11/13/08
Beyond Bars –
Barton Partners with Ellsworth Correctional Facility and Communities to Educate Inmates

At first glance, it seems odd, the idea of Barton Community College going behind bars to provide opportunities for education to those who are incarcerated. But research shows that inmates who take college classes while incarcerated are four times more likely to remain out of prison once they are released. Couple that statistic with the social reality that an educated inmate is more employable upon his release – which helps him and the community he returns to – and that makes providing inmate education at Barton a wise endeavor.
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12/13/06
Barton Trains, Accommodates Workforce with Utility and Pipeline Center

Seven men roamed a field on a late-November afternoon at Barton County Community College as they operated an innovative gas-leak detector device, the 46 Hawk, which utilizes laser technology to provide a combustible gas indicator that checks for methane gas leaks. Most of the men in the small group hailed from around the state, but a few came from neighboring states Nebraska and Missouri, as their companies and municipalities took advantage of the regional proximity to train them in Barton’s three-day seminar Gas Leak Detection Training School. The instructor for the course was provided by gas leak detection industry leader Southern Cross Corporation of Norcross, Ga., and training was offered at a reasonable rate of $485 per person.
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9/17/06
History teacher McCaffery looks for meaning
By SUSAN THACKER, Great Bend Tribune
sthacker@gbtribune.com

When Barton County Community College history teacher Linda McCaffery tests her students, she doesn’t ask for dates. She wants them to know what happened, why it happened, and what came next.
“You hope they understand that nothing just ‘suddenly happens,’” McCaffery said. “I want my students to say, ‘I wonder why that happened?’ or ‘I know why that happened.’”
Growing up in Pueblo, Colo., McCaffery inherited her love of history from her father.
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8/30/06
EOC helps adults Find path to educational success
By SUSAN THACKER, Great Bend Tribune
sthacker@gbtribune.com

Federal funding has been renewed for the Central Kansas Educational Opportunity Center, which helps adults explore careers and educational opportunities. Earlier this month, Congressman Jerry Moran announced that CKEOC will receive $255,385 from the U.S. Department of Education.
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8/18/06
Employees train to get ahead in jobs
By Mike Heronemus, Fort Riley Post
Editor

Twenty-nine post employees began a six-month pilot course July 26 in an effort to prepare themselves for leadership and supervisory positions.
The free Employee Development Program is the result of employee comments made on attitude surveys conducted on post the past few years and the U.S. Army Garrison commander’s desire to improve the work environment on post, said Teresa Johnson, the program’s coordinator.
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8/16/06
Barton Offers Motorcycle Safety Training for Beginner and Experienced Riders

Motorcycle enthusiasts Dan Myers and Jeff Young were riding together on a city street one day when a car in front of them slammed on its breaks. Young instinctively slammed on his breaks, causing his back tire to slide. Seconds after getting the bike under control, as the two rode along at about 15 miles an hour, Myers said to him, “Remember, it’s a squeeze and a press, not a stomp.”
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7/27/06
Web-Based Learning Consortium Available When Needed
Wichita Worker Finds Time for Education through EduKan

Wichita’s Chris Curtis moves through life at a slow and comfortable pace. He joined the U.S. Navy four years after graduating from high school in 1985 and then began attending college nearly two years after leaving the military in 1995. Nine years later, the 40-year-old is still plodding toward an associate’s degree in general studies.
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7/06 Communique
Associate Dean Lou Kottmann Ends 36-Year Career At Barton With Retirement

Barton County Community College Associate Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences Lou Kottmann wrote his retirement letter two years ago, then neatly tucked it away until the ideal time to reveal it. Now is the ideal time as Kottmann retires after serving nearly 36 years as an instructor and administrator at Barton.
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7/11/06
Great Bend Couple Cherish Memories of Friendship With Famed Artist Gus Shafer

More than 30 years ago, Great Bend couple Warren and Dorothy Kopke made friends with internationally noted bronze sculptor Gus Shafer and his wife, Eva. That friendship formed the seed that later blossomed into a beautiful gallery named in Shafer’s memory on the campus of Barton County Community College.
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6/8/06
Determined Stafford Teen Earns GED While Battling Illness

