North Dakota State College of Science honored numerous employees at the annual Employee Recognition Program on May 1, 2019. Faculty and staff members were named recipients of the College’s Excellence in Teaching Award and Excellence in Service Award as well as the College’s LIFE award.

The Excellence in Teaching Award recognizes instructors who, among other outstanding characteristics, stimulate present and continuing interest in the subject matter, present courses so that the topics are clear, suitable and well-integrated, and demand rigorous thought and generate enthusiastic responses from the students while achieving course objectives. This year’s recipients were chosen from a group of more than 50 nominees. The honorees are:
• Margaret Brady: Associate Professor, Mathematics and Science
• Chuck Campbell: Associate Professor, Diesel Technology
• Stacie Garland: Instructor, Nursing
• Chanel Malone: Assistant Professor / Program Coordinator, Allied Dental Education

The Excellence in Service Award recognizes employees who consistently go above and beyond every day and exemplify the College’s values of learning, integrity, flexibility and excellence. All NDSCS support staff are eligible to be nominated. The honorees are:
• Kim Dassenko: Office Manager, Academic Affairs
• Ryan Hanson: IT Support Specialist, Information Technology Services
• Shannon Herman: Administrative Assistant, Distance Education
• Alissa Sherven: Student Life Assistant, Customer Service Desk, Student Life

This year’s LIFE award recognized Alissa Herbranson, who serves as the Assistant Director for Business Operations in the Residential Life department. The award stands for “Bringing LIFE to NDSCS” and is presented to an individual, employee group or committee that exemplifies LIFE (Leadership, Integrity, Flexibility and Excellence) values by demonstrating and practicing the NDSCS Quality Standards. This can be done with an event, project or activity that reflects these areas.

Herbranson was recognized for her work in implementing multiple processes to improve departmental business operations. These have included developing comprehensive systems to effectively track and monitor student housing placements, and transforming numerous paper applications and forms to an online platform. She was also instrumental in developing the LGBTQ roommate matching system to provide a more inclusive environment for students. Through her leadership, Herbranson and her staff have created comprehensive lines of communication through multiple platforms to ensure students are informed and to meet the needs of how students prefer to communicate.

North Dakota State College of Science will hold its Commencement ceremony on Friday, May 10 at 3 p.m. in the Ed Werre Arena located in the Clair T. Blikre Activities Center in Wahpeton, N.D. Approximately 650 students from the Wahpeton campus, NDSCS-Fargo location and online are scheduled to graduate.

This year’s Commencement ceremony will include an automated player piano providing the traditional “Pomp and Circumstance” theme for the processional. The automated player piano was planned, designed, programmed and built by four students in the Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics Technology program as part of their capstone project.

Faculty Senate President Dr. William Shay will serve as the Stage Marshal, Vice President for Academic Affairs Harvey Link will preside as the Master of Ceremonies and NDSCS President John Richman will give remarks and recognitions as well as the presentation of degrees, diplomas and certificates. Brayden Lampe, Student Senate President, will also share remarks, and the NDSCS Wildcat Singers will perform musical selections.

North Dakota State College of Science students, faculty and staff will celebrate Agawasie Day on Thursday, May 2. Events on the College’s Wahpeton campus will begin at 1:00 p.m., with competitions, inflatables, music, food and numerous attractions taking place throughout the afternoon and evening. The day-long celebration will close with an outdoor street dance for students from 9:00 p.m. until midnight in the parking lot north of Old Main, with music provided by a disc jockey.

The public is invited to participate in the Agawasie Day Car Show, which will take place from 1-3 p.m. Registration for the car show is free for all participants, including students, faculty, staff and the public. Trophies will be awarded for Best in Class for each category (cars, trucks, motorcycles), and one overall Best in Show. Additional information and registration is available online at ndscs.edu/agawasie or by calling 701-671-2401.

In 1914, the College published its first yearbook called the Agawasie. The arrival of the annual became a day for celebration, hence the start of the annual Agawasie Day Picnic. While publishing an annual yearbook was discontinued in 2004, the day for celebration still lives on as Agawasie Day and is celebrated every year right before the start of finals.

