Latest news with #BigBendCommunityCollege
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
BBCC fall enrollment deadline incoming
May 22—MOSES LAKE — Big Bend Community College's last day for new students to sign up for new student enrollment sessions is June 10. For those still deciding on what they would like to study, Big Bend has recently expanded their programs with the addition of new bachelor's degrees. "Big Bend has a long history of building and sustaining collaborative relationships with local employers and developing educational programs that prepare students for local employment," said Dr. Bryce Humpherys, Vice President of Learning and Student Success. "The BAS degrees the college is offering are a continuation of the college's efforts to provide higher education programming that addresses local employment demands." Anne Ghinazzi, the director of Title V and Other Grants at BBCC was the one to kick start the push for the new bachelor's programs being the Bachelor of Applied Science in Business Management and the Bachelor of Applied Science in Behavioral Health. These BAS degrees were created in response to the needs of students as well as the needs of companies that needed more educated workers in the area. "The bachelor's degree was a way for us to provide that next level of education and have it be available locally, so students aren't needing to leave their jobs or the community," said Ghinazzi. The BAS program builds on any associate degree and supports students who have completed workforce programs like welding, automotive technology, medical assistant, and early childhood education, she said. This also gives the opportunity for those who have already completed an associate's degree with the college to return if they would like to earn their bachelor's. The BAS-Management program was launched in the Fall of 2021 and has allowed for working students, students with limited financial resources and those coming from workforce education programs to get their bachelor's degree without the need for transfers. This program has had local employers assisting with ensuring that students receive on-the-job training and can apply what they learn in the classroom to the workplace. "We really were intentional about making sure that the program was going to provide students with the workforce skills that they would need to go into local management positions," said Ghinazzi. The bachelor's in behavioral health is set to launch this Fall and is currently enrolling for its first cohort of students. This program will directly address the behavioral health workforce shortage in North Central Washington and improve the availability of local services. "That degree is going to be offered in partnership with Wenatchee Valley College," said Ghinazzi. "We'll be admitting a full cohort of 30 students and those students will be split evenly between the two colleges for our inaugural cohorts this fall." BBCC programs of major industries in the area, such as health, agriculture, and manufacturing, will benefit from the addition of the BAS degrees and have seen increasing support from local organizations. Those currently undecided on classes can earn an associate in these programs to create a bridge toward the bachelor's programs. Students wanting to enroll in BBCC's nursing and other health care programs will have to focus on completing their prerequisites first, said Katherine Christian, director of Allied Health Programs at Big Bend. BBCC provides detailed degree maps on its website for choosing what classes to enroll in based on degree. "We're just getting ready to see our next incoming group," said Christian. "Our current cohort will be finishing up this summer, and those people will be working in doctors' offices and clinics around the Basin." Graduates from the nursing program at BBCC have a high success rate in finding employment in their first year out of college and have consistently received positive feedback from employers, she said. BBCC's agricultural programs have seen steady growth in the past couple years and have become a sustainable program, said Dr. Aaron Mahoney, head of Agriculture and Chemistry programs at Big Bend. He said most students in the program were individuals who had prior agricultural experience when he first started teaching but have recently seen an increase in interest from people who have never had any experience wanting to get into the industry. "That's been really interesting because it's a fun and unique experience to be able to pivot that type of education for our program," said Dr. Mahoney. Mahoney said because of this around 20 labs have been created across the six courses that he teaches in the program. BBCC recently added a greenhouse learning center where they can work on year-round crop production and crop research education as well as a raised bed project that will allow for the use of irrigation, soil fertility and pest and disease management. The Manufacturing and Process Technology program is also relatively new to the school and has been building steady enrollment, said Justin Henley, head of the Manufacturing & Process Technology department. This program was created from combining the curriculum and skills learned from the industrial systems, electrical, mechatronics, automation and maintenance programs. They have also been increasing their relationships with industry partners and companies in the community to get them involved and receive direct input for the students "For those students that are looking to get into electrical apprenticeships like with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, previously they were coming in and doing a two-year degree," he said. "Now we have the majority of that focused in that first year so that students can get certificates of accomplishment in the areas of electrical and electronics and be able to put that on their application to get into those union apprenticeships without having to do a two-year degree."
