Students from all campuses achieve academic distinction

Columbia College is proud to congratulate students from the Day, Evening, Online and Nationwide campuses who have been named to the dean’s list. Day students were named to the dean’s list for the Fall 2014 Semester, and Evening, Online and Nationwide students were named for the August and October 2014 Session award periods. The full dean’s list can be viewed here.

The dean’s list is an honor accorded to students who achieve academic distinction. Students may be named to the dean’s list if they complete a minimum of 12 semester hours of Columbia College coursework in a semester or two consecutive eight-week sessions (with a minimum six semester hours of credit in each session) and a combined GPA of 3.50 or higher. Additional eligibility requirements can be found in the academic catalog.

by Caroline Murray

Photo by Kayla Peterson.

From leading Columbia College to (almost) winning video games, President Scott Dalrymple is a man of many talents. He recently shared his expertise in one of these many talents: science fiction writing.

The Intergalactic Science Fiction Writer’s Symposium was led by President Dalrymple on Monday, Feb. 16. The symposium included readings of Dalrymple’s short stories as well as sharing his thoughts and experiences as a science fiction writer. The event was very interactive, with the students and community members in attendance guiding the discussion with their questions.

Dalrymple, who has been writing science fiction since he was a teenager, has been published three times. One of his short stories, “Queen of Kanguellas,” was named winner of the 2010 Realms of Fantasy Readers Choice Award.

“Science fiction is a very friendly field,” Dalrymple said. “You can write to your favorite writers and many of them will write back to you.”

With aspiring science fiction writers in the audience, Dalrymple addressed several aspects of science fiction writing, from his biggest creative influences to how to get published to the importance of developing a distinctive voice.

He said with good quality writing and some effort, getting published is not as hard as it may seem.

“If you have good stuff, it takes a minimal amount of work to get noticed,” Dalrymple said. “It is not easy to impress people, but just pick a magazine you like and try to write something you’d like to read.”

The event was sponsored by Alpha Chi honor society and was held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Brixby Lecture Hall at the main campus of Columbia College.

by Caroline Murray

When Columbia College awards full-tuition scholarships, we don’t just send students a letter.

Each year, Columbia College awards 10 full-tuition scholarships to incoming students through the Scholarship Day program, an interview and essay competition for new main campus students to compete for institutional and endowed funds.

Because these students are so talented and we’re so excited for them to join the Cougar family, we like to surprise them with the news that they won a scholarship in a big way. One of this year’s recipients lives far away (more than 8,000 miles away, in fact), so we couldn’t quite get to her high school to present her with a check like we usually do. But that didn’t stop the admissions team from celebrating with this outstanding student, Van Nguyen.

Nguyen is from Vietnam and currently lives there, so the admissions team, students, faculty and staff got together to celebrate her successes from an ocean away. Nguyen was awarded a $109,504 scholarship, which covers four years of tuition as well as room and board.

The full list of scholarship recipients will be posted soon. Congratulations to Van and all of this year’s Scholarship Day recipients! Welcome to Columbia College!

For more information on Scholarship Day, click here.

The best of both worlds

For more than a decade, hybrid courses have become increasingly prevalent in the higher education landscape. Often called blended courses, hybrids blend traditional in-seat classroom components with online course components, offering students the best of both worlds. Students attend class in-seat (typically once a week) and engage daily with their classmates and instructor through discussion groups, readings and assignments through the online component.

Known for keeping pace with innovative modes of learning, Columbia College began offering hybrid courses in 2009. With more than 5,000 Columbia College students at Nationwide campuses opting for at least one hybrid since then, the popularity of these courses among adult students is growing.

Convenience

Columbia College-Crystal Lake in Illinois surveyed its students and found that conflicting work and family obligations made it difficult for adult students to attend class more than one night per week. The result was in-seat courses that met once a week from 5-10 p.m.

“Anyone who has sat through anything for five hours can testify that it is painful in more ways than one,” says Debra Hartman, who has been director of the Crystal Lake campus since 2009 and teaches classes there, as well. “Students have often worked all day before coming to class, making the five-hour stretch trying. Even the best instructors have difficulty making solid use of that last hour of a five-hour class.”

Offering more hybrid courses allows classes to meet once a week for a more manageable three-hour stretch and typically with a later start time, making it easier for working students to get to class.

The Crystal Lake campus began offering its first hybrid class in March 2011. Today, more than 80 percent of the campus’s courses are hybrid.

According to Hartman, the online component allows classmates and instructors to interact throughout the week, rather than once a week.

Crystal Lake student Elizabeth Trunda enjoys the convenience of hybrid courses. Working most evenings and weekends, the online component allows her to take exams online in her own time.

“Hybrid courses allow for classroom time to be very focused,” says Trunda. “Rather than sitting in class to take exams, my instructors use that time to help the class to understand how the material is relevant to the work world and to understand more challenging material.”