Stafford’s Amelia “Molly” Boring told her older brother several years ago, “I’m never going to quit!” when he dropped out of high school as a sophomore. Then last fall, the determined 15-year-old Stafford High School sophomore was diagnosed with brain cancer and she could no longer keep her promise to stay in school.
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6/2/06
Goodland’s Lorie Abbey Advances Career With Barton’s Online MLT Program

Wanting to become a Medical Laboratory Technician but living in rural western Kansas, Lorie Abbey was doubtful her career plan would ever happen.
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5/9/06
Barton Criminal Justice Students Lock Up Jobs Weeks Before Graduating

When Barton County Community College criminal justice students Craig Berens and Aaron Conaway graduate Thursday, they won’t stress over finding a job in their profession. Neither will fellow criminal justice student Brandon Enabnit when he takes his final class this summer. All three students have already secured jobs in the criminal justice field. For more than a month, Berens and Conaway have been working for the Barton County Sheriff’s Office and Enabnit began his new position with the Pawnee County Sheriff’s Office a few weeks ago.
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5/8/06
Two-Degree Forecast Thursday: Father and Daughter Plan Barton Graduation Together

Alicia Wyatt may be the perfect college student. An honors student who’s maintained a perfect grade point average during her three years at Barton County Community College, she’s also involved in a leadership role with Student Senate. As if those accomplishments weren’t impressive enough, Alicia also fits two part-time secretarial jobs into her schedule, accounting for 24 hours per week. Although busy in her pursuit, college life seems to flow naturally and easily for Alicia, but it would surprise most to know that the 19-year-old academic talent almost didn’t go to college.
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3/7/06
Shaheen inducted into KMEA Hall of Fame

By SUSAN THACKER, Great Bend Tribune
sthacker@gbtribune.com

A lifetime of teaching was recognized last month when Ken Shaheen, Great Bend, was inducted into the Kansas Music Educators Association’s Hall of Fame.
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3/7/06
Homeland Security’s NIMS Certification Mandate Looms
Lee Turner Lectureship at Barton in April Offers Training and Testing for Emergency Responders

A message to community emergency response members who are required to be National Incident Management Systems certified this fall: Oct. 1 is looming! That’s the day when first-responders to incident management will be required to be NIMS 700 certified. The number of people needing to be certified is extensive, covering a multitude of professions, including all law enforcement officers, firefighters, school administrators, government officials, emergency medical technicians and paramedics, along with many doctors, nurses and other health care workers.
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3 /7/06
Person To Person
Reluctant ‘Cinderella’ relishing role

By SUSAN THACKER, Great Bend Tribune
sthacker@gbtribune.com

Great Bend High School student Kinnat Whelan, who plays the title role in the upcoming Barton County Community College musical, “Cinderella,” almost didn’t audition for a part in the show. It took a bit of encouragement from a substitute teacher.
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3/2/06
Cast of Barton’s Spring Musical, ‘Cinderella’ Works Together for Best Performance

Cast members involved in Barton County Community College’s spring musical, “Cinderella,” have differing levels of experience on stage, yet all of them rise to the challenge of combining talents for their best possible performance when the curtain goes up at 7:30 p.m. March 9, 10 and 11 in Barton’s Fine Arts Auditorium.
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2/23/06
Two Receive Hartland Riders Scholarship

BASICS Program Offers Educational Opportunities for Inmates at Correctional Facilities

Three students were recognized last week for completing 18-hour certificates in Barton County Community College’s Business Management and Leadership program. Completion of the certificates took on extra significance because the three students were the first inmates at the Ellsworth Correctional Facility to complete their requirements by way of the College’s BASICS program, which provides educational opportunities for inmates at Ellsworth and Larned correctional facilities.
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2/20/06
From Set of His 13th Musical, Bob Loss Takes a Look at Barton’s Tradition

With 19 years as Barton County Community College speech and drama instructor, Bob Loss is embarking on his 13th Barton musical with this year’s selection, “Cinderella.” With all of those years and experiences, he says he feels lucky in the success of each production. Despite any superstition based on the number, his 13th musical should be no exception.
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2/16/06
History Class One of Many Events Making Silver Cougar Club Popular With Community

Barton County Community College History Instructor Linda McCaffery was surprised when she entered the classroom Tuesday afternoon. The room was filled with nearly two dozen students, eagerly waiting to learn about Kansas history. She found out that two of the students had shown up more than a half hour early, just so they wouldn’t miss any of her presentation.
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1/27/06
War Places Perspective on Educational Opportunity for Barton Graduate Levi Perkins

