CPT Alumni Reunion

The first York Technical College Computer Technology Alumni Reunion was held on Saturday, April 17, 2010, at the Baxter M. Hood Continuing Education Center. Six hundred graduates of the associate degree and certificate programs were invited. Attendees included seventy graduates from the years of 1977 through 2010. Activities for the evening included informal networking and "speed networking" where each graduate introduced himself to someone in the room whom he did not already know.

Former York Technical College president and Computer Technology Department Manager, Dennis Merrell, reminded the alumni of how far computer programming has come since the early days. He engaged the audience by quizzing them to identify relic programming paraphernalia that he had brought with him.

Yung Chou, a Microsoft Information Technology evangelist, conducted a presentation on the Future of Cloud Computing. To encourage the audience to answer questions throughout his talk, Mr. Chou tossed out Microsoft software and other prizes to respondents.

Guests enjoyed an Asian buffet provided by CPT alumnus Thi Le of Thi’s Catering and a cake (left) designed by Department Manager Jyron Baxter’s wife, Aramis. Each alumnus was given a custom t-shirt displaying the College’s new logo.

I greatly appreciate all the work by the faculty, staff, and alumni that planned the event.

YTC Foundation Newsletter

The York Technical College Foundation has developed a newsletter, Overview, that highlights the many initiatives the Foundation is working on for the College. The April 2010 newsletter includes information about the William C. Kimbrell Memorial Golf Tournament that will be held on Monday, May 10. I greatly appreciate all the work that the Foundation and the Development Office does to help support the College's goal to Maximize Student Success.

SCTEA Recognitions

The annual South Carolina Technical Education Association (SCTEA) Conference was held February 18-20 in Myrtle Beach. The following York Technical College employees were recognized recipients of the Educator of the Year award.












Lori Ochsner – Administrator/Manager Category













Laura Sturgis – Teaching Category













Debbie Williams – Staff Category

Each recipient received a plaque and a $100 check.

In addition, the College’s Phi Beta Lambda student organization won third place in the SCTEA Student Community Service Project. In all, twelve projects were submitted for review. Their project titled, Learning to Rebuild for Success, focused on providing workshops to help participants improve their employability skills. Participants learned how to:

Search for jobs
Fill out applications
Create a winning resume
Dress appropriately
Present oneself in a positive manner
Exhibit one’s potential value to the company during an interview

Five PBL students (names are below) attended the SCTEA awards luncheon, along with advisor Cathy Kerwan, where they received an engraved plaque and a $100 check.

Susan Pleasant
Megan Floyd
Tameka Gaither
Tonya Graham - President
Jasmine Humphrey

Special thanks to the PBL advisors Ivan Lowe, Gwen Wilson, Cathy Kerwan, and Dane Loflin for their guidance and support to the PBL students.

Innovation Mini-Grant Program

I am pleased to announce an exciting new opportunity for faculty, staff, and student organizations. Through the Innovation Mini-Grant Program, the York Technical College Foundation will award grants for creative, new approaches to enhance student success. The grants will range up to $1,000 and will be based on anticipated outcomes and the impact of the projects on student success. Applications should be submitted by April 1 to the Development Office. We hope you will take advantage of this unique opportunity!

I appreciate the great support we receive from our York Technical College Foundation and for their leadership in creating this new program.

Mission Statement

A mission statement helps to define the fundamental purpose of an organization, basically describing why it exists and what it does to achieve its vision (Best Place to Work, Best Place to Learn, and Best Partner for Economic Development). Our current mission statement was last reviewed and approved in 2004. The SC Commission on Higher Education (CHE) requires us to include specific information within our mission statement which is why it is a page in length. Although we must have this formal mission statement, I would like to develop a concise and compelling statement that best summarizes what we do. Ideally, it would be a sentence or two that we would be able to quote from memory. What message should we convey to our stakeholders?

Included in the following link is our mission statement for your review and a questionnaire to complete. You have an opportunity to make suggested changes to the current mission statement and to create a one or two-sentence statement that best captures the essence of our mission. Please submit your feedback by Tuesday, February 2. Our goal is to present a draft to our governing board at their annual planning meeting in March.

http://www.yorktech.com/ie/surveys/YTC_MissionQuestionnaire.asp

Accreditation Reaffirmed for Business Programs

In November, the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) Board of Commissioners granted full reaffirmation of accreditation for the five associate degrees and the twelve specializations of the Business Unit (Administrative Office Technology, Business Administration, and Information Technology). In October, three peer reviewers visited the campus that evaluated our documentation to ensure that the self-study we submitted in August was accurate and met the ACBSP standards. We received full reaffirmation with no conditions, notes, and one opportunity for improvement. The next review will be in 2019. I want to thank all the faculty for their hard work: Edie Dille, Gwen Wilson, Regina Clawson, Brenda Freeman, Jackie Knight, Mina Williams, Ivan Lowe, Chris Ardis, Anita Leslie, Dane Loflin, James McDermott, Doug Parker, Jyron Baxter, Dexter Harlee, Toan Tran, and Steve Ward.

Phi ThanKs

Saturday, I joined twelve of our Phi Theta Kappa students from our Alpha Alpha Iota chapter, along with Karen Hedgepeth and Mark Ulseth, as we cleaned Springsteen Road. It was a great encouragement to me for so many of our students to come out and participate. The students who were there were:

Doris Kasprak
Stacey Hill
Jamie Boone
Jennifer Bell
Vicki Pennington
Elizabeth Palmisano
Joe Green
Shannon Gardner
Stephen Medlin
Patricia Celley
Diane McBride
Darrell Hyatt

They were enthusiastic about the roadside cleaning and their work at the College. My thanks go out to all of them, their sponsors Karen Hedgepeth and Bill Bass and all the members of our PTK. I had a chance to catch up with Patricia Celley who was PTK president last year. She went through a tough time recently with the after effects of a car accident and had to withdraw for a while. She told me she was in a good place now and on track to graduate this spring. I also had a chance to talk with our current PTK president, Jamie Boone. Jamie has volunteered to participate as a learning coach in a project led by Taunya Paul to help students with learning skills. Jamie blew me away with her insight into the paradigm many of our students are in who are failing but don’t seek out assistance. My time with all of them reminded me how thankful I am for York Tech and all the people who make it happen. You are doing amazing things every day in a real, bold and better way.