The way of the future

MarJean Knokey, director of Columbia College-Whidbey Island in Washington state, notes that the hybrid format soon will be the norm rather than the exception in higher education.

“Take a few minutes researching higher education and hybrid classes, and you will find hundreds of articles on the subject. It is the future.”

Knokey, who has been in higher education for nearly 40 years and director of the Whidbey Island campus since 2003, points to one such article in the “International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning.” The article shows that student academic performance in hybrid courses was as good as and sometimes better than in-seat courses.

New dimensions of learning

“Never before have there been four generations in the classroom,” says Jewly Harris, director of the Columbia College-Salt Lake City campus since 2000. “You have the Matures or Traditionalists born before World War II, the Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials. This provides a real opportunity for growth, learning and change between generations.”

In other words, the generation gap is alive and well. Hybrid classes offer the ability for students of different generations to bridge that gap. It can also help students no matter their primary mode of communication or education.

Elisa Asare, 28, Salt Lake campus student and administrative assistant at the campus, recently took a hybrid international business course. Among her classmates were an older generation of international students.

“The international students were seasoned business owners in their home countries, so it was extremely informative and really fun,” says Asare. “It was challenging but I feel like I have learned more than I could have asked for.”

While the offering of hybrid courses continues to grow at Columbia College, the advantages for the busy adult student juggling work and home life are evident.

“The transformation to hybrid is like watching ballroom dancing,” Knokey relates. “In short, all aspects of higher education have met at a crossroads, with technology, students and faculty in a beautiful waltz.”

A team of four Columbia College students received first place honors at the 35^th Annual Great Plains Students’ Psychology Convention held at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas.

Sara Schmalz, Jessica Gray, Madison Gibbons and Jackson Portell won first place in the undergraduate empirical oral presentation category for their research titled “Projective testing: Selection of ambiguous images for use in the Contemporary Thematic Apperception Test.” The undergraduate research team used qualitative research methods to identify ambiguous images for inclusion in the CTAT, one of the most-used projective psychology tests in the field. Graham Higgs, chair of the Psychology and Sociology department, served as the team’s faculty sponsor.

Two other Columbia College students also presented their research at the conference.

Kea Carrow presented a poster on her research titled “Writing prompts and self-efficacy,” which examined the effects of the writing used in math courses and how students perceive their ability to be successful completing tasks.

Alyssa McKenzie’s research, titled “Conformity, self-esteem, and cosmetics,” examined those concepts through an exploratory factor analysis. She also presented a poster.

Carrow and McKenzie were both sponsored by Gretchen Hendrickson, assistant professor of psychology.

Columbia College was one of 26 Midwestern institutions to participate in this year’s conference, which took place March 13-14.

This year, 15 research teams presented in the undergraduate empirical oral presentation category, and 19 projects were presented in the undergraduate empirical poster category. Each category is judged by two faculty volunteers, and a first place and second place award are presented in each category.

Columbia College remains active in the academic psychology community. Next year Columbia College will play host to the Missouri Undergraduate Psychology Conference.

Columbia College recently hired Dr. David Starrett as provost. Starrett, who starts in August, takes over for Dr. Terry Smith, who served as executive vice president and dean for academic affairs for more than 18 years. As provost — a title new to the College — Starrett will oversee the college’s academic offerings in all venues. He will also lead the college’s accreditation and assessment efforts and oversee the college’s library.

“Dr. Starrett has a diverse background in many areas of higher education administration, including accreditation and assessment,” said Dr. Scott Dalrymple, president of Columbia College. “These are exciting times for us, and I look forward to working with Dr. Starrett and our faculty and staff colleagues.”

Prior to joining the college, Starrett served as an administrator and professor of biology at Southeast Missouri State University. During his tenure, Starrett was heavily involved in many areas, serving as the dean for Academic Information Services, director of the Kent Library, dean for the School of University Studies, director of Institutional and Programmatic Accreditations, director of the Center for Scholarship in Teaching and Learning and accreditation liaison officer to the Higher Learning Commission.

As an administrator, Starrett oversaw all academic accreditation for the university; he also led major renovation efforts to the Kent Library and enhanced instructional technology at the university. Starrett has authored several peer-reviewed publications on biology, teaching and technology; he also secured several grants for research, improvements to the university’s academic offerings and upgrades to its infrastructure.

“Columbia College is doing wonderful things and has a great vision for the future,” said Starrett. “I look forward to working with President Dalrymple and the campus and the community as it continues on its path of serving students across Missouri, the country and the globe.”

Starrett holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Southern California and a master’s degree and doctorate in plant molecular biology from the University of California-Los Angeles.

Married with two sons in college, Starrett is an avid birder and enjoys the outdoors. It has also been reported by the Southeast Missourian that he has developed a world class guacamole recipe. This should come as no surprise since Starrett is a “biologist by training, he wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the subject of avocados,” notes the paper.

CC teaches high schoolers about financial literacy

Students from Columbia’s Battle High School compete in a Money Stacks college game show, which teaches about financial literacy while paying for college.