Barton County Community College graduate Levi Perkins is at a good place in his life. The 24-year-old Great Bend native married a year ago, graduated from Barton in December with a 3.69 grade point average, earning an associate’s degree in computer science, and next month he begins working toward a bachelor’s degree in computer technology at Friends University, Wichita. Eventually he hopes to earn a master’s degree in business and move to north Texas to work as a computer network analyst.
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12/21/05
EduKan To Offer Orientation Course In Spanish

Linda Davis-Stephens, who teaches anthropology and criminal justice courses at Colby Community College, is also one of the many instructors at Colby, Barton, Garden City, Dodge City, Seward County and Pratt Community Colleges who teach courses for EduKan.
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11/22/05
Barton Honor Students Collect for Food Bank
By: Susan Thacker Great Bend Tribune

It wasn’t rocket science, but a plan to collect hundreds of items for the local food back did pose a logic problem for honor students at Barton County Community College this month.
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11/11/05
Barton’s Phi Theta Kappa Students Help Keep Lights On For Great Bend Humane Society

Great Bend Humane Society Board President Bobbie King accepted a $500 check Wednesday afternoon at her organization as a donation from three members of the Phi Psi chapter of the national honor fraternity Phi Theta Kappa at Barton County Community College. She thanked them for their generosity, and then afterward, she made a couple of troubling comments.
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10/18/05
Drama Instructor Meets New Harvest Of Students
By: Susan Thacker
Great Bend (Kan.) Tribune reporter

Bob Loss walked across the stage at Barton County Community College and arranged some props for the set of the upcoming fall play, “The Harvesting.”
This year’s play is a murder mystery set in 1976 and the set appears to be an almost empty stage. Images projected on three screens will give the audience a sense of location, Loss explained.
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10/28/05
Area colleges seeing rise in online class enrollment
More classes taught online at BCCC than in classrooms

By Dave Stephens
The Hutchinson News

A soldier, stationed in Iraq, spends his evenings working on homework for his class at Barton County Community College.
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8/31/05
Eight’s Company
Barton County Community College students try downtown living

By PAM MARTIN
Great Bend (Kan.) Tribune

Where would premed, mathematics, sociology, business, chiropractic and three dental hygienist students find to live imperfect harmony? The upstairs of an old apartment building in Hoisington, of course.

Eight Barton County Community College students and dance team members moved into the apartments located in downtown Hoisington over the summer.
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8/30/05
Utilizing ABackyard resource
County’s Hospitals Work Cooperatively With BCCC To Recruit Nurses

By Pam Martin
Great Bend Tribune

April Van Scyoc, graduate registered nurse, gently kidded Pricilla Warrick, R.N., as they paused at Clara Barton Hospital’ nurses station last week. The two have developed a close working relationship, while involved in the hospital’s mentoring program.Van Scyoc said the mentoring program was very helpful.I’ve worked at others (hospitals) where you didn’t get any mentoring and it was horrible, she said.
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8/30/05
Barton Interns Help Large Manufacturer With Technology Workload

As information systems support analyst for Superior Essex, Hoisington’s largest employer, Will Eckles stays busy. Essex, which employs about 275 workers and operates four shifts in manufacturing wire and cable, utilizes approximately 50 computers, along with printers scanners and other accessories. Eckles keeps the electronic equipment running for Essex, and he’s about to become even busier. The company plans to place 35 more computers on the shop floor of its manufacturing area for its employees’ use.
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8/28/05
War & Remembrance: State effort aims at preserving oral histories of World War II Veterans
By Dave Stephens
Hutchinson News

When they were still boys, they marched off to war. Today, 60 years later, many of them walk with a shuffle. Six decades ago, they were involved in the biggest war the world had ever seen, manning gun turrets on ships in the South Pacific and trudging through Germany's snow-filled woods.
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8/22/05
Technology makes task easier for veterans to do

For years, American soldiers who survived World War II were reluctant witnesses.

Few talked of the battles they fought, the horrors they saw and the invisible wounds that not even time could heal. Those who came home from the war, which claimed nearly 292,000 Americans, resumed their lives and stowed their memories and memorabilia.
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