Annual Report to the CommunityJohnson County Community College 2013-2014

Annual Report to the Community Johnson County Community College

A message from the president . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

A message from the chair, board of trustees . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Strategic planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Serving the community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Faculty and staff awards and honors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Student awards and honors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Athletics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Meeting community needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Center for Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Events and speakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Accountable to the community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Technology at JCCC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Continuing Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Performing Arts Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Johnson County Community College Foundation . . . . . . . . . 44

A message from the presidentA lot has happened during my first year as president, as you can see in the pages of this report. To name just a few examples, we identified key performance indicators by which we’ll measure our success, developed a new three-year strategic plan for the college, opened a new hospitality and culinary building and were named the top-rated community college in the country (in the large college category) for digital technology.

We didn’t stop there. Faculty were recognized for excellence in teaching; the culinary, debate and Model UN teams brought home awards for student work; and individual programs more than met their accreditation standards. In short, it was another good year for JCCC.

You can see from the student stories on these pages how JCCC changes students’ lives through learning. I think I can speak for everyone at JCCC – nothing gives us greater satisfaction than seeing students succeed and reach their goals, whether it’s to go on to a four-year university or find a job in their chosen field. It’s true that, once they’re hired, our staff and faculty tend to stay, and it’s because there is so much satisfaction in watching our students learn, grow and flourish. It’s a cause and a purpose to which we’re committed.

We couldn’t do this without the support of this community, however. We’re grateful for your pride in us and the way you step forward in support, whether it’s serving on our program advisory committees, coming to our events or attending our classes. We want to do our best for you. The information in these pages will show you how well we did during academic and fiscal year 2013-2014. That’s the foundation on which we’ve built for 2014-2015.

Sincerely,

Joe Sopcich President

The president’s leadership teamDr. Judy Korb, executive vice president, instruction and operations

Dr. Barbara Larson, executive vice president, administrative services and finance

Andy Anderson, vice president of academic affairs

Dr. Dennis Day, vice president of student success and engagement

Denise Moore, vice president of information services/CIO

Tanya Wilson, general counsel

Julie Haas, associate vice president of marketing communications

Karen Martley, associate vice president of continuing education and organizational development

Terri Schlicht, executive assistant to the president and the board

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A message from the chair, board of trustees“We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.”

Nelson Mandela said that, and – as usual – he was right. In this review of Johnson County Community College’s activities and achievements during 2013-2014, we hope you’ll see that the college has used time wisely and that we’ve done right (it was also during this year that the world lost Mr. Mandela, who certainly used his time wisely and well).

Almost half of all U.S. undergraduates study at community colleges; 42 percent of first-time college freshmen are enrolled there. Across the country, 7.7 million students are enrolled in community college credit programs, and 5 million are taking community college noncredit courses. Community colleges are vital to the educational and economic health of the nation, just as Johnson County Community College is vital to the educational and economic health of both the county and the metropolitan area.

Accordingly, more first-time freshmen from Johnson County – about 38 percent – attend JCCC than any other educational institution in Kansas. Our enrollment of just credit students is one of the highest in the state. When you add the people who take our noncredit offerings, we serve more than 44,000 people each year. The students in our classes are certainly using their time wisely to “do right,” as they deepen their understanding of the world around them, prepare for new jobs or find ways to do their current jobs better.

JCCC is well supported by this community, which is a wise use of your time as well as another way to “do right.” We are grateful for your continued championing of the college; we do our best to deserve that, as you can see in these pages.

The trustees are proud of this college, its employees and students, its classes and events, and its contributions to the area. On behalf of the board of trustees of Johnson County Community College, we want to thank for your support, your time and the chance to “do right” for this community.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jerry Cook Chair, JCCC board of trustees

JCCC board of trusteesDr. Jerry Cook Lee Cross Dr. Robert Drummond David Lindstrom Greg Musil Stephanie Sharp Jon Stewart

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Strategic planning In fall 2013, Johnson County Community College launched a new strategic planning process that will determine how the college fulfills its mission over the next three years. This new and inclusive process, developed by a strategic planning task force, defines the college’s future direction and determines how resources are allocated to accomplish goals.

A steering committee helped guide the overall effort of the task force and its four work groups, composed of faculty, staff and students, who engaged the campus and external communities in the development of the strategic plan:

• Communication. This group implemented a communication strategy and a plan for engaging both the campus and external communities in the plan’s progress.

• Community Outreach. This group sought input from both internal and external constituencies and collected, represented and integrated their perspectives into the final plan.

• Data Analysis. This group identified, through an environmental scan, the critical strategic issues that the college faces and conducted a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis.

• Data Collection. This group designed input questions, collated and analyzed the feedback the task force received from both campus constituents and the community, and assisted with the SWOT analysis.

The task force set milestones every two months to help work groups gauge progress, see that effective communication was taking place and ensure that the best information available was gathered and analyzed. Throughout the year, the task force gathered information and feedback from a variety of constituencies. Faculty, staff and students completed surveys, while 117 business and industry leaders, education and government officials, and college alumni discussed what they perceived to be opportunities and threats for JCCC’s future through college-sponsored community conversations. Task force members researched and wrote white papers on social, technological, economic, political, educational and demographic trends that could affect how the college conducts its business over the next three years and subsequently compiled a comprehensive analysis of the college’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Members of the president’s cabinet used this analysis to formulate broad strategic goals, and input was solicited from across campus on how the new strategic goals could be supported. The cabinet used this feedback to guide the formulation of more specific annual goals for the college.

Finally, during the spring 2014 semester, the task force re-examined the college’s statements regarding its mission (what the college does), vision (its aspirations) and values, which are all a significant component of the strategic planning process. Listening sessions were scheduled across the campus to give faculty, staff and students opportunities for input on the new core statements.

During a retreat in May 2014, the board of trustees reviewed progress on the strategic plan process and in July approved the strategic plan.

The new strategic plan, encompassing JCCC’s new mission, vision and values statements and new strategic goals, is the direct result of the diligent work of all of the JCCC communities.

• Mission. JCCC inspires learning to transform lives and strengthen communities.

• Vision. JCCC will be a national leader through educational excellence and innovation.

• Values

• Integrity. We hold ourselves accountable for decisions and actions.

• Collaboration. We respect diversity of thought in building a culture of collaboration.

• Responsiveness. We respond to the needs of our students and communities through relevant offerings.

• Leadership. We pursue leadership roles in our communities and higher education.

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Strategic goals Goal 1: Increase student success by improving student satisfaction, retention, persistence, graduation and transfer rates.

Task 1: Create an academic master plan aligned with the strategic goals integrating student and employer needs through academic programming and student experience initiatives.

Task 2: Enhance student success by integrating academic offerings, advising and student resources.

Task 3: Using data, identify and implement high-impact practices that have demonstrated positive results in student satisfaction, retention, persistence, graduation and transfer rates.

Task 4: Increase enrollment by developing a long-range enrollment and recruiting plan.

Task 5: Foster a culture that inspires college employees to proactively support students.

Goal 2: Demonstrate increased agility in responding to stakeholder needs.

Task 1: Fully implement a program review and development process to ensure that curricular offerings maintain high quality and align with community needs by growing, restructuring, adding or discontinuing programs as appropriate.

Task 2: Improve satisfaction with internal business processes (quality and delivery time).

Task 3: Expand Web-based instructional options for students and the community.

Goal 3: Focus on communicating the college’s comprehensive offerings.

Task 1: Develop a comprehensive marketing plan that supports the priority of increasing enrollment at JCCC.

Task 2: Enhance internal communication through increased cross-functional collaboration and intentional communication to the campus community.

Goal 4: Commit to the efficient use of resources to strengthen quality offerings.

Task 1: Reduce administrative costs as a percentage of total expenditures through streamlining business processes, service area reviews and reallocation of resources from administrative functions toward direct student success activities.

Task 2: Improve facility utilization.

Task 3: Revamp the budget process to align with strategic goals.

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Serving the communityIn July 2013, Johnson County Community College was again named one of the best colleges in the nation to work for, according to a survey conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education. JCCC was recognized in the category of facilities, workspaces and security. The college also was recognized as a great college to work for in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. The results are based on a survey of more than 44,680 employees at 300 colleges and universities. In all, only 97 institutions received

“Great College to Work For” recognition for specific best practices and policies. Results are reported for small, medium and large institutions, with JCCC included among the large institutions with 10,000 or more students.

The survey results were based on a two-part assessment process: an institutional audit that captured demographics and workplace policies and practices from each institution and a survey administered to faculty, administrators and professional support staff. The primary factor in deciding whether an institution received recognition was employee feedback.

In July 2013, trustee Melody Rayl submitted her resignation from the JCCC board of trustees, citing a desire to focus on family and career. She had been a trustee since 2008, serving as chair in 2012-2013, on the board’s human resources and audit committees and as the liaison to the JCCC Foundation and the collegial steering committee.

Thirteen candidates accepted the board’s invitation to submit an application to fill the vacancy. The trustees chose to interview four candidates: Karin Brownlee, Olathe; Robert Drummond, Olathe; Michael Lally, Overland Park, and Steven Wolf, Prairie Village. Drummond was then appointed to fill the vacancy. The president/CEO of Kids TLC in Olathe, Drummond (now retired) had previously served on the board from 2009 to 2013.

In September 2013, for the fifth year in a row, Victory Media named Johnson County Community College to its list of Military Friendly Schools.® The list honored the top 20 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools in the country that are doing the most to embrace America’s military service members, veterans and spouses as students and ensure their success on campus.

Now in its fifth year, the 2014 list of Military Friendly Schools ® was compiled through extensive research and a data-driven survey of more than 10,000 schools nationwide approved for VA tuition funding. The survey results that comprise the 2014 list were independently tested by Ernst & Young LLP based upon the weightings and methodology established by Victory Media.

JCCC is also one of the additional locations for the VetSuccess on Campus (VSOC) program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Partner schools provide on-campus office space for VA vocational rehabilitation counselors to help ease veterans’ transition to student life and assist them in achieving their educational and career goals through the Post-911 GI Bill and other education benefit programs.

Joe Sopcich, JCCC president, delivered his first State of the College presentation in September. His presentation, “One College, One Community, One Goal,” showcased new goals and key performance indicators for the college as well as the work of college faculty and students.

Student senate president Elliot RogersJCCC students might not have known Elliot Rogers personally, but they definitely saw him around campus.

Life-size cutouts of the student senate president popped up at various locations around campus shortly after classes started, urging students to run for the senate and have a voice in student governance.

Rogers was a role model for getting involved and making a difference.

His first semester at JCCC he joined five existing organizations – Koinonia and InterVarsity Bible studies, the chess club, swing dance club and student senate – and worked to organize three more – the engineering club, the enjoying the performing arts club and a hacky sack club.

In spring 2013, when the student senate’s parliamentarian quit and the group’s executive board considered eliminating the position, Rogers stepped up, arguing that the post needed to remain. He then became the parliamentarian, rewriting the group’s constitution to make it consistent with the senate’s practices and easier to read.

It also gave him a chance to shadow the previous year’s president to see if the presidency was something he was interested in.

Rogers’ goal for the year was to raise student senate’s visibility with students. Students may have ideas that the group could act on, but students don’t always know how to make the connection with the Senate, he said.

He also wanted to see students get more involved in clubs and organizations. Rogers said he wanted JCCC to be a campus where students want to get involved and, more importantly, know how to get involved.

Juggling multiple responsibilities was nothing new for the administration of justice major. He was home-schooled in Davis, California, where he was a fencing instructor, worked at Target and was a 3-D graphic artist. His work can be seen in several video games.

His parents moved to Lawrence just after Rogers turned 18, and he started classes at JCCC initially because he wanted to learn French and because he would have had to pay out-of-state tuition at four-year schools. The administration of justice program – and the Regional Police Academy on campus – also appealed to him.

Rogers graduated in May 2014 and transferred to Kansas State University to study aviation.

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Better late than never: Student Ron SmithIt has taken nearly two decades, but Ron Smith is finally close to achieving his college dreams. The road to completing his academic degree has been difficult with many detours along the way, but Smith never lost sight of his dream.

His journey to JCCC began in Dothan, Alabama, where Smith, at age 16, dropped out of high school to help care for his ill mother. It was during this time that a caring librarian and high school principal, hearing of his difficulties and recognizing his potential, stepped forward to help.

“My family had nothing left,” Smith said. “We lost the house, the car, everything. I felt lost. I am truly blessed that these two people took me under their wing to help me and give me a second chance.”

After completing high school, Smith briefly attended a community college in

Dothan, but he sensed that he needed more stability and leadership in his life so he left school and enlisted in the U.S. Army.

“I never had a lot of structure at home,” he said. “I wanted more for my life, but I needed more rigorous structure. The Army provided that for me.”

In his first year of military service, during training exercises at Fort Rucker, Smith suffered a debilitating neck and back injury from a motor vehicle accident. His injuries forced him to be placed on medical hold for a year, but he returned to complete the rest of his four-year enlistment term. Though he still suffers back pain and other medical issues from his accident, he does not let that slow him down. Smith realized that he was still holding on to his dream of a college education, but he was unsure how to proceed.

Upon a friend’s recommendation, the then-38-year-old Smith enrolled at JCCC. He immediately contacted the JCCC office of Veterans Services, and that office helped set him back on his educational path.

“With the help of Veterans Services staff, I was able to take full advantage of all of the VA educational benefits that I was eligible for,” Smith said. ” I finally felt like I was on the right track.”

By this time, Smith had relocated to Lawrence, so attending JCCC’s site there made sense. Living close to where he attended classes was beneficial to his success, he said.

“Taking classes at the Lawrence campus was so convenient,” Smith said. “I was only minutes away from home and even though I wasn’t on the main campus, I still had access to all the programs and resources that the college offered. Being close to my classes also meant I could more easily participate in study groups and tutoring. I also saved a lot in gas money!”

Smith plans to graduate in spring 2015 with an associate’s degree in business administration. He hopes to work as a human resource recruiter where he feels he might be able to help people just as he has been helped so many times.

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In October, JCCC dedicated its new Hospitality and Culinary Academy, located on the east side of the college campus, just south of the Regnier Center. The academy opened for classes in August.

In February 2010, the JCCC board of trustees challenged the JCCC Foundation to raise $3 million over 18 months to support the construction of a new hospitality/culinary center on campus. If the Foundation was able to raise $3 million in that time, the trustees pledged to give favorable consideration toward the construction of a new center on campus.

The incentive for this action came through the “Wysong Challenge,” a set of initiatives intended to distinguish JCCC’s hospitality program at national and global levels. Former Kansas state Sen. David Wysong and his wife, Kathy, announced in May 2008 a $750,000 challenge gift to help raise funds in support of JCCC’s hospitality program, which eventually included the construction of a new facility.

In July 2011, the Foundation met the “Wysong Challenge” by announcing to the JCCC trustees that $3,291,032 had been raised in support of the college’s hospitality and culinary program. Other funding for the project came from the college’s capital outlay fund and capital reserves, which are restricted to capital projects.

The $13-million, free-standing facility accommodates the 700 students enrolled in the college’s nationally recognized hospitality management program and provides space for noncredit classes and community activities, including new opportunities for workforce development and partnerships.

The 36,000-square-foot building houses culinary labs, an innovation kitchen and a demonstration kitchen in a culinary theater as well as three classrooms. The culinary labs include two for professional cooking classes, one for pastry classes, a garde manger or cold foods kitchen, and a restaurant kitchen. The restaurant kitchen adjoins a dining room on the east end of the building that can be converted to two classrooms as needed.

Hospitality management faculty and staff are housed in the building within an office suite that accommodates 15 or more people, as well as work space for adjunct instructors, a conference room and a library.

JCCC’s hospitality management program encompasses these different areas: chef apprenticeship, food and beverage management, hotel and lodging management, pastry/baking and dietary management. It is one of only 28 programs recognized by the American Culinary Federation Education Foundation Accrediting Commission (ACFEF) as an “exemplary program,” meaning that it meets the highest educational standards recognized by ACFEF by maintaining consistent compliance with all ACFEF requirements, coupled with excellence in management. The American Culinary Foundation recognized JCCC in June 2012 as being one of three programs in the country to have been continuously accredited for 26 years.

Ready to ride the rails: Student Chris LeakChris Leak was considering becoming a firefighter when his mom had a better idea.

The Piper High School graduate from Kansas City, Kansas, decided to instead enroll in the conductor training program offered by the National Academy of Railroad Sciences (NARS) at JCCC.

“I was going to get a fire science degree when my mom started telling me about the NARS program. I just started thinking about it, and I thought it was better to try out a six-week course than to commit to a four-year degree that I may or may not use,” he said.

Why was his mother such an expert on the program? Just four years before, she had completed conductor training.

Leak said his mother never became a conductor, deciding that her children were still too young to leave for extended periods while she was on the road. But she nevertheless liked the program and thought it might be a great opportunity for her son.

Students of the program can receive a fast-track railroad conductor certificate or they can earn an associate of applied science degree that combines railroad courses with general education and technical classes.

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Faculty and staff awards and honorsIn July 2013, a book by Dr. James Leiker, professor of history, called The Northern Cheyenne Exodus in History and Memory, co-authored with Ramon Powers, received honorable mention for the Bryon Caldwell Smith book award given by the University of Kansas Hall Center for the Humanities.

It is the second recognition of the prize given to a JCCC history department faculty member, the first being Patrick Dobson’s Seldom Seen: A Journey into the Great Plains in 2011.