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Big Bend expanding BAS programs
May 16—MOSES LAKE — Big Bend Community College has added new Bachelor's in Applied Science programs in the last few years and updated existing programs to meet the needs of local businesses. "Big Bend strives to empower our students to achieve their dreams, but also to strengthen our community. By collaborating with local businesses and industry, we can create enriching educational opportunities that benefit both our students and the community we serve," said Dr. Sara Thompson Tweedy, President of Big Bend Community College. "Both of our bachelor's programs were created out of a need we saw locally in our service district of Grant and Adams counties." The two newest programs at the college are the BAS Management and BAS Behavioral health programs. Anne Ghinazzi, Director of Title V and Other Grants at Big Bend, has played a major role in the development of both of these programs. "It really was developed in a response to the needs of the community," said Ghinazzi. "Local employers told us that they needed more bachelor prepared workers, and the students were seeking the higher education option within the community." The BAS programs are designed to build off any already existing associate's degree and supports students who have completed workforce education programs such as welding, automotive technology, medical assistant and early childhood education, so they can bring the skills earned in a workforce degree and add on the breadth of general education, said Ghinazzi. The first to make headway in this growing need was the development of the BAS Management program. This program launched in the fall of 2021 and has played a key role in changing the educational landscape of what is available to people in their service district who might be working, have limited financial resources and have come through workforce education, she said. She said that employers have been actively designing the curriculum and creating capstone projects since the beginning of the program. These capstone programs take place in the final quarter of their schooling, where they work with a local organization to identify and solve a problem or opportunity at a company to apply their learning. "We are seeing students going into management positions, we're seeing students be promoted within their own company or organization after graduation," she said. "We're really encouraged by the results." Digna Rodriguez is a recent graduate of the BAS Applied Management program, and she has used her degree to gain a Quality Manager position at Group 14. "Attending the BAS-AM program was actually a very rewarding experience," said Rodriguez. "The program offered a lot of courses and pertained to the leadership business strategy and just overall in organizational management which at the time I found it immediately applicable to what I was doing." Rodriguez said that balancing the program while working full-time and attending to family responsibilities was challenging but it taught her ways to be more efficient and focused. She said that completing the program was not just an academic achievement, but also a personal milestone to prove to herself what she is capable of. "I saw how applicable the coursework was to the manufacturing industry," she said. "Once I was further in my education, a position had opened up for Group 14 and I felt a little bit confident and I went ahead and applied as a quality manager, which then led me to this job now." The other program, the BAS in Behavioral Health, is an even newer program set to launch in the Fall of 2025, said Ghinazzi. BBCC is admitting and enrolling its first cohort of students into the program during the late Spring and Summer of 2025. The program is directly addressing a Behavioral Health workforce shortage in Northcentral Washington and improving the availability of local services, she said. This degree will be designed to meet the new bachelor-level credential in Washington called the Behavioral Health Support Specialist position and will be offered in partnership with Wenatchee Valley College. "Students are going to come away with practical knowledge and skills necessary to enter the behavioral health workforce," said Ghinazzi. The program is going to be a combination of general education courses and then specialized and practical experience courses in behavioral health. This will give students a strong understanding of human behavior, mental health disorders and treatments, counseling case management and will end in the second year with a three-quarter field practicum working directly in behavioral health clinics. "The reason why this is important is because it's going to prepare bachelor-level practitioners to be able to provide intervention for common behavioral health issues like depression, anxiety and PTSD," she said. Funding for the BAS-AM programs came from the support of the Title V E3 grant as BBCC has been designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and the funding for the BAS-BH program received backing through a Career Connect Washington grant administered by Thriving Together NWC, said Ghinazzi. Further support has come from the Grant County Commissioners, who awarded BBCC American Rescue Plan Act funds targeted at strengthening its Allied Health programs. Big Bend programs such as nursing, agriculture and manufacturing have been seeing a rise in enrollment. These are some of the main areas benefiting from the addition of the BAS degrees and have increasing support from local organizations. Graduates from the nursing program at BBCC have a high success rate in finding employment in their first year out of college and have consistently received positive feedback from employers, said Katherine Christian, Director of Allied Health programs at Big Bend. "We're just getting ready to see our next incoming group," said Christian. "Our current cohort will be finishing up this summer and those people will be working in doctors' offices and clinics around the Basin."
