PAST YEAR ACCOMPLISHMENTS & HIGHLIGHTS

A graduate of the Dental Assisting program, Stacey Kruger, ’18, CDA, CDIPC, of Wabasha, Minnesota, was awarded the 2022 Liz Koch Memorial Scholarship. Kruger was one of five recipients chosen from applicants throughout the nation.

Band students Ashleigh Cox and Sam Atwood were selected to participate in the All-State Honors Concert Band at the Minnesota Music Educators Association Convention, February 16-18, 2023, in Minneapolis. This was the first year in which two-year colleges were invited by the MMEA to nominate students, and Ashleigh and Sam were the first RCTC students to be accepted into this honor band. Ashleigh plays the trombone and Sam is a pianist/percussionist.

Campus Initiatives

The Male of Color Scholars Initiative, also known as MOCSI, is a new mentoring program at RCTC that offers a support network within and outside the College. MOCSI provides opportunities to further develop skills related to personal, academic, and professional success.

Rochester Community

Livability Magazine released its 2023 Top 25 Best Places to Live in the Midwest and Rochester came in at #3. Rochester was also ranked the third best in the 2022 Top 100 Best Cities to Live.

RCTC’s Learning Is ForEver (LIFE) program celebrated 30 years of providing stimulating educational programs and encouraging social and personal growth for life-long learners in growing and diverse communities.

RCTC’s Center for Business and Workforce Education began offering a new RN to EMT Bridge course. This course was designed to produce entry-level EMT’s who can translate their skills from in-hospital to out-of-hospital practice to support their communities as emergency medical technicians.

RCTC’S COMMUNITY IMPACT

Minnesota State released the results of a study that estimates the impact of Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC) on the regional economy to be $234.9 million and 1,785 jobs.

Author Andrea Jenkins visited campus and presented on her essay “The Price We Pay: How Race and Gender Identity Converge” which was featured in theRCTC 2022-2023 common book “A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota.”

The 2024 Common Read, “We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World” edited by Carolyn Holbrook and David Mura.

Student Awards And Recognition

Three RCTC students served as representatives on the 2022-2023 All-Minnesota Academic Team. Maple Lassila (Rochester, MN) is majoring in Environmental Science; Mekedelawet Mersha (Burnsville, MN) is majoring in Biology; and Justice Wright (Rochester, MN) is majoring in Veterinary Technology.

After a hiatus for several years, RCTC began offering youth camps. This year, College Relations kicked off youth camps with its first session in April. Coach Isaac, his assistant coaches, and players offered youth football camps for students K-8 from April – July 2023. Also new this past year, RCTC instructor and Theatre Director Jerry Casper offered a theatre camp specifically for high school students.

On January 5, 2023, the business faculty hosted the Business Professionals of America (BPA) Region 3 student competition. Approximately 260 high school business students, teachers, and judges were on campus for this competition.

The study also calculated tax revenues generated by this level of economic activity, including sales, property, personal income, and corporate income taxes. The study concluded that RCTC generates about $18.7 million in tax revenues for state and local government.

The study further estimated the value of the increase in productivity that the degrees awarded by RCTC yield throughout the careers of the graduates. Assuming a 40-year work life, the education received by these graduates will yield additional state income of $6 billion (future value, discounted and adjusted to account for such factors as foregone income while attending school and outmigration).

RCTC’S COMMUNITY IMPACT

Statewide, all Minnesota State operations, including all seven state universities and 26 community and technical colleges, plus the spending of its faculty, staff, and students, had a total statewide economic contribution of $8.4 billion. This activity generated an estimated 62,125 jobs in the state.

RCTC was voted the BEST OF THE BEST for the sixth consecutive year in the Post Bulletin’s annual reader’s choice contest.

As part of its “Critical Careers” segment, KTTC Anchor Tom Overlie took to the skies with two RCTC/Great Planes Aviation Program alums to learn about the program and the need for trained pilots. You can watch the story at: https://www.kttc.com/2022/09/22/criticalcareers-pilot-shortage-crisis/.

The PTECH program welcomed 60 new high school students to campus this year. They join the 60 who started last year who are working toward their degrees in IT and Practical Nursing.

Rctc Foundation

The Bea Family Foundation committed $100,000 to the RCTC Foundation for scholarships to benefit union and hourly employees at the Kahler Hospitality group.

The OAKS (Overcoming Adversity Keeping Strong) scholarships once again provided an opportunity for students who have “beat the odds” to pursue academic and personal success.

