Community college continues to expand facilities

Flathead Valley Community College is busy expanding and improving, said college president Jane Karas during a talk June 20 at Grouse Mountain Lodge.

Karas made the rounds to area communities updating folks on college programs during her annual “Community Conversations” tour.

She listed a number of programs that have been added to the college’s curriculum, including advanced manufacturing, integrated food service and agriculture, emergency dispatcher training and music.

“It’s been a great way for the college to meet our community’s needs and that’s what a community college is for,” she said.

This spring FVCC opened The Rebecca Chaney Broussard Center for Nursing and Health Science on its campus. Karas pointed to the center as great addition to the college.

“It’s a state-of-the-art facility where our nursing and health science students can be trained,” she said. “We have nursing (education) at all levels now. We have some of the best anatomy and physiology classes in the state.”

Prior to the center’s opening it wasn’t unusual for medical students working on cadavers to be using closet-sized rooms for lessons. The opening of the 32,000-square-foot building has changed that.

“Now we have well-lit ventilated rooms for the cadavers,” she said. “We have medical simulators built like human bodies that allow students to have a great learning opportunity.”

FVCC is looking at how to offer more partner programs with four-year schools that allow students to obtain a bachelor’s degree without leaving the valley. The college has roughly 20 of those programs now.

“We’re looking at how we can bring more of those to campus,” Karas said. “We’ve surveyed local businesses to see what type of degrees they would like to see here for employees.”

The college is continuing its global education opportunities. The study abroad program includes trips to Venice, Bali, London, Galapagos Islands and Brazil.

“Many of our students have never had the chance to leave the valley or the state,” Karas said. “In a global economy its so important for students to understand that what happens in the world impacts all of us.”

The college has made changes to its Running Start program to give greater opportunity for high school junior and seniors to take college classes. New policy gives the first six credits in the program to be free for all high school students that qualify for the program.

“Research shows that high school students who start college with a completion of six credits are more likely to finish college on time and with a better GPA,” she said.

A highlight of the school year came from the building trades program at the college, Karas said.

Students in the program completed building a classroom building at Olney-Bissell School. Throughout the year the college students worked on the building and were able to show the elementary students part of the process.

“They worked really hard on the building,” she said. “At the dedication of the building, a plaque was presented with the college students names to be placed on the building.”