Students from Battle High School filled Bixby Lecture Hall Wednesday. These ninth graders are part of a Columbia Public Schools program called AVID, Advancement via Individual Determination, a college and career readiness program.

As part of the college preparatory portion of the program, students attend colleges around state of Missouri. For these Battle High School students, they attend Columbia College in their freshman year. They then go on to attend schools in Kansas City, St. Louis and the University of Missouri in subsequent years.

Since these students, as freshman, are just beginning to explore college opportunities, one of the questions that looms largest can be how to pay for an education.

To answer questions about paying for college, Columbia College’s Student Success Office offers a financial literacy program, called Money Stacks, which helps advise not only current students, but also prospective college students – whether or not they attend Columbia College – about saving and making smart financial decisions when paying for college.

Through an interactive game show format, students divided into four teams, each competing for the top prize. Students were asked to complete “minute-to-win-it” competitions. Those who successfully completed a task within the minute time frame received “free aid” in the form of a grants or scholarships. However, those who did not successfully complete their task took on debt in the form of college loans.

One such challenge, asks a contestant to stack hex nuts on top of each other:

A crowd of more than 40 students sat quietly, each cheering the student on, quietly, as she tried to stack the hex nuts on top of one another. Encouraging words such as “you go girl!” and “you got this” were whispered by those watching, literally sitting on the edge of their auditorium seats.

These ninth grade students cheered each other on and were genuinely excited for each other with each correct answer or successfully completed challenge. That camaraderie – and lessons learned about financial literacy – will serve these students well as they move ahead in their college and career preparation.

College will have three schools

The Columbia College Board of Trustees recently approved a measure that would reorganize the college’s academic offerings into three schools. Citing a need to implement a structure that would both address a decade of rapid college growth and provide for future expansion, Dr. Scott Dalrymple, president of Columbia College, created the College Structure Task Force. This group, which consisted of college faculty members and administrators, as well as members of the Board of Trustees, met throughout the academic year. Based on the recommendation of this group, the college put forward a plan where each school will be led by a dean, with each dean reporting to the college’s new provost, Dr. David Starrett.

“Over the course of the year, I had the pleasure of working with the task force, engaging in much collegial and constructive dialogue,” said Dalrymple. “This new academic structure will strengthen academics in all of our venues, offer increased administrative support to faculty and provide the necessary infrastructure for future growth.”

Under this plan, which was endorsed by the college’s faculty and unanimously approved by the Board of Trustees, the new schools will consist of Business Administration; Natural Sciences and Mathematics; and Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. The college will spend the next academic year preparing for the change, and will conduct a national search for qualified deans. The college plans to officially launch its new schools in the 2016-17 academic year.

“I believe this is one of the most significant decisions the college has made in decades,” said Daisy Grossnickle, chair of the Board of Trustees. “Our goal is to provide high quality education across all of our venues, and I feel this new structure will help position the college for even greater success.”

by Emilie Lewis

Graduating senior Annalise Morrison has wanted to be in the FBI since she was fifteen. During a family trip to Washington D.C. she saw a man in a black suit with a clear earpiece standing under the J. Edgar Hoover building and has been infatuated with the image ever since.

Now graduating from Columbia College with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and her crime scene investigation certificate, Morrison has a yearlong internship with the FBI under her belt and a career with the Bureau waiting for her.

“It really still hasn’t sunk in,” Morrison said about her selection to receive one of the few, fully paid honors internships offered yearly by the FBI. “I think it hasn’t because every day is something new, something you just have to remind yourself ‘this is what I’m doing.’”

Morrison chose Columbia College because of the criminal justice program and her family ties to the school where her father was once a professor. “I felt this really important tie to Columbia College since I was about five years old,” she said, also citing the value of a liberal arts education. “The things that I’ve learned at a liberal arts college are way better exposure for the real world than you might get at a larger university.”

For Morrison, it wasn’t just about the classes that would get her to her future career, it was the faculty she worked with along the way, specifically citing professors Mike Himmel and Dr. Barry Langford in helping her find her niche. “The professors at Columbia College are really, really interesting, they have all these different backgrounds which I think is really inspiring to see,” Morrison said.

And it was the different backgrounds and ideas brought into the classroom that helped Morrison prepare to work with the Bureau, she said. “Almost everything I learned in a school setting applied to the work setting,” Morrison said. She mentioned she really appreciated knowing “the legal jargon” in addition to fingerprinting and bloodstain analysis.

“I really felt like I learned something and that my education is really valuable and it just really reaffirmed that I was doing school for a reason, and that reason is so I could be here,” Morrison said.

The momentum built between her studies and internship haven’t yet stopped, leading her to a career with the FBI after graduation. “I don’t think it will ever stop really, I think I’ll always have one foot in the door somehow,” she said.

And the foot in the door started at CC where Morrison said she was allowed to be a “big fish in a pretty small pond.” Her involvement with the school varied from Student Ambassadors to the Presidential Advisory Board to the Student Activities Commission where she got to flex her leadership muscles as president two years in a row.

