Category: Student success

New exhibits and displays enhance STEAM-based learning experience at SC4’s visionary Experience Center

The evolution of St. Clair County Community College’s Experience Center continues with the addition of a new electromagnetic exhibit, Jacob’s Ladder, boulder rock garden, a Notable Women in Science display, 3D printer and installation of a gifted Tarbosaurus skeleton cast.

“Our goal is to consistently provide guests with new and exciting opportunities to engage in STEAM-based learning activities,” says Becky Gentner, SC4 executive director of budget and project management. “Among many other new exhibits, visitors can now investigate the power of electricity thanks to our Jacob’s Ladder as well as explore time, history and place thanks to the Tarbosaurus skeleton cast, which was provided by the SC4 Foundation and two Community Foundation of St. Clair County donor advised funds.

“We are again thrilled to expand our offerings and look forward to igniting passions for generations to come through this center.”

Located in the college’s Clara E. Mackenzie Building, the Experience Center already features interactive displays, traveling exhibits, 3-D pens and technology, a circuit center, a coding station, a virtual reality simulation, an augmented reality sandbox, a fossil dig area and larger-than-life exhibits in its Dr. Bassam H. Nasr Science Museum — including a woolly rhinoceros skeleton replica, T-Rex and Mastodon skull replicas.

SC4 announced its official partnership with the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum and its Unity in Learning initiative on the 16,000-square-foot center in fall 2018. The center — the only one of its kind in the region — provides interactive teaching and learning opportunities for students and guests of all ages through exhibits, field trips and educational programming opportunities.

In less than one year of announcing the partnership, SC4 received an Innovation of the Year Award from the League for Innovation in the Community College for its work in establishing its interactive, STEAM-based Experience Center. The college won the award in the category of Community Engagement Education and Forward-thinking Partnerships.

“We are honored to receive this award,” said Dr. Snyder upon receiving the award. “The Experience Center is a place where students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members of all ages can feel engaged and inspired. We are grateful for the continued support, collaboration and leadership of our community, here on campus and far beyond.”

The Experience Center is a growing regional destination. A fee is charged to groups for a full experience at the center, including guided tours, additional hands-on opportunities, and access to technology exhibits. Individuals may drop in from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday for free and explore the exhibits on their own.

For more information on scheduling a visit or field trip, please send an email to experiencecenter@sc4.edu.

SC4 a transformative experience for world-traveling alumna nurse

Grace Titus says the degree in nursing she received from St. Clair County Community College has been life changing.

The Port Huron Northern High School graduate never dreamed it would take her to far-off places like Central America, Africa and the Middle East.

Titus, 32, lives in Chicago where she is currently training for a career in air medical/flight nursing.

“I decided to go into nursing in 2006 because I wanted to help others and learn about the human condition and the world,” she said. “I come from a family that values serving our community, and I knew I wanted to give back. From a practical standpoint, I needed an affordable educational option that would enable me to enter the workforce quickly. SC4 offered both the time frame and the affordability I was looking for.

“On the first day of school I fell in love with nursing, and for 11 years now I have worked and volunteered in many areas, anywhere from pediatrics to adult trauma. I have been fortunate enough to have been able to travel around the U.S. and also to places like Guatemala, Tanzania and Lebanon.”

Titus graduated from SC4 in 2008 with an associate degree in nursing (ADN) and went on to earn her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan. She also earned a diploma in tropical nursing from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in England.

She said she was attracted by SC4’s size, affordability and reputation for providing excellent education.

“The price and the time frame were huge advantages, but the biggest asset I gained was the quality of education I received,” Titus said. “My nursing education at SC4 prepared me for what it’s really like to be a nurse. I also benefited from the smaller class sizes because I got to know my professors very well. One even generously nominated me for a scholarship. I have always been grateful for that. I’m also still friends with some of my classmates to this very day.”

Armed with her nursing degree, Titus has been able to assist in providing medical services across the globe.

“My degree allowed me to serve in the Peace Corps in Jamaica, participate in medical missions in Guatemala and Tanzania, and work with Doctors Without Borders on the Lebanon/Syria border,” Titus said. “I have had the honor to work in both adult and pediatric critical care and have been fortunate enough to work in facilities like the University of Michigan Hospital.”

Titus added she’s not sure where she would be today if she had taken a different path.

“If it were not for SC4’s accelerated and high-quality degree, I truly do not believe I would be in the place I am now,” Titus said. “My career has been an incredible adventure, and I can honestly say I truly love what I do.”