The NDSCS Performing Arts department will present two concerts in April, with the Concert Band and Concert Choir performing on April 16, and the Jazz Band and Wildcat Singers performing on April 30. Both concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Harry Stern and Ella Stern Cultural Center on the North Dakota State College of Science campus in Wahpeton.

The NDSCS Concert Band and Concert Choir will present their last concert of the season on Tuesday, April 16. The Concert Band, under the direction of Dr. Adam Hollingsworth, will perform a variety of pieces, including music from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets”, as well as a medley from the motion picture “The Greatest Showman”. The Concert Choir, under the direction of Bryan Poyzer, will perform four pieces, including the a cappella piece “Sing Your Way Home” by Joseph M. Martin, as well as the song “Waitin’ for the Light to Shine” from the Broadway musical “Big River”.

The NDSCS Jazz Band and Wildcat Singers will present their final home concert of the season on Tuesday, April 30. The concert will include jazz standards, pop favorites and country classics.

By: Phi Theta Kappa

Serena Langen, a student at North Dakota State College of Science, Wahpeton, has been named a 2019 New Century Workforce Pathway Scholar and will receive a $1,250 scholarship.

This scholarship is the first of its kind to support students at associate degree-granting institutions who plan to enter the workforce upon the completion of a degree or certificate on a national scale. The program is sponsored by The Coca-Cola Foundation and Phi Theta Kappa.

“Education helps ensure that young people can realize their full potential,” said Helen Smith Price, president of The Coca-Cola Foundation. “The Coca-Cola Foundation places a high priority on supporting education to help build strong communities.”

New Century Workforce Pathway Scholars are selected based on their academic accomplishments, leadership, activities, and how they extend their intellectual talents beyond the classroom. Over 2,000 students were nominated from more than 1,200 college campuses across the country. Only one New Century Workforce Pathway Scholar was selected from each state.

“We congratulate Serena for receiving this prestigious scholarship, and we are honored to partner with The Coca-Cola Foundation to recognize her outstanding achievements,” said Phi Theta Kappa’s President and CEO Dr. Lynn Tincher-Ladner. “Scholarship programs like this are integral for creating opportunities for students to succeed as they prepare to enter the workforce and for putting college completion within reach.”

The New Century Workforce Pathway Scholars will be recognized during the Association of Community College Trustees’ (ACCT) Congress in San Francisco, California, in October 2019.

The North Dakota State College of Science Performing Arts Department will present its spring play, The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales, at 7:00 p.m. on March 26 and 27 in the Bremer Bank Theatre in the Harry Stern and Ella Stern Cultural Center on the NDSCS campus in Wahpeton. Admission at the door is $5 for adults, and $1 for students.

The play is a comedy with music by John Glore, based on the book by John Scieszka and Lane Smith, and is produced by special arrangement with Playscripts, Inc.

Choir students from Wahpeton High School and Breckenridge (Minn.) High School will join the choir from North Dakota State College of Science to perform a concert on Monday, February 25 at 7:00 p.m.

The public is invited to the concert, which will be held in the Bremer Bank Theatre in the Harry Stern and Ella Stern Cultural Center on the NDSCS campus in Wahpeton. The combined choir will be directed by Guest Conductor Dr. Charlette Moe from North Dakota State University.

Four students from the North Dakota State College of Science have been nominated for the 2019 All-North Dakota Academic Team, which recognizes the academic achievements of community college students.

The students, listed with their program of study and their hometown, are:

Transfer Scholars:

• Carmen Albrecht, Liberal Arts, Moorhead, Minn.
• Joncy Mastel, Liberal Arts, Wahpeton, N.D.

Workforce Scholars:

• Serena Langen, Architectural Drafting and Estimating Technology, Perham, Minn.
• Amanda Mittlestadt, Precision Machining Technology, Glendive, Mont.