An anonymous Rochester couple donated $130,000 to the RCTC Foundation to fund scholarships and aid academic programs over the next three years. This generous gift includes $90,000 to create the Mildred Montag Scholarship fund. This scholarship honors Mildred Montag who championed the associate degree nursing program to alleviate a critical shortage of nurses following World War II. By creating a program that could be taught in two-year colleges, her work transformed nursing education.

Rctc Technology

IT introduced a new ticketing system, replaced the campus facilities’ SchoolDude system, and converted the campus phone system to Zoom phones. IT, HR, and Finance departments are transitioning from ISRS to a new system called NextGen/Workday which will be implemented in July 2024.

Retirees

RCTC said goodbye and thank you to 14 faculty and staff who retired in 2022-2023. Individual years of service ranged from 9 years to 42 years.

Pamela Benson, Computer Aided Drafting Faculty (26)

Rosemary Buns, Nursing Faculty (19)

Steven Carlson, Carpentry Faculty (21)

Matthew Hafar, Music Faculty (16)

Susan Jansen, Associate Dean of Nursing (28)

Judy Kingsbury, Executive Assistant to President (42)

Dave Lexvold, Facility and Service Technology Faculty (13)

Yu (Jim) Ma, Computer Science Faculty (9)

Chrisanne Pieper, Senior Programs Coordinator (21)

Debra Schloegel, TRIO Administrative Assistant (29)

Stephen Schmall, Vice President of Finance/Facilities (11)

Jonathan Wetenkamp, Projects/Events Design Engineer (21)

Elizabeth Wirt, Nursing Faculty (22)

Diane Witzig, Nursing Faculty (28)

In Memory

Ruth Siefert, retired RCTC Business Office Supervisor, passed away on May 27, 2023. Ruth was 69 years old and served our students for 43 years from 1972 until her retirement in 2017.

Jim Russell, retired History Instructor, passed away on April 24, 2023. Jim was 91 years old and taught at the College for 30 years from 1966 until his retirement in 1996.

Iris Fried, retired Director of the Student Support Services Program (SSSP), passed away on August 12, 2022. She was the Director from 1985 - 2000.

May Jesseph, retired Librarian, passed away on July 30, 2022. May was 87 years old and served many years as a part-time librarian.

Warren Kemplin, retired RCTC Director of Corporate Partnership Development, passed away on June 30, 2022. Warren retired from IBM Rochester and worked at RCTC for nine years until his retirement in 2008. Warren was 77 years old.

Shining Stars

Sandra Aaby, Feras Al-Kaisi, Michele Altman, Dave Atwood, Tiffany Betcher, Jeffery Boyd, Teresa Brown, Tim Burton, Deb Cannon, Ruth Casper, Alan Charon, Annie Clement, Michelle Cochran, Jennifer Dahle, Shelly Danielson, Natalie Dicke, Jennifer Erwin, Barb Ewen, Will Frame, Greg Frana, Cheri Fritz, Kim Glarner, Larry Gottschalk, Will Gould, Matt Haack, Kayla Haberkorn, Ben Hain, Jackie Halsey, Lori Halverson-Wente, Sean Hansen, Jennifer Haug, Josh Henslin, Teri Hill, Darin Hoffman, Kodi Hoscheit, Jean Hoth, Simon Huelsbeck, Terrence Isaac, Jeffery Jacobsen, Rhonda Jensson, Nick Johnson, Judy Kingsbury, Gina Korf, Brooke Kosok, Travis Kromminga, Rebecca Kruetzfeldt, Jesse Krusmark, Jon Krusmark, Jeff Lepper, Katrina Maass, Jamie Mahlberg, Kristin Mannix, MaryAnn Matvenyenko, Jenee McGurren, Antonio McKinney, Easton McCready, Michelle Messenger, Rod Milbrandt, Cheryl Morgan, Jean Musgjerd, Mike Mutschelknaus, Allan O’Bryan, Dennis Olson, Ursula Olson, Allison Passon, Mona Permann, Janelle

Peterson, Elsie Randall, Kathie Richie, Katie Ristau, Wayne Roerish, Nikkilynn Rud, Michael Sheggeby, Heather Sklenicka, Connie Sobotta, Brad Steinbrink, Nate Stoltman, Suzanne Szucs, Megan Tate, Morris Thompson, Jaime Tjossem, Cuong Tran, Taresa Tweeten, Daniel Vosberg, MJ Wagenson, Bryan Wayne, Pam Whitfield, Anne Wobschall, Madison Wurth, and members of the Facilities/Maintenance Teams

Albert (Al) Bina, retired Psychology Instructor, passed away on October 13, 2022. Al was 77 years old and taught at the College for 33 years until his retirement in 2003.