September 2024 Central Connection
August 30, 2024
Grant focuses on plastics
Central Community College has received a nearly $648,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that will be used to increase the number of minorities and underserved populations in the advanced manufacturing design technology (AMDT) program.
CCC plans to help participants obtain a certificate in plastic engineering technology (PET) by creating a collaborative business and industry leadership team. The team will create interactive materials and a step-by-step guidebook for the English language learner (ELL) student population. Students who earn a short-term certificate could seek an associate degree or enter the workforce over the course of the grant period, which runs through July 2027.
“I plan to use my experience working with English language learners while executing our grant objectives,” said Karl Anderson, director of plastic injection molding at CCC-Columbus. “These objectives will allow us to fine tune our curriculum, lab and outreach efforts into a robust and adaptable program capable of recruiting and training non-native speakers for jobs in the plastics industry.”
Project staff will strengthen their partnership with CCC’s adult education program, which served more than 2,300 students during 2023-24, and establish and build on existing relationships with local service agencies and organizations that serve immigrant populations.
CCC seeks to enroll up to 40 ELL students in the PET certificate program over the life of the grant consisting of adult education and high school students. To accommodate ELL students, classes will be arranged to accommodate scheduling barriers with summer sessions, accelerated programs, hybrid and alternative scheduling.
“Grand Island Public Schools is thrilled to engage with Central Community College to introduce our students to educational opportunities in plastics technology,” said Dr. Summer E. Stephens, associate superintendent. “This partnership will raise awareness and create opportunities for many students, including English Learners and underserved students, who will benefit from increased access to training and job placement.”
“These partners and this group of individuals can help build a skilled workforce for our employers,” said Doug Pauley, associate dean of workforce development. “The English language learners are eager to learn and will continue to be a big part of meeting workforce demands now and in the future.”
Proteus honors CCC, Rayburn
Central Community College and one of its trainers were recognized at the inaugural Nebraska Farmworker Recognition Luncheon Aug. 20 in Hastings.
The event was hosted by Proteus Inc., an Iowa-based firm that provides education assistance and job training to Midwest farmworkers.
CCC received the Partner of the Year Award. Since 2012, Proteus has provided the college with more than $104,000 in tuition, fees and books for farmworkers in CCC training programs. Through the National Farmworkers Jobs Program, Proteus currently supports 31 farmworkers enrolled at CCC.
Andrew Rayburn, truck driving and heavy equipment operator trainer at the Hastings Campus, received the Farmworker of the Year Award. He is a 2023 CCC graduate in the heavy equipment operator technician program and holder of a commercial driver’s license.
Rayburn said Proteus provided him with supplies such as hardhats and boots, scholarship dollars and fuel to drive between his home in Gibbon and CCC-Hastings each day.
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| A happy customer snaps a selfie at Paulina Ortega’s Los Forasteros Snacks. Ortega is at the end of the snack bar, and her helper at the left side of the photo is her husband, Michael. |
Ortega cooks up a new business venture
When Paulina Ortega decided to start her own business, she sought advice close to home – her family and the Central Community College Entrepreneurship Center.
Ortega, who is the apprenticeship coordinator at the Grand Island Campus, naturally turned to Aimee Steinhardt-Duysen, the entrepreneurship center’s director. They had already gotten to know each another through apprenticeship program activities.
“I knew who to reach out to,” Ortega said. “She’s been super helpful with all the forms to make this a real business.”
So what is this business? It’s a portable snack bar through which Ortega offers a mini pancake bar, corn and nacho bar and a botana (Mexican snack cup) bar.
She got the idea on a recent visit to Mexico to visit relatives in the state of Chihuahua. “The bars are so common there. They have them at birthday parties, weddings, all sorts of events. I couldn’t recall anything like that in Nebraska so it would be something different.”
Once she made her decision, the first thing she had to do was get someone to make the bar.
“No one in Nebraska makes them,” said Ortega, who used TikTok to find a person in Texas to make and ship her bar. The wood bar folds down so it can be moved from place to place, event to event. Ortega painted it white, so it can be decorated differently for different events.
She named her business Los Forasteros (The Outsiders) Snacks after the band her dad played in when the family still lived in Mexico. The name also reflects how Ortega has stepped into a family business. Her parents have a food truck in Kearney called Tacos y Salsas Los Forasteros and just added a second truck that Ortega’s husband, Michael, takes to events. He wants to establish his own food truck in Grand Island and serve Cajun food. It would be named, of course, Los Forasteros Cajun.
It actually took Ortega some time to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. She attended Wayne State College for a few semesters and CCC-Hastings for a semester before stepping away from school for a bit. When she moved back to Grand Island, she also returned to CCC, deciding on human services as a major.
It was the right decision. When she looked at her poor grades from her previous attempts at college and then the 4.0 GPAs when she went into the human services program, “it’s like looking at two different people,” she said. “I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a President’s List until I got the letter in the mail.”
Ortega received her associate of applied science degree in human services in 2021.