In February, Leiker was appointed to the board of Great Plains Quarterly, which publishes scholarly work on history, literature, culture and social issues relevant to the Great Plains region. The quarterly is a publication of the University of Nebraska Press and University of Nebraska-Lincoln Center for Great Plains Studies.

In June, Leiker was appointed to the national Social Sciences and History Test Development Committee for the College Board’s College-Level Examination Program (CLEP). The four-person committee writes exam content and evaluates pretest data to measure student performance for CLEP exams administered at participating colleges, universities and military bases.

Emily Behrmann, general manager of the Performing Arts Series, was one of five individuals chosen for the 2013 Pinnacle Award by the Johnson County Library Foundation. She was honored for excellence in the arts.

The four award categories – literacy and education, business and entrepreneurship, arts, and advocacy and public engagement – reflect the focus of the foundation and the library’s work in the community. The 2013 Pinnacle Awards honorees were selected because they demonstrate excellence in their professional fields or philanthropic pursuits.

As general manager of the Performing Arts Series at JCCC, Behrmann is responsible for booking artists, marketing events and raising money. She wants to use the performing arts to make an impact on the citizens of Johnson County and beyond by presenting quality artists, championing arts education and collaborating with the many talented organizations and individuals in the Greater Kansas City arts community.

Melisa Jimenez, diversity recruiter in the office of admissions and recruitment, received the Humanitarian Award at the 10th annual Community and Accessible Community Awards program and reception in October. The award is given by the Olathe Human Relations Commission and is meant to showcase individuals who have affected the city of Olathe through business, faith-based organizations and educational institutions.

JCCC’s College Scholars program presents members of the college’s own faculty, showcasing their research and scholarly contributions to knowledge within their academic discipline.

• Stephanie Sabato, professor of graphic design, delivered “Morocco! The Exquisite and the Challenged” in September 2013. She presented a series of documentary films she created that reflected her experience as a Fulbright Scholar in Morocco.

• In October, Dr. Andrea Broomfield, professor of English, discussed the history of

Account ability: Alumnus and Adjunct Professor Tony WayneHaving parents who both were career educators, JCCC adjunct professor and small business owner Tony Wayne grew up being accountable.

“But, no, I was anything but destined to become an accountant,” he said. “Originally, I wanted to coach and teach P.E. in high school.”

Then he attended JCCC.

“The new campus had just opened, and I didn’t have the academics or the maturity to go away to school,” he recalled. “I liked [instructor] Wayne Mackey so much, I took him for intermediate as well as college algebra, and I met my future wife in his intro course.”

Wayne said he dropped out in 1974, but then in 1977…“while lying on the floor listening to the Boss’ Born to Run on the headphones, I had an epiphany. A momentary jolt of Gestaltic creativity and brilliance: I realized the career ceiling for me was tight, absent a degree, but also realized I had learned how to work my rear off. I decided then and there to return to college.”

Wayne drove to the KU School of Business to discuss its requirements and a listing of JCCC courses that would satisfy them.

“On the way back from Lawrence, I stopped by JCCC and met with a counselor to get enrolled for the summer session,” he said. “I actually was likely one of the first students to attend KU and JCCC at the same time.”

Wayne graduated with a dual major in business administration and accounting and worked for several firms, including Arthur Andersen, before striking out on his own.

“I founded IronHorse in 1998 and pursued the dream of always wanting to be my own boss,” he said. “Truth be known, I never really enjoyed working for someone else, nor did I ever really thrive running large organizations, either. I thrive on the creativity, the challenge of doing my own thing and building something. I love the business development, the sales and marketing aspects of our business and building the IronHorse brand.”

Teaching at JCCC only came about after he became an empty nester.

“On a whim I ventured over to the JCCC website and found my way over to the job openings page,” Wayne said. “I saw that they had an opening and decided right then to apply. Teaching is in our family genes, and it was something I always wanted to try, in addition to starting my own business. Timing seemed right, and I went for it. One of the best decisions I ever made.”

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food in the Kansas City area, beginning with its role as a supply stop on the Santa Fe Trail to its heyday as a purveyor of fine cuts of beef and then segueing to a discussion of six local restaurants and how their history reflects the history of the Kansas City area. In addition, Broomfield conducted an historical culinary walk of the 18th and Vine district in Kansas City, Missouri.

• In March and April 2013, Dr. Ann Raab, adjunct professor of anthropology, shared her findings and dissertation research about the region’s often-overlooked history of the Civil War. Raab has studied two distinct sites in Bates County, Missouri, for evidence of Civil-War era conflict that revolved around a little known executive order, General Order No. 11, that forced anyone not within one mile of a military zone to evacuate their homes.

Ten faculty members received Distinguished Service Awards for 2013-2014: Dr. Dennis Arjo, professor/chair of philosophy and religion; Diane Davis, associate professor of English; Maureen Fitzpatrick, professor of English; Dr. Melanie Harvey, associate professor of science; Dr. Teresa Helmick, professor of speech; David Krug, associate professor of accounting; Mark Raduziner, professor of journalism and media communications; Dr. David Seibel, professor of science; Dr. Heather Seitz, associate professor of science; and Dr. Lekha Sreedhar, associate professor/chair of horticulture.

Teachers attending the Kansas World Language Association Conference in the fall voted the presentation by Christina Wolff, assistant professor of foreign language, as “Best in Kansas.” The presentation, “Creating a Professional Plan for Interpreting,” outlined the development and implementation of JCCC’s legal and healthcare interpreting programs. Being Best of Kansas means that Wolff will present her session at the 2015 Central States Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Three JCCC employees were selected by their peers as recipients of the 2014 National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) Excellence Award. They are:

• Jeffery Lewis, professor of mathematics• Phil Wegman, program director in Continuing Education

• Christina Wolff, assistant professor of foreign language

Since its inception in 1978, NISOD has emphasized the importance of teaching and leadership excellence in institutions of higher education. NISOD has worked to serve, engage and inspire teachers and leaders through conferences, publications, Web services, partnerships, programs and more.

The three JCCC employees were honored at the International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence held in Austin, Texas, in May.

In February 2014, Debbie Rulo, director of Continuing Education, received The Chair Academy’s 2014 International Exemplary Leadership Award. This award recognizes individuals or teams who best exemplify and support academic and administrative excellence. Rulo was honored at the annual international conference in St. Louis in March.

Also in February, Dr. Barbara L. Larson became the executive vice president of finance and administrative services at JCCC. She had served as vice president for administration and chief financial officer for Hillsborough Community College in

‘The Kansas Hermit Poems:’ Associate Professor Thomas ReynoldsThe Kansas Hermit Poems is a chapbook of 19 poems authored by Thomas Reynolds, associate professor of English at JCCC.

But the voice of the poems is from someone altogether different: a character that Reynolds has been able to create, a spirit from a past life who roamed the prairies when Kansas was still in its infancy.

“I didn’t set out to write about this character – he came about just through fumbling with words one day,” Reynolds explained. “I had some time to write but didn’t have a subject. I ended up jotting down some random sentences: • ‘ Eat a hatful of berries with two wild onions and wash your breath with a

tin cup of rain.’

• ‘Walk through time but always return before dusk.’

• ‘Tear down the snow fence but save the posts.’

“I ended up with a series of them, and then tried to think of a title that would somehow connect them and put them into some type of context. Eventually, I settled on ‘Mental Notes of a Kansas Hermit.’ That seemed to fit,” he said.

For the next decade, Reynolds and the hermit – this figment of his imagination talking to him from the prairie of the past – traveled together in a literary dimension.

For Reynolds, who has degrees in both English and history, the hermit represented a certain type of man, the kind of turn-of-the-century Kansan who would walk into the Flint Hills to build a sod house with his bare hands.

“All of the poems are in his voice, as he describes his philosophy, his love/hate relationship with the universe, and situations he encounters, mostly with the wildlife in his environment: foxes, fish, owls, rabbits,” Reynolds said.

The Kansas Hermit Poems is being published and sold ($12) by Finishing Line Press in Georgetown, Kentucky. Many of the poems were first published elsewhere in literary magazines and poetry reviews from 2004 to 2008.

On the book’s back cover, author Kevin Rabas compares Reynolds’ work to Walden by Henry David Thoreau, the paramount narrative about finding oneself within the wilderness.

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Tampa, Florida, since 2006, also serving as interim president of the college’s South Shore campus in 2009. At JCCC she oversees business services, campus services, financial services, information services, insurance and risk management, the box office and the JCCC police department.

In April 2014, Pat Decker, associate professor and director of the honors program, was recognized as a 2014 Distinguished Adviser by the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. The award recognizes advisers who have served at least four years and have made significant contributions to the growth of the individual chapter members, served as the chapter’s advocate on campus and encouraged the chapter to be involved on the local, regional and/or international levels of the organization. A panel of judges selected Decker from more than 75 nominees internationally.

Jason Porch, subcenter director at the JCCC Kansas Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), was elected president of the Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC) at its annual conference in March. APTAC is the professional organization of the Defense Logistics Agency-Funded Procurement Technical Assistance Programs. APTAC supports the PTACs by providing them with important information, professional networking, comprehensive training opportunities and a voice in national government contracting assistance and policy arenas.

Dr. Deborah Williams, associate professor of science, was one of five recipients of a Kansas Association for Conservation and Environmental Education Award in April. The award recognizes the outstanding achievements of individuals, organizations, agencies, communities, schools and businesses in the field of environmental education. Williams received the award in the pre-16 education category.

Williams and Bea Peeke, retired program coordinator with Adult Basic Education/GED/ESL, received the John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Award from the League for Innovation in the Community College. The awards celebrate outstanding contributions and leadership by community college faculty and staff.

Six adjunct professors were selected to receive a Lieberman Teaching Excellence Award, which recognizes outstanding performance by adjunct professors. The Lieberman Award is one of the most significant honors given at JCCC. It recognizes excellence in teaching and learning and the positive impact it has on JCCC students.

Lorie Paldino, adjunct associate professor of English, received $750. Receiving $250 were Marla Byrne, adjunct professor of mathematics; John Carroll, adjunct professor of fine arts; Dr. Jamie Cunningham, adjunct associate professor of science; Hugh Forbes, adjunct associate professor of accounting; and Amy Pace, adjunct professor of English.

Portfolios prepared by this year’s nominees were judged by Dr. David J. Cook, vice chancellor, University of Kansas Edward Campus.

In May 2014, five full-time JCCC faculty members were recognized for outstanding performance with the BNSF Railway Faculty Award. They were chosen by an external judge, Dr. Daniel Phelan, president of Jackson College in Jackson, Michigan, based on submitted portfolios. Winners were Dr. Andrea Broomfield, professor of English; Colleen Duggan, professor of nursing; Beth Edmonds, associate professor of

Exchanging historyOn one side of the county line, a history professor with years of experience looks longingly to ivy-covered walls that enclose students who love history almost as much as she does.

On the other side, a graduate student searches for a place where he can learn to teach what he loves, because even though he may be an expert scholar, he’s still new to teaching.

JCCC and the University of Kansas have broken through that county-line boundary to form a teaching exchange that is of benefit to both institutions. Since the 1990s, JCCC has sent a history professor to KU to teach one upper-level class on the Lawrence campus, and KU has sent a graduate student to teach an introductory class in history to JCCC students.

“The arrangement has worked quite well,” said Dr. Vin Clark, professor/chair of history at JCCC. “We’ve hired candidates from the exchange because we know first-hand the level of their teaching abilities.”

Dr. Jay Antle, executive director of the Center for Sustainability at JCCC, was hired as a history professor at JCCC after his participation in the exchange program and a few semesters as an adjunct professor.

“I enjoyed the exchange a great deal,” Antle said. “I was impressed by JCCC, and Chuck Bishop, my mentor teacher, had some very practical solutions to improve my teaching.”

The exchange went into hiatus for a few years before it was reinvigorated in the fall semester of 2013. Dr. Sarah Boyle, associate professor of history at JCCC, taught at KU, and Shelby Callaway, a graduate student at KU, taught at JCCC.

Callaway said having Boyle as a mentor would prove invaluable. “The culture at every school is different, so it’s nice to hear what someone who’s been in a similar position found useful or ineffective when it comes to teaching, engaging students, or navigating an organization as large as JCCC.”

At KU, Boyle taught a 300-level class focusing on the Great Depression and the New Deal. Though her dissertation research was in 19th-century history, Boyle said she still enjoyed teaching an entire course about one specific time period.

“The exchange is a good program,” Boyle said. “It creates a great relationship between the educational institutions.”

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mathematics; Janalee Isaacson, professor of nursing; and Bill Robinson, associate professor of mathematics.

Since 1986, JCCC has recognized outstanding full-time faculty performance through a gift from BNSF Railway. Winners receive a $1,000 cash prize; nominees who submit approved portfolios receive a $250 cash prize. Full-time instructors, counselors and librarians who are regular members of the staff and who have completed at least three years of service in their present position may be considered.

JCCC Dining Services earned a pair of silver medals from the National Association of College and University Food Services. The silver medals came in the retail sales-single concept category, medium-size schools division, and in the catering-online menu category, medium-size schools division.

Judi Guzzy, professor/librarian, received the 2014 Kansas Library Association, College and University Libraries Section (CULS) Distinguished Service Award. The award recognizes a CULS member with a record of outstanding contributions to the library profession, development of the CULS libraries in Kansas or exemplary service for an extended period of time.

Also in June, JCCC’s Video Services and several peer groups received three Telly Awards, which honor film and video productions, Web commercials, videos and films, and outstanding local, regional and cable TV commercials. The awards for JCCC were:

• Naz Bah Ei Bijei: The Heart of a Warrior: The documentary about the life of World War II Navajo Code Talker Samuel F. Sandoval was created by Paul Kyle, dean of student services; Dr. Sean M. Daley, associate professor of anthropology and director

of the Center for American Indian Studies; Ed Smith, research project coordinator, Center for American Indian Studies; Barrett Beasley, production manager, video services; Chris Horvat, videographer/editor, video services; and Josh Shipley, graphic designer, Shipley Creative.

• The Hayseed Project with Susan Werner: In 2013, songwriter Susan Werner took a tour of the JCCC campus farm with Mike Ryan, former campus farm/ outreach manager; Stu Shafer, professor/chair of sustainable agriculture; and Emily Behrmann, general manager of JCCC’s Performing Arts Series. The video was created by Erin Barnes, videographer/editor, video services; Horvat; and Beasley.

• Inside JCCC ATB: The “Inside JCCC” series focuses on the campus of Johnson County Community College with tours of each building that highlight both the college’s fine facilities and variety of programming. The series was created by Dr. Lin Knudson, dean of academic support, and the script was written by Julie Haas, associate vice president of marketing communications. Programs are hosted by Joe Sopcich, JCCC president, and JCCC students. The ATB episode was created by Horvat, Dain Hartwell and Tsgaab Assefa, videographer/editor, video services; Beasley; Rich Fisher, engineering manager, video services; and Vincent Miller, director of video services.

Susan McSpadden, JCCC administrative photographer, accepted three awards at the University Photographers’ Association of America conference in June. McSpadden received a second-place award in the sports feature category of the annual print competition for a photo of a JCCC hammer thrower. She also received an honorable mention for an image of a therapy dog in the personal vision category. JCCC received an honorable mention in the publications category for best use of photography in a specialty book designed by Randy Breeden, senior graphic designer, for the League for Innovation in the Community College reaffirmation book.

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Student awards and honorsThe Johnson County Community College culinary team earned bronze, silver and gold medals when it represented the United States in the International Young Chefs Challenge held in Seoul, South Korea, in November 2013. The medal tally was:

• Gold in cold food • Silver in hot food • Bronze in the overall cold food category • Fourth place overall in the competition

The hot foods competition required the team to prepare a three-course meal for 65 people. In the cold food category, the team prepared a cold food platter for eight, four individual desserts, three individual appetizers and a five-course cold gourmet meal.

Members of the JCCC team were Sally Wilson, Stephan Horsch, Jessica Seely, Katie O’Connor, Matt Phillips and Kathryn Ratzlaff. Edward Adel, JCCC assistant professor of hospitality management, and Todd Walline, adjunct assistant professor of hospitality management, were the coaches who traveled with the team.

The team then cooked up a win in Saint Louis in March, winning a gold medal and top honors at the American Culinary Federation Central Region competition, competing against teams from nine states. That qualified the JCCC team to compete against three other regional winners at the national ACF competition held in July in Kansas City. In the competition, the students demonstrated their knife and basic food preparation abilities in a skills segment; prepared a cold plate for eight and a three-course meal for four in 75 minutes. Competitors were Seely, O’Connor, Phillips, Horsch and Raquel Kramer. Coaches were Adel and Felix Sturmer, professor of hospitality management.

The JCCC Culinary Knowledge Bowl team earned a silver medal at the regional conference. Team members were Jacob Wright, captain; Cody Mossman, Damon Cates and Tara Egglestonth. Aaron Prater, assistant professor of hospitality management, coached the team. The Jeopardy-style competition included sensory questions, hidden pictures and challenging culinary, baking, nutrition, sanitation and math questions.

JCCC’s debate team opened its season in September 2013 with a tournament at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, advancing two teams to the top 16 overall and one team to the quarterfinals. In October, two pair of debaters were co-champions of a national tournament at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. The teams of Blaire Warren and Tabi Secor and Brenden Brower-Freeman and Jesse Nation both advanced to the final round of the tournament. When teams from the same school are the final two teams left to debate in the finals, the infrequent situation is called a closeout, and the two teams are considered co-champions. JCCC also won four of the top six speaking awards at the tournament.

