TO:����������������� Board of Regents

 

FROM:����������� Willard R. Weaver

����������������������� Dean, Montana State University � Great Falls College of Technology

 

RE:����������������� Campus Report for the May 17 � 18, Board of Regents� Meeting

 

 

This spring student success stories seem to be blossoming at Montana State University�Great Falls College of Technology.� Some examples:

 

  • Laura Bresson, a pre-Bioscience Technology student, has been awarded a $4,000 fellowship at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories in Richland, Washington.� She will spend 10 weeks this summer working with Glen Dunam, Ph.D., building microscopic instruments for use with bacteria and viruses.�

 

The Department of Energy and the American Association of Community Colleges collaborated to develop this award as a way to create educational pathways for community college students in under-represented groups to pursue science, technology and engineering careers.� The DOE's Office of Science has formed the "Institute of Biotechnology, Environmental Science, and Computing for Community Colleges" to provide momentum for this partnership. MSU-Tech has been involved with this pilot project since its inception in 1998.

 

  • Crystal Johnson, a Business Management/Entrepreneurship student, won $2,000 recently as first runner-up in the Pacific Northwest Collegiate Entrepreneur competition sponsored by the Herb and Allice Jones Entrepreneurship Center at Seattle University.� Crystal�s award-winning project was the business plan she developed as a capstone project in her AAS-degree program.

 

Crystal originally enrolled at MSU�Great Falls College of Technology to develop the business expertise needed to complement her husband�s skills as an electrician in their business, Power Connection.� Apart from the award, the plan has also resulted in improvements to their business.� Crystal will use the same plan this week when she travels to The University of Montana to compete in the John Ruffatto Business Plan Competition.

 

  • Sharolyn Suek earned the distinction this spring of being the first MSU COT Student of the Year to complete all of her courses through distance education.� Sharolyn lives in Dutton, Montana, where she serves on the local school board and raises a family�all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA in on-line coursework in the Medical Transcription program.�� The whole family drove to Great Falls to watch Sharolyn receive her award in Heritage Hall.�

 

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MSU�Great Falls College of Technology has been selected as one of twenty sites nationwide to be a Cisco Academy Training Center in Sponsored Curriculum (CATC-SC).��� As a CATC-CS, the College will provide a minimum of five week-long training sessions this summer and one session a month for the upcoming academic year in both Unix Operating Systems and Web Development.�� Training for additional software programs will be added in the months to come.