page 2

A passion for horses page 4

Volume1, Number 2 Winter 2005-06

Upcoming eventspage 12

Training for Women page 7

Graphics design program page 8

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Service Learning: fostering the development of empathy, personal values, beliefs, self esteem, self confi dence and social responsibility

Picking up trash by a river bank is service. Studying water samples under a microscope is learning. When students collect and analyze water samples and the local pollution control agency uses the fi ndings to clean up a river . . . that is service learning. Service learning is a Central Wyoming College class and the concepts are also integrated into the curriculum of other college courses, such as Professor Jewel Dirk’s human services class. Re-gardless, service learning engages young people in solving problems within their schools and communities as part of their academic studies. In the service learning class at CWC, a stu-dent must commit 30 hours to service to earn a

credit. But according to instructor Mary Flohr, the student learns so much more. The projects often foster the development of empathy, personal values, beliefs, self esteem, self confi dence and social responsibility. The service reinforces and strengthens the learning, and the learning reinforces and strengthens the service. Jessica Konicek, a social work student, is giving up some of her time on the weekends to do activities with the residents of the Westward Heights Care Center in Lander. “I’m getting a lot more out of it than I expected,” said Jessica, emphasizing the experi-ence has been “humbling.” The faces of the nursing home residents light

up when they see her each weekend. Some of them don’t get many visitors, she adds, and they come to depend on seeing a familiar face. The service learning project gives Jessica an opportunity to use newly acquired skills and knowledge from the classroom in real-life situa-tions. It also allows her to focus in areas of social work she may want to later emphasize. Students in Dirks’ class have the opportunity to enhance their grade by participating in a service learning project. “She’s been amazed at how some of them are taking to it,” Flohr said of Dirks’ students. “The students are going above and beyond and really doing some community service rather than little projects just to get the grade.” (continued on page three)

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Service-learning also helps young people develop a range of service skills, from acts of kindness and caring, to community stewardship, to civic action. Dirks’ student Anessia A. Porter was part of a Wind River Reservation group that participated in an event in Cheyenne celebrating recovery and “wellbriety.” Anessia saw fi rsthand how alcohol and drugs were affecting lives on the reservation while doing social work there. “I want to be able to make a difference even if I only help one person,” she said. For Susan Benepe, who runs Fremont County Big Brothers Big Sisters, college-aged students are important to the success of her program’s mission. “College kids are the right age,” she said. The majority of “Bigs” in her pro-gram are CWC students and Benepe is convinced they will “do amazing things. It’s great to have those ten-tacles out in the community,” she said. While Big Brothers Big Sisters receives Americorps funds to recruit college students to the program, most don’t volunteer for the money. “I do it because I enjoy spending time with kids,” said CWC student Victor Szablewski, who is a “Big” to Skylar, a 12-year-old who was

matched with Victor because of their shared interest in the outdoors. Victor is the non-custodial parent of three daughters who live in Wisconsin, so spending time with his “little brothers fi ll a void for me.” He’s an experienced “Big” as he was in a BBBS program in Cody before relocating to Riverton. An accounting student, Victor doesn’t have a background in social work or counseling. Yet, he understands that what the kids he shares time with need most: consistency. “Kids need attention; people who pay atten-

tion and people who will be there,” said Victor. “Dependability is really important to them.” “Consistency is my ultimate word for match-es,” Benepe adds, explaining that many of the “Littles” have “disheveled kinds of lifestyles.” She advises against spoiling the children. “They’ll take anything they can get, but it’s time that is so precious to them. Time is the greatest gift of all.” Typically, Bigs and Littles “hang out” on weekends. “They love the simple stuff,” Benepe said. “They love just being included.” The chil-

dren enjoy being invited to tag along with their Bigs while doing weekend errands, for example. When student Terra Hubenka joined BBBS she didn’t expect it would change her. “I’ve always been a giver, but now I fi nd my-self doing things for other people just to make them smile.” Participants of CWC’s Honors Program, a group of select stu-dents, created a service learn-ing project entitled “Books for Babies.” To promote literacy at a very young age, the students raised money to purchase copies of “Good Night Moon,” a popular children’s book. Every baby born in Fremont County in December received a copy of the book.

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The equine industry in America is big business and students from across the country and even from foreign nations are fl ock-ing to Central Wyoming College to learn the skills to work in the trade. The horse industry is a $15 billion business in the United States, said CWC Equine Professor Patti Stalley, who a quarter century ago began developing CWC’s equine studies program into a nationally recognized curriculum. For many of Stalley’s students, the college’s horsemanship program is able to transform a student’s love for horses into a meaningful and productive career. CWC graduates have gone on to work as equine facilities managers, horse trainers and show horses internationally.

