Author: Mark Rummel

Pictured from left to right: Instructors Vinson, Johnson, Tindall, Bernard, Bullock and Platzer

As a new academic school year begins, SC4 is delighted to welcome back students and faculty. This semester, SC4 is thrilled to introduce six new full-time faculty members. SC4 proudly welcomes the following:

Belinda Bernard, instructor of English with extensive teaching experience, including instructing at Mississippi State University, Macomb Community College and twelve years as an adjunct faculty member at SC4.

Danyel Bullock, an SC4 alumni and clinical instructor for the SC4 Associate Degree Nursing program with twelve years of registered nursing experience and two years of teaching experience as an adjunct faculty member at SC4.

Ryan Johnson, instructor of history with experience assisting with political campaigns and twelve years of teaching experience as an adjunct faculty member at SC4. Ryan was a temporary full-time faculty member for the 2023–2024 academic year and recently accepted a permanent full-time position.

Joseph Platzer, instructor of criminal justice with thirty-six years of law enforcement experience, including as Chief of Police for the Port Huron Police Department and nineteen years of teaching experience as an adjunct faculty member at SC4.

Kathleen Tindall, instructor of business with twenty-seven years of advertising experience, including for companies such as Ford, Jeep, Lincoln, McDonald’s, Little Caesars, Hungry Howie’s and Henry Ford Health and has thirteen years of experience teaching at Macomb Community College.

Jacob Vinson, instructor of art with twenty years of experience working with ceramics and four years of teaching experience as an adjunct faculty member at SC4.

“We welcome our new full-time faculty as a continuation of our strong legacy of academic excellence. SC4 has outstanding faculty who provide high-quality higher education in our community,” said Kirk Kramer, President of SC4.

The Fall 2024 semester has started for SC4, but interested students can still register to take classes this semester. Any student looking to register for traditional 16-week courses may do so up until Friday, August 23. If a student is not able to register or start on this date, SC4 also offers twelve and eight-week courses with delayed starts. These classes are perfect for students who have a restrictive schedule or are looking to quickly complete a class. Those interested in taking classes at SC4 can view a complete list of offered courses at sc4.edu/schedule.

For media inquiries, please contact Sarah Rutallie, Chief of Staff, at srutallie@sc4.edu

Professor Steve Gura has been an instructor at SC4 for over six years, using his extensive experience to prepare students for a career in nursing.

Growing up, Steve moved around a lot. His family lived in Chicago and Vermont before moving to West Bloomfield, Michigan, when Steve was in high school. Steve’s interest in medicine developed during his freshman year of college after a close friend was diagnosed with Leukemia. In between classes, Steve would visit with his friend, which stirred him to enter to pursue a career in nursing.

After graduating from Oakland University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Steve took a position at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland in Pontiac. He later transitioned to McLaren Port Huron Hospital, where he worked as the only male nurse on the pediatric floor for nineteen years.

Much of Steve’s career has been rooted in women’s and children’s health. He described his field by saying, “You’re not just taking care of the child, but the family. It isn’t just focusing on the medical care of the patient but caring for the entire family structure, and the sickness of a child disrupts that family structure. It is working with the family and teaching them how to take care of their baby. It’s also helping families understand the life changes that occur with maturation.”

Steve’s relationship with SC4 began when a college faculty member recognized his knack for helping visiting nursing students on his floor. Soon after this, Steve continued his studies while working at McLaren, earning his Master of Science in Nursing Education. Shortly after, Steve was hired as an adjunct professor at SC4. After two years of teaching, he was hired as a full-time faculty for the Practical Nursing Program in 2018 and was recently elected as the department chair for Health and Human Services.

“It’s the best job or career choice I’ve ever made in my life, and I mean that whole-heartedly. The creativity that is allowed as faculty and the exchange of ideas with other departments in your division and other departments at the college is amazing.”

Steve and his wife, Michele, have been married for twenty-six years and have two children, Ben and Sam. Ben is a recent high school graduate and will be attending SC4 in the Fall 2024 semester. In his free time, Steve enjoys hunting, reading, especially fantasy novels, and participating in wildlife rehabilitation of raptors. He takes great joy in helping prepare recovered birds to reenter the wild and currently has six screech owls that are ready for release.

For media inquiries, please contact Sarah Rutallie, Chief of Staff, at srutallie@sc4.edu

Dr. Janice Fritz teaches biology, anatomy and physiology at SC4 and is the department chair of science, technology, engineering and math.

Janice grew up four miles outside of Brown City and recalls how intimidating it was to visit the “big city” of Port Huron. She remembers being flustered by the large number of cars on the road and the strange experience of having to wait for multiple green lights at an intersection before she could finally go through.

From an early age, Janice desired to pursue higher education. During high school, she completed seventeen credits at SC4 through an off-campus learning site at the Sanilac Career Center in Peck. Following her time in high school, she attended Saginaw Valley State University and later transferred to Western Michigan University, where she completed her bachelor’s degree in biomedicine science and health chemistry.

Directly following her time at Western, Janice was accepted to study biological science at Wayne State University for her PhD program. During her studies, she coauthored three peer-reviewed publications on her study of the nervous system of fruit flies. She continued this work in her post-doctorate fellowship training, spending three years at the University of Iowa studying the auditory systems of fruit flies.

When she first started her graduate work, Janice was not interested in teaching. It wasn’t until her work as a teaching assistant at Wayne State that her passion for teaching began. She recalls “being scared to death” the first time she walked into a classroom, but that this teaching experience encouraged her to pursue a career as an academic scientist, which involves teaching as well as running labs.

Dr. Fritz excels at building relationships with her students and utilizing the “flipped classroom” method. She maintains a YouTube channel with her classroom lectures, which students take notes on outside of the classroom. This allows her to utilize class time for labs, hands-on group work, and student questions. She explained, “It’s one thing for someone to tell you about something; it’s another to try it. I want my students to try it.”

During her time at SC4, Janice served as the faculty union president for two years and was appointed as the faculty department chair for the science, technology, engineering and math division. She has a wide range of academic interests but takes joy in studying the nervous system, especially at the molecular level, illusion and perception in the brain, genetics and the cardiovascular system.

Dr. Fritz has been married to her husband for 25 years and has six children. She enjoys being in nature, tending her garden, and paddleboarding on the Black River.

For media inquiries, please contact Sarah Rutallie, Chief of Staff, SC4, at srutallie@sc4.edu