./NATO troops after a 20-year presence.

“Everything just went downhill,” Fana said, adding that his parents have visas to travel to the United States, but cannot get a flight. (Very limited air travel resumed last week.) “To see it fall like this, it’s crazy to think about it.”

As the first international student to lead NMC’s Student Government Association, Fana, now 27, once aspired to apply that experience back home, and work in the government of the fledgling democratic republic.

“That was my all-time goal,” said Fana, who studied aviation. As the SGA president, he spoke at both the 2015 and 2016 commencement ceremonies.

“Coming from a place that I didn’t have the opportunity to practice leadership, or to have any experience of what I was capable of, it was NMC that presented me with opportunities to grow,” Fana told the audience in 2016.

Fana reciprocated those opportunities, contributing significantly to international understanding on campus, said Jim Bensley, NMC’s director of International Services and Service Learning.

“His interactions with fellow students helped many students gain a more intimate understanding of Afghan culture,” said Bensley, who invited Fana to speak to his World Cultures classes as well as wider campus audiences.

Fana’s 2013 departure to attend NMC was his second exodus from Afghanistan. In 1994 he was 11 days old when his parents fled with him and his brother to Pakistan as the Taliban began its first takeover of the country. The family returned to Afghanistan in 2003, when Fana was 10.

By then, the American invasion had ousted the Taliban from power and Afghanistan was heading into its first democratic elections. Despite attending an American school in Kabul and having parents who were educated and professional — his father runs a non-governmental organization called Partners in Aviation and Technology — Fana found his options for higher education limited. He wanted to study aviation.

As a young, Afghan man in a post-9/11 world, it wasn’t easy getting the acceptances and  documents he needed to study in the United States. But Fana finally succeeded, following his brother, a pre-med student, to Michigan.

“NMC provided a path to me, not just out of Afghanistan, but to study more, to study what I really love, and get involved in the community,” said Fana. In addition to the SGA, at NMC he joined the International Club, also serving as its president, was a resident assistant and worked in the library. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business from Ferris State University through NMC’s University Center in December 2020.

NMC Dean of Students Lisa Thomas is the adviser to the SGA and knew Fana well.

“His own life experiences and journey from across the world to NMC gave him a deep sense of appreciation for the education and opportunities at NMC,” Thomas said.

Currently working as a hotel manager, with a return to Afghanistan off the table, Fana is accruing flight hours in order to earn his flight instructor license.

Daily life in Kabul is “somewhat regular” now, as the Taliban seeks international recognition of its regime, and his parents are safe, Fana said, but they are still seeking a way to leave. It’s stunning to think the country is back where it was when he was an infant.

“I don’t think anybody expected an overnight takeover. Within two weeks, the whole country just fell in.”

Success Story: Equalizing opportunities in the cockpit

Nov 27, 2022 | Intercom, Student News

September 27, 2017

NMC Aviation, already celebrating its 50^th anniversary, notched another notable accomplishment this fall – the largest number of new female students ever.

The six women, from Michigan to Indiana to Alaska, more than double Aviation’s total female enrollment. They took various paths to the Aero Park campus – from a sight-unseen enrollment after a relative’s recommendation to a cold-hard calculation of cost to value. But after only a few weeks of class, they share a sentiment of satisfaction with the small, welcoming program that gets students into the pilot’s seat ASAP.

“It was amazing. The second week of school we were up in the air,” said Kate Hauch, 29 (above), the Alaskan who enrolled upon the recommendation of her brother-in-law, a former student. She never set foot on campus until she arrived from Juneau a couple days before classes, but has felt welcomed.

“You’re a new student, you don’t know how to fly, let’s learn,” is the attitude she found.

“Being able to fly the first week of school at NMC really made a big difference,” agreed Regan Lezotte, 18, of Howell. She had wanted to go to Western Michigan University and spent months agonizing over her choice. A cost analysis showing she’d save six figures by attending NMC tipped the scales.

“There are some smaller houses that I could buy with this money I’d be saving,” Lezotte said.

At Western she wouldn’t have been flying until summer 2018, and would have been among 800-900 students instead of 50.

“It’s more intimate. My instructor knows me, he knows my name,” said Lezotte, whose goal is to fly in corporate aviation. She’s also already found an internship for next semester, working in the Airport Operations and management offices at Cherry Capital Airport.

Hauch plans to return to Alaska and work in either the aerial survey industry or flying medical evacuation flights. Meanwhile, the Saginaw native is enjoying the warmer weather and the local scenery, like her “gorgeous” first flight up the Leelanau peninsula.

“I love the northern area,” she said.

NMC Aviation will celebrate its first half-century with a symposium and gala dinner at the Grand Traverse Resort Thursday. More details are available at nmc.edu/aviation50.