In November, the debate team won three team awards and two individual awards at a tournament hosted by the University of Central Oklahoma. Three of JCCC’s four top-seeded teams entered elimination rounds, while two JCCC debaters – Warren and Brower-Freeman – earned individual speaker awards.

At a tournament in January at Wichita State University, Warren and Secor finished in second place. Their 5-1 preliminary round record advanced them to elimination

3-D voluminous vesselUsing cutting-edge technology, math students at JCCC recently started their own glass collection.

Students in a Calculus II class designed and produced a drinking glass for a recurrent calculus exercise called “The Voluminous Vessel.”

In years past, students would merely sketch their plans for a drinking glass, with an end result of pictures and equations on paper.

This year, however, using JCCC’s 3-D printer, the project gained an added dimension: a glass rendered as a plastic prototype.

The 3-D printer has been used primarily in the drafting department by professors who want to make teaching aids and sample parts for their classes, said Tom Hughes, professor/chair of drafting.

But Brenda Edmonds, math professor, who first introduced the Voluminous Vessel project in 2006, suggested trying to get a 3-D model made. Hughes agreed to go along with the idea and talked with Cathleen O’Neil, math professor, about what the machine could do.

O’Neil, who taught the calculus class this fall, had her students divide up into teams; about a dozen teams of one to four students drew up plans for a drinking glass.

Six teams produced “stl” files for the stereolithographic printer, and the class voted on those six designs to choose one design to be printed. When the vessel started printing, Hughes invited the students to observe the printer in action and explained the process to the class.

The result was pretty impressive.

“We (the calculus class) were just really excited about what had been wrought, so we showed it around the math department,” O’Neil said.

From there, Nancy Carpenter, professor/chair of mathematics, suggested showing it to the college’s board of trustees at its October 2013 meeting as a good example both of the use of technology and of interdepartmental cooperation.

“The purpose of the project is to take something that is an abstract topic we teach in our Calculus II class, usually just with ideas and formulas and pretty narrow problems from the book, and turn it around to have students design something creative, beautiful, interesting and practical with those ideas,” Edmonds said.

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rounds as the second overall seed and earned them a bye in the quarterfinal round. In the semifinals they defeated North Texas University on a 3-1 decision before losing in finals on a 2-1 decision. Both also finished in the top 10 speakers of the tournament.

At their final event in March at the Cross-Examination Debate Association national tournament at Indiana University, the debaters won individual and team awards. Secor was selected to the 2014 National All-American debate team, an honor given to the top 30 individuals in the nation who represent the best of intercollegiate debate. Criteria for selection include demonstration of competitive success, academic success, good conduct and contributions to the squad.

JCCC received a team award, earning second place in the Mid-America region in total sweepstakes points, earned by winning preliminary and elimination rounds at regional and national tournaments. In the final national ranking, JCCC finished in the top 30 in the country, putting the team ahead of other regional and national institutions, including Kansas State University, Wichita State University, Missouri State University, Baylor, University of California-Berkeley, Dartmouth and Stanford. Justin Stanley is the debate coach; Daniel Stout is the assistant coach.

In November the JCCC Model United Nations team received four awards for policy position papers for Tanzania and Zambia at the 2013 American Model United Nations Conference. The team received a set of awards that recognized preconference preparation for each nation they represented. The position papers serve as blueprints for building consensus and formulating and negotiating workable draft resolutions to resolve issues. Twelve papers were submitted for the conference, six each for Tanzania and Zambia, by Nicki Joy Karstens, Marie-Kistin Horvat, Aaron Banes, Aaron Swift, Kaitlyn Sylva, Elysia Chao, Rebecca Carr, Grace Kamotho, Donald Roth, Katlyn Pratt and Ian Sneid. Elizabeth Schmidtberger was chosen to be a reporter for the conference and worked on the AMUN Chronicle as part of the International Press Delegation.

The team also received an Outstanding Delegation Award, Delegates’ Choice Award and three honorable mention awards in February at the 2014 Midwest Model United Nations Conference, portraying Canada and New Zealand. Team members Swift, Sneid and Bennett Hofer were recognized for their work on the General Assembly Disarmament Committee. Jeffery Redmond gained attention for his performance in the General Assembly Economic and Financial Committee, and Horvat and Nathaly Cifuentes were recognized for their work on the Economic and Social Council.

In addition, the team received recognition for diplomatic skills at the General Assembly Plenary session. Three JCCC team members were chosen by the conference for staff positions: Mayra Ferman, co-chair of the General Assembly Finance Committee; Sylva, co-chair of the Food and Agricultural Organization; and Gaelyn McGhee, co-chair of the General Assembly Disarmament Committee. In April 2014, the team received an Outstanding Delegation Award for its portrayal of Niger at the National Model United Nations Conference (NMUN) in New York City. JCCC was evaluated using the following criteria: remaining in character (advocating for the assigned country’s position in a manner consistent with economic, social and geopolitical constraints); participating in committee (during both formal and informal sessions); and the proper use of the rules of procedure.

Three JCCC students were chosen by the conference to be rapporteurs, who assist

Well on her way: Student Kate KeeganKate Keegan’s goal of becoming a nurse is on the fast track, thanks to the JCCC Quick Step program.

JCCC accepted Keegan, a 2013 Spring Hill High School graduate, into the nursing program straight out of high school due to the 27 JCCC credit hours she had already earned in high school.

She didn’t stop there. After graduating high school, Keegan enrolled in seven more JCCC credit hours to lighten her courseload during her first year.

Doing things in an accelerated fashion isn’t new for Keegan. She always keeps her eye on the prize – working as a nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit at a children’s hospital.

“I figured out my freshman year in high school that I wanted to become a nurse,” she said. “All throughout that year, I researched the career. During my sophomore year I got my foot in the door when I received my CNA [certified nurse aide] certificate as soon as I turned 16. I just couldn’t wait to get my CNA.”

Because she wanted to study nursing as soon as she could, Keegan decided to take multiple Quick Step classes at JCCC while still attending high school.

“I loved having the ability to take classes at the JCCC campus during my senior year of high school,” Keegan said. “I hadn’t heard of anyone in my high school doing that, but looking into the JCCC nursing program, coming to the college and actually talking to the counselors here really prompted me to do it.

“After talking to the JCCC counselors, I was able to go back and talk to my high school counselors to get everything worked out.”

Keegan said the public-university opportunities and the private-college attention makes the expansive learning environment at JCCC very one-on-one and personalized.

“In all of my courses I’ve been able to get to know each professor,” she said. “The professors work with your schedule in case you have any problems, and they are very willing to work with you. I love all my professors here at JCCC. They are all wonderful.”

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with the organization of their conference committee. Aaron Hafey served on the General Assembly First Committee: Disarmament. Sylva served on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and McGhee served on the General Assembly Third Committee.

This NMUN award caps 10 years of success for JCCC, during which the team has received awards at the last 30 consecutive conferences they have attended. Model United Nations allows students to understand the international issues at the United Nations while building skills in public speaking and diplomacy. More than 3,000 students participated in the conference by proposing resolutions and writing reports dealing with world issues. Dr. Brian Wright, professor of political science, is the team’s adviser.

Fifty-two top community college scholars from the state of Kansas, including two from Johnson County Community College, were honored in February in Topeka. The group was recognized for their academic accomplishments. Representing JCCC were Marcela deCarvalho and Amy Reinhardt. The scholars are members of the 2014 All-Kansas Academic Team, sponsored by Phi Theta Kappa, the Kansas Association of Community College Trustees and the Kansas Council of Community College Presidents.

JCCC student-employees of The Campus Ledger and JCAV-TV, as well as JC3 Student Video broadcast media students received 24 awards at the annual spring conference of Kansas Collegiate Media in April 2014. KCM’s spring contest recognizes outstanding work in broadcast, print and online collegiate journalism throughout the state of Kansas. Awards included nine first-place, five second-place and eight third-place honors and one honorable mention.

The Campus Ledger was named a Gold Medalist in the two-year public newspaper category, losing the race for the coveted All-Kansas Award by only one point to Hutchinson Community College. The gold, silver and bronze medalist ratings, as well as the All-Kansas Award, honor overall excellence in two- and four-year newspapers, yearbooks and magazines. In addition to the Gold Medalist ranking, Ledger staffers brought home 20 individual awards. Winners included Ashley Lanem, Jon Parton, Stephen Cook, Gabe Alejos, Alyssa Jolitz and Joe Hofbauer.

JCAV employees and JC3 Student Video students won three awards after entering

It only takes a spark: Student Aaron FitzgeraldYears from now when Aaron Fitzgerald settles into a career as a chemical engineer, he can credit JCCC experiences for beginning his dream.

“My first class was a chemistry class,” Fitzgerald said. “I had never taken chemistry before. Within a week I decided this is something I really loved. The teacher made it so exciting for chemistry and chemicals. I didn’t expect it to be enjoyable, and it was just great.”

That instructor was Barry Herron, professor of science, who teaches Principles of Chemistry.

“I liked the fact that instead of just being in class, we were learning about the world around us and how life relied on chemistry and so many people use chemistry but you never think about it,” said Fitzgerald, who was home schooled and graduated high school in May 2012.

“I had never even taken a chemistry class before that day. I actually planned to be a writer, but this changed my mind completely.”

Fitzgerald chose JCCC because it made sense for him and his family.

“JCCC is close to my house, and my sister was already going here,” he said. “I also knew a few people who were attending JCCC, and they all said it was a great school. They told me about some of the experiences they had with their teachers and that the school provided a friendly community that inspired learning. I decided that was something that would be really great for me as a person.”

While his first chemistry class sparked a career interest for Fitzgerald, JCCC experiences outside the classroom further solidified his career aspirations – developing environmentally friendly fuels for race cars and maybe even designing new tires that use less rubber and are easier to recycle.

“Seeing the JCCC campus dedicated and committed to sustainability is exciting,” Fitzgerald said. “There are many people who talk about ways to be more operations sustainable, but being at JCCC and seeing buildings and other things created that are sustainable is really inspiring.”

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KCM’s spring contest for the first time in April 2013. This was the first year in which KCM offered contest categories for audiovisual media.

Video students earned top awards in several categories from the Kansas Association of Broadcasters. JCCC entries were judged against all two- and four-year collegiate entries. Andrew Tady, Patrick Hennessy, Bill Butts, Zoe Allen, Bernie Verhaeghe, Ruth Youngberg, Rob Fulton, Mariah Elmore and Heather Dace won first-place plaques. Winning second-place plaques were Hennessy, Nicole Schafer, Danielle Sherraden, Efrem Duran and Tim Dressler. Winning honorable mention certificates were Ashlynn Turner, Pam Merkel and Chris Bradley.

Stephen Cook was the 2013-2014 Campus Ledger editor-in-chief. The adviser to The Campus Ledger is Corbin Crable. Zoe Allen was the 2013-2014 JCAV executive producer. JC3 Student Video instructors and JCAV advisers are Molly Baumgardner and Joe Petrie.

JCCC student Mary Alice Coulter was named a 2014 Newman Civic Fellow by the Campus Compact. The award honors inspiring college student leaders who have demonstrated an investment in finding solutions for challenges facing communities throughout the country. Newman Civic Fellows are recommended by college and university presidents to acknowledge motivation and ability in public leadership.

In April the JCCC Academic Excellence Challenge team won second place at the Kansas Academic Excellence Challenge State Tournament. During the competition, student Brandon Hattesohl was named an all-star for second place in the individual standings. The team ended the competition with a 9-2 record. Team members who played in the competition were Daniel Crist, Trevor Crookston, Brandon Hattesohl, Cody Hattesohl, Matthew Kelley, Jared Mullis, Rhiannon Pearson and Elliot Rogers.

Also in April, 10 JCCC students had artwork accepted into the Kansas City Artists Coalition Undergraduate College Student Exhibition. Several of the students had multiple pieces accepted. Students whose work appears in the show were Joseph Amir, Elizabeth Brown, Doug Busby, John Champion III, Lori Hill, Jennifer Horan, Jeanne Hrabe, Kathleen McCarther, Mary Ripka and Kyle Selley. JCCC had more student work accepted into the juried show than any other college or university.

Designing her career path: Student Rachel CarverRachel Carver made her career choice as a pre-teen, and she’s wasting little time getting hands-on training in her chosen field.

“I chose my career at age 12,” Carver said. “I met an artist/jewelry designer during a trip to Ireland, and I have loved jewelry making ever since. He was the person who piqued my interest, and I’ve never changed my mind. My hope is to become a self-employed silversmith and open my own studio or operate out of my own house.”

Carver is fulfilling general education requirements at JCCC that will transfer to the University of Kansas to finish a bachelor’s degree in metalsmithing/jewelry. She’s receiving an added bonus, though, in taking JCCC classes specific to her field.

“JCCC has wonderful metal and silversmithing classes through the fine arts department that are great stepping stones to further my education in this area,” she said.

“I knew that right out of high school going to a four-year college was not an option for me because of how much my parents had spent to send me to a private high school. Community college was my most viable option. I wanted affordable general education classes, but when I found out I could also enroll in silversmithing classes right out of high school it made all the difference.”

Declaring JCCC as her college choice as a junior in high school paid good dividends for Carver. It allowed her to become more familiar with the college and all that it offers incoming students. She applied for and is the recipient of the JCCC Foundation’s President’s Scholarship.

Thinking of what she’s experiencing at JCCC, Carver said, “I definitely enjoy all the college instructors. Instructors here are really involved with the student base and the college. They are all inspirational. I’ve loved every moment I’ve been here.”

What makes JCCC instructors special? Carver said JCCC faculty members care about the students, and they are engaging.

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AthleticsIt was another outstanding season for Johnson County Community College athletics in 2013-2014. JCCC athletic teams sported a combined .547 winning percentage, with 12 teams above .500 and seven at .700 or better. The women’s basketball team posted a .938 winning percentage with a 30-2 record, and the baseball team registered a school record of 50 wins on its way to the World Series.

The Cavaliers won six Kansas Jayhawk Conference championships and five Region VI titles and competed in postseason play in 17 of JCCC’s 18 sports; five teams finished in the top 10 in NJCAA Championship events. JCCC sports teams also were ranked in 74 of 102 polls released by the National Junior College Athletic Association in 2013-2014, and JCCC teams appeared in the top 10 42 times. The women’s basketball team had the most top-10 poll appearances with 12, followed by volleyball with nine.

Individually, JCCC athletes and coaches racked up a tremendous number of honors and awards. In 2013-2014, a record four athletes were voted as the conference MVP for their sport: Aaron Schnurubusch in baseball, Pat Jones in men’s basketball, Juanita Robinson in women’s basketball and Preecy Seever in volleyball. Additionally, baseball coach Kent Shelley and softball coach Aubree Brattin were named conference Coach of the Year for the first time in their careers, and women’s basketball coach Ben Conrad earned his fourth Coach of the Year honor in six seasons.

In all, JCCC had 133 all-conference performers, 94 All-Region VI performers and 32 All-Americans. Johnson County athletes were selected as Jayhawk Conference Players of the Week a record 36 times, and seven times that translated into the NJCAA National Player of the Week.

Academically, JCCC student-athletes compiled a cumulative grade point average of 2.80; four teams compiled a team grade point average of 3.0 or better. The women’s tennis team had the highest team GPA at 3.74, followed by women’s cross country (3.49), volleyball (3.37) and baseball (3.01). Four additional teams finished with a grade point average of 2.80 or better: softball (2.99), men’s soccer (2.91), women’s indoor track (2.87) and women’s outdoor track (2.84).

In fall 2013, 58 percent of JCCC’s student-athletes (129 of 224) maintained a grade point average of 3.0 or better, while 22 recorded a perfect 4.0 grade point. Two of the top teams in the fall were the women’s cross country and women’s tennis teams, with 100 percent of their rosters at 3.0 or better. Volleyball was at 82 percent, golf at 80 percent, dance at 73 percent, baseball at 71 percent, softball at 63 percent and men’s soccer at 57 percent.

Nine student-athletes were honored by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) for academic excellence in 2013-2014. One student-athlete, men’s soccer player Landon Shupe, earned a Pinnacle Award for a perfect 4.0 grade point average. Three students earned a Superior Award, compiling a grade point average of 3.80 to 3.99: Abigail Hartzell (women’s track), Margaret Hornick (women’s track) and Bethany Webb (women’s track). Five students earned an Exemplary Award for compiling a grade point average between 3.60 and 4.79: Michael Chalfant (men’s track), Thomas Felton (men’s soccer), Kara Hoegerl (women’s tennis), Zachary Wustefeld (men’s soccer) and Samuel Yoakum (men’s track).

This year also saw the careers of two legendary coaches, Glen Moser and Lafayette Norwood, come to a close. Moser served 36 years as head coach of the JCCC men’s and women’s tennis programs. He led the teams to a combined 56 national tournament appearances, including 36 top-10 finishes, and 22 Region VI titles. Individually, he coached 36 NJCAA All-Americans, 33 Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Americans and 271 Region VI champions.

Norwood served 32 years at JCCC, the last 23 as head golf coach. During that span, Norwood guided the team to 17 berths in the national tournament, including 14 straight from 1995 to 2009. His teams recorded nine top-15 and three top-10 finishes and won the conference title three times. He also coached three All-Americans, five NJCAA All-Tournament performers, 72 all-conference players and three individual conference champions. Norwood spent his first nine years at JCCC serving as the coach of the men’s basketball team.

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Team accomplishmentsWomen’s and men’s soccerThe JCCC women’s and men’s soccer teams came one victory away from reaching their respective national championships, each falling in the Region VI title game. The Lady Cavaliers (17-3-1) lost to No. 5-ranked Butler 4-0, while the men’s team (13-7-0) lost a tough 2-0 battle with Cloud County.