But the highlight of her college career was her honors internship, allowing her to fulfill the dream that started nearly ten years ago in Washington D.C. The FBI internship gave Morrison “a sense of belonging,” and was, in her words, “life affirming.”

Columbia College’s nursing program has evolved in remarkable fashion over the past four years. One might say the program is awash in success with a state-of-the art facility, cutting-edge technology and perfect pass rates on the NCLEX exam. And while the program is enjoying a great run, it has faced some challenges along the way.

Linda Claycomb, nursing instructor and chair of Columbia College’s nursing program, arrived at the college in 2008. Soon after her arrival, Claycomb found that a shift was occurring in the college’s nursing student population.

“We no longer had LPNs (licensed practical nurse) or students with prior nursing experience, which really demanded a different curriculum,” Claycomb says.

Constrained by a shortage of time and resources, the program struggled to adjust to this change. Common issues included the lack of clinical space, adequate staffing and access to advanced technology. Recognizing a change had to be made to help the program take the next step, the college moved the nursing program into Federal Hall, located in the heart of downtown Columbia.

The move significantly enhanced the program’s instructional capabilities. With a larger space and more technology, Claycomb and the nursing faculty were able to make changes to improve their curriculum.

“It was a great move for us, because it gave us an opportunity to design something we felt would work for the students,” Claycomb says.

With the move, the program also addressed issues regarding accreditation and licensure. By establishing the Columbia College Nursing Network (CCNN), an interactive audio-visual conferencing tool connecting learners at the main campus with students at Columbia College-Lake of the Ozarks, the program creatively addressed a shortage of qualified instructors. Over time, the faculty found that test scores between the two campuses were strikingly similar, validating CCNN as an effective tool to educate students and address staffing issues.

“We’ve made it work exceptionally well,” Claycomb says. “To us, it shows that we’re delivering a stable curriculum.”

While the nursing program has experienced what Claycomb calls “growing pains,” it certainly is on solid footing now. This past fall, the college rolled out a bachelor of nursing for its online students; work also is underway to provide a bachelor of nursing to day students in 2016. And with the space and learning opportunities the Brouder Science Center provides, the future looks bright for the nursing program.

Whether it’s solving the Columbia Daily Tribune’s latest Sudoku puzzle or making the enrollment process in Columbia College’s nursing program more efficient, Dr. Linda Claycomb, chair of the Columbia College nursing department, is all in.

“The more complex the problem is, I thrive on it,” Claycomb said. “I enjoy problem-solving and making work easier and processes smoother that result in safer and better outcomes for the patient.”

That commitment to providing top-quality care for patients and instilling that ideal in nursing students has served Claycomb well during her more than 40 years in nursing. After successfully serving as a nurse, patient care administrator and educator in New York, Pennsylvania, Florida and Missouri, Claycomb became director of the Lake of the Ozarks campus nursing program in 2008, and eventually the director of the program in Columbia in 2009. You could say that Claycomb’s arrival definitely served as a turning point for the program.

“While we provided quality instruction before 2009, faculty decided that a curriculum revision in the fall of 2009 designed to accommodate different types of learners was needed. It has opened unlimited doors for the nursing program,” Claycomb said. “We have a strong curriculum and great pass rates. Students, whether younger or a little more mature, all have an equal opportunity to complete our curriculum. It is a rigorous, accelerated program, but we think we do a good job and our students are in demand. They are all getting jobs or going on for additional schooling to obtain another degree.”

Claycomb recently completed her doctorate degree online in August 2015 through Capella University with a specialization in leadership and management

And Claycomb’s students aren’t the only ones going on for additional schooling. After completing both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing at the University of Missouri in the early 1990s, she decided to take a break from continuing her education. However, while working as vice president for patient care at Memorial (now Capital Region) Hospital in Jefferson City, Missouri, Claycomb decided that she wanted to pursue her doctorate. Over the course of the past six years, Claycomb worked furiously to finish that goal. She finally completed her doctorate degree online in August 2015 through Capella University with a specialization in leadership and management.

“I do feel like I have accomplished something. There wasn’t that immediate relief but more of a feeling of satisfaction that I had reached another goal,” Claycomb said. “I think learning is ongoing in our lives and if we stop learning, we stop living.”

With the new degree in hand, Claycomb, along with her outstanding staff of nurses and instructors, has big plans for the nursing program moving forward. The program continues to produce high pass rates for all students involved, carrying a 100 percent mark through each of the last four classes on the National Licensing Exam (NCLEX).

“Columbia College Nursing has a great reputation with employers and facilities around the mid-Missouri area. The two comments we hear the most are, ‘We love your students and we want your students!’” Claycomb says with a smile. “Our students are well prepared to either go to work in the workplace or go on for their bachelor’s degree, and employers are looking for that, because with society’s need for more baccalaureate-level nurses, they want a student who can learn.”