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Aircraft firefighting spring session starts May 1
Apr. 30—MOSES LAKE — Big Bend Community College will be hosting firefighters from throughout the Pacific Northwest at the spring session of the Aircraft Rescue Firefighting Program beginning May 1. College officials said that means people will be seeing smoke, sometimes a big black plume of it, from the area west of the Grant County International Airport. Tiffany Fondren, BBCC communications coordinator, said the program combines classroom instruction with training exercises. "Firefighting agencies will contract with the program to certify and re-certify," Fondren said. The facility has onsite simulators that allow firefighters to experience conditions that are as close to a genuine emergency as possible, she said. The passenger jet shell can be configured to reflect the chaos that would follow a crash and filled with smoke to make it even more challenging. Fuselage sections with doors can be set up to give firefighters experience getting damaged doors open. A fuselage section can be set aflame to mimic an engine fire. "It's basically very realistic, even though it's a controlled experience," Fondren said. Firefighters will be training through May 29, she said, and in previous springs, people have seen the smoke and thought it was a fire at the GCIA or a wildfire in the area. During May, however, it's likely it will actually be firefighting crews in training, she said.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
BBCC Job Fair connects people, employers
Apr. 18—MOSES LAKE — Thursday's may have been the biggest job fair Big Bend Community College has held. "About 700 job seekers came through here today, maybe more," organizer Michelle Arceo said about halfway through the four-hour event. Eighty-two potential employers, educational specialists and other recruiters set up tables in the ATEC Building at BBCC for the annual job fair. Many of them were organized by type; there was one aisle lined with health care providers, another with law enforcement agencies. They all shared one goal: to find workers. Judging by the crowd, they were succeeding. "It's been really good, a fairly good response," said Tressie Eagle, who was recruiting for Coulee Medical Center in Grand Coulee. "We've gotten a lot of (requests for) job shadows for people to come check out some departments, a lot of interest in our open positions, a lot of fliers given out, a few resumes." Coulee Medical Center recruits a lot of nurses in particular from the Job Fair, many of them coming from the BBCC nursing program, Eagle said. "We're meeting some youth who are interested in potential careers to be an (aviation) mechanic," said Olga Jones, a talent acquisition specialist from AeroTec. "We hired one person that we met last year. So I think I call it a success." It wasn't just students coming out of Big Bend programs like aviation mechanics and nursing who were finding opportunities. "We're getting a lot of great, great feedback from folks," said Sebastian Moraga, who represented the Washington Department of Transportation. "We're getting people who are fresh out of college, people from the Job Corps, people who are still in college, people who are back in the job market after a while. And it's really invigorating to be able to say 'Hey, we're here. Check us out.'" "We seem to have really positive results," said James Beck, representing SkillSource. "It's a little bit mixed. Some people are going to find something they're looking for, and some people are not. One of the biggest complaints is that sometimes people will say 'They might not have a job here for my specialty, or in my field.' That going to be one of those things that rises and falls. Some fields are going to be hiring at certain times and others won't." Cruz Vasquez was finding more than he expected to, he said. "I'm looking for a job that could potentially be a career," he said. "The plumbing (Local 538) sounded like a good deal. And there's also jobs like working at a restaurant or something like that I can do for now and wait for a bigger job to come up." If Vasquez wasn't certain what he was looking for, Ashley Lott was. A newcomer to Moses Lake, Lott was talking with Samaritan Healthcare recruiter Kyrk Taylor about possibilities in human resources. "I was medically retired out of the Army where I served as a human resources officer," Lott said. "And I am looking to continue my career in human resources. I wanted to come to Samaritan because I see their name everywhere and (where I live) we can see the new construction. The PUD wants me to apply to an HR role with them." Arceo had set up a hospitality room with sandwich makings for attendees, and the Department of Social and Health Services had its mobile unit outside to help anyone who needed it with paperwork. Over in the next building, BBCC had a smaller transfer fair going on for its own students who wanted to continue their education with representatives from Central Washington University, Washington State University and Grand Canyon University, among others. "I'm grateful for all of the people who came out and supported (the fair)," Arceo said. "Our volunteers, everyone who made this happen. Because it really does take a village."
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Working connections
Mar. 31—MOSES LAKE — Big Bend Community College will play matchmaker between businesses and the people they're looking for at the BBCC Job Fair on April 17. This is the 32nd year Big Bend has held the fair, said coordinator Michelle Arceo. Last year it attracted about 1,000 job seekers, she said. The fair will include Big Bend students, but anyone who's interested in starting or furthering a career is invited. There's no charge to attend. "(Attendees) can expect about 60 employers, and we'll have some Big Bend Community College programs there as well," Arceo said. In addition, there will be a number of BBCC's partners in the event, agencies that help people in need of jobs with training and placement. "We have a presence every year to recruit customers, sometimes to recruit staff," said Emily Anderson, training manager for SkillSource, one of the partners. "It's truly a great event every year." Employers run the gamut: government agencies, health care organizations, manufacturing companies among others. Attendees can check out one table after another, dropping off resumes and making the all-important first contact with a potential boss, and also finding out if a career with one employer or another is what they've been looking for. Partners like SkillSource, WorkSource and Job Corps will offer help for those whose skills aren't quite where they need to be yet. Job seekers are encouraged to bring lots of copies of their resume and be prepared to talk with potential employers, Arceo said. "Make sure you come prepared," Anderson said. "It's best to leave kids at home and come in with professional dress and a readiness to connect with businesses. If folks are unsure or feeling a little shy ahead of time and would like some tips or tricks, some preparation or some resume writing assistance they can come down here to our WorkSource center." The WorkSource office is located at 309 E Fifth Ave., Ste. B in Moses Lake, and is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. In addition to the job fair, the Department of Social and Health Services will have a bus on campus to help anyone who needs assistance filling out forms and applying for cash or medical assistance. "I really encourage everyone to come (to the job fair)," Anderson said. "You never know what connection you might make that can benefit you in the future. Even if you're just there to explore and network a little bit, it is well worth your time to come." More information, including a list of exhibitors and tips for making the job search more effective, can be found at Big Bend Community College Job Fair 10 a.m.-2 p.m. April 17 Masto Conference Center, 7611 Bolling St. NE, Moses Lake