Both teams were well represented during the postseason. The women’s team had six players selected as Jayhawk Conference performers, and the men had five. Four Lady Cavaliers garnered All-Region VI honors, and freshman Courtney Hughes became the 12th player in team history to earn NJCAA All-American. She finished the season ranked sixth in the nation in goals scored. The men had two players earn All-Region VI, and freshman Jorge Rivero was named a second-team All-NSCAA All-American. Rivero was also the most decorated conference player during the season. Five times he was chosen the KJCCC/Verizon Wireless Player of the Week and twice named the NJCAA National Player of the Week.

Off the field, the men’s program had three players selected to the 10-member NSCAA Scholar All-America team and three earn NJCAA Academic All-American honors.

Jim Schwab is the coach of the women’s soccer team, Fatai Ayoade of the men’s.

VolleyballThe JCCC volleyball team came away with a third-place finish at the NJCAA Division II tournament in 2013, marking the fifth time since 2005 JCCC has finished among the top three nationally. The team finished the season 31-7 overall and 9-1 in conference play.

JCCC had three players named all-conference and four earn all-region/district honors. Leading the team were sophomore hitters Preecy Seever and Lori Angello. Both players were selected first-team all-conference, all-region/district and NJCAA All-American. Seever was also selected the Jayhawk Conference MVP, AVCA All-American, NJCAA All-Tournament and JCCC’s Female Athlete of the Year.

Jennifer Ei is the coach.

Women’s cross country and trackFor the second time in three years, the JCCC women’s cross country and track programs captured the Triple Crown by winning the Region VI and East Jayhawk Conference titles in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track. JCCC head coach Mike Bloemker was honored as the Region VI Women’s Coach of the Year.

In cross country, freshman Paige Miller led the Lady Harriers in 2013. She earned all-conference and all-region, placing second and sixth respectively. She was also voted the team’s MVP. Freshman Katie Nelson, sophomore Michala Ruder and freshman Sydney Simpson also earned all-conference and all-region honors.

At nationals, the women’s team placed 12th out of 34 teams and were eighth at the half marathon championships.

In track and field, the leader was freshman thrower Janee’ Kassanavoid. At the indoor national championships, Kassanavoid placed second in the weight throw, earning both NJCAA and Coaches All-American. Her effort of 54-5.25 was also the fifth-best recorded in team history. She also placed runner-up at the region and

conference championships. Outdoors, Kassanavoid won a national championship in the hammer with a mark of 175-1, the second-best throw in team history. She also placed runner-up in that event at the region and conference meets.

In all, JCCC track athletes earned 13 Coaches All-American, two NJCAA All-American, one national championship, 44 All-Region VI performances, three Region VI championships, 64 All-Conference performances and 24 conference championships.

Men’s cross country and trackThe men’s cross country team began the season with high expectations in five returning sophomores and a No. 5 national ranking in the first NJCAA poll. But the once-promising season spiraled down as the season progressed. The team finished the season 22nd in the final poll, third in the conference and fourth in the region and did not participate at nationals for cross country or half marathon.

The men’s track and field team had a solid campaign. During the indoor season, JCCC produced two NJCAA Coaches All-Americans, eight All-Region VI performers and one championship and 10 All-East Jayhawk Conference performers, including seven championships. The individual region champion, as well as a conference champion, was sophomore Shawn Laurent in the heptathlon. He won the title with a point total of 4,488, a personal best and the second-highest produced in team history. Laurent capped the indoor season by placing sixth at nationals, earning him NJCAA Coaches All-American honors. Sophomore thrower Matt Loughner was the other athlete to garner Coaches All-American honors. He placed fourth nationally in the weight throw with a mark of 53-2.75 (16.22m).

Outdoors, freshman Dondrell Hardimann and sophomore Derek Webb each earned NJCAA Coaches All-American at nationals. Hardimann placed seventh in the 400-meter hurdles, and Webb was fifth overall in the javelin. Additionally, JCCC produced nine All-Region VI performers and one champion and 16 All-East Jayhawk Conference performers and three champions.

Women’s basketballThe JCCC women’s basketball program continues to lay a foundation for success under head coach Ben Conrad. The Lady Cavaliers program posted its fifth consecutive 30-win season (30-2), a first in Kansas Jayhawk Conference history. The team also captured a third straight conference title and finished the year ranked No. 2 in the final NJCAA D-II Coaches Poll.

The season also produced five first-team all-conference picks, four All-Region VI picks and three All-America selections. Sophomore Timeka O’Neal, who is headed to the University of Kansas, was selected as a NJCAA and WBCA All-American. Sophomore Juanita Robinson, a University of Missouri signee, earned NJCAA All-American and was selected the conference MVP. Sophomore Sameia Kendall earned WBCA All-American and will play at Bradley University next year. Conrad was selected the conference Coach of the Year for the fourth time in his six years at JCCC.

Six other players from this year’s team signed to play at four-year institutions next year.

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Men’s basketball The JCCC men’s basketball team finished the season 10-21, but the team still had an extremely successful campaign. The Cavaliers were in the hunt for the conference title until the final week of the season and produced the KJCCC D-II MVP in Pat Jones, a first in team history.

Jones went on to earn second-team NJCAA All-America honors, becoming the 15th player in team history to earn All-American. He finished the year averaging 20.6 points per game, making him the just the sixth player in the 45-year history of the program to finish a season with an average of more than 20 points per game.

The season also saw head coach Mike Jeffers win the 450th game of his career.

BaseballIt proved to be a record-setting season for the JCCC baseball team. The Cavaliers won a team record 50 games, won the East Jayhawk Conference and Region VI titles, and made it to the JUCO World Series for just the second time in the program’s history. The Cavaliers finished fourth in the final poll of the season, also a team best.

The team produced a record 12 all-conference selections and, for the first time in his career, head coach Kent Shelley was voted by his peers as the East Jayhawk Conference Coach of the Year.

SoftballThe JCCC softball team captured its 14th conference championship in 2014, but it was the first since 2010 and the first under head coach Aubree Brattin. Johnson County finished the 2014 season 33-8 and ranked seventh in the final poll. The team was ranked as high as third in the second week of April.

Individually, six JCCC players were honored as all-conference performers, and five earned All-Region VI accolades. The leader this season was sophomore hurler Zoe Price. She earned first-team all-conference, first-team all-region and first-team NJCAA All-American honors. She is the 40th All-American in the program’s history, but is just the second pitcher to be named first-team. She finished the season 21-2 overall with a 1.45 ERA and 119 strikeouts.

Head coach Brattin was voted by her peers as the East Jayhawk Conference Coach of the Year, making her just the second JCCC softball coach in history to earn that honor.

Basketball star: Alumna Bri KulasAs a young and talented basketball player in the area, Bri Kulas, an All-American forward at JCCC in 2011-2012, had a dream of one day playing in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).

That dream came true for Kulas when the San Antonio Stars selected her in the third round of the 2014 WNBA draft. She was the 28th overall selection.

“I now understand that dreams really do come true,” Kulas said. “Playing in the WNBA is something I have always dreamt about. Now that it is happening, it is so surreal. I am beyond blessed and thankful for this opportunity. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I am going to take advantage of it.”

When Kulas first came to JCCC in August 2011, she was not on any WNBA team’s radar. But, as it turns out, that is where her journey toward the WNBA began.

A standout player at Shawnee Mission North High School, Kulas signed with Kansas State University and saw limited action in 20 Wildcat games during her freshman year.

She decided to transfer to JCCC, and she began to work on her game.

Kulas’ drive and work ethic helped her to not only be one of the Lady Cavaliers’ top players, but one of the best players in the NJCAA Division II women’s basketball. Kulas was selected first-team All-East Jayhawk Conference, first-team All-Region VI and second-team NJCAA D-II All-American.

Following that season, Kulas was offered a scholarship at the University of Missouri, and there her career really began to take off.

At Missouri, Kulas was a first-team All-SEC selection after averaging 18.3 points per game. She led the Tigers to a 17-14 record and their second straight WNIT appearance. In just two seasons as a Tiger, Kulas surpassed 1,000 points, becoming the 32nd Tiger to reach the millennium mark.

“It has been remarkable to watch her grow both as a player and as a leader, and I am confident she is more than ready for this next phase of her playing career,” Missouri head coach Robin Pingeton said in a release from MU athletics. “She has a true passion for the game, and it will be fun for all of us to continue watching her play.”

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Women’s and men’s tennisIt was a difficult spring for the JCCC tennis program, which began the season by learning 2014 would be their final one. Nevertheless, both teams qualified for their respective national tournaments, although the Lady Cavaliers squad decided to not make the trip. In the 41-year history of the program, 36 under Moser, the women’s tennis program qualified for nationals 25 times, with 13 top-10 finishes. In June the team was recognized as the NJCAA Academic Team of the Year, earning the top grade point average in the country of 3.83.

The men made the most of their final national appearance, finishing ninth overall, giving JCCC its 23rd top-10 national finish in history. The team’s leader was sophomore Spartak Rahachou. Seeded seventh in the No. 1 singles bracket, Rahachou reached the semifinals before falling. He finished the season ranked in the top-10 in the final ITA rankings, which earned him ITA All-American. He is the 18th and final player to earn that honor. He compiled a 31-13 career mark, which established a new record at No. 1 singles that will never be broken.

Prior to this year’s tournament, Moser was selected the Men’s Junior College Coach of the Year by Wilson and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).

The end of the program also brought an end to Moser’s hall-of-fame career. In his 36 years at JCCC, Moser led his program to 31 national tournament appearances.

GolfThe golf team also learned that it too would play its final season in spring 2014. That news did not derail the five members of the team, as they posted an impressive season. JCCC finished runner-up in the conference, fourth at District and 17th at the NJCAA championships, giving the program its 17th top-20 national finish in team history.

JCCC had three players garner all-conference honors, including first-team performer and team MVP Charlie Rinehart. He was fifth in the point standings and finished the year with a team-best stroke average of 75.5, tying the 11th best season at JCCC.

When the final scorecard was turned in, it closed the book on a historic and illustrious career for head coach Lafayette Norwood. In 23 seasons as golf coach, Norwood guided the team to 17 berths in the national tournament, including 14 straight from 1996 to 2009. His teams recorded nine top-15 and three top-10 finishes. He also captured the KJCCC title three times and led his teams to 42 tournament victories.

The list of individual honors won at JCCC under Norwood is just as impressive and includes three All-Americans and five NJCAA All-Tournament performers. Additionally, he has mentored 72 All-Jayhawk Conference selections, three individual conference champions, 30 All-Region/District performers, seven PING Golf Coaches Association All-District selections, three JCCC Male Athletes of the Year and five NJCAA Academic All-Americans.

Golden Girls dance teamAt the National Dance Alliance (NDA) camp, JCCC’s Golden Girls dance team won first place in team dance as well as a Blue Superior rating, a spirit stick for collegiate image and a bronze bid to nationals. Four dancers were All-American nominees and two were winners; the team as a whole earned a sixth-place finish at the NDA national tournament. At the Region VI competition, the dance team placed first in hip-hop and second in team dance. Eight out of 12 team members earned a 3.0 or above grade point average; two earned a 4.0 average. Amy Sellers is the team’s coach.

Duck dynasty: Student Raquel KramerRaquel Kramer had no doubt she would win the grand prize in the Maple Leaf Farms Discover Duck Recipe Contest.

“I entered three times, three different recipes. I just knew I would win,” she said. “After working a double [shift] at the restaurant, I just started trying things out.”

Kramer, a student in the chef apprentice program at JCCC, took first place in the student chef division, taking home $2,500 from the duck retailer Maple Leaf Farms.

Her recipe for Asian duck empanadas with cherry ginger sauce was the result of hours spent in her kitchen, using her friends as taste testers and her boyfriend as inspiration.

“The recipe is a combination of two cuisines – Asian and Mexican – and my boyfriend loves both of those. He also really loves empanadas, so I combined some of the spices and flavorings of Asian cooking, all in an empanada,” Kramer said.

Her boyfriend liked the result: a tangy/sweet, meaty turnover. So did her friends. So, too, did the panel of judges at Maple Leaf Farms.

Mike Wieczorek, Midwest regional manager for Maple Leaf Farms, said contest judges look for a recipe that is simple yet delectable.

“We would like the recipe to be casual upscale dish that’s marketable” to both professional chefs and at-home cooks, he said.

Calling Kramer’s creation a nice balance of salty and sweet, Wieczorek presented Kramer her check in the Hospitality and Culinary Academy at JCCC.

Kramer said she has loved cooking ever since she was a child. Her family’s kitchen was always filled with family members – grandmother, grandfather, mother – making or baking something.

She’ll use part of her prize money to buy some professional-quality knives. Part of it will go to buy ingredients for the next recipe contest, this one with a cash prize and a free year’s supply of duck.

“I love duck,” Kramer said. “So I might as well keep trying.”

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Meeting community needs

In September 2013, the Hiersteiner Child Development Center received national reaccreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). HCDC was first accredited in 1993. The reaccreditation, which runs through Oct. 1, 2018, continues the tradition of providing a high-quality early learning environment for young children.

In October 2013, JCCC announced changes to its Brown & Gold Club and a new opportunity for county residents age 60 and older.

When it was first created in the late 1980s, JCCC’s Brown & Gold Club was intended for Johnson County residents who were age 55 and older. For their $10 dues, members could take advantage of educational and cultural benefits offered at JCCC, discounted noncredit classes, and discounted tickets to cultural events as well as educational travel and entertainment provided exclusively to the organization. In addition, members were offered free credit classes (the day before the semester started, members could enroll at no cost in credit classes that still had available seats).

This year, the Brown & Gold Club merged with Coming of Age/Shepherd’s Center Central (SCC), which serves Johnson County and the Kansas City metropolitan area. SCC now manages and operates all aspects of the Brown & Gold Club.

The transition allows the club to continue and grow. “In times of scarce resources, the college was pleased to find a strategic partner that could grow and enhance the club in collaboration with JCCC,” said Dennis Day, vice president of student success and engagement. “Coming of Age/Shepherd’s Center Central has more expertise with programs for people over age 55, and the membership will be able to become more involved in planning. The new partnership should reach even more seniors, not only in Johnson County but also in the metropolitan area.”

Founded in 1978, Shepherd’s Center Central’s mission is to empower midlife and older adults to lead healthy, engaged and independent lives. In addition to a wide array of benefits, this new partnership will give members of the Brown & Gold Club direct access to the professional staff and programs and services for people 55 and older through SCC.

Beginning with the spring 2014 semester, JCCC extended a new offer to all senior residents in the county. Johnson County residents age 60 and older are able to enroll on a specified day in a credit class at the college by paying only $16 a credit hour. Classes at JCCC cost $85 a credit hour in 2013-2014; of that amount, $69 covered tuition and $16 went toward student activity fees. The cost older students are asked to pay for credit classes equals the amount of the student activity fees.

Although the college had allowed members of the Brown & Gold Club to enroll in classes without cost, the classes were not really free. The college is required by state statute to cover tuition costs and did so in the past by drawing funds from the student activity fees.

“In the current economic climate, the college can no longer afford to offer classes to anyone for free,” Day said.” The $16 charge will allow the college to still serve the county’s older adult population, but at a more manageable cost.”

JCCC’s ITCH – Introduction to Careers in Health received a 2013 Exemplary Program Award on behalf of the National Council for Continuing Education & Training (NCCET). Each year the NCCET selects only a handful of programs to receive this national recognition.

ITCH at JCCC began in 2012 as a four-day exploration of practicing life-saving skills, decoding medical mysteries and gaining hands-on experience in caring for patients.

Students in grades 9 to 11 were invited to participate in a variety of activities, including working with patient simulators in the college’s Healthcare Simulation Center. Patient simulators are computerized mannequins programmed to exhibit certain symptoms so they can be diagnosed and treated accurately. The simulators can talk, blink and provide outputs like blood pressure, pulse and respiration rate.

On the very first day, ITCH participants were given a set of scrubs and a nametag and immediately began skill-building activities. On the last day, participants practiced what they learned on simulators conveying the symptoms and injuries of a certain patient, such as an unrestrained teen in a motor vehicle accident, a diabetic patient and a person experiencing cardiac arrest.

In between the scrubs and the final patient simulation, the teens also were able to meet with healthcare professionals and ask them questions about their jobs.

The ITCH program was created with the future job market in mind. The U.S. Department of Labor predicts 3.2 million new jobs in healthcare by 2018, and 10 of the top 20 fastest growing jobs will be in healthcare.

JCCC students now answer the main telephone number for the college, working from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday from a small room behind the student welcome desk on the first floor of the Student Center. (Outside of that time, an automated system helps callers.)

Before the spring 2014 semester, dispatchers working with JCCC Police answered incoming calls. Their main focus was, as their title suggests, dispatching officers to emergencies.

When the college administration decided to make a change that would allow dispatchers more time for emergencies and less time for customer-service issues, it sought a qualified replacement.

One group of JCCC employees already knew customer service: the students working at the student welcome desk. These students deal with the public and provide crucial information for people already on campus. Having those same people answer the phone made sense, since they could leverage their “desk” knowledge to help callers.

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During each one-to-two-hour shift, two students answer phones, which means fewer callers are put on hold, and when they are, they wait less time. The call center averages about 300 to 400 calls a day, with each student-employee getting about 20 calls an hour.

