Kudos to Dan Gentry, Dan Wasson, Lindsey Lipke and Danielle Quinlan. Kudos to Dan Gentry, Dan Wasson, Lindsey Lipke, and all of the people who worked on a recent security issue related to data. Kudos also to the EES Team and Danielle Quinlan for fielding all of the phone calls during this event.

Kudos to the Advising Team and Career Planning. Kudos to the advising team and career planning for reaching out to students in our classrooms. This is a great way to promote these services to our students.

Kudos to Shannon Croll. NMC Advising and Admissions have been collaborating on efforts to bring more resources and information to our dual-enrolled students, their parents, and school counselors. Shannon Croll took the lead on developing several draft course pathways, based on careers/majors, to help inform class choices for dual-enrolled students. These draft pathways are divided into introductory and “deeper dive” courses to help students appropriately sequence their choices. They include a recommendation for dual-enrolled students who start before 11th grade, or with a high school GPA below 3.0 to take EDU100 – College Success as an introductory course. Shannon has used her incredible attention to detail and worked tirelessly to have these pathway guides ready for our first information sessions this week. Thank you Shannon!

Kudos to Charles Schneider. CJ provided assistance and resources to a student in need who was seeking on-campus employment. CJ took time out of his schedule to assist the student who appreciated his efforts.

Kudos to Kristy McDonald and Brandon Everest. Kudos to Kristy McDonald and Brandon Everest, Co-Directors of the ELI, for having 16 NMC employees sign up for EL 101’s spring cohort. It is exciting to have a large number of faculty and staff members wanting to learn more extensively about experiential learning and creating Experiential Learning Opportunities (ELOs) for their courses!

Kudos to Elizabeth Sonnabend. NMC Extended Education & Training is now offering Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) training to workers and employers to help reduce the risk of workplace hazards. A group of eleven students recently completed the MIOSHA 6-Day Level II Bootcamp. Four students finished their Level II Certificate by attending. One of the students, originally from Detroit, is a Safety Training Officer for the Atlanta airport and is just a few classes away from an Environmental Health and Safety degree from Oakland University. Since she moved out of state, it was more affordable for her to fly to Traverse City (twice because the training was 6 days, 3 days a week, two weeks apart), get a hotel, and register for the bootcamp than it would be to take the classes from Oakland University. She will earn her Level II Certificate which will transfer as 11 credits to OU. Elizabeth Sonnabend went above and beyond to accommodate the students’ needs during the two weeks that the training ran. She even picked up the Atlanta student from the airport and drove her to the class when her flight was delayed because of a snowstorm.

Kudos to all Faculty. Thank you to all the faculty that allowed the Advising department to come into their classrooms over the last few weeks for visits. Between talking to students about registration, advising services and the Career Fair, we completed over 40 classroom visits in the month of February! We appreciate your support and the opportunity to connect with your students.

Kudos to Lisa Thomas, Jeremy Heinlein and Katy Knight. On Sunday, March 3rd, Lisa, Jeremy, and Katy hosted the Spring Semester 2024 Induction into Phi Theta Kappa at the Milliken Auditorium. Eleven new members were on hand as representatives of their class of 90 NMC Students joining into membership of this honor society for two-year colleges. As a team, they did a wonderful job honoring the late Dr. Kari Kahler, Associate Dean of Learning Services and long-time PTK advisor, while making additions to the already impactful and formal induction for these students. Wonderful job, team!

Kudos to Lisa Baldyga. At last week’s Launchpad Quick Start event, a former high-school student in Lisa’s JMG program met the Michigan Reconnect Navigators and then NMC’s Admissions team. It was Lisa’s years of communication and encouragement that led him to finally begin his higher education journey with NMC this year. “I am so happy to be here taking this step”, he said. “Lisa is the reason I am here; she never gave up on me.” Great work Lisa. You are constantly improving the lives of young people in our region!

Kudos to Amber Marsh. Amber volunteered so much time and gave so much information to our PTK induction crew over the past few weeks. This was the first induction since we lost Kari Kahler, so her help was paramount to the success of the program. Thank you, Amber!

Kudos to Hollieanne McHugh & Jennifer Ewing. Hollieanne and Jennifer are assisting Extended Education & Training with custom curriculum development for Sara Lee. In addition, Hollieanne toured the Sara Lee facility and provided input on the delivery of content. Jennifer Ewing is designing a curriculum around leadership & management while Hollieanne is developing a curriculum for manufacturing training. This training will be delivered over the next year. Thank you, both!

Kudos to Joan Sodini, Steve Kellman, Cari Noga, Taylor Wolf and Emily Crull. Thank you to the PRMC team for their extra support and efforts with publicity for the Career Fair this year. We had our best year since covid and they no doubt played a role in that success. Special shoutout to Joan and Emily for their creativity and quick communication in coming up with unique materials for both students and the community. We appreciate you!

Kudos to Lisa vonReichbauer, Rorie Kawula, Cathryn Claerhout and Traci Heidbreder. HUGE thank you for the incredible effort and attention you all exhibited in the fall, as huge turnover affected the Admissions area. You all went above and beyond to keep everything rolling, all while making time to train and welcome the new admissions recruiters. A huge shout-out to all of you!


Experts suggest maintaining an “attitude of gratitude” increases positivity for yourself and for others. Please encourage your colleagues by submitting a KUDOS. Let them know you appreciate their hard work and are thinking of them!