July 2025 Central Connection
July 1, 2025
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| Whitney Hank, XR lab coordinator at Central Community College-Columbus, looks on as Yaneli Yasmin Perez Esquerra prepares to enter the virtual mold room. |
Plastics education meets virtual reality
It’s something to celebrate when a Central Community College program is featured in a 14-minute industry interview.
The interview was conducted in March by MoldMaking Technology with Karl Anderson, director of plastics injection molding at the Columbus Campus, and Torsten Kruse, founder and president of Kruse Analysis and Kruse Training. It focused on the introduction of virtual reality (VR) into plastics educational programs.
The two men’s rapport comes from a year of interaction that began when Anderson answered CCC-Columbus president Kathy Fuchser’s call to make more use of the campus’
XR lab. He began looking online and found what and who he was looking for on LinkedIn: Torsten Kruse.
“He’s one of the top plastics people in the world and is internationally known,” Anderson said. “He is one of the most advanced and forward-thinking people I’ve met.”
The two men began chatting, and Kruse eventually provided Anderson with access to his VR world in advance of its public release. “It was in development,” Anderson said. “I put my students on for feedback.”
That feedback included what the students thought worked well along with what they wanted to see in Kruse’s VR world. Anderson said the world is highly developed and has an important role to play in plastics education.
“Injection molding has hugely complex machines that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said, “and decommissioned molds often can’t be donated for proprietary reasons.”
Although Kruse’s VR world began with a focus on highly developed VR molds, he is at work developing VR processing modules, which will really help students “see” what is happening inside the machine. Anderson envisions VR being used in a hybrid program that will allow students to complete much of their learning remotely and then arrange lab time that fits their schedule, making it a benefit for rural Nebraska.
Kruse, who pulled Anderson into the MoldMaking Technology interview at a Chicago conference, is on board with this type of thinking.
The interview, “MMT Chats: Virtual Reality Transforms Public Training,” can be found on YouTube.
Kruse’s VR world is available through META World.
Adult ed completes successful 2024-25
For the first time, individuals who passed their GED tests and earned a Nebraska high school diploma were recognized at this year’s Central Community College commencement ceremonies.
GED instruction is one component of CCC’s adult education program.
“I don’t know what caused this, but last year we had 51 GED graduates and this year we have 97, and technically, we have two days left (in the 2024-25 academic year for there to be more),” said adult education director Becky Fausett.
The increase in GED graduates is one aspect of what Fausett sees as the high point this past year for the adult education program as a whole. “We had the highest enrollment and highest performance in CCC’s history,” she said.
For this, Fausett gives credit to the move to managed enrollment, in which students begin and learn together in a cohort. This model provides a supportive environment for students and helps instructors keep better track of their students’ progress.
What’s in store for 2025-26 for the adult education program? It largely depends on obtaining funding, but Fausett shared several ideas that are in the works.
The adult education program is exploring Integrated Education and Training (IET) in partnership with CCC’s health sciences division. Students will train for the workplace while also improving their basic skills or learning English. Through IET, students can’t pay for anything. Adult education classes are already funded by federal grants. The training portion would be paid for through GAP and other funding sources. When this gets past the planning stages, the first IET offering will be certified nursing assistant (CNA) classes.
Exploration also is underway with Workplace Literacy, a partnership that gives employers some input into what their employees learn in adult education classes, specifically ESL. This may be vocabulary or job-specific terms, for example.
Conversations are taking place with the Cozad Grand Generation Center to provide English as a Second Language (ESL) classes in Cozad.
The program also is open to bringing classes to the new Red Cloud and Albion educational hubs to meet community needs.
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Left: Dan Schaben from Lexington High School in the Overview of Programmable Logic Controllers session. Right: CCC instructor Jared Pettit with Mary Martin, left from Wilcox-Hildreth High School and Dasie Nichols from Stapleton High School in the Overview of Fluid Power Systems session. |
Summer school
A June tradition involves high school teachers coming to Central Community College for professional development workshops.
“The training offers educators valuable insights and tools to improve teaching,” said Jamey Peterson-Jones, Early College director.
This year’s sessions covered a wide range of disciplines, including advanced agriculture, criminal justice, fluid power systems, graphic design, hospitality management and culinary arts, mathematics, programmable logic controllers and welding technology.
Three sessions were canceled because of low enrollment, leaving 11 sessions and 79 participants.
Hodtwalker retires from CCC-Columbus
Lori Hodtwalker of Monroe has retired from Central Community College-Columbus.
She joined the staff in 1997 as records coordinator. In 2001, she became a business administration instructor.
Hodtwalker is a graduate of Monroe High School who went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a master’s degree in business administration from Wayne State College.
Her previous employment includes serving as director of the East-Central Nebraska Math and Science Initiative, which was a National Science Foundation grant, and as assistant in the UNL athletics department where she worked with development and marketing.
She is a member of the Nebraska Ladies Legislative League and Peace Lutheran Church in Columbus.
Her family includes her husband, Bill; a step-daughter, Alicia Robertson; and two grandchildren.
Employee news
Columbus Campus
New full-time employees include Duane Collins, criminal justice instructor; Wanda Frauendorfer, custodian; Lawrence McKenzie, business administration and accounting instructor; Thomas Quinn, mathematics and physics instructor; and Danielle Voss, counselor and prevention education coordinator.
Chadric Harms has resigned as an art instructor.
Robert “Bob” George, 77, of Columbus died June 9 at his home in Columbus.
Private family services were held at Gass Haney Funeral Home in Columbus with military honors provided by the American Legion Hartman Post 84 Honor Guard.
He was born Sept. 10, 1947, in Columbus to Robert and Geraldine “Gerri” (Hattel) George.
He attended Columbus Public School and graduated from Columbus High School. On Sept. 9, 1966, he entered the U.S. Army serving during the Vietnam War. He was honorably discharged on Sept. 8, 1969.
He was united in marriage to Susan Golden.
In addition to being a carpenter, he worked as a custodian at CCC-Columbus from 1992 until his retirement in 2015.
Survivors include three children, a brother, five sisters, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He was preceded in death by his parents and a brother.
Grand Island Campus
Maureen Horne has resigned as a nursing instructor.
Hastings Campus
Individuals joining the staff include Craig Hubbard, construction instructor, and Chelsea Richards, associate dean of instructor.
Resigning from their positions are Kellie Jacobs, business technology instructor, and Matt Strampher, quality control instructor.
Kearney Center
Aly Elhefny, mechatronics instructor, and Ben Musick, information technology specialist, have resigned.
John “JJ” Roschewski has joined the staff as a business administration instructor.