Before its national launch, the newest version of a popular motorcycle-rider training program made its debut at JCCC. The new curriculum, offered by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF), which can be offered either online or in a traditional classroom setting, provides a greater emphasis on rider behavior and on emergency responses in real-world traffic.

“Our interest in adopting the new MSF curriculum is to provide a superior learning experience for our students and prepare each to safely ride our streets and highways,” said Phil Wegman, program director in continuing education at JCCC.

The training program is called Basic RiderCourseSM (BRC) and is the most widely used learn-to-ride curriculum in the world, with annual enrollment approaching 500,000.

The new BRC is the fifth version the foundation has developed in its 41-year history. It was last updated in 2001, and the new class now includes the MSF Basic eCourse, taken online prior to in-person classroom instruction.

Transfer students from accredited community colleges in Kansas, which includes JCCC, now have their associate of arts degrees recognized for full credit under a new policy announced by the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Previously, transfer students from Kansas community colleges had their community college course credits evaluated on a course-by-course basis, while students transferring from accredited Missouri community colleges had their associate degrees accepted in full. Under the new policy, a student who has completed an associate of arts degree at a regionally accredited Missouri or Kansas institution will have satisfied most UMKC general education core requirements.

In addition, JCCC signed an articulation and reverse transfer agreement with Kansas Wesleyan University, in which KWU will accept the entire JCCC associate of arts and associate of science degrees as a “block” transfer.

JCCC developed a “Be in the KNOW” campaign to raise student awareness of sexual assault, stalking, domestic and relationship violence, bullying and campus violence. The KNOW program is JCCC’s prevention and education effort to help stop relationship violence in support of Title IX, the Violence Against Women.

Hospitality is her passion: Alumna Stephanie HurlaStephanie Hurla tasted caviar for the first time in 1998 when she was a student in the hospitality management program at JCCC.

Nowadays, she’s tasting the sweetness of success as one of the latest recipients of the Pistilli Service Excellence Award. The award recognizes a hospitality manager who started in the trenches of the industry and worked their way up to a management position.

Hurla was endorsed because she consistently provides exemplary service, leadership and professionalism to customers.

Hurla launched her career 15 years ago, after earning an associate’s degree in hospitality management from JCCC and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

She began working as a front desk hotel clerk and was promoted to management roles in several hotels. She’s now an integral part of Ameristar’s management team as the director of hotel operations, overseeing Kansas City’s hotel team including the departments of housekeeping, the Ameristar gift shop and valet.

“I have so many fond memories of being in the JCCC kitchens learning and working alongside professors, guest chefs and classmates,” she said.

In Lindy Robinson’s bar and beverage class, Hurla attended her first wine tasting, and in Ona Ashley’s housekeeping class, she learned to appreciate the purchasing power of an executive housekeeper.

“I also learned how to turn a carrot,” she said. “The professors were wonderful; they did a great job of helping us prepare for the real world.”

Teamwork and techniques in collaborating and compromising with coworkers are other knowledge nuggets Hurla took away from her education at JCCC. After earning her associate’s degree, she said she knew her opportunities were endless.

“No day is ever the same, and you can always learn something new,” she said. “I truly love what I do. I find joy in interacting with the team and our guests every day. I have a passion for the hospitality industry!”

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Reauthorization Act, the SaVE Act and the Clery Act. The focus is to help students understand the complexities and resources available from the college connected to relationship violence, preventive strategies, resources for victims and ways active bystanders can help stop relationship violence.

JCCC’ s Health Information Systems (HITECH) program introduced an associate of science degree with emphasis in Health Information Systems (HIS) and quickly welcomed 18 declared majors. The degree complements the HIS certificate programs sharing HCIS courses. JCCC’s HITECH (health information technology) program offered two new 20-hour certificates that combine four of the six nationally identified workforce curriculum roles: Health Information Systems Workflow Management and Training Specialist and the Health Information Systems Implementation and Support Specialist.

Delivered in partnership with Hutchinson Community College, the program is accessible to students throughout the Kansas City metro area and across the state of Kansas via on-campus and online classes. The new HITECH video conferencing room gives distance-learning students the face-to-face experience of the classroom without travel. Students enjoy real workforce experience in the health IT environment thanks to industry partners like Cerner and area employers, putting them on the right track for successful employment. An H-1B Department of Labor grant gives support to train students, provides internship dollars to employers, and builds career pathways with four-year educational institutions.

In April, JCCC held the first regional Health IT Workforce and Education Summit, convening employers, policymakers, associations, government agencies, education leaders and students. The summit addressed common challenges in the emerging field, filling the workforce gap and best practices in the health IT industry.

Career PathwaysBy offering students the opportunity to take technical courses relevant to their career goals, Career Pathways encourages strong, comprehensive links between secondary and postsecondary institutions in Johnson, Douglas and Miami counties. It provides a seamless course of study in which students can receive college credit for articulated courses taken in high school. Within each of the 16 state-defined career clusters, there are pathways that further define specific types of career opportunities students can pursue. A total of 812 students, enrolled in 11 school districts in those counties, fit the definition of a Career Pathways student; 262 Career Pathways graduates attended JCCC in fall 2013.

College Close to HomeStudents may enroll in college general education classes at off-campus College Close to Home sites, both free-standing and in high schools throughout the county, including Shawnee Mission North High School, De Soto High School, Olathe Health Education Center, KU Edwards Campus and the Lawrence Centennial School in Douglas County. More than 2,000 students took classes at these locations in 2013-2014.

College Now and QuickStepJCCC’s College Now is a credit program for county high school sophomores, juniors and seniors or ninth-grade students identified as gifted with a current Individual Education Plan. College Now students enroll in selected college classes, such as composition or U.S. history, offered at and in cooperation with the high school.

Ready for College Now? Alumna Lindsay ReedLindsay Reed launched her career while most of her peers were still finishing up their degrees, thanks to the jumpstart she got from attending classes at JCCC.

Reed now works for Fossil at its corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas. She began her college career while still a high school student at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park.

In her senior year, she enrolled for College Now, a program that allowed her to earn college credit while still in high school. She liked it so much, she enrolled in classes on the JCCC campus the summer between her 2009 graduation and her fall enrollment at Kansas State University.

Each subsequent summer, she returned home – only 3 miles from JCCC – and took a class or two while she worked in retail.

“I’d thoroughly recommend taking classes at JCCC,” Reed said. “If anything, it will help you speed ahead in your education and really be worth it in the long run. For me, it was a real jumpstart to my education.

All that hard work resulted in Reed’s graduation in December 2012. On Dec. 31, 2012, she reported to Fossil for her first day at work.

Because she graduated early, fewer recent graduates were vying for open positions, and Reed was able to find work almost immediately, explained her mother, Karen Reed, who works as an administrative assistant at JCCC.

“I’m so happy she could graduate early,” Karen Reed said. “So many more kids are graduating in the spring, so she was bound to have an advantage.”

Reed graduated from K-State with a bachelor’s degree in apparel marketing. She took classes within her major at JCCC, too, along with basic requirements like Composition I and speech communication.

“College Now was a great experience to teach me what college was going to be like and to prepare me for what was going to be expected of me,” she said. “I liked it so much, I came back for summer school every semester. That first summer, I got to see what I was getting myself into. I’d recommend that experience to anyone.”

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The courses reflect the college’s content, objectives and assignments and are taught on the high school campus by qualified high school teachers. During fall 2013, College Now enrollment totaled more than 3,440 students in 26 different locations. In spring 2014, 1,700 high school students were enrolled in College Now classes.

The College Now program is the only nationally accredited concurrent enrollment program in Kansas and one of fewer than 100 programs in the nation with this distinction for upholding quality standards.

Cooperative programsJCCC and the Metropolitan Community College district in Kansas City, Missouri, have developed cooperative agreements that allow Johnson County residents to enroll in selected career programs at MCC while paying the same cost per credit hour rates that Johnson County residents pay to attend JCCC. Conversely, Missouri residents may enroll in selected career programs offered at JCCC at resident Missouri tuition rates. Between JCCC and MCC there are 31 cooperative programs offered to more than 350 students from both Johnson County and Missouri.

Quick Step and Quick Step Plus Through the Quick Step program, high school students can enroll in more than 150 college courses at JCCC. Instruction is provided by JCCC faculty and is usually held on the college campus. Enrollment in Quick Step averages around 500 students per academic term, including summer.

JCCC also offers a unique program in the high schools called Quick Step Plus, or QS+. Students can earn credit in high school math and college algebra simultaneously through JCCC’s self-paced math offerings. A high school instructor teaches the course and gives the high school grade, while a JCCC professor oversees the self-paced aspect of study, administers all assessments for college credit, and gives the JCCC grade. In 2013-2014, more than 1,000 students were enrolled in 90 sections of the course in 24 area high schools. Ninety-two percent of enrolled students earn transferable credit for college algebra with a grade of C or higher.

Nontraditional careersStudents in nontraditional careers are studying in a field in which more than 75 percent of the workforce is comprised of an underrepresented gender. Examples are men in nursing and women in information technology. JCCC systematically works to inform students, parents, counselors, teachers, employers and the community of the options, advantages and availability of nontraditional careers for male and female students. Each year more than 200 students participate in activities focusing on nontraditional careers.

On Your Site Through its On Your Site program, JCCC offers credit classes on-site at local businesses. The courses can be used to train or retrain employees in specific skills, or a company can offer employees general education courses that count toward a college degree.

Finding something better: Student Vincente SilvaVicente Silva didn’t think he would graduate high school. College seemed completely out of the question.

Then two things – two good things – happened in a life otherwise filled with drugs, gangs and violence.

The first was the Mill Creek Center, now renamed and remodeled as the Olathe Advanced Technical Center. The center’s automotive program gave him a purpose and a passion.

The second was meeting Gloria Rosso, a counselor at JCCC. Silva had come to Transition Day, a fact-finding session for students at Mill Creek Center who had already earned JCCC course credits while enrolled at the center.

Silva already had received 11 college credits via the Career Pathways program – free of charge to Silva – and Ginny Naglic, transition specialist for Career Pathways, was holding the door wide open, hoping students would continue college coursework.

Naglic introduced him to Rosso. “She said, ‘Hey, this is Gloria. She speaks Spanish.’ She invited us over and started telling us how things work here.”

Silva listened.

Rosso said she’d like to think she saw something in Silva – or more exactly, that she felt it.

“You can feel the motivation in him,” she said. “He wants to get this done.”

Silva said he grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and joined a gang at age 12.

“Gangs are a part of that culture,” he said. “I ended up getting pretty involved in it to the point where drugs passed through me, fights were initiated through me. It’s not something that I feel proud about, but I’ve learned this was a process that I had to go through,” he said.

“I look back on it now, and I ask myself, ‘What was I thinking?’”

His worried parents moved the family to Olathe in hopes of escaping the gang influence. He calls the Mill Creek Center “a gift from God.”

He now works long hours as a mechanic at Burnett Automotive, scheduling classes at JCCC around his paying job. “I now know everything’s possible; $1,000 goes into my savings account every month … so that I can reach my goals.”

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Center for Sustainability JCCC’s Center for Sustainability and the Student Sustainability Committee offered the third annual Epicenter Conference, a student sustainability conference held on the JCCC campus in October 2013. Topics included sustainable fashion design, sustainable agriculture, the college’s sustainable hospitality internship program, composting, biodiesel and student engagement.

The Center for Sustainability at JCCC also hosts national webinars for community colleges.

Faculty who incorporate sustainable concepts into existing courses and who create new courses teaching sustainability applications within given fields and disciplines are rewarded with small grants through the Sunflower Project. Notable efforts this year included new content in nursing, automotive technology, biology, communications and culinary arts.

The center coordinated along with JCCC’s nutrition and service-learning programs a meal-packaging event with Stop Hunger Now that packed 10,000 meals for overseas delivery as well as raised $600 for the campus food pantry. The center hosted two annual awareness weeks called Harvest Days and Earth Days with events that focus on food and other environmental issues.

In 2009, JCCC’s students asked for the creation of a green fee that gathers more than $350,000 a year for sustainability projects. Outstanding recent examples of the use of these dollars were upgrading the college’s recycling system, LED lighting upgrades on campus, tree planting, student intern positions and the final round of solar personal device charging tables built by solar technology students. In addition, the fund made possible both a second trip to Las Pintas, Mexico, where JCCC students installed low-tech solar hot water heaters on the roofs of houses of poor families, and an experimental experiential honors education class held in Big Bend National Park in Texas.

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Galileo’s Pavilion, a classroom building that opened on the JCCC campus in 2012, earned a LEED platinum certificate in 2013. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a nationally recognized green building certification program that rates buildings based on their energy-saving and environmentally friendly construction. The top rating is platinum, which requires 80 or more points; Galileo’s Pavilion received 85 points and is one of only 10 buildings in Kansas to achieve that rating. Galileo’s Pavilion was constructed during spring semester 2011 by students from Studio 804, a design/build program at the University of Kansas School of Architecture, Design and Planning. In addition, JCCC’s new Hospitality and Culinary Academy building earned a LEED silver rating, to join Galileo’s Pavilion and the Olathe Health Education Center (LEED gold) in the college’s green building portfolio.

In 2013-2014, revenue from the college’s single-stream recycling system on campus topped the cumulative $100,000 mark for student scholarships since the program’s origins in 1994, with much of that coming since the conversion to single stream in 2010. JCCC’s composting system has diverted close to 110 tons of organic waste from the landfill since June 2011. Waste diversion rates rose from 14 percent in 2010 to 45 percent in 2013. The recycling rate increased to 38 percent from 2011 to 2013, and overall trash weight decreased 37 percent during the same period. Overall, the college’s waste minimization program has led to a $26,000 decrease in trash disposal costs from 2011 to 2013.

Aggressive energy efficiency retrofits and conservation efforts through JCCC’s Power Switch program have led to more than $1,100,000 in avoided energy costs since 2008.

All from plastic bags: Alumna Donna SandersMost people bring back souvenirs from their travels. Donna Sanders brought home a business plan.

Her vision to run her own company appeared to her when Sanders was studying at JCCC’s sister school, Northwestern Polytechnic University in Xian, China.

As one of 10 students who received full-ride scholarships to attend one semester at the university, Sanders originally had planned to do what most exchange students do: learn the language, soak up the culture and make new friends.

Sanders soon found a new aspiration: start a business that produces and sells bags, mats and wall hangings made from recycled plastic bags.

“So much plastic in the world is not recycled,” Sanders said. In fact, the Earth Institute at Columbia University estimates that Americans use 33.6 trillion tons of plastic each year, but only 6.5 percent of it is recycled.

Sanders, who earned her associate’s degree in energy performance and resource management from JCCC, always wanted to run an Earth-friendly business. She passed the certified energy auditor exam offered by the Association of Energy Engineers, and she started her own energy auditing business in Kansas City. The idea of creating items from recycled products seemed a logical extension.

“I’ve always been interested in the environment, and I always am looking for ways to improve the planet, which is why I got my certificate in the first place,” she said.

Sanders was a member of the Student Sustainability Committee and the Student Environmental Alliance, and her honors project was an audit of areas where energy-saving measures had been installed at JCCC. She compared the projected savings to the actual savings and made suggestions to the Center for Sustainability for possible improvements.

Sanders expects to enroll in the London School of Business in January 2015. Until then, she is working with people she met in China to understand the resources available to her there, and she’s researching the plastics industry.

“I think the products could be beautiful, so beautiful people will ask, ‘That’s made from plastic bags?’” she said. “Our goal is to help clean the Earth.”

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Events and speakers In August 2013 the college showcased produce from the campus farm and supported the next generation of sustainable farmers through a dinner that also raised scholarship funds for the college’s sustainable agriculture certificate program.

Healthcare professionals from Johns Hopkins University were the featured presenters at the sixth annual Healthcare Simulation Conference hosted by JCCC. The conference, “Simulation: What’s in Store?,” was intended for physicians, nurses, healthcare educators, practitioners and staff who are interested in using simulation for learning and evaluation.

At Criminal Justice Day in September 2013, students and the community took a close-up look at the equipment used in law enforcement, including SWAT vehicles, a mobile command center and K-9 units, among other attractions.

The challenges of enrolling, engaging and retaining Hispanic students in higher education were addressed in a one-day regional conference held at JCCC in September. “Diversidad: Engaging Our Hispanic Students from Prospect to Graduate,” drew educators, adminstrators and support staff from a four-state area.

Three Scholars in Residence came to JCCC in 2013-2014 to work with students and faculty.

Filmmaker Cynthia Lukas brought her documentary, Globalized Soul, to JCCC in September. Filmed on five continents, the documentary begins at the Parliament of World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia. The film then follows the lives of spiritual and religious leaders, ending in a rare Abrahamic reunion of Jews, Christians and Muslims in Nazareth. Lukas also visited various JCCC classes during her visit.

In November, author and artist Mira Bartok talked about grants, crowd-funding and other innovative ways to finance nonmainstream creative projects in “Finding Money, Time and a Place to Create: Upbeat News in a Down Economy.” She is the author of The Memory Palace, a New York Times bestselling memoir and winner of the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography.

Beebe Bahrami, an author and anthropologist, shared her knowledge of sacred sites and pilgrim routes in Spain and France in March 2014. Her public address centered on her pilgrimage to St. James Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain, one of the most well-known pilgrimage sites in the world. In a presentation for students and employees, she talked about a travel memoir she is writing about southwest France.

Picking dessert first: Alumna Emily AlleyDon’t know what you want to study? Haven’t declared a major? Unsure of what path you want to follow?

No problem, says alumna Emily Alley. That’s why JCCC is a great place to start.