Claycomb and her husband, Don, who will retire this year, have five children (two daughters and three sons) and reside in Linn, Missouri, where Don is the president of State Technical College of Missouri. On the rare occasion she finds time to spare, she enjoys reading and playing games that involve strategy. Her true passions are being outside where she can work on their garden and taking the family RV out for a cruise.

*** This article was featured in the latest edition of Affinity, the official magazine of the Columbia College Alumni Association. Click here to access the full magazine digitally. 

Columbia College political science professor Dr. Terry Smith appeared on KMIZ TV’s “This Week” on Friday talking presidential politics with Joey Parker. Complete video of the interview is below.

“VIDEO – Dr. Terry Smith appears on KMIZ’s “This Week” to talk politics” – KMIZ-TV

The Department of Student Success staff includes (from L-R) – Emily Severeid-Geiss, Stephanie Whitener, Dr. Nathan Miller and Rachel Smith

By Donnie Andrick

Columbia College prides itself in helping students set and achieve their educational goals. One way the college ensures its students achieve their full potential inside and outside the classroom is with Student Success advising.

The Department of Student Success has a top-notch team that works together to help students graduate on time, set academic goals, overcome barriers, establish a balance between school and extracurricular activities, and take ownership of success and setbacks. Guiding this team is Senior Director Dr. Nathan Miller and Advisors Rachel Smith, Stephanie Whitener and Emily Severeid-Geiss.

“Columbia College was founded on the idea of access to education,” Miller says. “The Department of Student Success is committed to this ideal, which we express through supporting students throughout their college experience.”

The team is also here to support students with their adjustment to college life. The college strives to keep all students, traditional or nontraditional, from getting lost in the shuffle while transitioning into their role as a student. It’s no secret that student obligations can be overwhelming to deal with, and Student Success is dedicated to making the process more manageable.

Student Success does more than student planning, though. It’s possible that financial situations will change throughout a student’s academic career and Student Success serves as a resource to students for support and guidance. Through its Money Stacks program, Student Success promotes financial awareness by assisting students in maintaining financial aid, finding and renewing scholarships, planning for a decrease in financial aid, and budgeting for school and personal experiences.

For many students, including senior Ashley Brouder, the solutions Student Success has for financial and academic situations is a much-needed reason to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Contacting Student Success, particularly after a rough semester, helped tremendously,” Brouder says. “They helped create the best schedule for me to recover […] I’m graduating on time, in May, with all of my scholarships intact, and that was possible with their help.”

“You might discover your calling.”

That’s what one Columbia College Summer Camp participant had to say last year about her experience spending time on campus and learning about forensic science and criminal justice.

But Columbia College summer camps aren’t just for future crime scene techs.

Offering students the chance to live and learn on campus before starting college, summer camps host students from fifth grade through their senior year of high school. Spanning June and July, eight summer camps will take place on the main campus in Columbia, Missouri.

Many of the camps have the option for students to stay on campus in residence halls during the camps. And, while Columbia College students are away for summer break, many professors remain to share their knowledge with the next generation of college graduates.

Below is the list of camps that are available this year:

Summer Arts Intensive Camp (June 6-11) – Click here register now!

• Students will work with local artists and expert instructors in the college’s multiple art studios. A showcase of student work will appear in the Sidney Larson gallery at the end of the camp.

Free Entrepreneurship Residence Camp (June 11-18) – Click here to register now! 

• This camp is for up-and-coming business students who wish to see firsthand what it’s like to start and run their own business. Learning from local entrepreneurs, students will form groups and create their own prototypes to pitch to a panel of judges and potential investors.

Nursing Camp (June 14-16) – Click here to register now! 

• Students will be immersed in the field of nursing and life as a nurse. They will tour local hospitals and earn their CPR certification during the camp.

Biotechnology Camp (June 14-16) – Click here to register now! 

• Campers will spend a few days learning from professors and current students in the state-of-the-art science labs.

Legal Academy (June 20-24) – Click here to register now! 

• A chance for students to study law, political science and ethics. Participants will get to go on field trips and take part in mock trial.

Forensic Science and Criminal Justice Camp (June 21-23) – Click here to register now! 

• Students will get to study blood splatter, fingerprint analysis and spend time in the labs focusing on biology and chemistry.

STEAM Camp (July 11-15) – Click here to register now! 

• STEAM Camp (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) is open to grades 5-8 and will encourage students to investigate any or all of the STEAM categories.

Summer Arts Intensive Theatre Camp (July 11-23) – Please contact Nollie Moore at (573) 875-7473 if you are interested in this camp.

• Nollie Moore, Instructor of Music, Director of Jane Froman Singers, will be directing the next group of Broadway stars to new heights. The group will be putting on a full production in the fall.

For more information or to RSVP for a camp, please visit our webpage.

Columbia College is excited to announce the expansion of its nursing degree offerings. Beginning this August, the college will offer an in-seat bachelor’s of science degree (BSN) in nursing. The new degree offering was recently announced by Dr. David Starrett, the college’s provost and vice president for Academic Affairs.