SC4 Open Education Resources initiative potentially saves 7,655 students more than $1.1 million since 2016

St. Clair County Community College remains committed to its open education resources (OER) efforts, which have now helped 7,655 students potentially save more than $1.1 million since 2016.

OER include freely accessible, openly licensed text, media and other digital assets that can increase student learning and success while reducing the cost of higher education.

Since SC4 began tracking in Fall 2016, faculty members teaching 393 sections of 39 different courses in biology, business, criminal justice, earth science, English, health education, history, math, philosophy, physics courses and more have adopted either open educational resources or alternatives to textbooks, accounting for the savings. Faculty members teaching 59 sections of 19 courses contributed to the savings in the fall 2019 semester alone.

Additionally, many SC4 faculty members have received pilot awards for their OER innovation, including Biology Instructor Brandis Hubbard, who was recognized for a series of videos she developed for one of her courses.

“Embracing the creation and use of OER gives us the opportunity to encourage collaboration and creativity while also addressing textbook affordability to ensure our students have access to the resources they need to be successful,” said SC4 Dean of Library Services and Academic Technology Kendra Lake. “As the support for OER continues to grow across the state and the nation, being an integral part of the larger OER community will continue to benefit our students.”

Other SC4 OER efforts include:

  • Participation in the Michigan Colleges Online OER Commons hub, an OER discovery and curation tool that’s free for faculty members.
  • An OER team consisting of faculty, librarians and staff which aims to encourage and support open pedagogy across the college.
  • Active involvement and participation in the annual MI OER Summit. SC4 welcomed more than 200 practitioners and advocates as host to the summit in 2018. This year, Adjunct History Instructor Ryan Johnson and Lake will present their experiences at the Oct. 18 event at Delta College. Many more SC4 faculty and staff will attend.
  • A permanent OER textbook display available to faculty in the college’s library.
  • A custom OER Library Research Guide, featuring a curated list of OER resources by discipline, open access content search with a list of OER repositories, links to open education research and much more.

Chicago-based alumnus cultivates career path with start at SC4

Chris Dimick has spent the past 12 years working along Lake Michigan’s beautiful shoreline in downtown Chicago. An accomplished writer and editor, his professional journey to the Windy City started nearly 350 miles away at St. Clair County Community College.

Dimick graduated from Marysville High School in 1997. Like many high school graduates, he wasn’t exactly sure of his next steps.

“I enrolled at SC4 because I felt it would provide an easily accessible, affordable way to start my college career while I figured out just what I wanted to do with my life,” Dimick said.

While at SC4, Dimick enrolled in a number of general education courses to explore his career options. He also got involved with student clubs such as the Erie Square Gazette.

“By taking a variety of classes through the general education track and being exposed to different areas of study, my future started to click into place,” he said. “SC4 helped me realize what career I wanted to pursue with the help of some amazing teachers and clubs.

“Professor John Lusk in particular had a profound impact on me through his Journalism 101 class. It was in his class that I realized just how I could make a living being a writer, and discovered my inherit passion for newswriting and reporting. That, combined with working on the Erie Square Gazette newspaper, inspired me to pursue journalism as a major and career.”

Dimick transferred his SC4 credits to Western Michigan University in 2000, where he pursued his four-year degree and took on writing and editing roles at the university’s student newspaper, the Western Herald. He graduated cum laude from WMU in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism.

“I don’t feel I would have had as much success at Western without first attending SC4,” he said. “SC4 gave me a buffer to grow up and realize just why college is important. By the time I went to Western I knew what college was like and how to succeed in class. SC4 also allowed me time to decide on a major, journalism, one I knew for sure I wanted to pursue. The education at SC4 was just as good as a four-year university.”

According to Dimick, his work on the Erie Square Gazette prepared him to work on the Western Herald, which in turn led to his first professional reporter job at the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Since then, Dimick has served as an editor for the Arvada Press newspaper in Arvada, Colo., and as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Health Information Management Association in Chicago. He currently works as senior associate director of strategic communications at the Alzheimer’s Association, where he serves as executive editor of ALZ magazine.

“I enjoy my career immensely and aspire to continue making a living as a writer and editor,” Dimick said. “I feel very lucky that SC4 was just a 10-minute drive from my house and provided me the opportunity to figure out what I wanted to do with my life professionally. Colleges like SC4 are extremely valuable and provide high quality education to a wide array of students.”