“I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life,” Alley said. “When I first graduated from high school, my mom suggested I go to JCCC and take some gen ed (general education) classes and get them out of the way. But I didn’t want to do that.”

Oh, she didn’t mind going to JCCC. But taking “basic” classes – prerequisites most people take in order to transfer to a four-year school – wasn’t as much fun.

She had joined the Kansas National Guard as a way to pay for her education, so without her mom having the financial say, Alley picked the classes she wanted to take – and by her own admission, they were fun classes. Sort of like ordering dessert before your meal.

“That first semester I took public relations, videography, fashion merchandising and design, automotive . . . and fencing,” she said.

She figured one of those classes might lead her down a career pathway, and sure enough, it did. After one semester at JCCC in the fall of 2003, she headed to Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas, in the spring of 2004. There, she completed a degree in journalism with a public relations emphasis.

Currently, she’s working on her master’s degree. And because of her continued commitment to the Kansas National Guard, she’ll have her MA and no educational debt.

Alley has seen these world-changing events up close, in part because those first classes at JCCC set her on a course of public information and broadcasting.

Alley’s also pretty good with a still camera. Her work has been shown at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, which exhibited photos she took as a media liaison representative to the 2013 presidential inauguration.

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The horticultural sciences department sponsored a presentation by Larry Ryan, president and CEO of Ryan Lawn and Tree, called “Lawn Care: Reseeding and Fall Management” in October.

Japanese culture came alive in October at the Greater Kansas City Japan Festival, presented on the college campus by the Heart of America Japan-America Society and the Japan Festival Committee. Events included a traditional Japanese drum group; a vocalist who introduced listeners to both classical Japanese songs and new pop songs from Japan; “Kyogen,” traditional Japanese comedy; and “Min’yo,” traditional Japanese folk songs.

In October 2013 nearly 200 runners participated in the college’s first Lace Up for Learning 5K Run-Walk. Race proceeds support scholarships for JCCC students. The run raised approximately $6,000 for scholarships.

Also in October, SAFEHOME, a local social service agency dedicated to helping the survivors of domestic violence, presented information to help students understand domestic violence in “Why Does She Stay? Understanding the Dynamics of Domestic Violence.”

Also in October, JCCC and the Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training at the University of Kansas hosted for the sixth time a regional autism conference, “Beyond the Diagnosis: Autism Across the Lifespan.” Keynote speakers were Robert and Lynn Kern Koegel, who presented “Improving Social Communication with Pirotal Response Treatment for Autism.”

The college co-hosted another conference in October that highlighted the efforts local organizations and individuals are making in northern Uganda. JCCC sponsored

“Local Peacebuilding: Lessons from Uganda” in partnership with the Medical Missions Foundation, the University of Kansas School of Nursing and the Research College of Nursing/Rockhurst University; the conference was made possible by a grant from the United States Institute of Peace through its Public Education for Peacebuilding Support initiative.

A pair of Vietnam War veterans, Bill Bauer and H.C. Palmer, read their poetry and discussed how writing has helped them find meaning in their post-war lives in “A Call to Words: Veterans and Why They Write,” which kicked off Veterans Week events in November.

Turning her life around: Graduate Gaelyn McGheeGaelyn McGhee was on a promising path, holding a 3.94 grade point average at JCCC. But it’s 180 degrees away from her middle school and high school experience.

Then, her immune system was sickly. She used to get a lot of colds. Her parents divorced. Kids at school picked on her routinely. She signed up for advanced-placement classes, but her studies suffered.

“It just proved too much for me, and I sort of had to back away,” said McGhee. “It was just because I was going through too much at the time.”

Eventually, by fall 2011, McGhee started feeling better about herself. She built up the courage to enter JCCC’s Adult Education program to prepare to take the GED. There she met Chris Specht, a transition counselor and volunteer coordinator with the program.

“Chris really helped me out,” McGhee said. “I was really nervous but all of the people at the Antioch (Library) branch were so patient with me, and I was furiously trying to finish in a month so I could go to JCCC in January 2012.”

McGhee passed in December 2011 and became a JCCC student the following month, as she had hoped.

One of the first classes she took involved participating in the Model United Nations program. She was familiar with it because she had taken part in it during middle school.

She became active with it at JCCC and, as a result, traveled with a JCCC team to St. Louis, New York, Chicago and China to participate in Model U.N. competitions with students from other schools.

Specht said it’s been fun for her to see how McGhee’s experiences at JCCC have transformed her life.

“She was a quiet, shy, rather nervous young person when I met her in 2011. She’s blossomed into a confident, capable woman who is achieving her goals and dreaming big. I wouldn’t be surprised if she pursues her master’s or PhD some day.”

McGhee graduated JCCC in May 2014 and expects to be at a four-year university thereafter.

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As a member of the Kids Eat Right Campaign, Anna Page, assistant professor of dietary management, was awarded one of 50 mini-grants by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation, which helped her present two sessions in November on hunger in the community and how it affects learning, behavior and weight.

World-renowned author Deepak Chopra appeared at JCCC in November to talk about “What Are You Hungry For,” which is also the name of his latest book that focuses on the hungers that can be experienced physically, mentally and spiritually. During his talk, Chopra created a roadmap for “higher health,” based on the latest findings in both mainstream and alternative medicine.

More than 130 female students from 10 local high schools attended the Young Women’s Conference at JCCC, with the theme of “Making Good Decisions.”

JCCC held the fourth annual Competitive Technology Event for 9th- through 12th-grade students in January 2014. Nearly 600 students from 25 high schools in Johnson, Douglas and Miami Counties attended. The students competed independently or with classmates in 32 events in areas such as architecture, engineering, information technology, dragster design, fashion, film, flight, music, robotics, transportation and video production. The event helps prepare students for future possible careers in these areas.

“The Buffalo King,” a documentary on an immigrant named James “Scotty” Philip, who worked to save the bison from extinction, was screened at JCCC in January 2014. A pre-showing reception honored the filmmaker, Justin Koehler, and Philip’s great-grandneice, Sheilah Philip, who was interviewed in the film.

Former Kansas City Royals player Willie Mays Aikens, who served 16 years in prison for drug offenses, spoke at JCCC in January about his days as a star player and his struggle with substance abuse.

The Science Olympiad was held on the college campus in February. The Science Olympiad competitions are like academic track meets for students grades 6 through 12. During the day, 30 middle schools and 22 high schools competed in two divisions – junior high/middle school and high school – in meteorology, chemistry, biology and more.

Praise for second chances: Graduate Sadik RahicSadik Rahic breezed through high school. He didn’t study much and still got mostly A marks. He was the salutatorian of his senior class when he graduated in 2010 from J.C. Harmon High school in Kansas City, Kansas.

Rahic assumed that college would be just as easy.

He was wrong.

Rahic took 18 credit hours during each of his first two semesters at the University of Kansas in Lawrence and often worked 30 hours a week. In short order, the Cs and Ds and even F rolled in.

“It was definitely a struggle,” said the 21-year-old, who graduated in May 2014 from JCCC and plans to go on to study pharmacy. “They even put me on academic probation.”

Rahic flunked two courses that year. He took a semester off and then enrolled at JCCC in January 2012.

“I would definitely recommend for people to come to JCCC first before going to KU just to get the feel of college,” Rahic said. “I am experiencing the same level of classes as I would at KU, but it is in a more close environment with more interaction with the teacher, and I think that is very helpful.”

Rahic, who took some big lecture classes at KU that had hundreds of students, said that he realizes now that he was not prepared for the rigors of college.

He didn’t study as much as he should have, he said, and he worked too many hours at his part-time job. At JCCC, he’s cut his work hours down to about 15 a week and put his priority on homework.

He also enrolled in Strategic Learning Systems, a one-credit course that lasted for six weeks. Now when he takes notes in class or reads a chapter for class, he reviews the material later to flesh out the key points.

When a teacher repeats material, he makes note of it, figuring it is going to show up in a test. The strategies resulted in “automatic improvements,” he said.

After graduating, Rahic hopes to be accepted into a pharmacy program at either KU or the University of Missouri-Kansas City. His long-term goal is to run his own pharmacy.

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JCCC students and employees joined thousands around the world on Valentine’s Day in One Billion Rising for Justice, a day of action coordinated by V-Day, a global activist movement working to end violence against women and girls. In March, students presented readings that explored the effect of violence against women during a benefit performance of “A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer: Writings to Stop Violence Against Women and Girls.”

The art of China as a cultural indicator was the subject of a workshop, “Cultural Interactions: Chinese Arts and Chinese Identities,” held in February 2014 at JCCC. The workshop was one of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Bridging Cultures Faculty Development Workshops.

JCCC’s horticultural sciences program hosted a Horticultural Science Field Day in February 2014. Nationally known experts spoke at the day-long symposium on urban cultivation and pest management.

Dr. Patrick Dobson, adjunct professor of history, examined the role of rivers during the Progressive Era (from 1880 to 1920) during a presentation in February.

Also in February, JCCC’s fashion merchandising and design students presented their spring fashion show, “Timeless,” featuring clothes designed by JCCC students as well as fashions of the 1920s, ‘40s and ‘60s from the department’s fashion collection.

In March 2014, JCCC hosted a naturalization ceremony, in which more than 200 people from dozens of countries and cultures became U.S. citizens.

The Take 5 Cav Film Fest in April 2014 featured workshops, a “movie food” lunch, and rolling presentations of films that area college and high school students created and submitted for the event.

JCCC science professor Dr. William Koch presented “The Black Hole Conundrum” in April during Evening with the Stars. Afterward, attendees could visit the college’s Paul Tebbe Observatory to examine the night sky.

Shawn Polowniak, president of Blacktop Creative, received the Headline Award from JCCC’s journalism and media communications department. The Headline Award recognizes persons who have made significant contributions to journalism and media communications in the area.

The Student Environmental Alliance again celebrated Earth Days in April. The students planted trees, worked on the campus farm, swapped used clothes for new, and caught an Earth-themed movie, Chasing Ice.

Multicultural Night in April celebrated diversity and raised funds for the Invisible Children organization.

The JCCC Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization brought Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey, the founders of Barefoot Wine, to speak at JCCC in April.

In June 2014, the National Benchmarking Conference attracted a wide range of

participants from institutional researchers and executives to national and regional educational policy decision-makers. Speakers included Jamienne S. Studley, deputy undersecretary of education.

The annual American Indian Health Research and Educational Alliance Pow Wow was held at JCCC in May, focusing on improving the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health of American Indians.

Country star Tracy Lawrence gave a performance as part of the Cohen Community Series in May. The Series was inaugurated in 2008 through a gift from Jon Stewart, a member of the JCCC board of trustees, college alumnus and former president of Metcalf Bank in honor of the late Barton P. Cohen, president of Metcalf Bancshares, vice chairman and general counsel of Metcalf Bank and an attorney with Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin LLP.

The Polsky Series is underwritten by the Norman and Elaine Polsky Family Supporting Foundation within the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation in partnership with JCCC and includes topics not currently offered elsewhere. Speakers this year were Dr. Shane Lopez, who maintained that hope is a choice that can be learned and spread to others in “Making Hope Happen: Create the Future You Want for Yourself and Others”; Cara Filler, who reached out to parents of teens in “Straight Talk about Teens, Choices and Safety: Be a Parent First, a Friend Second”; James Madril, Jose (Cheppe) Alonzo, Tony Montez, Roque Riojas and Rudy Padilla, who formed a panel to discuss “Military Service: A Latino Perspective” as part of the college’s Veteran’s Week celebrations; Tim Carlin, who discussed “Financial Outlook and Opportunity 2014”; and Adam Steltzner, the lead landing engineer of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Project, who spoke about “How Curiosity Changed My Life.”

Again over the summer, JCCC offered sports camps and learning, arts and career options classes for youth on campus; “Light Up the Lawn” concerts on the lawn in front of the Nerman Museum, sponsored by the museum, the Performing Arts Series and Student Activities; and free vintage movie musicals in Yardley Hall.

Throughout the year, JCCC hosted campus visit events for high school juniors and seniors as well as presentations for prospective adult students and home-schooled students and their parents. In addition, the college also offered college planning events for parents.

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Accountable to the communityFor 2013-2014, JCCC’s management budget was $217,890,867, with a primary operating budget of $137,701,764. The budget was built on these assumptions:

• The mill levy would increase by 0.75 mill, from 8.785 to 9.535.

• The college would see a 1.7 percent increase in assessed valuation from the county with no change in funding from the state. Motor vehicle revenue would remain unchanged.

• The college would experience a 3 percent decrease in enrollment.

• There would be no increase in student tuition.

• The student activities per-credit-hour fee would increase by $1.

• There would be no new full-time faculty and staff positions.

• Capital budgets would be based on need; operating budgets would be subject to the college’s process for prioritizing the budget so that resources are allocated according to the priorities outlined in the college’s strategic plan.

• Expenses in the college’s primary operating budget would be reduced by $2 million after salary raises and other adjustments were applied. This would primarily be in the area of salaries and benefits.

Key Performance IndicatorsAs a college, JCCC uses facts and data to measure students’ progress, holding both itself and others accountable for achieving higher levels of student success. The college strategically aligns its activities toward student success, setting high expectations and developing a plan that includes key performance indicators (KPIs) showing how well students and programs are doing. As a college, its performance is compared to that of peer institutions, including the College of DuPage, Kirkwood Community College, Monroe Community College and Moraine Valley Community College.

JCCC’s key performance indicators measure student success, are nationally accepted indicators, can be used as benchmarks to assess JCCC’s performance against the performance of peer institutions and provide institutional focus and accountability.

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

Full-Time Graduation and Transfer • First-Time, Degree-Seeking Students, Fall Cohorts

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

44%39%

49%

Note: The dotted line denotes the 75th percentile

of community colleges’ performance nationwide.

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

Part-Time Graduation and Transfer • First-Time, Degree-Seeking Students, Fall 2005 Cohort

2005 2006

39%

32%

Note: The dotted line denotes the 75th percentile

of community colleges’ performance nationwide.

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Yearly statistics JCCC remains one of the largest institutions of higher education in the state. A total of 8,765 students were enrolled in summer 2013 classes at JCCC (as of the 20th day of the session). For fall 2013, 19,684 students were enrolled as of the 20th day of the semester, while 16,986 students were enrolled in spring 2014 (20th day figures). Total unduplicated headcount for credit students for the 2013-2014 academic year was 29,757.

In fall 2013, over 17 percent of local high school graduates attended JCCC. Thirty-eight percent of Johnson County first-time freshmen who choose to attend college in Kansas attend JCCC.

The average GPA of first-time JCCC students at KU is 2.85. For other community colleges, it’s 2.71. The average GPA of continuing JCCC students at KU is 2.98. For other community colleges it’s 2.92.

More than 40 percent of JCCC students enrolled in fall 2013 planned to transfer to another college or university.

In 2013-2014, 151 students passed the General Educational Development exam to obtain their Kansas high school diploma.

JCCC’s mill levy is the lowest in the state for a community college.

Almost $40 million in federal, state and institutional student aid was distributed to students for college and living expenses in 2013-2014.

Ninety-two percent of JCCC’s career program completers find a job within six months. Seventy-one percent of respondents to a survey of students who had completed a career program at JCCC in 2013-2014 and were employed indicated that they were employed full time in a field related to their program of study. Ninety-two percent of their employers rated the overall job preparation their employees had received at the college as “good” or “very good.”

In 2013-2014, JCCC awarded more than 2,600 associate’s degrees or vocational certificates. Dr. Jerry Cook, chair of the JCCC board of trustees, was the commencement speaker in May 2014; Elliot Rogers, student senate president, was the student speaker.

In 2013-2014, 985 groups (53,890 people) used the event spaces in the Regnier Center and the Nerman Museum.

In fall 2014, 53 percent of all JCCC students were female, 32 percent were full-time students, and 77 percent lived in Johnson County. The average age of JCCC students was 26.

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

Persistence: Fall-Fall • Cohort Data

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

46%42%

Note: The dotted line denotes the 75th percentile of community colleges’ performance nationwide.

3.10

2.90

2.70

2.50

Transfer Performance • GPA of JCCC Students at KU

Fall 2007

Fall 2008

Fall 2009

Fall 2010

Fall 2011

3.02.982.89

Note: The dotted line denotes the 75th percentile of community colleges’ performance nationwide.

3.063.02 3.04

2.95

Student Satisfaction • Noel-Levitz

Note: The dotted line denotes the 75th percentile of community colleges’ performance nationwide.Based on student responses to the annual Noel-Levitz survey regarding instructional effectiveness, registration effectiveness, concern for the individual, academic advising and counseling, and safety and security.

Instructional Effectiveness

Registration Effectiveness

Concern for Individual

Academic Advising

Counseling

Safety and Security

5.475.50

5.275.20

5.12

5.535.39 5.32

5.22 5.14

5.51 5.515.33

5.235.12

2008

2010

2012

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Technology at JCCC

Digital community colleges surveyJohnson County Community College was named the 2013-2014 top-rated community college for digital technology in the large college category (10,000 students or more) by the Center for Digital Education. JCCC was also top-ranked in the survey in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. The survey looked at the use of digital and emerging technologies by community colleges across the country, including the use of mobile devices and integration of technology into the curriculum; strategic planning and data management; and professional development for faculty and training for students. In addition, the college was recognized for improving its network infrastructure to support students’ personal devices, including greater bandwidth as well as wireless, video and voice technologies.

“JCCC has consistently been listed among the top-rated digital colleges,” said Joe Sopcich, JCCC president. “It is a special honor to be recognized as first on the list. This accomplishment shows how seriously we regard the use of technology in education and how hard our faculty and staff work to find better ways to use technology to support teaching and learning.”