Four students from NDSCS are able to be nominated to the All-North Dakota Academic Team. Two Liberal Arts students are named as Transfer Scholars, and two students studying career and technical education programs are named as Workforce Scholars. Applications were evaluated based on academic excellence, campus involvement and contributions to the community. The students will be recognized at a banquet in Bismarck on Tuesday, March 19.

NDSCS graduates are in high demand – a fact that was reinforced through the College’s most recent Graduate Placement Report, which identified that the College’s placement rate has risen to 99%. Often, those graduates were hired prior to graduation, and may have had their education sponsored by their employer. Seeking to fill workforce needs, and to encourage employees to return to their hometowns, many businesses and local economic development organizations have turned to student sponsorship programs.

Student sponsorships are an agreement between a student and an employer, and are designed to assist businesses with recruiting and retaining qualified employees for industries that are experiencing a workforce shortage. Sponsorships can take many forms, but often include agreements for tuition reimbursement, signing bonuses, tool purchases and/or cooperative education opportunities.

The NDSCS Career Services department has begun an initiative to help create connections between employers who would like to sponsor a student, and students who show potential and interest as a future employee of that company. By completing a brief online survey, students and businesses provide information the department uses to help match students with potential sponsors. Businesses who sponsor students may also be eligible to have their funds matched by the NDSCS Alumni Foundation Sponsorship Matching Grant.

“Many businesses have found student sponsorships to be a successful way of recruiting and retaining employees,” said NDSCS Director of Student Success and Career Services Lisa Wixo. “For our students, sponsorships can help reduce their education cost and provide employment after graduation. They also have the opportunity to gain relevant work experience and begin an employment relationship before they graduate from NDSCS, and in some cases, before they enroll.”

ComDel Innovation, Inc. in Wahpeton is one of those businesses who has begun sponsoring students at NDSCS. Chief Operations Officer Carter Hansen sees sponsorships as a tool to hire quality employees in a competitive workforce environment.

“We have a need for quality employees,” said Hansen. “We have had students intern with us, and felt they were a good fit with our company. We wanted those individuals to continue working with us so we decided to offer them a sponsorship.”

Another business that has discovered the benefits of sponsoring a student at NDSCS is Engine Rebuilders, Inc. in Oakes, N.D. Business Manager Kim Schmit found sponsorship to be a way to retain an employee who began working for the company during high school, and showed a good mechanical aptitude.

“We wanted to ‘grow our own’, and support employees who want to reside in the Oakes area after they graduate,” said Schmit. “The student continues to work for us during breaks, and the education NDSCS has provided has been great. We’d like to find more students who are interested and continue to provide sponsorships for their education.”

In some communities, businesses are finding support from local economic development organizations who provide matching funds for student sponsorships.

“Our first goal is to keep local youth in the area – and get them to come back – by aligning with business employment needs in skilled areas,” said Forward Devils Lake (N.D.) Executive Director Brad Barth. The organization recently launched an initiative to support local businesses who sponsor area students through tuition reimbursement. Launched this fall, the “20 by 20” Skilled Workforce Recruitment and Retention Program uses a combination of funds from the hiring business and from the Forward Devils Lake Corporation to reimburse 80% of a student’s expenses if the student commits to coming back to the region and working for the employer for three years after graduation. The program is also available for any individual who moves to the area and works for a sponsoring employer for three years.

The Carrington (N.D.) Job Development Authority (JDA) offers the Carrington Employee Education Sponsorship Grant to match a portion of funds that local businesses spend on sponsorships. The program is available for students studying designated trades and skills programs who intend to work for a business in the Carrington area immediately after completing their degree or certification. “We’ve had this program in place for about four years,” said Carrington Economic Developer Denise Schuchard. “It’s been a great tool for the businesses and students who have used it. We’d like to see the program expand and be utilized by even more businesses and students.”

Additional information about sponsorships and the NDSCS Alumni Foundation Sponsorship Matching Grant can be found online at ndscs.edu/sponsorships or by calling NDSCS Career Services at 701.671.3000.