“We are responding to the needs of the health care industry and to the needs of our current and future students,” Starrett said. “Our nursing program continues to flourish and the addition of the in-seat bachelor’s degree takes the program to a new level.”

The in-seat BSN, which is designed for students looking to become registered nurses, is being offered in addition to the online bachelor’s degree in nursing (designed for currently registered nurses) that was launched in 2014. Additionally, an associate degree in nursing has been available at the college for more than 25 years.

The BSN program at Columbia College will prepare students to assume roles in professional nursing from basic care to advanced roles in nursing management and education. Students will develop complex clinical reasoning, decision-making and collaborative skills that contribute to patient safety and quality processes while providing a framework for evidence-based practice. The program is approved by the Missouri State Board of Nursing, and the courses will teach medical surgical nursing as well as various specialties and community care.

For more information on Columbia College nursing, click here or contact Michael Garver, academic adviser at mtgarver@ccis.edu or at (573) 875-7610.

By Donnie Andrick

Senior Chase Barnes may have transferred colleges and moved to a new state surrounded by new people, but his passion for political science has never faltered.

Before he started college, at age 16, Barnes participated in a mock legislation at the Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Seminar at the Pennsylvania State Capitol building. This experience sparked a desire in Barnes to dedicate his time to having a thorough understanding of politics.

Fast forward six years: Columbia College’s Model United Nations team recently participated in the Midwest Model U.N. simulation in St. Louis, and Barnes won two individual awards, making him a recipient of all possible MMUN individual awards.

Learn more about the Barnes in the latest CC Focus!

CCC: Take us through what a Model U.N. simulation looks like.

CB: Prior to the simulation in February, each school is assigned a country to study extensively and represent. This year, Columbia College represented the kingdom of Jordan.

The simulation functions as the United Nations does. A majority of delegates spend most of their time in committees discussing predetermined topics like poverty, crime or the environment. Next, delegates write and vote on United Nations resolutions during a plenary session. There is also a Security Council, which spends a majority of its time working on resolutions, but also must address a crisis that takes place on a random day during the early hours of the morning.

CCC: You won the Outstanding Delegate and Delegate’s Choice awards at the MMUN simulation in St. Louis recently. What does it mean to you to be a good delegate?

CB: To me, being an outstanding delegate means that I showed a good understanding of the United Nations and in-depth knowledge of my country. It also means that I maintained character as a delegate from Jordan. Being an outstanding delegate means that I participated and was professional while working with other delegates and finding ways to compromise. Most important, it means that the Committee Chair and other simulation staff noticed my efforts.

I feel even more honored, however, to be voted delegate’s choice. The Delegate’s Choice Award means that the delegates I was working with chose me over themselves or other delegates as the best delegate in our committee.

I attribute both awards to just being kind. It is important to represent your country and your position at the simulation, but it is also very important to be personable. Don’t interrupt people when they are speaking, learn other delegates’ actual names not just their country and make small talk during breaks that isn’t about Model U.N. Doing these things helped me to advocate for Jordan, but it also helped me to make new friends.

CCC: In what ways have you grown through your experience in Model U.N.?

CB: Model U.N. has helped me realize that I have a particular skill set that allows me to negotiate and communicate with adverse opponents and to get a group of people to compromise with one another. Model U.N. showed me that I have the ability to lobby others to my advantage without compromising my own stances or integrity too much.

CCC: What other organizations/activities are you involved in? Why?

CB: In addition to Model U.N. I am the captain of the Mock Trial team. Mock Trial is a competitive trial advocacy group. Essentially, it is debate but in a courtroom setting. We travel all over the Midwest and compete in tournaments against other colleges and universities. We actually had a great season in 2015-2016, competing at six tournaments and getting second at our home tournament. We also had a number of team members win multiple individual attorney and witness awards, myself included.

I am also involved in Student Government Association because I care about Columbia College and I want to represent my fellow students.

CCC: What is one thing you want to do before you graduate?

CB: Before I graduate, I want to get on the patio on the roof of Launer Auditorium. I heard they used to hold cocktail socials there back in the day and I want to see it for myself.

CCC: What are your post-graduation plans?

CB: I have accepted a job at the Jacobs & Crumplar Law Firm in Wilmington, Deleware, as a paralegal assistant. I only plan on working there for about five months in order to save money. After I finish my employment at J&C, I am moving to Australia to work and travel.

CCC: Do you have a word of advice for any students looking to get involved in school activities?

CB: My first piece of advice is that ALL students should get involved. My second piece of advice is not to get over-involved. It is important to have a social life, stay on top of grades and remain healthy. If you spread yourself too thin, you might compromise those other important aspects. Finally, pick clubs you ENJOY doing and not just clubs that will help build your resumé. While using extracurricular activities to build your resumé is great, don’t join clubs if you only want them for your resumé. Join clubs to meet people and have fun.

