For more information, contact Michael Dawes, 620-792-9307, dawesm@bartonccc.edu

Dec. 15, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Story by: Michael Dawes
dawesm@bartonccc.edu

Forty years ago, 18-year-old Connie Kruckenberg became first by being last. The 1969 Great Bend High School graduate became the first student to enroll at Barton County Community Junior College on Sept. 3 of that year. As a student employee for the startup College, which was a day away from holding its first enrollment in the newly built library, Kruckenberg was manning the last enrollment table when the moment of historical significance came.

 “My station was the very last station because I was typing student ID cards,” reflected Connie, who now has the last name, Karlin. “They decided they would enroll the student workers; that way, the next couple of days we wouldn’t need to be interrupted to continue working enrollment.”

Jimmie Downing, Barton’s future longtime president, who then served as director of technical and vocational education back then, also served as Karlin’s boss. He was in charge of enrollment and decided to start at the end of the line to keep all of the stations in order.

 “He pointed at me and said, ‘Why don’t you enroll?’” said Karlin. “When I got to the end, a gentleman from the radio station was there wanting an interview; a gentleman was there from the newspaper wanting to take my picture with Dr. (Otis) Robinson.”

At the time, Karlin didn’t understand why being first to enroll would merit a radio interview and a newspaper photo with the College’s first president.

 “Had I been sitting in another chair, it wouldn’t have been me,” she rationalized. “Someone else would have had that distinction.”

Karlin said she felt surprised and flattered at the attention, but she mostly felt anxious, knowing she had a job to get back to.

 “My concern was that I really needed to get back to work and that Mr. Downing was there,” said Karlin. “He, of course, knew what was going on, as did Dr. Robinson. I didn’t really realize the significance of it all and I remember thinking, ‘Hey guys, I really have to get back to work, can we do this later, maybe?’”

 The photo op and radio interview were the extent of Karlin’s celebrity, until 10 years later when Barton was on the verge of celebrating its milestone anniversary. Then living in Kansas City where she worked as an administrative assistant for a commercial real estate management company, Karlin received a telephone call one evening from a College representative who interviewed her about her enrollment experience at Barton.

“After I completed that interview, it hit me that, ‘Wow, I really had done something that was historic.’ That is probably the first time I truly realized the significance of what I had done, just by being the first to enroll.”

 After living in Topeka and Kansas City for more than a dozen years, Karlin moved back to her hometown. Today, she has two grown daughters and works as an executive assistant for Great Bend attorney Robert Feldt. As the years have grown, so has the appreciation she places on her overall experience as a young college student at Barton.

 “It does mean something to me now, I think, because I realize now that we were the first,” explained Karlin. “Everything we did was first. … I didn’t realize that the things that we did were going to be set in stone. And that the things we did that first class are things that are now tradition – they are part of Barton. When we started, we didn’t have colors, we didn’t have a mascot, we didn’t have a newspaper name and now those things are just part of Barton – they are Barton’s tradition. Looking back on it now, it makes it very special that I was part of it, yes, very special.”

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Sign of the Time – Connie Kruckenberg becomes the first student to enroll at Barton County Community Junior College Sept. 3, 1969 in the College’s newly constructed library. “We were 18 years old,” Karlin now says about Barton students’ experiences at the new College the first year. “The thought that we were making history never occurred to us. I don’t think any of us realized that what we were doing was going to mean something 40 years down the road.”