So how does one go about getting a job in the wine industry here in Seattle? ...If you don’t want to work in a restaurant beforehand, consider taking classes and going from there. South Seattle Community College has numerous courses for anyone wanting to get into the industry, from winemaking to becoming a sommelier. Seattle Central Community College has classes, as well.
Mark Mitsui, president of North Seattle Community College, is leaving in August to take a job as deputy assistant secretary for community colleges in the U.S. Department of Education. He’ll work in the office of vocational and adult education, which focuses on career, technical, adult and correctional education. ...Understanding community colleges “at the ground level” will be instrumental to the job, said Mitsui, who has been president of North Seattle since July 2010.
Beginning in August, North Seattle Community College President Mark Mitsui will begin a new position in a larger educational setting: the U.S. Department of Education. Mitsui has been selected to serve as deputy assistant secretary for community colleges.
North Seattle Community College President Mark Mitsui has been selected to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Colleges in the U.S. Department of Education. Mitsui will take the post on August 12, 2013. He will work in the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, which focuses on career, technical, adult and correctional education across the country, with a special emphasis on programs involving community colleges.
North Seattle CC President leaves for D.C. North Seattle Community College President Mark Mitsui will leave to take a post in the U.S. Department of Education in mid-August.
...at Vigor Shipyard...the new Harbor Island Training Center has just been dedicated. It includes a computer lab, classroom space, and industrial training floor, and its purpose, as explained in the announcement, is to provide students with the industrial skills they need to get family-wage jobs at the region’s industrial manufacturers.... SSCC already had welding and manufacturing programs, so the partnership made perfect sense.
South Seattle Community College and Vigor Industrial celebrated the opening of the newest extension of the SSCC campus, the Harbor Island Training Center located literally on site at the Vigor Shipyard on Harbor Island. The training center will get students through a six month program where they earn a certificate.... Students will have the opportunity to go to work right away.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that by 2014 nearly 40 percent of employees in large aviation and aerospace businesses will be eligible for retirement, creating a huge demand for trained technicians in the field. ...Elsewhere, South Seattle Community College works closely with Boeing to meet its workforce needs. The school has a long history of producing aviation technicians...
SSCC President Gary Oertli (center) cut the ribbon to officially open the new home for South’s Northwest Wine Academy.
The move has gotten national publicity: The State of Washington could skirt the intent of the Affordable Care Act, in order to save money. Some state senators are advocating dropping part-time state workers from the health insurance rolls and making them buy their coverage instead from the new Washington Health Benefits Exchange, an insurance marketplace for individuals and small businesses. Ann Joiner, an adjunct professor who teaches writing at Central Washington University and South Seattle Community College, is among the part-timers who don't like that idea...
Vigor Industrial and South Seattle Community College have partnered to launch an industrial training center at the shipyard on Harbor Island. The Harbor Island Training Center, which opens with a ribbon cutting ceremony June 7, will provide students with the industrial skills they need to get family-wage jobs at the region’s industrial manufacturers.
Vigor Industrial and South Seattle Community College have partnered to launch an industrial training center at the shipyard on Harbor Island... Partnering with South Seattle was a natural fit, she said, with Vigor providing the location, equipment and a real-world industrial workplace, and South Seattle Community College’s welding and manufacturing programs bringing their long expertise in skills training and instruction.
In an effort to...make college more affordable for students struggling with low-paying jobs, the Seattle Central Community College Foundation has announced a new scholarship called the Seattle Promise. With the Seattle Promise, the foundation hopes to incentivize academic performance and improve attendance for students who need financial help over and above what government-subsidized education grants can provide.
3M and the Collision Repair Education Foundation have announced the first round of award winners for the 3M Hire Our Heroes Campaign. Winners include Jonathan Gibson of South Seattle Community College. Fifty-nine grant winners, including 54 military members and five family members of veterans, were selected from applicants all across the U.S. Each recipient will receive a $2,500 grant to purchase tools and equipment needed to start their career in collision repair.
Now, in his second term as a Seattle city councilman—the lone councilman in the race, following Tim Burgess’ hasty retreat earlier this month—Harrell believes he’s ready and uniquely qualified to lead the city... As mayor, he says he’ll raise $20 million in endowment money to expand the “13th Year” program so that all graduates of Seattle public schools—not just students from Cleveland and Chief Sealth high schools—will receive, if they choose to, financial aid to attend South Seattle Community College.
Washington’s food-stamp program has helped thousands find jobs and get off public assistance through a federally funded employment-training program. It was through the nonprofit Seattle Jobs Initiative, which works with low-income people seeking jobs, that O’Loughlin pursued training in medical-information technology. She enrolled at South Seattle Community College, daring to dream about a secure livelihood.