By Barry Moffat

The answer is…pretty much everyone. The old cliché of the career student who switches majors five times and spends twelve years earning a single degree just doesn’t ring true anymore, and certainly not for most Columbia College students.

While our students enjoy their time here (nine out of ten say they are satisfied with their experience), they also have their eyes firmly on the prize: A life-changing degree that can open the door to new career opportunities and increased earning potential.

So how can we help?

Columbia College is expanding our academic calendar to offer six class sessions each year. So if you are a student taking classes online or at any of our nationwide locations, you will now be able to complete your degree faster.

How fast? 

The graphic below shows how quickly you could complete an associate, bachelor’s or master’s degree from start to finish.

Want to know more about completing your degree faster?

If you are a current student, please visit the six sessions webpage for detailed information.

If you are new to Columbia College and would like to know more, please complete the info request form or call the admissions office at (573) 875-7352.

Dr. Shanda Traiser yearned to get back into the world of higher education.

From left: Dr. David Roebuck, dean of Columbia College’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; Dr. Sarah Vordtriede-Patton, dean of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics; and Dr. Shanda Traiser, dean of the School of Business Administration.

She had been a founding dean of the Gary Tharaldson School of Business at the University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D., before becoming the director of strategic planning at Basin Electric Power Cooperative in Bismarck.

She felt at home in academia. Columbia College caught her eye.

“I really missed higher ed. I feel like that’s my true passion,” Traiser said. “I liked what I saw from a community standpoint and then, from the college, that they seem very innovative and open to new ideas and are not an institution that seems like they’re stuck in ‘That’s the way we’ve always done it.’ That’s appealing to me.”

Traiser is bringing her wealth of business and education experience as the new dean of Columbia College’s School of Business Administration. She joins Dr. David Roebuck and Dr. Sarah Vordtriede-Patton as the founding deans in Columbia College’s three-school academic structure, which takes effect for the 2016-17 school year. Roebuck heads the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and Vordtriede-Patton leads the School of Natural Sciences & Mathematics.

Roebuck, a longtime Political Science professor at the college, is shifting roles. Traiser and Vordtriede-Patton are still figuring out the campus map after coming on board over the summer. All are committed to using their positions to help shape Columbia College’s future, unifying the home campus with the Nationwide locations and Online Education students under three schools.

“It really gives us the opportunity to move towards a vision of being one college,” Roebuck said. “We made the conscious decision to move in that direction, and this is the thing that gives us that opportunity.”

As the only in-house hire, Roebuck got to roll out the welcome wagon for Traiser and Vordtriede-Patton as they made their transitions to Columbia. That took on a number of different guises, from Roebuck serving as a campus tour guide to him and his wife opening up their home for Traiser and Vordtriede-Patton to stay in while they were looking for housing of their own.

Now, they all work in the same hallway on the third floor of St. Clair Hall.

“We’re going to be a great team. They’re both going to bring in fresh ideas and look at everything we do with new eyes,” Roebuck said. “I like the idea of making things more effective and more efficient. So anything they identify that we’re doing that they think we could do better, I’m certainly in favor of that.”

The goal is for the deans to provide additional perspective and oversight for quality of academic offerings, as well as redistributing job functions from department chairs and the provost and vice president for academic affairs Dr. David Starrett to more appropriate locations within the newly formed schools. Creating an academic leadership team will help chairs and faculty focus more on classes and students. It will also help Starrett focus the institution on initiatives to enhance quality and consistency of academic programs at Columbia College.

Roebuck’s school covers six departments: History, Philosophy and Political Science; Language and Communication Studies; Visual Arts and Music; Criminal Justice Administration and Human Services; Education; and Psychology and Sociology. Traiser’s houses the Business Administration department, and Vordtriede-Patton’s covers Computer and Mathematical Sciences; Nursing; and Physical and Biological Sciences.

Vordtriede-Patton served as the interim dean for two years at the College of Arts and Sciences at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, where she spent the past 15 years before coming to Columbia. The Highland, Ill., native is an entomologist by training.

A “bug lady.”

“The big thing is there’s over a million species of insects. So you can find an example of almost anything,” Vordtriede-Patton said. “They do almost everything. Ants cultivate fungi as crops and herd other insects, called aphids, as livestock. Truth is stranger than fiction in the bug world, I think. Never a dull moment.”

Vordtriede-Patton gained an affinity for Columbia during an eight-year stint in the Army Reserve, during which she drilled in the city. She and Traiser both bring an appreciation for the needs of Columbia College’s sizable military student population, as Traiser spent the six months before she moved to Columbia teaching MBA courses at military bases in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

“I really gained a lot of respect for the military and military spouses, just seeing firsthand all the challenges they have to deal with and how resilient they need to be,” Traiser said.

The Early Fall Session starts at the end of August. Until then, Traiser and Vordtriede-Patton are working to settle in and acclimate themselves to serving their new institution and the Columbia community.

