Erin Neumann, Interim Executive Campus Dean, DMACC, visits about what’s happening on the Boone Campus during the summer. There are a number of camps planned involving the Bear men’s and women’s basketball teams and coaches, volleyball and more. Neumann also reminds us that there will be another graduation on the Boone Campus for those students that have completed the HISET program.
Transcript
On our program today, we're going to visit with Erin Newman. Erin is the interim campus dean for the Boone Campus Des Moines Area Community College. So thanks for taking time to join us here. Yeah, it's always a pleasure. Thank you. There we are. What do we have going on here? And I mean, it's summertime. Erin, what's summer like at DMACC? A little quiet, a lot of work going on. Yep. Summer is a time when we're focusing on some, you know, projects, whether that's outdoor projects or classroom improvements, things like that to help the student and employee experience. The summer is quieter, but we do have a lot that comes and goes particularly with our athletics. So summer camps, for instance, with the DMACC Sports Academy. Sure. Those are great opportunities that happen when our athletic teams put on camps for the community, right? So, and we have a couple coming up with our basketball program. So our women's basketball is doing a ball and bears camp. So that's kind of for that younger group grades first through eighth grade. And that's in a couple of weeks. So people still have a chance to register for that. That's June 22nd and 23rd. Do they go online to get signed up for this? What's the best way to Facebook? DMACC Sports Facebook page or something? You could likely find it there. Yeah. If someone's looking for the website, you could go to DMACC Sports Academy.com or people can always, no matter what we're talking about, people can always start with the main number because the folks who answer that know everything about everything and so they can help get you in the right spot. So that number I can give that to. So Jocelyn's got a camp a couple of weeks. Yeah. Now, there might be a lot of people already signed. I mean, I'm pretty sure she's got some limits, but she brings players in to work with them too. Yeah, it's a great opportunity yet for younger players to work with college level athletes. And I think it's great for the athletes as well. I think it's very enjoyable. Yeah. And can I mention then Ben's team also has a camp coming up in the similar time frame. And that's June 24th through 26th. And that's a youth camp for boys and girls. So they're both great opportunities that people are interested in developing skills or maybe just learning some basics if they haven't tried basketball before. And since these teams both went to the national, we'll say, yeah, you can learn some pretty good skills there. You can. Absolutely. That's true. And that's a bottom line. I think for both those coaches, if you have, if you know the fundamentals, work on the fundamentals, you can develop. And that's just on the basketball side, I think volleyball probably also going to be one of those that are going on too. Yeah. There's typically a variety of camps that go on throughout the summer and even some, like with softball, you might even see some clinics and things into the fall. So the best bet for the most accurate information is that website or to call the campus. But that website will give you the exact dates for camps that are coming up. All right. Yeah. And again, for those that may have missed it, no, DMACC softball. Yes. Run her up. They were so close. They were extremely close. But I think one of the notes that I had from BJ, the athletic director, to share was that, you know, they made it to the finals, right? So they finished second in the NJCA division two world series and they had to win and won five consecutive elimination games to go back and get into the championship. So they had, they fought hard and they did an amazing job. That was it. Lost in the, in the regular, again, it is double elimination. So they lost the regular one. They lost to Kirkwood and then came back and beat Kirkwood. Yes. They had the opportunity to play Kirkwood again and beat them. And how exciting is that for the team? Yes. That also means that the conference that they play is pretty competitive. Extremely competitive. Yeah. They were, they were meeting each other at the, at the world series. Yeah. Also had, at the same time this is going on, they kind of get overshadowed, but we had golf out there. And you also had track going on. We did. We have had a variety of things going on and it's exciting. We, our athletes are representing DMACC all over the country, right? So the softball team was in South Carolina and the, and they had to move to North Carolina because of the rain. Because of the rain. Yeah. The women's golf team, they were in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and they finished 10th at nationals, which is exciting. And the men's team finished seventh in the national championship. So they've, they're representing us very well and doing excellent things. That's, that's great. And the track, which I always entertain that because really it's our cross country, the cross country teams. That's what we actually started with. Yeah. And then we got around towards this springtime and of course that's not cross country time. So it was, right. What can we do? We get some runners, some good distance runners. And so let's do some track. Yes. Something else that, at least on the athletic side, they could be, if people are interested in saying, maybe I would like to see if they're going to have other events than distance running for track. Right. Yeah. Absolutely. I think we had a number of our athletes kind of transition from, from one to the other. Yeah. And they were, that's, thank you for mentioning that because they were also the, the men's and women's teams, the outdoor track and field teams went to the championships as well. And we had a