"History is undivided yearning" A new film set against the backdrop of civil unrest at Seattle Central Community College forty years ago features protest leaders of the school’s past talking about their fight for equality. The project by Capitol Hill resident Kevin Owyang and filmmaker Matthew Bane, in their words, ”examines the challenges of diversity”... and highlights changemakers building a better future.
WASHINGTON state Opportunity Scholarship students are in a unique position to help broaden and deepen the program’s impact. Students with little experience in higher education are more likely to be influenced by their peers, said Wilder Garcia, a freshman at South Seattle Community College and scholarship recipient. Deploying scholarship recipients to speak to high schools would resonate... Lorelei Clark, a Seattle Central Community College student headed to Washington State University to study veterinarian science, was one of several students calling for internships to better connect STEM studies with real careers.
In May, former North Seattle Community College student Kaitlin Banfill was awarded a Fulbright Scholars Program full-year fellowship for study in China for one academic year. Kaitlin will be affiliated with Sichuan University and conducting fieldwork focusing on poor young adults, many from the Yi ethnic minority, who are attending China’s three-year vocational and technical training programs.
Seattle Central Community College has opened a new facility for its wood-construction center just as the market for woodworking jobs is starting to improve. Students who find their way to the Wood Technology Center at Seattle Central Community College often travel a wandering path before arriving at its doors... For years, the wood program was housed in an aging building in the Central Area. A few years ago, Seattle Central spent $25 million to rebuild it....
Bruce Harrell was asked to take off his candidate hat ... Some of Harrell's proposals as mayor are as follows:
Before now, Reggie Daigneault’s college courses were off-limits to traditional college-age students, no matter how much they — or in some cases, their parents — begged for them to be admitted
AFTER one of my readings last week for Seattle Reads, at Seattle Central Community College, a young man came up to me in the book-signing line and said, “It just happened on Monday.”
The filing deadline for King County’s Aug. 6 election closed Friday, and the biggest surprise was who didn’t enter a race.
Simply called "Fountain," the George Tsutakawa fountain that sits in the Seattle Central Community College atrium is silent and marred by graffiti. Supporters plan a gala fundraiser Friday May 17 beginning at 5:30pm on campus to raise some of the $80,000 needed to refurbish it. There will be music, food prepared by Seattle Central chefs and a silent auction of services and artwork.
Noteworthy scholarship programs at Seattle Community Colleges recognize students' hard work and difficult circumstances. The growing expense of college requires higher-education institutions to keep a strong commitment to student aid. The three institutions that are the Seattle Community Colleges are making a strong investment with a laudable scholarship program.
This PBS video spotlights STEM training at community and technical colleges under the auspices of the National STEM Consortium, which operates in 10 states. South Seattle Community College's Aviation Composites program is prominently featured as a national model of certificate programs which prepare or retrain students for manufacturing jobs requiring some degree of scientific, technical, engineering and/or mathematics (STEM) skills. South's primary coverage begins at 5:59 of the 12:30 video.
A bill signed into law May 2 by Gov. Jay Inslee will make employee training more affordable for Washington small businesses... [and] makes it easier for small businesses to train employees in partnership with community and technical colleges Keith Zeiler, Vaupell general manager, [shared] Vaupell’s success after using the Job Skills Program for its workforce. “In the past two years I’ve hired 145 people … 250 employees have gone through 70,000 hours of Lean training which has led to productivity improvements … [Vaupell] could not have done any of this without the support of North Seattle Community College.”
South Seattle Community College celebrated its annual “Friends of the College Dinner” on Thursday May 2 honoring students and thanking donors and education supporters.... South alumnus John Titus, President and CEO of Aero Controls Inc., was recognized with the 2012-2013 Outstanding Alumni Award.... Titus made a surprise announcement that he will establish an endowment scholarship for aviation students at South.
The Seattle Promise Scholarship will assist adults returning to school who keep a 3.0 GPA and attend school full time, said Adam Nance, executive director of Seattle Central Foundation. It will fill in the gap after federal and state grant money and other scholarships are taken into consideration, so students will not have to pay any tuition.
The Mary Mahoney Professional Nurses Organization (MMPNO) will present ten community nursing students of African descent with scholarships at their 64th Annual Nursing Scholarship Reception this Sat., Apr. 27.... Included are two North Seattle Community College nursing students, Selamawit “Selama” Workie and Yohannes T. Taye....
