The Wabash Valley College "View From The Valley" newsletter contains information about faculty, staff, and student accomplishments. All material is copyrighted and the property of Wabash Valley College.
WABASH VALLEY COLLEGE AN ILLINOIS EASTERN COMMUNITY COLLEGE
View from the Valley
August 9th, 2022
Volume 17, Issue 2
OUR MISSION IS TO DELIVER EXCEPTIONAL EDUCATION AND SERVICES TO IMPROVE THE LIVES OF OUR STUDENTS AND TO STRENGTHEN OUR COMMUNITIES.
Table of Contents PAGE 3 — Valley Briefs PAGE 4 — New Educational Grant PAGE 5 — Volleyball “Shakes Things Up” PAGE 6 — Gymnasium Floor PAGE 7 — Sandy Craig Retirement PAGE 8 — New Faces around Campus PAGE 9 — Giving Information
“Every successful individual knows that his or her achievement depends on a community of persons working together.” — Paul Ryan
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Valley Briefs
Athletes from our 2022-2023 Volleyball and Soccer teams have stepped foot on campus. Student athletes are getting acclomated to campus and have begun practice.
The Lady Warriors have Arrived
Looking for a new job? Check our recent job postings under our Employment page. Positins in a wide variety of fields are opening up/being created.
We are Hiring
While our campus wide power outage allowed employees and students a longer weekend on July 29th, our Operations and Maintance crew inspected various buildings for electrical grid updates .
Scheduled Power Outage
WVC’s solar array has now produced more than 89.62 MWh of energy and saved more than 138,766 pounds of CO2. This reduction is equivalent to more than 1,049 trees being planted!
Solar Savings Update
“Knowledge is power, community is strength, and positive attitude is everything.” — Lance Armstrong
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New Educational Grant - Perkins V
One of the most difficult questions in running any organization is always “how will we get the necessary finances to fund it?” Higher education institutions like Wabash Valley College are fortunate to receive government funding in various capacities. Any college that wants to grow, however, cannot simply maintain the status quo. If the leaders of an institution are accomplishing their mission, they should be looking for and acquiring new means of funding regularly. That is exactly what the leaders of the IECC community have accomplished with the assurance of the new Perkins V Grant. Perkins V (the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act) is a federal commitment to Career & Technical Education (CTE). No other piece of legislation has been as significant in supporting CTE programs. According to the ‘Illinois Community College Board’ website, “Perkins V affords states and local communities the opportunity to implement a vision for CTE that uniquely supports the range of educational needs of students — exploration through career preparation — and balances those student needs with the current and emerging needs of the economy.”There are special emphases on local flexibility, stakeholder engagement, innovation, equity, and alignment with partnering workforce and education programs within the provisions of the Act. Perkins V provides nearly 1.3 billion (distributed across the US) annually to CTE programs. The bread-and-butter of our local community college is truly these CTE programs. Nursing, PTA, Advanced Manufacturing, Diesel Mechanics, Gunsmithing, CNA certification, and more all rely on funding from this grant in various capacities. The funds not only assist in apparent program costs, but can be used at times to innovate technological capabilities, assist in travel costs for certain programs, ensure hiring practices are being utilized most effectively, and much more. The new Perkins Coordinator hired by IECC has expressed a great deal of excitement in the limitless opportunities and possibilities this new reformation of the previous Perkins Act can provide. Students and faculty can expect meaningful changes to online learning forums, teaching and classroom technologies, apprenticeship opportunities, approaches to equity, and more innovations to be rolled out soon. People at WVC are really excited about the doors being opened with this new resource!
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Lady Warriors Volleyball Team Works Lemon-Shake Up Stand
Returning Sophomore Carina Sanchez serves a ball into play at one of the first WVC practices of the season.
An incoming freshman player takes advantage of the new “bounce” in the old pine of the gym floor. Resurfacing was complete only a few days before practice began.