In partnership with various areas of the college, 2013-2014 brought many technology improvements, innovations and advances in teaching and learning, business processes and the college’s technology support structure to deliver better educational experiences; improve student outcomes; increase services to students, faculty, staff and other college constituencies; reduce costs; accommodate the ever-changing needs of the campus community; and sustain progress.

Technology improvements made this year to help with teaching and learning were:• Web-based student assessment and accreditation for the dental hygiene

department to eliminate errors and save time.

• Personalized secure mobile access to college services linked to the college’s enterprise information systems.

• Online access to college technology resources to create a personalized experience based on the courses in which students are enrolled.

• 24/7 online access to certain academic program systems.

• Access to Microsoft Office Live 365, a cloud-based service that gives credit students free use of full versions of the Office product suite through the campus Microsoft agreement.

• Virtual classrooms with virtual desktop access to certain lab applications for students.

• A new learning management system with improved functionality for both faculty and students.

• Technology enhancements to classrooms, including the use of more economical and sustainable alternatives, such as Google Chrome books with built-in applications and services and redesigned and updated classroom technology for the IT Cisco Networking Academy.

• Classroom environments for hands-on realistic instructional opportunities such as cloud computing administration, virtualization, computer-aided drafting and

Johnson County Community College

FY 2013-2014 Budget

General/PTE Funds Revenues

Johnson County Community College

FY 2013-2014 Budget

General/PTE Funds Expenses

Ad Valorem Taxes

53%

Local Motor

Vehicle Taxes

5%

Other 2%

Tuition

23%State Grant

17%

Capital 3%

Salaries and Benefits

79%

Current Operating

18%

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design and interactive media courses that give students the skills to compete in high-demand, growing job markets.

• Multimedia upgrades and enhancements to classrooms tor greater flexibility and lower costs.

• Expanded use of social collaboration tools, such as audio, video and learning management tools for e-learning opportunities that go beyond the physical boundaries of the classroom.

• Upgrades to classroom network wiring and equipment to improve performance and reliability.

Business process improvements included:• A secure self-service online portal for simplified student and employee password

management as well as mandatory password rotation for enhanced security.

• A course catalog that fully integrates with the existing curriculum approval process.

• Online leave reporting to eliminate manual processes and data entry associated with payroll.

• Automated back-office functions such as time and leave, W-2s, direct deposit, workflows and document management to streamline processes.

• Online service request ticketing to streamline and track work requests and improve reporting.

• Constituent relationship management tools to personalize and streamline the credit student admissions application process by reducing six applications to one.

• Voice-activated call routing and analysis of call volumes and trends to improve caller experience.

• Streamlined international scholar credentialing to simplify file updates, paperwork submission and other administrative tasks for international students and administrators.

• Data analytic tools to support decision-making and improve student and institutional outcomes.

• Third-party vendor relationships that focus on customer needs, organizational goals, operational efficiency, agility, quality and vendor partnerships.

Campus technology support improvements were:• Campus network infrastructure upgrades to improve management, bolster

security, assure high availability, support business continuity by segregating network traffic, improving building-to-building connectivity and switching fail-over capability between the primary and secondary data centers.

• Standardizing network equipment across campus to increase energy efficiency and reduce maintenance costs.

• e911 capabilities at all satellite locations.

• Sustainable technology initiatives such as virtualization, print management, power management, expanded online and mobile services and automated processes to reduce consumption, operate more efficiently and save money.

• Data center server, storage and network switching virtualization to reduce hardware replacement costs, provide a more flexible and redundant computing environment, simplify management, decrease licensing and reduce power and cooling consumption.

• Mobile device management encryption tools for faculty and staff laptops and mobile devices to safeguard information.

• IP phones in all classrooms that can be used as overhead speakers, paging and one-button emergency notification systems.

• Ongoing evaluation of classroom, labs and administrative technology equipment management to reduce life-cycle replacement costs and save energy.

• Centralized technical resources with a wide span of support services to quickly and effectively respond to the needs of the college.

• State-of-the-art technology in the new Hospitality and Culinary Academy.

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Continuing Education Johnson County Community College Continuing Education is committed to educational excellence and affordability. Currently one of the largest continuing education programs in the country, the branch offers noncredit courses, professional licensure and certifications as well as life skills training and personal interest classes.

Workforce development

JCCC’s strategic workforce training program continued to be a student-focused provider of professional education, licensures, certifications and skill development courses, meeting the needs of individuals and organizations throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area. The branch is continually developing new classes and career programs while strengthening existing course offerings.

In 2013-2014, JCCC Continuing Education had 9,716 enrollments in its computer/information technology, professional education, healthcare, small business, public safety and health information systems programs. In addition, 2,301 enrollments came through customized contract training programs with 94 area businesses. The lifelong learning programs included:

• Licensing and CEUs for professionals in healthcare, mediation, early childhood education, banking, payroll, human resources and Lean and Six Sigma continuous process improvement tools.

• Customized projects that included competency development models, designing curriculum, instructional guides and assessment.

• Customized training and development for organizations, including solutions for leadership, management, finance, project management and coaching at various levels.

• Public classes and contract training in computer applications and information technology.

• Assistance to local companies applying for Kansas Department of Commerce grants that will pay for workforce training for newly created jobs or jobs requiring new skills.

• Public classes and contract training in supply chain and logistics as well as transportation classes including commercial driver’s license training (CDL).

Virtual computers, instant job: David BoldtMost of us apply for a job, hope that we ace the interview and wait for the phone to ring. A recent recipient of JCCC’s continuing education Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) Server Administrator course had a somewhat different experience.

After his interview but before he reached his home’s front door, David Boldt’s phone had already rung — a job offer from The Lewer Companies was on the answering machine.

Boldt has always loved working with computers, and he knew he needed a few more certifications under his belt. What he didn’t realize is how quickly his educational efforts would pay off.

“The courses gave me the information and experience to advance my career to the next level,” he said. “The mix of experience from the instructor and the hands-on learning environment in the lab gave me not only the skills but the knowledge and confidence I needed to take the next leap in my career.”

Boldt is now a system administrator, and his career is soaring in a new direction. From servers to phones: “If it has to do with technology, I am in charge of it,” he said.

Boldt has been an IT professional for 18 years and his certification only adds to his deep knowledge and affection for the field.

“I have always loved working with computers,” he said. “That’s what makes this the perfect job for me. I never dread going to work because I work at what I truly enjoy.”

The MCITP certification from JCCC’s continuing education computer technology department combined with the unique delivery of the course taught by Bob Carney, gives students a boost by exposing them to the technology they’ll encounter in the workplace.

JCCC’s program is different from other training because it uses virtualization extensively. Virtualization uses software to turn a physical computer into a piece of software that runs in exactly the same fashion as the physical device it replaced.

Besides a larger paycheck, Boldt’s reward for all of his efforts is that he gets personal satisfaction for being the person known for coming up with the answers for technological questions.

“Knowing those who work with me trust me to find the best solution – that’s a good feeling,” Boldt said.

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Small business developmentSmall business owners received management consulting, technical assistance and training from the Kansas Small Business Development Center (KSBDC). The U.S. Small Business Administration, the Kansas Department of Commerce and JCCC fund the KSBDC. The Kansas Small Business Development Center consulted with 487 existing or aspiring small business clients in 2013. These clients created 263 new jobs, obtained $6.6 million in financing and increased sales by $8.7 million.

Two JCCC KSBDC clients – notes to self, llc, and Hooked on Ornaments – were selected as Emerging and Existing Businesses of the Year, respectively. Each was recognized at the annual ceremony at the state capitol in Topeka.

The JCCC KSBDC also trained 862 individuals on small business-related topics.

The KSBDC partners with the Kansas Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) at Wichita State University to offer PTAC services at JCCC. PTACs assist small businesses with potential market expansion through procurement opportunities with the government. The JCCC Kansas PTAC covers 17 counties. Last year, the JCCC Kansas PTAC met with 182 new clients, resulting in more than $5.4 million in contract dollars awarded and 60 jobs either being created or retained.

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Life and leisureIn 2013-2014, JCCC Continuing Education branch served more than 9,460 community members through personal enrichment classes, summer youth programs, foreign language classes, motorcycle training and driver education.

Adult basic educationMore than 2,275 adults prepared for the GED exam, learned English or improved their academic skills through the six Johnson County Adult Education Program centers. JCAE is sponsored jointly by the college and the Johnson County Library. Currently, 174 JCAE GED graduates are enrolled in classes at JCCC. In addition, the Migrant Family Literacy Program provided preschool and literacy services for nearly 40 families (including more than 65 children no older than 8) in the Olathe school district. The program provides basic life skills, employment counseling, parenting and after-school tutoring and enrichment materials to children and adults in Olathe.

Terri Easley

Using tech to connectThanks to the power of friendship, the strength of technology and the willingness to build international goodwill, instructors at JCCC judged a speech contest of university students 5,560 miles away.

Twelve students from Udmurt State University in Izhevsk, Russia, benefited from judicial experience at JCCC. The cross-cultural exchange was conceived by the students’ enterprising instructor, Olga Yakovleva.

Like most teachers, Yakovleva wanted a way to motivate her students to do their very best. She also sought an avenue to showcase her students’ talents to bring the interest of the university to the English-language program.

She asked Terri Easley, associate professor of speech at JCCC, to help her plan the contest and its logistics, since she knew Easley had experience in planning JCCC’s Speaking Showcase. That particular annual one-night event highlights the work of speech and debate students.

Easley sent Yakovleva examples from previous showcases, and between the two, they planned a Russian version where both Udmurt State and JCCC professors would judge the speakers.

It worked like this: Udmurt State University students gave speeches to resident professors and a special guest representing JCCC. Farrell Hoy Jenab, adjunct professor of English, was a visiting scholar at Udmurt State for 12 weeks, and the speech contest was scheduled near the end of her visit.

She was an honorary judge who watched the speeches as they happened.

“The speeches were delivered very eloquently,” Jenab said. “Russians tend to hold themselves with a slightly different posture than Americans, and I saw that in their delivery.”

The speeches were also videotaped and posted to a private YouTube page so JCCC judges could view and score them. Judges included Lindsey Welsch, adjunct professor of speech; Justin Stanley, associate professor of speech and debate coach; Sheilah Philip, professor emeritus of theatre; Dr. James Leiker, professor of history; Dr. Dennis Arjo, professor/chair of philosophy and religion; and Easley herself.

Since Izhevsk, Russia, is nine hours ahead of Overland Park, students had to wait with breathless anticipation for the judges to review their speeches. Once winners were decided, Easley sent the winners certificates that were presented to students in a special ceremony in Izhevsk.

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Health and human servicesJCCC’s Health and Human Services Continuing Education division offered workshops and seminars targeting the educational needs of healthcare providers from nearly every area of the field. Community partnerships included the University of Kansas Memory and Alzheimer’s Care Program, El Centro, Aberdeen Village, the Alzheimer’s Association Heart of America Chapter, Kansas City Southwest Clinical Society, WomenHeart, Saint Luke’s Hospice and Home Care, Back in the Swing and many others. Certificates in medical coding, Kansas adult care home administrator and the Kansas assisted living operator course have grown in popularity with the need for well-trained staff in aging services.

The phlebotomy technician course continues to be highly successful with up to 60 students applying every semester for one of 12 spaces in the program, which is offered twice a year. The pharmacy technician certificate program graduated its first class from the didactic and simulation portion of the course and completed externship experiences in fall 2013. In spring 2014, the program received full six-year accreditation from the American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists, an accomplishment rarely seen for a new program (one-, two- and three-year accreditation awards are more common). The second class of 11 students entered summer 2014 externships and contracts with 10 area hospitals and eight retail pharmacies.

The dementia care certificate is regaining popularity in the community as the state of Kansas has mandated annual dementia training for all healthcare providers interacting with patients with this diagnosis. This includes nursing homes, assisted living, home health, hospitals, outpatient facilities and clinics. Numerous calls are coming in from these agencies with inquiries for this training.

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Triple threat: Mary Anne Pereira Vinente de MatosMary Anne Pereira Vinente de Matos has three roles on campus – volunteer, student and employee. She’s the JCCC version of Hollywood’s “triple threat.”

It all started with a simple Google search.

Her husband was an American; she was from Brazil. When she followed him back to his hometown of Kansas City, she had to wait for papers allowing her to work in the United States. In the meantime, she knew she needed something to keep her busy.

“I just typed ‘volunteer opportunities’ into Google, and JCCC was a result. It was perfect: easy to get to, close to my house.”

Matos began volunteering as a Vol*Star, helping with events at the college, including ushering for the Performing Arts Series.

As she became more acquainted with the JCCC campus, she decided to enroll in some classes. She already had her bachelor’s degree in radio and television.

“At first, I was going to go for my master’s (degree),” she said. “Then I saw the cost of the master’s-level classes. I decided coming to JCCC, and paying a much better rate of tuition, was a better way to continue my education.”

Matos enrolled in classes in interactive media, layering what she already knew about video atop a new skill set using computers. She also takes classes in marketing and management.

“I love it,” she said. “There’s never a dull moment.”

Her paperwork allowing her to work in the United States had been approved, so Matos began searching the openings, hoping to get a part-time job normally filled by JCCC students. When she stumbled across a posting for a “real” job as an administrative assistant in continuing education at JCCC, she applied “just for the heck of it,” she said.

“I never thought I’d get it,” she said. But the job was in microcomputer training, and Matos had excellent computer skills, thanks in part to the classes she was taking at JCCC.

“Mary Anne is an integral part of our continuing education computer applications and IT team,” said Jake Akehurst, program coordinator for microcomputer training. “Her energy and enthusiasm for all things JCCC is awesome!”

Performing Arts SeriesSince 1990, Johnson County Community College has offered one of the largest multidiscipline performing arts series in mid-America. From Broadway blockbusters to classical and chamber music ensembles, the variety of events programmed as part of the series attracts a wide demographic, mirroring the changes in Johnson County itself. Celebrities like Rita Moreno, The Lettermen and Arturo Sandoval were favorites in 2013-2014.

Nearly 22,000 tickets were sold to the 29 performances in the 2013-2014 Performing Arts Series, while another 45,000 people attended events presented by local presenters, community groups and college departments. In total, around 175 events are held annually in the Carlsen Center, which houses four venues: Yardley Hall (capacity 1,349), Polsky Theatre (424), Recital Hall (55) and Bodker Black Box Theatre (100).

Performing arts educationAn important part of the Performing Arts Series (PAS) program is arts education. The program provides area students and teachers with low-cost or free services designed to help them explore their own creativity, glimpse the world of professional artists and develop talents and critical thinking skills.

In 2013-2014, PAS arts education served nearly 15,000 students and community members with programs including master classes, teacher workshops, residencies, curriculum development, lecture/demonstrations and performances. School shows reached an average audience capacity of 91 percent. On the JCCC campus, arts education connected with numerous campus organizations and departments, including student leadership, continuing education, the Center for Sustainability, the Hiersteiner Child Development Center, Promotores and admissions.

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Campus partnerships encourage longer stays and more in-depth engagement for those students visiting the campus for arts education activities.

Partnerships continued with educational and community organizations, such as the Heartland Music Academy, the Kansas Alliance for Arts Education, the Kansas Department of Education and the University of Kansas. The campus and community partnerships created opportunities for educators to choose from 26 professional development classes offered.

In 2013-2014, 47 master classes or workshops were offered, as well as two music festivals. In summer 2013, the nine-day Heartland Chamber Music Festival and six-day Junior Music Festival with community partner Heartland Chamber Music Academy became one of the premier chamber music festivals in the region, with 108 students and 29 instructors. Of those participating, 68 percent came from Johnson County.

In January 2014, as part of Jazz Winterlude, the college hosted eight schools and more than 60 local and international jazz musicians.

In April 2014, JCCC and the Shawnee Mission School District were inducted into an arts education program led by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education Institute promotes partnerships between arts organizations and local schools in communities across the nation. The goal is to develop art-based education programs for all teachers, not just those who teach the arts.

Emily Behrmann, general manager of the Performing Arts Series; Angel Mercier, arts education program director; and Debbie Allen, Shawnee Mission fine arts resource specialist, attended a four-day workshop at the Kennedy Center in Washington, where they developed a plan on how the college can help the district incorporate performing and visual arts into the district’s curriculum.

The JCCC/Shawnee Mission partnership team was one of 11 such teams inducted into the program from across the country and the only one in Kansas.

During the four-day workshop, each team developed a plan specific to their community for the partners to establish or expand arts-based professional development programs for teachers. Teams received a detailed planning guide, attended performances and met with national education leaders and guest artists while at the Kennedy Center.

GrantsIn 2013, the Performing Arts Series received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support an initiative called New Dance Partners. The college was one of 886 nonprofit organizations to receive one of the Art Works grants.

New Dance Partners is a collaboration in which the Performing Arts Series commissioned nationally-known choreographers Robert Moses, Penny Saunders and Amy Siewert to create original works for three local dance companies: Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance, Owen/Cox Dance Group and the Kansas City Ballet. The works were performed as part of the Performing Arts Series in September 2013.

“The project inspires significant collaboration between Kansas City arts organizations to support artistic growth in dance,” said Emily Behrmann, general manager of the Performing Arts Series. “Another goal is to cross-pollinate audiences among all the partner organizations to expand the reach of dance in the community. It is a unique project, on a scale that hasn’t been accomplished before in our city. This is a truly meaningful vote of confidence by the NEA for the New Dance Partners project.”

