Spring is always a busy time of year around Chippewa Valley Technical College. Graduation has come and gone, students are registering for summer and fall classes, scholarships are being awarded, and we have taken time to honor and thank our Distinguished Alumni and Proven Business Partner award winners.
This edition of our electronic newsletter will provide information about the award winners and other items of interest. I hope you enjoy it, and if you have any particular topics you’d like covered in future editions, please email me at bbarker@cvtc.edu.
Bruce A. Barker
President
Jon Hehli Awarded CVTC’s Top Alumni Honor
Jon Hehli is the recipient of the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest honor conferred upon a graduate by Chippewa Valley Technical College. Hehli is the chief financial officer at RCU and received the award Tuesday, April 13, at CVTC’s Spring Gala. The annual event was hosted by Florian Gardens in Eau Claire.
"Jon is exemplary of our many graduates living and working within the region. Jon's dedication to community is admirable and his career accomplishments exceptional," said CVTC President Bruce Barker.
"CVTC gave me the fundamentals and my education has served me well," Hehli says. Hehli, a graduate from Regis High School in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, felt the 'A' he received in accounting while in high school signaled a career opportunity. After completing high school, Hehli considered his options and enrolled at CVTC. He knew the education received would provide the skills needed to be successful in the workforce. Hehli came within one class of a 4.0 at CVTC and remembers the small class sizes and strong instructors including Pat Devine, Geri Wendt and George Nelson.
Hehli is dedicated to the Chippewa Valley both personally and professionally. Hehli has owned local businesses and worked for several credit unions and banks, most recently serving as CFO for RCU. In his 15 years at RCU, Hehli has presided over impressive growth in market share and assets. Assets are five times what they were when Hehli began the job. Membership is 120,000, tremendous market penetration. Hehli is an accomplished and respected baseball and basketball coach and mentor to many, dedicating countless hours to volunteering within the valley in numerous roles.
"Every day I wake up in the morning and I thank God for living and working here. I tell people, expect nothing and accept everything and you will never be disappointed," says the CVTC accounting graduate.
Video Provided by WQOW News 18
NanoRite Innovation Center Served by Advisory Board
The NanoRite Advisory Board has an enviable job: to promote an already successful innovation center that has added value to the Chippewa Valley.
Jeff West, former president of Silicon Logic Engineering, and UW-Stout Chancellor Charles Sorensen, serve as chair and vice chair.
Other members are University of Wisconsin Research Park Director Mark Bugher, WiSys Intellectual Property Manager Maliyakal John, Eau Claire Area Economic Development Corporation Development Manager Gwen Southard-Schuppel, Eau Claire City Manager Mike Huggins, Eau Claire County Administrator Tom McCarthy, and CVTC President Bruce Barker.
NanoRite is at 75 percent occupancy with an estimated $1 million payroll, and has brought 30 new jobs to the region. Current tenants conduct research, produce short-run items to customer order, provide measurement and inspection services, solve materials problems for manufacturers, and provide other services to business and industry.
NanoRite opened in 2007 to help entrepreneurs accelerate product development, especially at the micro- and nanotechnology level. The Advisory Board works to identify prospective tenants, review marketing activities and strategies, and promote the exchange of ideas and knowledge among businesses and educational institutions.
CVTC to Celebrate Centennial in 2012
When the Eau Claire Technical Institute opened at 620 West Clairemont on January 20, 1963, technical education in western Wisconsin was solely funded by cities and towns. Technical education was 51 years old in the Chippewa Valley.
In 1968, Wisconsin Gov. Warren Knowles consolidated all of Wisconsin’s municipal technical schools into a single state agency: Vocational Technical and Adult Education. Sixteen districts were formed and they stand today. The counties comprising what is now the Chippewa Valley Technical College district, were named District One, and so it is that District One Technical Institute was a consolidation of municipal technical schools in Eau Claire, Menomonie and Chippewa Falls.
Chippewa Valley Technical College has grown nine-fold since its forerunner began operations, now enrolling 4,500 full-time equivalent students. But the mission to "make a better match between employers and employees"—as Nobel Laureate Economist Jim Tobin described in the 1980s, remains unchanged.
"The demand for unskilled labor is diminishing at an alarming rate. There is just one solution—educate and train." The previous two sentences, published in the Open House dedication in 1963, apply as much today as then.
Help us celebrate the task of preparing the workforce of west-central Wisconsin. Send your centennial celebration ideas to CVTC Director of Community Relations Doug Olson, dolson@cvtc.edu.
The new Learning Center, A Library and Much More
The Learning Center is the name given to an area of the college now under construction at the Clairemont Campus. Designed to draw together essential learning support resources, the Learning Center will provide comprehensive learning support services to students.
Every student requires different academic and learning support, and CVTC will soon streamline the process students use to access the help they need. Student Services has combined several areas of learning support, including Academic Services, Library Services, Disability Services and Diversity Services.
Together these professionals will provide students with access to academic help, library and technology resources, small group classes, peer tutoring, and diversity specialists.