“Our program has become known as a progressive program by staying current with national and interna-tional equine trends,” Stalley said. “We encourage our students to become well rounded.”

Word-of-mouth accolades about Stalley’s instruction and the equine program at CWC have spread. Students come from across the nation to Riverton to enroll, and the program has even attracted some international stu-dents. Just recently, Patti took a call from a

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The equine industry in America is big business and students

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young woman in New York who learned about the program from the U.S. Olympic Equestrian Team’s veterinarian, whom Stalley has never met. She’s also been recently invited by the Black Hills Equine Expo committee to judge their Trainer’s Challenge competition and to present a seminar on “Colleges and Careers with Horses.” With 1.9 million Americans owning horses, there are many jobs related to equine, Stalley said. Most of her graduates earn an income or supplement an income with horses. Some of these students have had a lifelong association with horses, while others had never mounted a horse until they put their feet in stirrups at CWC. Wyoming, the nation’s least populated state with only a half million people, has 99,000 horses. According to the American Horse Council, the equine industry in Wyoming produces goods and services valued at $191 million. It directly provides 1,400 full-time equivalent jobs in the state for a total employment impact of 4,900 jobs. According to AHC, 33,100 state residents are involved in the industry as owners, service providers or volunteers. Stalley doesn’t need the staggering statistics to know how big the equine business has grown. When she began offering CWC classes in 1981, she was warned the class would not be held un-less she had at least eight students enroll. Sixty-four registered for those fi rst two classes and from there it has snowballed into a full-fl edged program with an ever-growing reputation. Stalley, who originally was hired at CWC to

Cynthia Schell is a mentor for CWC’s longtime Equine Professor Patti Stalley. Better known in equine circles as “Cinch,” the 88-year-old Crowheart woman has had a lifelong love affair with horses. “She is so worldly,” said Stalley in describing Cinch, who as a part-time instructor for the equine program introduced many CWC students to English riding. Though she was the leader in equine education in the state, Patti enrolled in the fi rst class offered by Cinch at CWC to renew her own personal English skills. While most riders in this area ride Western style, the interest in English riding has grown tremendously, Stalley said, especially because students are enrolling at CWC from coastal states and the East. In addition to being a great promoter of riding, Patti says Cinch is also an avid reader. She’s helped keep Patti abreast of the changing trends in equine education by bringing her articles from multiple publications. There hasn’t been a time in Cinch’s long life when she wasn’t wild about horses.

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‘Cinch’ is wild about horsesCynthia “Cinch” Schell, right, visits with CWC equine student Jolene Murray.

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coach women’s rodeo, said owning horses is a huge commitment. “It’s a big mistake for a person to take a few riding lessons and then go buy a horse,” said Stal-ley, who honed her equine skills as a child on a Nebraska ranch. “They really need to know how to take care of a horse.” Developing riding skills is only one part of CWC’s curriculum. Students learn anatomy, horse health care practices, equine nutrition, shoeing and housing horses. This kind of commitment takes time and money. Putting her caution aside, Patti said training horses gives you a “warm feeling” inside. “It gives you such a feeling of satisfaction,” she said. While a majority of Patti’s students are in the program to learn a career in equine, there are nu-merous horse owners in the community who have taken equine courses to promote their avocation. Community support is evident by the participation in the equine pro-grams special events held annually at the CWC Equine Center. Last year, the program hosted a free equine chi-ropractic seminar with Dr. John Wilson. She expected about 40 people to attend and ended up with 120. The Equine Center frequently hosts clinics for English riding, breakaway, barrel, showing and a series of Jackpot Ro-deos which begin this month, where about $10,000 in prizes is awarded. The events are for youth and adults, and are geared toward the students and community. “We live in a very generous community who like to see their young people being schooled and succeeding,” Stalley said, noting that the special events she and her students volunteer to put on raised more than $13,000 last year. That was put toward an Equine Endowment with the CWC Foundation and was matched dollar for

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dollar by the state. The program has also raised about $23,000 for the Ron-nie Alexander Memorial Fund, to honor a horse farrier from Crowheart who used to shoe horses at the arena.

Stalley would like to put on more events and expand her curriculum to include therapeutic riding, equine massage, vet tech, vaulting, and mule educa-tion, but she is limited by arena and parking space at the college’s North 8th West and Gasser Road facility. The equine industry is highly diverse, supporting a wide variety of activities in all regions of the coun-try. CWC’s curriculum offers a variety of degrees and credentials to meet the needs of the students, who are taught to ride, train and to teach riding. The program is affiliated with the international Certified Horsemanship Association. Students can be certified to teach at four different levels. CWC students maintain a high national rate of certification, Stalley points out. For more information about CWC’s equine program, visit the website: cwc.edu/academics/programs.

