1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Brian Stark (Southeast Community College): July 20th, 10:25am

Episode Date: July 20, 2022

What is going on with SCC right now and how amazing can it be for high school studentsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You're listening to One-on-One with DP. Brought to you by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul. On 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Welcome back to one-on-one. A part of what we do on a regular basis is I want to expand the community outreach and, in turn, tie us all together a little bit closer in what we do. And when it comes to community colleges in a normal space, the job and purpose is to elevate the community by giving people access to the things that they need to do to have a better life and to be better at what they do.

Brian Stark from Southeast Community College joins us now. Brian, first of all, thank you for doing it. Thank you for your patience this morning too. It's been chaos. Let the folks know, what do you do with Southeast Community College? What do you do? Sure. So I work as a senior administrative director for Southeast Community College in the Southeast Nebraska Career Academy Partnership and the dual accredited advantage.

So we work with high school students, giving them the opportunity to take dual credit courses in high school, specifically their junior and senior year. Does that outreach reach every school in the Nebraska school system? So we, the Southeast Nebraska, or excuse me, SEC, we have the 15 county region and all public high schools are members of the partnership at this time. Do you take this into the schools to kind of present this to them? because the people that this outreach would benefit may not be aware that you offer this. Correct. We have 10 coordinators that we work with that go to every high school every week and do a visit. They're working with those students.

They want to help support them academically with their future endeavors. And so the minute school starts here in August, we will be out in the high schools finishing up registration. We have almost 2,000 students within the 15 county region. What's the line of communication? What's the easiest way for, let's say, a parent who's listening? And they have a young person who has a special interest that you could help them with that additional credit. What's the line of communication? Who should they reach out to?

They can reach out to anybody. If you go to our website, southeast. edu, under academics, there'll be a high school tab. And you can reach out. There's a button for Southeast Nebraska Career Academy Partnership or SendCap. And you can reach out to the specific coordinator. All the high schools are listed for each coordinator. Or you can reach out to myself or Caleb Berg, who is our administrative director.

It's Brian Stark from Southeast Community College. I'll ask you, what's your favorite part of your job? My favorite part of the job is actually something new that we are starting. Starting this fall, we are rolling out college credentials for high school students. And so you can actually graduate with your high school diploma and a college credential at once. At all the same time. I want you to say that again because that's... So chefs kiss good.

It is. Just the fact that you can graduate high school and a college credential in the same month is it's a new concept. It's a progressive concept. And what we are trying to do is help prepare students for the workforce. Not every student is a four-year student. Not every student may want to go on to a two-year institution right away. We want to help bridge that gap. So many of our programs that we offer, students can enter in the workforce right away.

or if they want to continue on with college and go in the workforce, they can do both, maybe do part-time work, part-time SEC or whatnot. But it's an amazing opportunity. And we are so lucky to have the opportunity to partner all that together with the high school students. That's pretty cool. And it's not just limited to Lincoln proper. So how many different locations are we talking about? We have 54 public high schools.

And then about half the parochial schools are partnered. We're working on the other ones just to let them know that we can partner with them. And the great thing is there's no cost to the schools. See, that's what I'm talking about. Like, it's such a hidden gym within the state. And that's no slight to anybody else. But it's also not limited to just teenagers. There are folks who can change their lives through Southeast Community College.

Without a doubt. And some of our college opportunities for certificates, I'm going to, focus on the CDL for a moment. It's one of our new programs that we're starting. You have to be a high school senior. Okay. You can take your CDL lecture portion online in the fall semester of your senior year, the spring semester you get behind the wheel. I have one student who graduated starting out at 70,000 a year as a high school student being 18 years old. You have to be 18 to get behind the wheel. But that, I mean, that's unheard of. I mean, I almost want to switch careers. Right. But it says that for people that, look, don't give up. Don't stay in your corner. It takes a very small step towards you being in a place where you can help your family and yourself going forward. And it's all over the state. So literally you have opportunities everywhere, any time for you to change your location, elevation, etc. When everybody's back when? August 20. August 22nd, we started our dual credit classes.

And the great thing about them with dual credit, you can take them, you can come to one of our campuses if you'd like. That's usually not an option because they're still taking a lot of high school classes within their specific high schools and they're spread all around our 15 county region. So we offer online classes as well as synchronous classes online. And so students take high school classes in their respective high schools. The instructors have their appropriate credentials and it's wonderful. You never have to leave your school to get these credentials. I mean, who can say that? I mean, again, a part of why, and as we were talking during the break, a part of what I want to do in this space is to continually flood the community with the message that you have opportunity.

You have options. There are things that you can do. Even in the space where you are, you can come and get additional accreditation so you can ask for more money for your family. Definitely. And the best part about that, actually, that I haven't shared. all the high school students who take advantage of this program get 50% off their tuition I mean so you're taking a class for about 150 bucks Brian I mean this and again when I there's so many things within SEC that is helpful

to make the community better it gets people out of dark spaces sometimes people feel like there's a roof or ceiling over their heads and you guys remove those those ceilings of at a pretty high rapid rate. Definitely. We are constantly working and figuring out new opportunities for those students and how to help them in any way possible. So there's no financial barrier. There's no barrier from getting the education and the right modality that they're

familiar with or anything. So it's constantly something we're thinking about and how to be more progressive and more edgy. Brian, you've given me kind of a boost today. This makes me feel better that, again, we're in the right. space and we're trying to do the right thing in this space and that I need for folks to be aware of what you guys offer on a regular basis. Let the folks know if they're just slightly curious about this. Who can they reach out to? Where can they find the information? So if you'd go to southeast.

edu, our website under academics is the high school tab. When you click on that, you'll have the Career Academy for those students in Lincoln and for everybody in the other 15 county area. You can click on CENCAP, Southeast Nebraska Career Academy Partnership. All of our coordinators are listed there. It's 10 fabulous folks that are scattered throughout our 15 kind of region, and then Caleb and myself. So we're here to help you be successful in your future. Brian, I'm going to ask you, we're in Indy next week except for Thursday.

I'm going to ask you to check your schedule and see it within the 9 o'clock hour if you're available because I want to come back and share some more information for these folks, if you can do that. I can definitely do that. That is incredible. Brian Sark, from Southeast Community College. There's tons of information to help you and yours. And as you're listening to this, there's somebody you're thinking about it.

If it's not yourself, it may be somebody in your family. It may be a friend who needs a boost and a change of career or a change of direction. SEC may be the space for it. Brian Stark, thank you for what you just did. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. All right. Sam Hoyberg coming up next here on one-on-one.

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