number of students who finished in strong places, you know, throughout the different events, several of our students did. If you get high enough, you get that all American recognition. So yeah. Well, one of the fun things I always like to ask, I don't know if you got all the details yet, but the athlete, we have a lot of great athletes and obviously the teams perform very well, but they also perform very well scholastically. They do. And I should have brought the GPAs, but the, you know, the coaches, they are up there. They are up there. They are typically in the three point, you know, three points and above. And really the coaches and the athletic department all the way around is very much focused on that idea of this, you are a student athlete. And so that's really part of the culture. So we're even extra proud of that, right? I mean, even more maybe than the, their performance on the field or on the track and things is their academic performance. So they could set themselves up well then for transfer with whatever is happening next for scholarships, for a variety of things. So they work very hard in and out of the classroom. And I know several of them are participants in the honors program. Yeah. I mean, they are very good students. They're very good. Yep. Some participate in the honors program. Some are part of Phi Theta Kappa, which is the international honor society. Some are both. And, but yeah, those things, for instance, being in honors, that adds another level of work that they're doing. So they're really diving in depth. They're doing sometimes seminars on top of everything else. They're doing projects and research. So that takes a big commitment as well. When again, I know a lot of, of course, the sophomores, a lot of them get recruited to move on and they several are going to probably go play in some division, higher division schools and sport and do more sports. But you also get a lot of recruitment for your students, for the academic, those that perform well academically. Yes. People kind of, they just think, oh, sports. Yeah. There's a lot of others on the academic side too. There are really, yes. And we have a number of students, whether they're athletes or not, right, who do participate in those, those high level academic sorts of programs like honors, PTK and those are, those can be gateways to great transfer scholarships. We see students every semester or every year who are doing summer research, you know, at, at NASA, things like that that, you know, are scholarship. I think you're Nancy Woods, right? Thank you, Nancy Woods. Well, her and the other staff, because they're the ones that help them get out there and get those scholarships. Yes, to encourage the application and things like that. Yeah. But yes, Nancy does a tremendous amount of work with our students. She leads the honors and the PTK programs for DMACC. Well, one thing that I follow, and obviously we have a lot around here, but we know they, the nursing students, obviously we had talked about this graduation last time, but they, you had a number of them that are moving on. Some have already probably taken their certification to either BRNs or move on from there or the LPNs. And a lot of those come back for the second year. Yeah, they do. And we say, yeah, our nursing program is kind of that latter sort of program where once you're in nursing level, the first two semesters are the LPN curriculum, right? Yeah. Right. And so we had 21 students here this spring who completed the LPN program and are eligible. And maybe at this point have started taking that and collects PN and collects the nursing licensure exam. And 20 of those 21 are coming back in the fall to go right into the RN program, which is exciting. It's a great amount of retention. Yeah. It doesn't mean one of them ran away. They might have transferred to another school, might be working on towards a bachelor's. You never know. Right. Or maybe they went to work. They might have, yeah, any of those things could be true. Absolutely. Yeah. So, but that's a very high level of retention, which is exciting. So, and then in the second year, when you're talking about the students who finished the RN curriculum, we had at the Boone campus, 22 students graduate with that associate's degree in nursing. And they're also, I think likely, as you said, starting to take or have recently taken that NCLEX for licensure. And at that, at that level, they also received their nursing pins. There's a pinning ceremony after graduation. So those 22 students were pinned as well. Mostly because you've been there a while and you've seen these classes. And I know as the executive dean, that's not the wrong thing you really pay attention to. But is that typical size for us somewhere in that 2025 student range? Yeah, typically a cohort or a cohort would be about 24 students. Yeah. So, that's right in line with what we would, what we would see. Okay. And I'm guessing coming in, probably, you may have not seen the numbers, but they probably have a number of students that are already signed up, ready to start moving. For nursing. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Nursing is one of DMACC's programs at Boone anyway, where there's courses and things that you take to get on a list to wait a little bit, usually not too long. But yeah, I think last I looked, I think our fall cohort is pretty much set. And then we've got some people who are, you know, hopefully... They're on the waiting list. Yeah, absolutely. Well, those are the challenges that we have. And again, that's part of it. Why we always say, if you're thinking about enrolling, don't delay too long. Yeah. I mean, you do have time, but you got to understand there might be some, you know, a little waiting list on some of those. Yeah. And that is always a really good reason to connect with us, like you're saying, to talk with one of our nursing advisors. Because oftentimes, in that situation, we can come up with a variety of things that a person could do if they do have to wait a little bit. So for instance, a lot of students will tell us they want to do a BSN, their Bachelor's of Science in Nursing. So that might be a semester where we help them take some courses that will help them do that down the road. So while they're waiting, yeah. Another one that we haven't mentioned very much after graduation course, we do have another, folks, there is always a second graduation that we have. And it's, they used to have it, we called it GED, but now in the state of Iowa, it's called HiSET. HiSET, yes. And it is for students that did not get their high school diploma and would like to get that, achieve that, and then maybe move on. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. DMAX at the Boone Campus, our Academic Achievement Center, offers that HiSET program, which is a free program that allows people to work on completing their high school equivalency. And yeah, that's also an excellent day of the year. That graduation for our HiSET graduates is coming up June 18th. And that's at seven o'clock in the Boone Campus auditorium. It's a wonderful, smaller and wonderful ceremony to watch. But it's usually get a lot, just like the other graduations, you get a lot of family there, a lot of family support. Yes, there's, it's tremendous to see the number of, it's wonderful to see the students walk across the stage, get that diploma. It's a huge accomplishment. And it's wonderful to see the people who come along to support them. There's often many people on their journey that are very excited for them, too. Yeah. Those that have been, of course, they get a little comfortable. They have been on campus doing their HiSET program, which by the way is not like GED. You have to show up and you put in hours on doing your work. Yeah, kind of based on the pre-test that you take. Yeah, they'll guide you with that. But that can, yeah, right. That can include taking some classes to help you get ready for, for instance, the reading or the math sections of that, that exam. Yeah. But it does give you a great opportunity then to, well, I could take this out here. I could do this. I could look, improve my job that I'm working at right now. I could, you know. Yeah, that happens frequently. We, you know, every semester, we have students who are wrapping up the HiSET who, we have a nice connection with our student services team who will say, I think I want to know, I think I might want to be a CNA, right? I know we talk about workforce training a lot, but that helps us connect them to some free, potentially workforce training. Sometimes they aren't sure yet, but they know they want to keep going in school, you know, and so that gives us a chance to get in front of them and help them register and think about what they want to do. Sure. And things like that for people locally anyway. Yeah. That's one of the great benefits we have at DMACC is getting that job training. If you're looking at going into the, you know, you might go into doing like a CNA, at least get a job or get it to be an LPN and, or some of the others, because we've got other positions also that people can work towards. And once you get that, doesn't mean you can't come back and add on to it. And again, this is the vehicle we have at DMACC. Yeah, we do. Yeah, you're exactly right. When you talk about some of those shorter term training programs, I've gotten to work with those for many years and you're right. You'll see some people who will go and stay with their current employer to move up. They might go find a different job, you know, those sorts of things with, with good benefits and good pay. And a lot of times they do come back. So for instance, I use CNA as an example, but we often, we've had many students who've done their CNA through workforce training, worked in the field, and then came back and worked on nursing entry requirements and have gone into nursing. So yeah, that's, it's exciting to see the different ways people can take things. One of the other hats you wear again is that workforce training. And we do have a lot, DMACC offers a lot of opportunities. I keep going back to, I know what the legislature was trying to do and stuff like that, but they're looking to fill the workforce demand. And again, community colleges seem to be that first step really to address a lot of those issues. Yeah, I think that's very true. I think community colleges, DMACC included really try to align with what the workforce needs are of the local communities they serve and the state that they serve. Yeah. So a lot going on there. Probably not so much in the materials lab right now. It's folks by, yep, we also house the, the DOT, the materials lab and the training for that going on. So yeah, I don't know if they do much in the summertime because most of them are out working. They probably, yeah, I should ask them. I think they probably have a reduction in maybe some numbers of classes, but they do still offer trainings. So that is a, that is a great part of the summer. It can be quiet, but the DOT side of things is still active, which is nice. We keep busy. There's always traffic getting out out there too. Some of the other things that are going, oh, I know. I was going to mention because I've seen, seen this before where you guys are part of the food bank, part of the food distribution network and I work in again summertime. We know we've got some meals going on that the schools offer for 18 and younger, but some of the challenges, the food banks and things like that are having enough food for families during the summertime because they don't have those lunches in school all the time. Right. Yeah. I appreciate you bringing that up. Yeah. The Boone campus does have a food pantry and we are, we are partners with the food bank of Iowa, like you said. So we try to be partners with some of the other agencies in town that are, that are also food pantry sites, but during the fall and the spring, we have it open at set times for shopping. In the summer, it