The college received another $10,000 grant in April 2014 to support the initiative for a second year.

In October 2013, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded the arts education program $10,000 to support arts engagement. Additional grants were awarded from Target, the Kansas Creative Arts Commission and the Francis Family Foundation.

Academic performances JCCC’s music department offers students the opportunity to compose, study and perform music as part of a choral group or concert or jazz band. JCCC’s student musical ensembles – Chamber Choir, MadRegalia, Concert Band, the Midnight Express Jazz Ensemble and the JCCC Jazz Nights – perform concerts throughout the year.

JCCC’s academic theatre department offered these productions in 2013-2014: A Lie of the Mind, which explores the destinies of two families linked by marriage but set apart by jealousies and distrust; Dead Man’s Cell Phone, about a woman forced to confront her own assumptions about morality, redemption and the need to connect in a technologically obsessed world; Four X Tenn, four one-acts by Tennessee Williams that were precursors to some of his most powerful works; Ming Lee and the Magic Tree, a children’s play performed in traditional Chinese style; and The Cripple of Inishmaan, a strange comic tale in the great tradition of Irish storytelling.

Each semester the college presents the Ruel Joyce Recital Series (named for the longtime jazz bassist who headed the local musicians federation from 1977 until his death in 1989) and a Jazz Series. The concerts, featuring local classical and jazz artists, are cosponsored by the JCCC humanities and music departments, continuing education and the Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Arts.

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The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art In 2013-2014, nearly 170,000 individuals visited the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. The museum at JCCC is the largest contemporary art museum in the four-state region and the only contemporary art museum in Kansas.

Since 1980, JCCC has been collecting contemporary art from around the world, each year adding new pieces to the collection. Today, the works of more than 1,300 regional, national and international artists are represented in JCCC’s renowned collection, which features a diverse range of painting, photography, clay, sculpture and works on paper. Some of the college’s collection is installed in “collection focus” areas in the corridors, dining halls and other highly visible and accessible locations around campus, sparking a spontaneous engagement with art for students, faculty, staff and visitors.

ExhibitionsExhibitions at the museum in 2013-2014 focused on a variety of content and media.

• Polychrome Fiction • Joanne Greenbaum and Jackie Saccoccio was on view June 14 to Sept. 8, 2013. The exhibit encompassed Greenbaum’s large-scale, wildly colored canvases. Animated shapes, patterns and linear structures interconnect and overlap – seemingly on the move – in both a challenging and playful manner. Polychrome Fiction also showcased the new works of Saccoccio, completed during her residency at the renowned American Academy in Rome, Italy. Colored layers of poured paint drift and flow in glazes and rivulets typical of Saccoccio’s paintings.

• Kukuli Velarde • Plunder Me, Baby, Sept. 27 to Dec. 22, 2013, featured the ceramic sculptures of artist Kukuli Velarde. Her haunting, irreverent and feisty ceramic sculptures expose the critical relationships between gender and race in the formation of identity, power relations and visual representation in Latin America.

• Dylan Mortimer • Illuminate was exhibited from Oct. 25, 2013, to Feb. 9, 2014. The title of the installation could be understood as a direction to the visitor, who needed to interact with the artworks to bring them to life with light.

• KAWS • Ups and Downs was also exhibited from Oct. 25, 2013, to Feb. 9, 2014. Works by artist Brian Donnelly, widely known as KAWS, are immediately recognizable as he transforms iconic pop culture characters into thought-provoking works of art.

KAWS, COMPANION (PASSING THROUGH), 2010, Fiberglass, metal structure and paint, 208.5 x 169.25 x 185”, Courtesy the Artist and Honor Fraser, Los Angeles, CA

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• Contemporary American Indian Art • The Nerman Museum Collection, opened Friday, Feb. 7, 2014, and runs throughout the rest of the year. The exhibition celebrates JCCC’s and the Nerman Museum’s extraordinary, decade-long commitment to building a major collection (numbering 130 works by 95 artists) of contemporary American Indian art. It is a commitment that likely exceeds that of any other major American museum of contemporary art. The 43 artists included in the exhibition embrace a diversity of themes – some political, some historical, others personal – in individually expressive ways.

• Asheer Akram • The Pakistani Cargo Truck Initiative was on display outside the Nerman Museum from Feb. 18 through Feb. 23, 2014. After returning from Pakistan, Akram had an idea to create an American hybrid of a Pakistani cargo truck. He created The Pakistani Cargo Truck Initiative, an elaborately decorated grain truck, with the help of many other artists. Akram hopes that his work will foster dialogues that lead to greater cultural understanding.

• dy/nas/ty • Ebony G. Patterson, March 7 to June 15, 2014, featured the works of Ebony G. Patterson. Jamaican-born Patterson’s monumental mug-shot portraits have evolved into complex groupings of figures as she furthers her exploration of the appropriation and interpretation of feminine archetypes by young men of the African diaspora.

Joe Wilson (Kwakwaka’wakw), Wild Woman (detail), 2002, Red cedar and horse hair, 21 x 12 x 8.5”

The collection Since July 2013, the Nerman Museum has added 79 works of contemporary art to the permanent collection. Recent acquisitions include ceramics, paintings, works on paper, new media, textiles, sculpture and photography. During the year, eight donors gave 31 works to the museum and college, with a combined value of more than $325,100. The donors were the H. Tony and Marti Oppenheimer Foundation; Marti and Tony Oppenheimer, Beverly Hills, California; the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Art Acquisition Endowment at the JCCC Foundation; KAWS (Brian Donnelly), Brooklyn, New York; Dean E. Thompson, Overland Park; the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, New York; Kristofer Kraus, New York, New York; Zach Feuer, Hudson, New York; and Peter Norton, Santa Monica, California. The remaining 48 works were acquired through the JCCC Foundation and college auxiliary funds.

In addition, several works from the permanent collection were loaned to major museums and institutions in the United States and abroad:

• Kenneth William’s beaded bag, Strength to Overcome, 2009, was included in the exhibition It’s In the Details at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico, from June 21, 2013, through Jan. 10, 2014.

• The Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Poland, featured Untitled, 2005, by Huma Bhabha in their exhibition In God We Trust, Aug. 15 through Dec. 15, 2013.

• The Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, Ohio, featured the oil on panel artwork by Kirk Hayes titled Gravity, 2009, in the exhibition Rule by Fear from Sept. 5 through Oct. 6, 2013.

• Left in the Dust, 2012, by Karl Wirsum was included in the exhibition Karl Wirsum at Derek Eller Gallery, New York, New York, from Oct. 11 through Nov. 16, 2013.

• Amy Sillman’s oil on canvas painting titled Elephant, 2005, was included in a traveling solo exhibition of her work at The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston from Oct. 14, 2013, through Jan. 5, 2014. The piece was on view at The CCS Bard Galleries and Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, through Sept. 21, 2014.

• DLUV, 2013, an acrylic on aluminum painting by Ann Pibal, was included in the group exhibition From Beyond the Window at the Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Feb. 25 through March 29, 2014.

Art educationIn 2013-2014, the museum offered a variety of educational programs for students, children, educators and visitors of all ages.

• Museum public programs (lectures, presentations, workshops, and films, among other offerings) reached more than 4,860 individuals in the community.

• The museum’s group tour program served more than 1,050 school children, 900 college students and 1,690 adults from the community in guided and self-guided visits in 2013-2014. Docents and staff led 197 free art appreciation tours for these groups.

• In 2013-2014, 65 individuals from the community volunteered 2,925 hours assisting with visitor services, events and educational programs. Most of the guided tours were led by dedicated volunteer docents.

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• The museum continues to offer a popular series of studio classes for children in the summer and on Saturdays throughout the academic year. The Early Explorations program welcomed children ages 5 to 7, while Contemporary Creations classes provide more advanced lessons for children ages 8 to 11. Each day, students explore and discuss selected works of art, developing their critical thinking skills and expanding their cultural awareness; they then create original works of art in the museum’s studio classroom. A total of 511 students participated in 60 class sessions through both programs in 2013-2014.

• A series of Friday gallery talks called Noon at the Nerman provided students, faculty and staff an open opportunity to examine works of art on view in the museum and the college campus. Each week a member of JCCC’s faculty or staff spoke briefly about a different work of art, with 25 presentations and a total of 475 individuals in attendance. Dr. Allison Smith, associate professor/chair of art history, coordinated the speakers.

Third Thursday * Visiting Artists’ PresentationsIn collaboration with the JCCC academic departments, the museum again offered a series of Third Thursday Visiting Artists’ presentations in 2013-2014; more than 710 people attended the events. Each of the free programs featured artists paired with JCCC faculty moderators. The programs were made possible in part by an Ovation Grant from the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City.

• A presentation in September 2013 featured guest artists Jose Faus, a writer and painter, and Miguel Rivera, a printmaker. Moderators were Larry Thomas, professor/chair of fine arts and photography, and Luz Maria Alvarez, professor of foreign language.

• In October, Roger Shimomura, who creates paintings, prints and performance pieces, was the guest artist. The moderator was Dr. Timothy Hoare, professor of humanities.

• In November, guest artists were Miki Baird, who creates assemblages and installations, and Judith G. Levy, a multidisciplinary artist. Moderators were Thomas and Mark Cowardin, associate professor of fine arts.

• In February 2014, guest artists were Asheer Akram, creator of The Pakistani Cargo Truck Initiative, and Laura Berman, who makes prints and installations inspired by the rocks she has collected on her many travels. Moderators were Thomas and Marie Dolembo, adjunct assistant professor of art history.

Wilbur Niewald,View of West Bottoms from Quality Hill , 2006, Oil on canvas, 29 x 36”, Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, 2006.26

• The presentation in March featured guest artist Wilbur Niewald, a lifelong resident of Kansas City, who taught art at the Kansas City Art Institute for 43 years. The city’s urban landscape has been a prominent and recurrent theme in his work. Dr. Allison Smith, associate professor/chair of art history, was the faculty moderator.

• In April 2014, Robert Josiah Bingaman, whose paintings present a dark and unsettling take on suburban landscapes, and Julie Farstad, whose paintings draw upon social and psychological aspects of childhood and the development of gender identity, were the guest artists. Misha Kligman and Bridget Stewart, both adjunct assistant professors of fine art, were the faculty moderators.

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Kansas Focus GalleryA first-floor space in the Nerman Museum will become the Kansas Focus Gallery, thanks to gifts in June 2014 from the Barton P. and Mary Davidson Cohen Charitable Trust, as well as the donation of the Barton P. Cohen and Mary Davidson Cohen art collection from Mary Davidson Cohen.

The new 539-square-foot Kansas Focus Gallery will be devoted to the works of artists associated with the state of Kansas.

The gift to the college of $700,000 provides for endowment funds to support the operations of the museum, cover renovation expenses to convert the former museum store space into a gallery, and acquire works for the museum by artists associated with the state of Kansas. The museum’s architect, Kyu Sung Woo, oversaw the redesign of the space. In addition, Mary Cohen is personally donating the couple’s collection of more than 175 works of art to the college.

“Mary Cohen has been a major supporter of the college in so many ways, as was her late husband, Bart,” said Joe Sopcich, JCCC president. “We have benefited from her generosity, her energy and time, and her wisdom and experience throughout the years. A gallery devoted to the works of Kansas artists will complement the college’s fine arts and art history departments as well as our Kansas Studies Institute to give students and community members alike the opportunity to appreciate the works of Kansas artists.”

“Bart and I loved traveling the state of Kansas, and we were always impressed with the talent of Kansas artists,” said Mary Cohen. “Our personal collection reflects our shared passion for works by Kansas artists, including Birger Sandzen, Albert Bloch, John Steuart Curry, Prairie Print Makers, Keith Jacobshagen and many others. I’m excited to work with museum staff to ensure that artists such as Bruce Conner, Wendell Castle, Alan Shields, Tom Otterness, Henry Varnum Poor, Waylande Gregory and others are represented in the museum’s collection. In fact, we just acquired Pool 2, a painting by Kansas City-based artist Robert Bingaman, a native of Wichita, Kansas. It was our first purchase!”

The Cohens have long been supporters of the Nerman Museum at JCCC. An area on the second floor of the museum that serves as a project space for local artists was named the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Gallery in 2005. In 2009 the college accepted a gift of $1,000,000 to establish the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Art Acquisition endowment, the first donor-designated endowment for the museum. In addition, since 2010 Cohen has hosted nearly 100 episodes of JCCC’s “It’s Our Community” talk show on the college’s cable channel.

“This new commitment to artists associated with Kansas allows us to build upon the museum’s long-standing support of area artists,” said Bruce Hartman, executive director of the Nerman Museum. “The museum now houses the largest and most significant collection of works by artists associated with metropolitan Kansas City. This commitment will now be enhanced by Mary’s extraordinary gift.”

Finding the right path: Taylor SulgroveTaylor Sulgrove wants to be a teacher. She took a few classes at JCCC and realized that teaching was her life’s calling.

“Education is so important,” she said. “I can’t stress that enough. Education is our way out. No matter where you’re from, who you are … it allows you to see the world differently.”

Sulgrove once wasn’t so sure of what she wanted to do with her life. She had followed her fiancé from Chicago to Kansas City. He had gotten a job and had a plan, but she didn’t have a clue about her next step.

“I was at a bad part of my life in that I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she said.

She’d heard glowing recommendations about JCCC, so even though she lived in Missouri and had to pay out-of-state tuition, she enrolled and hoped to find her path.

Her time with her teachers – all of them, throughout her life – led her to realize that teaching should be her career.

Sulgrove said she hopes to teach second or third grade in an urban setting, or perhaps be the director of an adult education program.

“I need to give back what’s been given to me,” she said.

She’s drawn to adult education, she said, because it’s never too late to make a change for the better. “People don’t understand that you have to have your education. When you educate one person, their children will see it, and then they’ll get their education. It just keeps growing.”

Sulgrove also wants to teach as a tribute to the teachers she’s had at JCCC. “My teachers have been so helpful. All of them have been great … If I email them, they’ll respond. They just give me the confidence I need to succeed, and to know I can be a teacher.”

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Johnson County Community College Foundation Through its fund-raising efforts, the JCCC Foundation supports student scholarships, academic programs and the visual and performing arts at the college. As of June 30, 2014, the Foundation’s endowment was $20,307,847, and its total assets were $28,707,658. Stewart Stein, partner with Stinson Leonard Street LLP, served as the 2013-2014 Foundation president.

In addition to the JCCC Foundation endowment breaking the $20 million mark, these Foundation activities were significant milestones for 2013-2014.

ScholarshipsFor the 2013-2014 academic year, the JCCC Foundation, working with the college’s financial aid office, awarded $1,042,161 to 1,028 JCCC students with tuition, books and program needs. This is both the highest amount ever awarded and the most students ever to receive scholarships in the history of the JCCC Foundation. This reflects an increase of $78,861 in scholarship fund awards over the previous year.

Program supportMajor gifts to enhance JCCC programs in 2013-2014 included support for International Service learning trips to Las Pintas, Mexico, and Gulu, Northern Uganda. Since 1998, students from JCCC have traveled to Las Pintas, Mexico, helping with medical and dental care and most recently a solar-power project. In the past three years, service learning at JCCC has expanded to include a nursing program collaboration in the struggling region of northern Uganda, strengthening JCCC’s commitment to service learning on an international level.

Some Enchanted EveningIn November 2013, Some Enchanted Evening, the Foundation’s black-tie gala, generated more than $540,000 for its scholarship program. Lynn Mitchelson, a banking executive and former JCCC trustee, was honored as Johnson Countian of the Year. Co-chairs for the event were Tim and Stacie McKee.

Nerman MuseumIn 2013-2014, the JCCC Foundation received major gifts for the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art from Dr. Mary Davidson Cohen and the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Charitable Trust. The gifts involve cash in the amount of $700,000 and Dr. Cohen’s personal art collection compiled over a lifetime, which includes many Native American pieces and works by Kansas artists. Of the cash gift, $200,000 provides for the renovation of the space that once housed the museum store into a Kansas Focus Gallery and the acquisition of artwork by artists associated with the state of Kansas. The remainder will establish an endowment fund to support the museum’s general operations. In addition to this major gift, members of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art contributed more than $25,000 in support of the museum exhibitions and educational offerings. Additional gifts and grant funding resulted in a total of nearly $60,000 in private support for the museum.

Performing Arts SeriesThe Friends of the Performing Arts Series at JCCC, business partnerships and grants and gifts from corporations and foundations contributed nearly $133,500 to support performing arts programming and operations in 2013-2014. An additional major gift of more than $180,000 was received for a special initiative to support the Performing Arts Series.

Friends with TasteFriends with Taste, a gift society to support the college’s hospitality management program, generated nearly $26,000. Funding provided scholarships and support for JCCC’s culinary competition team. Members of Friends with Taste were able to participate in culinary events throughout the year.

Employee givingMore than 275 faculty and staff members contributed nearly $60,000 to support a wide variety of programs and scholarships every month as part of the Foundation’s employee giving program. Employees contribute monthly through payroll deduction or by annual gifts in support of various initiatives.

Special initiative giftA special initiative contribution from the Clay Blair Family Foundation established both traditional scholarships and student grants intended to enhance the educational experience of JCCC students through involvement outside the primary offerings of academic programs.

New scholarship endowmentMaron Moore, Olathe, created the Maron Lorimer Moore Scholarship Endowment with a generous gift in 2013-2014. Endowment scholarships will be available to recent graduates of Olathe high schools. A previous gift from Moore established a scholarship endowment for JCCC nursing students.

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www.jccc.edu