Notable News
June 2017
What’s new around BTC?
Kim’s Corner
Commencement
I have attended many program advisory board meetings
over this past year, and I am very impressed with the level
of involvement, dedication and expertise contributed by our
business and industry partners who serve on BTC’s advisory
boards.
We can’t believe Commencement is already around the corner!
BTC’s Commencement will take place Tuesday, June 20, at
7 p.m. at Mt. Baker Theatre. It is always incredibly moving to
watch our students’ hard work pay off as they take the stage
and officially become graduates.
Our faculty has done a tremendous job of addressing and
synthesizing the advisory boards’ suggestions. Our instructors
continually examine, redesign and rework their programs
to meet industry standards, and this pays dividends for our
students as it helps increase employment opportunities when
they graduate from their programs.
I would also like to recognize the hard work of the student
representatives; they have served as great ambassadors for
their programs in this process.
P.S. Notable News will be on hiatus for summer, so we look
forward to hearing all about your news in September!
Employee Awards
Thank you to everyone who joined us at the BTC Awards
Celebration Thursday, June 8. We had a great time celebrating
our employees, whether they’ve been here for five years or 40!
Congratulations to all of the employee award winners:
Caren Kongshaug
Stefanie LaFave
Cheryl Alvis
Chris Eder
Jeff Curtis
We wish a fond farewell to our retiring instructors:
Jeff Curtis, Diesel Tech
Linda Crittenden,
Vet Tech
Marcia Leister,
Transitional Studies
Dave Maricle, HVAC-R
Vet Tech
Vet Tech will host its pinning ceremony on Monday, June 19, at
4:30 p.m. in Settlemyer Hall. All campus members are invited
to attend.
TRiO
TRiO hosted its annual End-of-Year Celebration and Achievement Awards Event on Tuesday, June 13, in Settlemyer Hall. The event featured keynote
speaker Richard L. Taylor, who is a TRiO alumnus, author and
motivational speaker. The program honored three graduates as
well as the accomplishments of all the TRiO students.
Nursing
BTC Nursing student Casey Calonita
received a Daisy award while on
rotation at PeaceHealth St. Joseph
Medical Center for her studies. Patients
award staff members for going above
and beyond, and the patient who
nominated Casey said she was “the
kind of nurse we need,” thanking her for her compassionate
care and her ability to listen with her ears and her heart.
Nursing Director Julie Samms surprised Casey in class with the
award and a bouquet of daisies on June 7.
Engineering
Jill Davishahl has been working with a group of Clean
Energy students on an undergraduate research project with
WWU faculty and Itek Energy. The project is researching the
effectiveness of different solar module power electronic devices
in the presence of various mismatch conditions (shading,
soiling, electrical loss, panel location, etc.). The students will
evaluate the performance of these devices with the goal of
optimizing both energy yield and system economics. Results
of the research will be used by Itek Energy to improve the
efficiency of it’s solar panels.
A group of eight engineering students attended the Maker Faire
in San Mateo, Calif., with Jill Davishahl May 19 and 20. The
Maker Faire highlights invention, creativity and resourcefulness
in the maker movement, featuring crafters, engineers, scientists,
educators and more showing their projects and sharing what
they’ve learned.
Notable News
June 2017
What’s new around BTC?
Foundation
Grants
The Bellingham Technical College Foundation recently elected
three new board members: Lin Nelson, Chief Operations
Officer at Whatcom Land Title; Debbie Granger, educator and
member of the marine industry; and Mike Morse, President of
Morse Steel Service. Each individual serves a three-year term
from 2017 to 2020.
BTC is currently managing 18 competitive grant projects
and received just under $2 million in grant funds from
these projects for the 2016 –17 academic year. BTC recently
received unofficial approval to implement a $150,000 Student
Advanced Manufacturing Mastery (SAMM) Project next year,
through the State Board’s Workforce Development Funds grant
competition. These funds will be used to support equipment
purchases for the Welding & Fabricating Technology, Machining,
and Engineering Technology programs. Funds will also provide
release time for the faculty team to plan and implement longterm, interdisciplinary student project assignments. In addition,
the college partnered on Whatcom Community College’s
continuation Hospital Employee Education & Training (HEET)
grant, which has also received unofficial approval from the
State Board. The grant will fund a .5 FTE HEET student navigator
and a .5 FTE HEET grant coordinator on the BTC campus to help
support HEET students and manage our portion of the grant
project. The grant will also fund financial and other supports
for HEET students, as well as providing curriculum development
support for our Certified Nursing Assistant program.
ASBTC
The
End-of-Year
Celebration
was
a success, with students getting to tiedye BTC T-shirts,
dunk their instructors, deans and even
a VP (thanks, Chad!),
chow down on some
great food and floats
and play lots of fun games. Thank you to everyone who helped
put this event together!
Be Our Guest at the next Movie Night on
Friday, June 16. “Beauty and the Beast”
will begin at 7 p.m. in Settlemyer Hall.
Professional Development
RaeLyn Axlund McBride completed her doctorate from the
University of Washington this June. She graduated with a Ph.D. in
Education, Leadership, & Policy Studies. Her dissertation title is
“Global Citizenship Development in College: International Service-Learning Students’ Meaning-Making after Returning Home.”
Matthew Santos and Caren Kongshaug both completed
master’s degrees in Adult & Higher Education from Western
Washington University.
On May 18, Accessibility Resources’ Alyssa Jones and Computer
Services’ Bill Hartman took part in the SBCTC 2017 IGNIS
Webinar Series. Their training webinar recording, titled “Campus
Accessibility Through Collaboration: A CISS/DSS Perspective” is
available for your viewing and learning enjoyment.
Congratulations to Caren Kongshaug, who has completed
two internal, informal Quality Matters course design reviews
for BTC! In addition to the many hours of training required
to become a certified QM Peer Reviewer, this represents 1015 hours of individual work per course, and 1-3 hours of
collaborative team work per course.
In May, Traci Taylor attended the Ex Libris Users of North
America (ELUNA) annual meeting in Schaumburg, IL. ELUNA
is a user group representing for the Ex Libris integrated library
software the BTC Library uses. She was a recipient of grants from
the BTC Foundation, WA State Library LSTA Prof. Dev., and the
Faculty Learning Community’s group on Student Engagement.
BASOPS
Two great programs are merging to create an ever better
learning opportunity for Washington state students. BTC and
Clover Park Technical College are now jointly offering the
Baccalaureate in Applied Science in Operations Management
(BASOPS) degree!
Students pursuing the BASOPS degree, whether their primary
school is BTC or CPTC, will share faculty, resources, and support
from both institutions. Some classes will be offered by BTC, and
some by CPTC; students will register for the appropriate class
at the college offering it. The two colleges have entered into
a joint operating agreement, so not only will classes taken at
each school be automatically transcripted to each student’s
record, but Federal Financial Aid will be based on the student’s
total load at both schools. This program enhancement will be
fairly transparent at the instructional level: students will be
receiving the same high-quality instruction in the familiar online CANVAS classrooms as in the past.
We look forward to a new era of baccalaureate education with
this combined program!
Rumor of the Month
Take a gander at our lavender in the McKeown circle and you
might notice that many of the stocks have little balls of white
foam on them.
Rumor has it that they are aphids making that spit. Or, could it
be the Green Lace Wing bug? Nope, but it is a little bug related
to the Green Lace Wing: It is the aptly named Spittle bug! And
that foam does not come out of their mouth—yikes! Oh, and
there are 23,000 species of the Spittle Bug —FYI.