Since launching her business in mid-June, Ortega has been a regular at the Grand Island Farmer’s Market and has booked a wedding. She’s also starting to get inquiries for employee appreciation days and farmer’s markets in other towns.
“I want it to grow,” Ortega said as she acknowledges challenges, such hiring someone to order to do bigger events. She also dreams of buying a little bus. “Making the food is easy, setting up and taking down the snack bar isn’t,” she said.
You can see Ortega pitch her business at Big Idea Grand Island on Nov. 4 at The Liederkranz. The event is free and open to the public.
Employees complete 25 years at CCC
Three employees have completed 25 years of service at Central Community College.
Beth Klitz
Beth Klitz of Columbus was hired by CCC-Columbus in 1998 for a part-time position funded through a Perkins grant to provide job profiling and assessment services for local industries. That part-time position was followed by another one in the campus’ assessment center where she provided assessment services and support to students in the disability services office.
On Aug. 23, 1999, Klitz was hired as the full-time career transitions coordinator. She also taught the career exploration and college survival classes as well as a business communications course for a supervisory management certificate program. From there, she became a regional coordinator for the Extended Learning Services office in 2000, associate dean of students and instruction on the Columbus Campus in 2006 and collegewide dean of student success in 2018. She began her current position as vice president of student success and enrollment management in 2023.
Prior to joining the CCC staff, Klitz was a full-time morning show co-host at a Top 40 radio station in Sioux Falls, S.D. She also worked for KLIR 101 in Columbus on part-time basis, voicing commercials and news stories for the station.
She is a graduate of Hershey High School and holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism, master’s degree in education and doctorate in educational studies from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She also has received multiple certifications as a civil rights investigator through the Association of Title IX Administrators.
Klitz has been involved in a number of committees and initiatives through the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce, including serving as president of the Platte County Convention and Visitors Bureau and chair of its Education Week. She also served a nine-year term on the Columbus Community Hospital Board of Directors. Currently, she is a volunteer coach for the Columbus Youth Baseball Association.
She and her husband, Pat, have nine children.
Randy Manning
Randy Manning of rural Shelton joined the CCC-Hastings staff on Aug. 15, 1999, as a diesel technology instructor, the position he still holds today.
Prior to joining the CCC staff, he worked as a field service truck mechanic for Vermeer in Dallas, but the job took him all around Texas as well as surrounding states. He then returned to Nebraska to work as a technician at Ditch Witch in Grand Island and moved up to manager.
He is a CCC-Hastings graduate with an associate of applied science degree in diesel technology. He also holds ASE (Automotive Service Excellence) certification in master truck technician and FPS (Fluid Power Society) certification in fluid power hydraulics.
Manning has a son and a grandson.
Ronda Ryan
Ronda Ryan of Columbus joined the CCC-Columbus staff on July 1, 1999, as a registration technician. In 2001, she was promoted to assistant registrar, the position she still holds.
Prior to CCC, she worked as a recreational therapy assistant at Centerpointe, a drug and mental health rehabilitation facility in Lincoln, and then worked with youth at Behavioral Health Specialists in Columbus.
Ryan is a Columbus High School graduate who went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
She is an active member of Highland Park Church and has worked with its different ministries through the years.
She has a daughter.
Employee news
Columbus Campus
Vijendra Boken has joined the staff as a physics and math instructor.
Sonya Wemhoff has resigned as health programming director.
Melissa Wortman has shifted positions from community and workforce education (CWE) administrative assistant to CWE special projects coordinator.
Grand Island Campus
Kevin Hartshorn has been hired to fill the collegewide position of dean of student success and enrollment management.
Another new employee is Angela Eilts, medical laboratory technician program director.
A conference paper by sociology instructor Jeff Schulz has been accepted for publication by the National Social Science Journal.
The paper, “Teaching How Key Events and Lessons Learned from The Civil Rights Era of the 50s and 60s Connects with Modern Social Movements: A Community College Experience,” discusses the value of using specific content from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s rubric and snippets of film from the Eyes on the Prize video series as an effective way to teach students about the civil rights and other social movements.
Schulz presented the paper at the National Social Sciences Association Conference, which was held March 24-26 in Las Vegas.
Donna Anderson, 66, of Grand Island, died Aug. 20 at Grand Island Regional Medical Center.
Services were held Aug. 26 at All Faiths Funeral Home.
She was born on September 4, 1957, in Grand Island to Donald and Rita (Heitz) Huismann.
She graduated from Grand Island Central Catholic High School and worked in student accounts at the Grand Island Campus for more than 20 years. She retired in 2022.
Survivors include Randy Zalman, who she called the love of her life; her children and grandchildren; a brother; and three sisters. She was preceded in death by her parents and a sister.
Memorials are suggested to the family for future designation.
Hastings Campus
New employees include Clarence Charles, hospitality management and culinary arts program director; Shandra Fahey, Scott Pathway coordinator; and Jeremiah Williams, transportation lab assistant.
Jim Cox, electrical technology instructor, and Gayle Engel, shipping and receiving technician, have resigned.