This is yet another example of CVTC bringing the complex business of learning to all in west-central Wisconsin who believe that education must be part of their future.
Click image for larger view.
Barber-Cosmetology Facilities Get a Facelift
This fall, CVTC will be welcoming back the Barber-Cosmetology Program. When the students return, they will have a new state-of-the-art facility that is in line with current industry standards, will allow for expanded services, and provides the potential for future growth in new and exciting ways. Students will be able to take advantage of a training lab that will prepare them to provide a variety of salon services. The curriculum has also been updated to integrate the licensing requirements and industry trends necessary.
An increased emphasis on business management, salon marketing, and technology will enhance the curriculum to prepare students to achieve a successful career in the salon services industry.
Arturo Schwencke, a native of Santiago, Chile, is the president of the CVTC Student Government.
Chile, says the CVTC marketing student, has about the longest tradition of free enterprise and democracy in the hemisphere and the nation is better equipped because of it to deal with the recent earthquake devastation.
Schwencke is a former law student who lost interest. Like many an undecided student, Schwencke hit the road for a while and travelled in Argentina before deciding to continue his journeys in the U.S.
He first moved to Kansas. His dad, whose career has been in aviation sales, had contacts there. Kansas is a sharply different social scene than Santiago, which is 45 minutes from both sea and snow and attracts a more playful, even jetsetting crowd. One example: he quickly had to abandon the kiss-on-the-cheek greeting he’d grown up with. The Kansans found it offputting.
He revels in people networking. He sees networking as a kind of education that rivals books and lectures. He takes people networking so seriously that he has reduced his credit load to 12 so that he can have more time to spend with people, the ultimate resource, he points out. He’s also active in Delta Epsilon Chi, and Business Professionals of America at CVTC.
CVTC’s instructional model with fewer students per class, and instructors often on a first name basis with students, appeals. Marketing instructor Ric Messner and Business Management Instructor Rod Schultz are among the great teachers here, Schwencke says.
He wants to see CVTC Student Government better reflect the needs of students. The new Student Commons will be a great step ahead and help unite CVTC students, he says. He’ll help make Student Government more approachable and that will better serve the student, he says.
ConAgra Foods’ Menomonie Plant Honored by CVTC for Partnership
ConAgra Foods received the first annual Proven Business Partner award April 13 at Chippewa Valley Technical College's 2010 Spring Gala.
CVTC President Bruce Barker presented the award to Menomonie plant manager Bill Butsic at the Gala. Barker shares, "As we approach our centennial year, it is interesting that our mission has remained steadfast in providing for, and responding to, the needs of business and industry. The Proven Business Partner award is an exciting opportunity for us to recognize the importance of our business partners. ConAgra Foods is an outstanding example of not only working within a community, but also being an integral part of community development."
ConAgra Foods' plant in Menomonie has long supported the college. The firm has been a partner with CVTC for more than 15 years, in different capacities. ConAgra Foods hires graduates, creates training opportunities, provides for student scholarships, and encourages its employees to serve in volunteer roles within the college.
Using a Workforce Advance Training grant through the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, the partnership is currently training pudding line technicians in electromechanical technology and industrial maintenance. The CVTC training has aided the firm in an expansion that has created 30 new jobs and an additional $2 million in payroll. ConAgra Foods expects to realize $40 million in additional annual revenue from the training-aided expansion. CVTC President Bruce Barker points to the multiplier effect of ConAgra’s economic activity. Barker says the impact of the expansion, along with the firm’s daily acquisition of more than 600,000 lbs. of locally produced milk, combine to significantly boost the economy of west-central Wisconsin.
In 2007, ConAgra Foods established a scholarship to be awarded through the Chippewa Valley Technical College Foundation. The scholarship funds are presented to students demonstrating strong ability in electromechanical technology or industrial maintenance.
ConAgra’s other contributions to the technical college include past service on its foundation board by Bill Butsic, and participation in events underscoring the importance of technical education to legislative and other leaders.
The Proven Business Partner was selected from a slate of candidates that demonstrated commitment to college, mission and state activities.
For more information about Chippewa Valley Technical College, contact Doug Olson, director of community relations at 715-833-6237.
Department of Workforce Development Aids Local Firms
Menomonie Campus Manager Roxann Vanderwyst is overseeing the Workforce Advanced Training Grant training shared by three companies, including ConAgra, the recipient of this year’s Proven Business Partner Award. WAT grants are funding efforts by the state of Wisconsin to promote competiveness by sharing in training costs for Wisconsin firms that have made successful application. Vanderwyst has more about the scope of the project in this video.
newsletter distribution: Bev Hilton, Candy Johnson, and Jodi Stevens
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When the Eau Claire Technical Institute opened at 620 West Clairemont on January 20, 1963, technical education in western Wisconsin was solely funded by cities and towns. Technical education was 51 years old in the Chippewa Valley.
ConAgra Foods received the first annual Proven Business Partner award April 13 at Chippewa Valley Technical College's 2010 Spring Gala.
© 2010 Chippewa Valley Technical College