Mount Carmel hosted the annual end-of-summer festival “Ag Days” during the first week of August. Carnival rides, booths, and food stands were some of the highlights of the event. Additionally, various bands played live music each night the festival ran (Wednesday-Saturday). Most locals frequent the porkburger stand and the lemon-shakeup stand for a dining experience unique to Wabash County. The Wabash Chamber sponsors the lem- on-shakeup stand, allowing various businesses and organizations from the greater Wabash area to raise funds for their needs. This year the Lady Warriors Volleyball team was among the groups who cycled through the stand. The Women’s Vol- leyball team were the first athletes to arrive on campus for the fall semester. They have been practicing for nearly two weeks already, looking to have a solid winning season. Several of the recent graduates from the team moved on to Division I schools, so the incoming freshman players will have large shoes to fill. Unfortunately the weather during the festival week was less than desirable, but that didn’t seem to stop the players from having a great time while they were working to raise money for their season!
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Gymnasium Floor
The Basketball, Cheerleading, and Volleyball teams will all have something to celebrate and appreciate this fall. Each of these sports perform in the Spencer Sports Center. After many years of wear and tear, our gym was locked down for the month of July. The floor received a complete sanding, cleaning, and refinishing, but most importantly is sporting a new paint design. Now the Sports Center is back open and looking sharp! In fact, this past week our Women’s Volleyball team has been able to practice and scrimmage in
preperation for their upcoming season on the newly refurbished floor. You can see the old floor design above, and the new floor design below. Our coachs were delighted to see a new shine on the wood and so are our athletes. We hope to see many fans come out and support our Warriors this fall and winter! Be sure to check out our website and social media for game annoucemenets.
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Sandy Craig Retires After 26 Years
Sandy Craig, Director of the Learning Resource Center at Wabash Valley College for the past 26 years, has announced her retirement. Craig is the latest name added to a list of Wabash Valley College employees who have announced retirement at the end of the 2022 calendar year. Brenda Phegley, Jane Owen, and Sandy all worked for the College more than 20 years (in Phegley’s case, nearly 40). As fresh new faces arrive on campus to fill the positions left open by these titans of experience, WVC will be lucky to find new hires who can fill even a portion of the shadow of these women. The College held a going-away party for Sandy on her last day. Many current and previous employees, as well as community members, stopped by to offer congratulations and celebratory words of encouragement. The retirement party included sandwiches, cupcakes, and other finger foods. Sandy’s family, including grandchildren, were in attendance.
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New Faces Around Campus
If you find yourself on campus in coming weeks, you may notice some new faces. WVC has hired quite a few new employees in the past year, with many more slated to join the team in the next few months. Positions ranging from full-time instructor to maintenance have been filled, and more positions are opening. In addition to filling already existing positions, several new positions have been created at the college and will be filled in the coming months. Wabash Valley College has been fortunate in experiencing a steady period of growth, and thus we have been able to expand in ways previously untenable. Of note is the addition of several instructors and supporting positions to the Early Childhood Education program. Two new instructor positions are open to applications to take some of the burden from those already teaching large loads, and a few supporting roles involving the Education program are soon to be posted as well. A new Agricultural Technologies instructor, English instructor, and Perkins Coordinator who will be housed at WVC were among the recent additions to the Wabash family Wabash Valley College is growing, and plans to grow further with a goal of recruiting more than 100 international students in the next few years in addition to our efforts to grow in-district student numbers. As an indication of our success in recruiting a larger student body, international student numbers two years ago were in the 30’s (we had 39 in the spring and 33 in the fall of 2020). Last year there were 53. This year we have more than 70 international students among the IECC campuses! The number of incoming, first-time students at WVC already numbers more than 160, with more students expected to sign up before the first day of class.
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Help Support Wabash Valley College
As boundaries that have separated nations, cultures, and individuals continue to dissolve, the role of education has become vital in equipping students for the changes and challenges that lie ahead. We at Wabash Valley College understand that
building a firm educational foundation which meets the demands of our world requires the support of our community. We would like you to partner with us in that endeavor. Call the college at 618-262-8641 or scan the QR code to learn more about donating to WVC.
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