“It’s a very forward-looking position, through academic programs that meet students’ professional and personal goals,” Vordtriede-Patton said. “We have a lot of great programs. Putting resources into those, advertising those, making sure people know we have them, and then also doing really creative things and anticipating future needs.”

Roebuck’s been here for 20 years. He’s ready for the new challenge.

“I felt like one of the academic officers should have some institutional memory, and I felt like I could contribute that to the college,” Roebuck said. “Talk to anybody who knows me: I love Columbia College. I want it to be as good as it can be.”

The stereotypical image of a computer programmer — alone in his or her cubicle, writing line after line of code, bathed by the light of the screen — doesn’t really hold up.

From left, alumni Michael Hudelson ’10 and Zach Oppland ’14 talk with senior Garrett Waage at the Computer and Mathematical Sciences department networking lunch in Dorsey Gym.
(Photo by Kaci Smart)

Many who graduate from college with computer science degrees end up in fields that necessitate teamwork on large group projects, or interaction with co-workers from other departments in information technology.

People skills are a big plus. So is networking ability.

Around a decade ago, Dr. Yihsiang Liow, associate professor of Computer Science at Columbia College, started holding yearly functions to help connect some of his new students with upperclassmen. Over the past five years or so, program alumni started coming back to meet current students.

“It’s to start thinking about the future,” said senior Garrett Waage, a computer science and mathematics double major who is currently interning at Veterans United Home Loans. “It’s a good idea to meet other people and see how they’ve gotten to where they are.”

Waage was one of nearly 30 students that lunched with about a half-dozen alumni in Dorsey Gym on Sept. 29.

The event serves an important function for both sides. Students get to see what it takes to make it in the professional world. Alumni get to scout the ranks for possible interns and future employees.

“Sometimes students that come in have only a vague idea of what they would do with a computer science degree,” says Dr. Suzanne Tourville, professor of Mathematics and chair of the Computer and Mathematical Sciences department. “They just think it sounds like a good field but often they haven’t had any real courses in computer programming or anything as students. So to talk to people that have that, and then the possibility of getting internships, is something that they’re glad to know about.”

Three of the alumni in attendance — Michael Hudelson ’10, Miroslav Lukic ’10 and Zach Oppland ’14 — felt an important part of their role was to provide realistic expectations for prospective professionals.

Lukic is the IT director at McNerney Management Group in Columbia, Missouri, and Oppland serves as his assistant director. Lukic and Oppland met through friends at Columbia College and, when Lukic was looking for a second-in-command, he knew Oppland was a person he trusted from the program that had educated him. Hudelson is a software engineer at Columbia-based The Turning Gear, web design and software development start-up he helped found.

It’s OK if you’re not pulling in six figures a year or two after graduating. If you don’t have a job at Google or Amazon lined up immediately, it doesn’t mean that making a career out of programming is not for you.

Success takes many forms. Not all of them end up on the front of Wired magazine.

“A lot of students maybe read about all the stuff out there, but I don’t think it’s that shiny and bright when you come to real life,” Lukic said. “They read about how, if you’re a developer, you can make $100,000 right away. Maybe in certain areas, certain cities, but not everywhere.”

From left, senior Ryan Frappier and alumnus Miroslav Lukic ’10 talk at the Computer and Mathematical Sciences department networking lunch in Dorsey Gym.
(Photo by Kaci Smart)

Or if you do have a job at Google waiting for you, like senior computer science major Ryan Frappier, that’s good, too. Frappier interned at Google each of the past two summers and wants to use his experience working for the company to pursue his true passion project. A visually impaired individual, Frappier wants to help create tools for people who have similar conditions.

He says the networking opportunities presented by Columbia College helped open him up socially.

“The first semester I came here, I was kind of timid,” Frappier says. “But Dr. Liow really encourages all the students to be active, and I just got excited by that.”

Dr. Sarah Vordtriede-Patton, Columbia College’s dean for the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, recently announced that the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) has granted accreditation to the college’s online baccalaureate nursing degree program.

“This is a tremendous milestone and stamp of excellence for our nursing program as we continue to diversify our offerings in this crucial career field for our students,” Vordtriede-Patton said. “Nursing Department Chair Dr. Linda Claycomb, Nursing and Health Sciences Program Coordinator Dr. Tina Dalrymple and the entire nursing faculty and staff did a great job spearheading the accreditation process and their hard work and focus has paid off for our program.”

Accreditation through the CCNE for the online Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree opens the door for graduates of the program to obtain additional higher education including master’s or doctorate degrees. The program will also now be able to expand accreditation to all baccalaureate nursing degrees. The online program is one of three different nursing degrees offered by Columbia College, the others being a traditional, in-seat Bachelor of Science degree and an associate in science degree.

Officially recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education as a national accreditation agency, the CCNE is an autonomous accrediting agency, contributing to the improvement of the public’s health. CCNE ensures the quality and integrity of baccalaureate, graduate, and residency programs in nursing. For more information about the CCNE, click here.