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Not every makeover is cosmetic. Central Wyoming College’s director of Customized Training Lynne McAuliffe said CWC is offering extreme career makeovers to eligible women by providing opportunities to learn new hands-on-skills that will more than likely double their earn-ing capacity. The program provides free training to qualifi ed female applicants in the fi eld of information technology. Another program, offering similar perks, begins in February but in the fi eld of construction trades. Women in Wyoming earn much less than their male counterparts and that wage disproportion gives the state the dubious distinction of being dead last in the nation. Wyoming women earn 67 cents on the dollar compared to men, and the national average is 73 cents. An even more discouraging statistic is that women in Fremont County, make only 63 cents to the male dollar. The Wyoming Department of Work Force Services wants to elevate the wages of the state’s female workers by sponsoring a wage disparity program through CWC. The grant allows the ten best applicants in the two programs the chance to re-shape their lives by learning the skills to demand higher wages. CWC is currently educating a class of Information Tech-nology Support Specialists and these 10 women, carefully selected from 100 applications last spring, have been in a very intense, rigorous program. “Employers are hoping to hire them directly out of

Not every makeover is cosmetic.

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Born on Staten Island, N.Y. in 1917, Cinch soon real-ized it was too expensive to take pony rides at Asbury Park. So like lots of young girls, she devoured books about horses. She still holds on to her mother’s copy of Riding and Driving for Women by Belle Beach, a book she first read when she was just 10 years old. She got her first horse in 1933, a bay saddle bred gelding. While attending the Knox School in Cooper-stown, N.Y., she had the option of riding for an extra fee. Her instructor was a Russian colonel, who taught “forward seat” riding. Cinch was the first to enroll in an animal husbandry program at Penn State, where she earned a degree in 1940. About the same time, she got her first thor-oughbred mare and worked as a “riding counselor.” In 1946, she married veterinarian Fred Schell and they passed on their love of horses and animals to their three children. Around 1950, Cinch took her Pony Club to the first ever national rally and one of her students was the first young woman to pass a test. Her team also placed first in a team dressage competi-tion. A few years later, Cinch designed and built cross country jumps for that portion of the U.S. Equestrian Team trials. Cinch and her family moved around the country and she taught at colleges and private stables, including leading the riding program at Camp Green Cove in Tuxedo, N.C., for 15 years. She concluded her teaching career in Wyoming, teaching for CWC and for private students at the Bit-terroot Ranch near Dubois. Last year, she returned to the CWC Equine Center to donate a large television to enhance equine educa-tion.

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Wild about horses . . .

A new graphic design component has been added as an option to the Internet Web Development degree at CWC, educating students to be Web and print media designers. Using the latest design and web development software, participants learn the tools and the theory of creating digital media and graphic layouts for both web and print applications. “We want our students to be as diverse as possible,” said Professor Matt Flint. While Flint’s courses relate more to the “print” side of graphic arts, he emphasizes that web and graphic arts “really complement each other.” The graphic design option is in its first year and with little program marketing, Flint has found a dozen students interested in the field. He said the program is set up to give students a “well rounded education” in the field so they can “go out and get a job.” The CWC program emphasizes a “smattering” of print, advertising, marketing and illustration; all fields in which a graphic designer may be hired. “Most jobs are going to ask you to do a whole lot of stuff,” Flint said, explaining employers are requiring staff have diverse capabilities. In addition to teaching the extremely sophisticated and complicated graphic design tools, like Adobe’s Creative Suite of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, the students learn to formulate “concept to production.” In the first year of the program, students enroll in “digi-tal imaging,” a basic introduction of “making images that communicate effectively.” This spring, the digital imaging course is complemented by a typography course that basi-cally teaches the student how to effectively communicate with type. (continued on next page)

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(continued from page 8) The combination of images and type is what gives graphic design its “power.” In the final semester, the students will do an in-ternship to get a practical real world experience. Flint is seeing so much talent from his first-year students, he’s convinced they’d be ahead to start their own agency in the region. “We could use it,” Flint believes. If you look at anything that’s made as a product, like advertising, printing, packaging, some where, some time, it’s been touched by a graphic designer. “There will always be a demand for graphic designers.”

The art on these two pages was completed as projects for Matt Flint’s digital imaging class. All of the concepts were created and executed by the students, with “loose limitations” set by Flint. At right is an image by Mary Spradley, and the piece above is by Rueben Wichelhaus. The image on the left hand page above is by Derek Wintermote and the bottom art is by Robert Snyder.