If anything can be perceived by looking at Chris Peterson's first releases for Avennia, then Washington wine lovers are in for a treat. Peterson...was among the first graduates of the Walla Walla Community College winemaking program. [His business partner] Marty Taucher...began taking winemaking classes at South Seattle Community College. They created Avennia in 2010....
Like a whale upon the sand, awesome yet helpless, the majestic Pacific Medical Center that crowns Beacon Hill is desperate to find a tenant willing to call this strikingly handsome art deco-style structure home.... The future of the building, a designated city landmark since 1992, is up in the air, and has been since last summer when Seattle developer Wright Runstad...defaulted on the loan.... Seattle Central Community College is mulling over the possibility of leasing about half of the Pacific Tower...for Allied Health programs...
Seattle Central Community College is trying to win state support for a deal to occupy about half of the iconic, but mostly empty, Beacon Hill landmark popularly known as the PacMed Center — but it’s running out of time.
Hundreds of community college faculty, staff and administrators have participated in several days of collaborative and motivational sessions at the American Association of Community Colleges’ Annual Conference.... Rosie Rimanda-Chareunsap, vice president of Student Services at South Seattle Community College, spoke about the steps her school took to meet the needs of their growing population of Asian-American students in spite of stereotypes.
Lincoln, Seattle's second high school, opened in Wallingford in 1911, the year Seattle High changed its name to Broadway and first opened night classes. ... After the space was sold in 1966 to Seattle Community College, Dr. Ed Erickson, the school's president ...
Gov. Jay Inslee has decided to replace half of the Washington Student Achievement Council, surprising state lawmakers and raising questions about the direction of a newly formed board charged with writing a road map for higher education.... The four replaced members were Baird; former Seattle Community College District Board Chairwoman Constance Rice; former state Academic Achievement and Accountability Commission chairman José Gaitán; and Jay Reich, former deputy chief of staff to Gary Locke....
At a recent public hearing in Olympia, testimony on House Bill 1817 highlighted contrasting perspectives and opinions about whether to invest in students we have educated in our K-12 schools.... At the hearing, the pro side was ably represented by a panel of educators – a Seattle community college president [North Seattle President Mark Mitsui], two school district superintendents and three panels of mostly undocumented students. The students spoke eloquently of being lawyers, engineers and computer scientists in the future.
Green for the 21st Century in Seattle
Innovations in curriculum and operations have earned the 2009 Green Washington Award for the Seattle Community Colleges – Central, North and South. All three colleges are active members of the Seattle Climate Partnership and North was an early signer of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. A district-wide Chancellor’s Sustainability Initiative provides energy, focus and a forum for emerging training and initiatives.
Sustainability is infused into programs ranging from urban agriculture at Central to environmental science, real estate and building management across the district. Students have funded a sustainability coordinator. Campus activities include reducing the carbon footprint and promoting recycling and energy conservation, which earned a “Recycler of the Year” award for South. Last year, the college culinary operations diverted 31 tons of materials to a regional composting facility – which returned the compost to “green” the college landscape.
For more information visit www.seattlecolleges.edu/green
Helping displaced workers to ‘Start Next Quarter’
During the economic downturn, thousands of displaced workers turned to the Seattle Community Colleges at the same time regional employers reported a need for skilled workers to fill jobs in the new economy. To help both potential workers and employers, the Seattle Community Colleges developed Start Next Quarter (SNQ), a two-part initiative designed to improve the success of dislocated workers who enroll in technical education programs. SNQ invites prospective students to assess their eligibility for workforce funding online and connects them to a comprehensive two-day college success workshop held at each campus. The workshops are based on a model developed at one of the district campuses. Students who complete the workshop are more likely to complete their training programs and to obtain jobs using their new skills. The project was developed in part through a grant from the League for Innovation, funded by the Walmart Foundation Bright Futures project to serve displaced workers.
Visit www.startnextquarter.org
A Model for the Region
The Opportunity Center for Employment and Education at North Seattle Community College is a regional resource and the first integrated service center of its kind in Washington state. Since the OCE&E opened its doors in spring 2011, more than 40,000 people have come for one-stop help in finding a new job, career retraining or to sign up for public assistance benefits. Founding partners were the state Departments of Social and Health Services and Employment Security, the college, and the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County. The campus and the new LEED Gold Certified 45,000-square foot facility are in the heart of Seattle’s north end and close to a major transit hub. House Speaker Frank Chopp and Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney (sponsor of the legislation and a former Seattle District trustee) championed the OCE&E in the state legislature. The center aims to provide streamlined services in a positive environment, helping clients succeed in the next stage of their lives.