ELF Newsletter, Winter 2019

ELF NEWSLETTER

LINN-BENTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE EXTENDED LEARNING // VOLUME 2 // ISSUE 2

IN THIS ISSUE Winter Hours Staff Spotlight - Gerardo Feature Story: Making Roads Safer Congrats SBM Grads!

Better Bones & Balance® Fall Successes Fostering New Connections...

Upcoming ELF events ELF transforms the office into the Game of Life for Halloween

WELCOME TO ELF

We are the Extended Learning Family (ELF): Community Education Driver Education & Vehicle Safety Corporate Training & Professional Development Fire Training Council Small Business Development Center (SBDC)

Winter Hours!

Hours of Operation Mon - Thurs: 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Friday: 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Registration Mon - Thurs: 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Friday: 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

No Instruction Days: Jan. 21, Feb. 18

STAFF SPOTLIGHT: ELF would like to introduce Gerardo Ramirez Hernadez, who joined our team in December as the Fitness Coordinator, supporting Community Education.

MORE ABOUT GERARDO: Hobbies: Playing basketball and watching boxing.

Most Memorable Adventure: Going to California to watch boxing matches over the past two years.

Passions: Loves learning about different places around the world.

"As a team, we can accomplish so much," he believes.

Welcome to the team, Gerardo!

MAKING THE ROADS SAFER, ONE STUDENT AT A TIME

BY ALLISON LAMPULGH Leah Hansen is one of 14 certified instructors for our Driver Education program. Each instructor has their own reason they teach safe driving to teens, but for Leah, her passion is personal.

The privilege that driving allows has been something Leah has appreciated for most her life. She spent many years as a Corvallis city bus driver and often considered becoming a driving instructor. But, it wasn’t until a fateful event nearly a decade ago in which she finally found the motivation to start teaching.

Charles Simmons, her ex-husband, was a lawyer in Eastern Oregon. He was leaving for an early deposition in court on a September morning in 2009. He had driven almost 100 miles that morning and was only 9 miles away from his destination when he fell asleep behind the wheel. His car crossed the center line, hit a truck pulling a livestock trailer, and he died on impact.

“Even though he had his seat belt on and his airbag deployed,” Leah said, “he was in a tiny car and the vehicle he hit was very heavy.”

Although all the factors surrounding his accident are unknown, what Leah does know is that he worked long hours, often on little sleep. With many hours of preparing and planning for his cases, she believes his routine of limited sleep caught up to him.

“Safe driving is something I am super passionate about,” she said, “because obviously, his accident was horrible, and I don’t want it to happen to someone else if I can help it.”

In the classes Leah teaches, she focuses not only on the rules of the road and how to safely operate a vehicle, but she also reiterates personal preparedness and safety.

“Drowsy driving is the same as driving impaired, and far more pervasive, actually,” she said. ”And teenagers are especially apt to drowsy driving because their lives are very full.”

With school, work, sports, homework and social obligations, teenagers need more sleep than most adults and making sure her students understand the importance of

staying alert while driving is a personal mission for Leah.

For the last four years, she has been teaching about 25 students a term.

After Leah’s students get to know her throughout each term, during the final weeks of class she shows them a photo of her ex-husband’s car at the scene of the accident.

“They watch a video about drowsy driving and then I show them the pictures,” she said. “The response has been positive every time.

They’re obviously very engaged because it happened to someone they know, which is me.”

With many of the students approaching her after class and thanking her for sharing her story, Leah looks forward to each new term when she gets to meet and educate her next cohort of young drivers.

ions Congratulat SBM GRADS!

The Small Business Management program is designed to impact rural communities and stimulate economic growth through small business development. The 2018 cohort of entrepreneurs graduated from the Sweet Home program on November 13.

Scott and Miriam Swanson, two of the graduates, said they received the tools to improve their management of the Sweet Home New Era. “I really appreciated the mentorship,” said Scott. “We were a hamster on the wheel, always running and not taking care of the things that really needed to be dealt with.”

Through the SBM program, Scott said they were able to develop procedures that will allow him and Miriam to finally take a vacation and not worry about their business.

In February, the SBDC will launch the next SBM in Lebanon.

BETTER BONES & BALANCE® The BBB program was designed to reduce the rate of hip bone loss and risk of falls in aging populations.

This year, LBCC’s Extended Learning and Benton Center received the honor of OSU Extension Cooperator for their collaboration and facilitation of the 2018 Better Bones and Balance (BBB) instructor training event that served 35 participants.

“This award signifies LBCC’s collective commitment to furthering the mission of outreach and engagement through their efforts as critical partners of OSU Extension, and specifically BBB," said Kathy Gunter, OSU Extension.

In the upcoming winter term, Extended Learning will offer over 20 BBB classes throughout the midWillamette Valley.

FALL SUCCESSES DRIVER EDUCATION increased students served by 143%

SBDC spent 274 hours advising business owners

EXTENDED LEARNING served 3,767 individuals

CORPORATE TRAINING registered 234 clients

UPCOMING EVENTS: Stop by and say hello to us at these events this Winter:

2/04

College Night 5 - 7 p.m.

Albany Campus

2/19

Benton County High School Career Fair 10 a.m. - 1:50 p.m.

LaSells Stewart Center

4/01

CE Instructor Orientation & Training 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

TBA

4/09

Lebanon Business Expo 10 a.m - 6 p.m.

The River Center

4/17

LBCC Career Fair 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Activities Center

4/25

ELF hosts Sweet Home After Hours 9:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.

Sweet Home Chamber

COMMUNITY EDUCATION created 95 new classes

FOSTERING NEW CONNECTIONS

At Extended Learning, it is a value of ours to encourage the economic vitality and cultural richness of our communities. It is essential that all resources engage with rural areas, small businesses, and local communities.

We, as a department, are excited to announce that we have expanded our outreach in the community through new partnerships with: Corvallis Foundry Let It Bead Santiam Christian High School Songbird Village Boys & Girls Club of Sweet Home West Albany High School

For more about us, follow us

OR on our newly revamped website! linnbenton.edu/extendedlearning

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To report: linnbenton-advocate.symplicity.com/public_report. Request for Special Needs or Accommodations: Direct questions about or requests for special needs or accommodations to the LBCC Disability Coordinator, RCH-105 or call 541-917-4789.