Images

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the program,” said McAuliffe. There’s a real market for people with the breadth of experience these women are gaining.” A good part of the reason Wyoming ranks last in the nation in wage differences is that there are many high-pay-ing jobs in the minerals industry that are generally fi lled by men. McAuliffe said one way for women to earn competitive wages is by learning skills in non-traditional fi elds, such as construction trades and information technology. “Women are working mostly in the service sec-tor,” she explained. “If we can put more women in nontraditional fi elds that pay higher wages, we can impact the wage dispar-ity.” Most importantly, the women can become self suffi cient.The applicants for the two upcoming programs must meet eligibility requirements and have dependents at home. “These are women who are already struggling,” McAuliffe said while emphasizing the compe-tition will be fi erce for winning a spot in the programs. “It’s not fi rst come, fi rst served.” All tuition, books and materials are fully paid by the grant, she

said, explaining that drug screens are a new requirement for appli-cants because the candidates in the programs would be required to be tested by potential employers. “Our goal is to have an 80 percent placement rate of program completers employed in the fi eld that they are trained,” McAuliffe said. The participants in the fi rst wage disparity Information Technol-

ogy training at CWC are very motivated to succeed in the program. “I think they ap-preciate the opportunity to make a career change,” she said, noting that each of the participants understand the investment that has been made for them. The wage disparity program is also benefi cial to potential employers. Construction trades in Wyoming are in desperate need for qualifi ed workers. RaJean Fossen of Strube Con-struction is confi dent women can do the job. And women also could be trained in con-struction specialties, such as fi nish carpentry, tiling, fl oor-

ing and the like. The Information Technology fi eld is more conducive for women with children, McAuliffe acknowledges as it may not require travel. The IT classes begin Jan. 27 and the Construction Trades is set to begin Feb. 27.

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Coming to CWC Theatre soon

7:30 p.m. – Main StageBased on a story and characters by Damon Runyon

Music and Lyrics by Frank LoesserBook by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows

March 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11

Start with a colorful assortment of 1930s Guys and Dolls – gangsters, molls, gamblers, night-club singers and Salvation Army workers. Then add a wildly funny story that bounces from Times Square to Havana to the sewers of New York. Finally, stir in one famous song after another (like “Luck Be a Lady” and “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat”). This is the recipe for one of the classics of American musical theater.

Rated G • Reserved Seating

Tickets go on sale Feb. 9 for season subscribers; Feb. 16 for all others. 11

The next screen asks you to narrow your selec-tion of noncredit classes. Use a published fl yer from one of the CWC outreach offi ces for class

information, or click on the words Non-credit Course List on this screen and see all classes available. Now you may select your classes.

Follow the remaining directions to complete the fi nal steps for registration.

Want to sign up for a non-credit class? Take advantage of the new “Instant Enrollment” feature on the website. You may register for classes online,

and pay for them at the time you enroll. Just follow the step-by-step procedures.Instructions:New students and former CWC students may register for noncredit (continuing education or community service) classes via WebAdvisor. You must use a credit card to pay when you register for these classes and you must have an email address to use this service. If you want to exit WebAdvisor at any time, click on Log Out in the upper right corner of the screen.

Step Go to the CWC web site www.cwc.edu and click on WebAdvisor (found on the left side of the CWC home page.)

The opening screen contains the instructions for logging into WebAdvisor. If you know your WebAdvi-sor username and password, you can use it; if you do not, continue by clicking on the word WEBADVISOR at the top or the bottom of the instruction page.

Step On the Main Menu click on WebAdvi-sor for Continuing Education.

Step On the next screen, click on Register and Pay for Continuing Education Classes. (see arrow)

January 6 First Class Stipend deadline

January 9 Faculty return from semester break

January 12-13 New student orientation

January 13 Last day to register for 2006 Spring Semester classes

Jan. 13-Feb. 5 Annual Exhibit of the Art Department faculty

January 16 CWC closed for Martin Luther King/Equality Day Holiday

January 17 Spring classes begin

January 21 Jungle Book Presented by Missoula Children’s Theatre

January 28 BYU Living Legends Dance Ensemble

January 28 Jackpot Rodeo series begins at Equine Center

Winter activities at CWCFebruary 2 Reception for Art Faculty Exhibit

Feb. 8-March 5 Memory & Meditation exhibit Artists exploring how we remember events in our

life and how focusing on those can heal our souls.

February 10 Jazz Night IIFree concert featuring CWC jazz ensembles

February 12 College Goal Sunday

February 13 Financial Aid Awareness Week

February 16 Faculty ColloquiumArt Department discussion

February 20 President’s Day Holiday

February 21-24 Diversity Week

February 23 Memory & Meditation Exhibit reception

March 2-4, 9-11 Guys and Dolls CWC Theater Department’s spring musical

March 8-April 2 Slices of Life exhibit

March 14 CraicmoreContemporary, traditional Celtic bandConnect is a new publication of the

CWC Public Information Offi ce and is scheduled to be published quarterly.

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