is quieter there, but we want people to still come use our pantry. It's used by students, but it's also used by the community and that's what we want. We want people to come and feel welcome there. So in the summer, we can have people come in and shop by appointment. They need to, they could call the front office or they could reach out to me directly and I can give you my information, but yeah, they can reach out to schedule a time to shop. The big thing would be just call the main, the main line for our Boone campus. Yes. And when somebody answers, just say I'd like to find out about the food or about the food pantry. Yeah, absolutely. And in the summer, sometimes our inventory is a little bit lighter than perhaps what you might find in the fall and the spring, but no matter what, you're going to find, you know, shelf-stable items and cereals and toiletries, peanut butter, pasta, those sorts of things. And then when we can have frozen meats, eggs, dairy, things like that, we try to get those as well. But yeah, we really want to continue to reinforce that that's open to the community and we love having the community visit. That was one of the things that you guys did a couple of years ago was really dedicated one of the rooms to be your pantry room, really, because you have students that are living out there and once again, they can make use of it. Yeah. But yes, the public needs to know that and I'm sure you've got some community members that are pretty regular. They are and that's definitely what it was intended to be, but it was for everybody. Okay. Quickly as we get ready, summertime, obviously, I know we're already got people signed up, already registered, probably fall. Maybe I don't know what summer classes are like, but sometimes they are a little different. The schedule is a little different and most of that's already taken care of, but really we're focusing on fall now. Numbers already looking pretty reasonable. Yeah. Numbers are looking strong, you know, DMACC when you look across the district, at least the most recent ones I saw pretty recently. Show that we were even or maybe up just a little bit when you compare registrations and credits and headcount and things to this time last year. But yeah, fall is definitely registration for fall is in full swing and it has been going on for a while, but that doesn't mean that someone couldn't come in. You know, we have plenty of advisors who could assist with registration and fall, sometimes the name sounds kind of funny, I suppose, but fall semester starts in August and ends in December, right? And spring starts in January and ends in May. So we, those are the times. Sorry, somebody else made those up. We just work with it. We just go with it. We just go with it. But the big thing is if they are interested in finding out more, making contact, really it's not too late. No. You find out and again, you can start to put together a plan, especially, I think for a lot of students, because we see more and more high school on the career path. They know what they want to do and things like that. Get there early and make sure you've got things lined up. You've got people that can help them do that. Yes, we have, that's I wanted to talk about that. We have staff that can help for every step of the process. So I'm thinking about applying and I haven't yet. We have someone who can help you with that. Thinking about what pathways or careers you're interested in, registration, financial aid, scholarships, all of those things we have available. So there's someone there who can help with where you are in the process, no matter where you are. Okay. Well, outside of the usual things that buildings and grounds do in the summertime, obviously painting and things like that. And you got, I know, work going on in the apartments. You got a lot of apartments, by the way. We sure do. But we also have just the things that are going on out there. You got your trees planted, a couple of things like that. So yeah, we have ongoing projects outside. Kind of they do a great job with making our campus beautiful, but that does take a lot of work. So kind of ongoing projects. We have a newer club on campus, the gardening club. And so they are also interested in and doing some things with beautifying the campus. So attending to some of those new trees, kind of having new ideas for flowers and things like that. That's something that they're working on. Because DMACC, as a whole, you do have a horticulture. We do. So they came and said, no, look at doing these trees. Yes, they did. The horticulture program came and, yeah, audited the whole campus of trees and gave us some great suggestions about what's a plant. And yeah, they actually got us started on Arbor Day with our kind of the plan, the long-term plan, right? It's going to take a number of years, but we're excited about that. All right. Again, talking with Aaron Newman, once again, an executive campus dean, Boone Campus Des Moines Area Community College. And again, we've got a number of things happening, but one of the big ones, of course, is administratively. Dr. Wee has been filling in in the interim. His time will be up here at the end of the month, and then we'll officially have Dr. Siddiquan. Yes, yep. Dr. Wee has been wonderful. And we just had a farewell and thank you reception for him at the Boone Campus on Tuesday. So he has been wonderful. And yes, Dr. Siddiquan officially starts next week. However, I think it's safe to say that she's been doing a variety of things to make it happen. She's been a little busy already. I'm sure she has, yeah. But yeah, we are excited for her to officially be here on board. I think the board is too. At least the ones I've talked to, they think she's going to fit right in with what the mission they would like to see done. Yes, I agree with that. I think she's going to do great things. Erin Newman, our guest on our program today, thanks for joining us. Thank you.
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