Community colleges have lasting impact

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CENTRALIA — Kaskaskia College hosted a celebration of the Illinois Community College Board’s 60th anniversary Thursday, Sept. 25. Leaders of several community colleges and other notable guests highlighted the success and involvement that community colleges have within their respective communities. 

“In 1965, Illinois made a bold choice to build the most comprehensive community college system in the nation. Since then, 45 colleges have grown into anchors for every part of our state,” ICCB Executive Director Dr. Brian Durham said. “Here in southern Illinois, our colleges have given generations of students from small towns, farms and river communities the chance to pursue higher education close to home and at a price that they can afford. Many of those outstanding institutions are here with us today.” 

According to Durham, community colleges make a difference in the lives of individuals across southern Illinois by not only preparing students to transfer to universities, but also equipping people with the skills needed to support local industries such as healthcare, education and small businesses.

Kaskaskia College President Dr. George Evans reiterated what Dr. Durham had to say, and also added that by celebrating the ICCB’s 60th birthday they are also recognizing the amount of millions of individuals that the ICCB has impacted since that time. He noted that last year 520,000 students walked through the halls of all the community colleges in the state of Illinois, which is twice as many as the public and private university system. 

Evans claimed that these students are able to receive degrees and certificates for between $10 and $13,000, and that only three other states in the U.S. can say that they have an equal system to that. Those states include New York, New Jersey and California. 

Community college graduates also attended the celebration to share a glimpse into their own success stories, including President of John A. Logan College Dr. Kirk Overstreet. 

“It is a privilege to stand here before you, not just as the President of John A. Logan College but as someone whose journey began at a community college,” Dr. Overstreet said. “So, I am a first-generation college graduate. I started my road on this path, failing at community college way back before a lot of you were in this room. But what the community college gave me, what our system gave me, was a chance to reboot.”

According to Dr. Overstreet, he started out his career in electrical construction, but in his 30s he decided to go back to community college and began a path toward three degrees, and eventually his position at John A. Logan College. 

A Kaskaskia College graduate, Maddisson “Maddy” Haslett-Warren, a nurse practitioner at Signature Orthopedics, talked about how Kaskaskia College helped her obtain her first goal of receiving a higher education, that goal being that she wanted to make her first paycheck of her career her own.

“It was very important to me that the first paycheck I made as a professional went directly to me and not to a bank for a student loan. The only way that I was able to achieve this was with the help of Kaskaskia College. I was lucky enough to receive a student recruitment scholarship for my full two years in the Associate Degree of Nursing program, as well as 11 other Kaskaskia College Foundation scholarships, which helped with books and other fees throughout my years here,” Haslett-Warren said. “This meant that once I graduated from Kaskaskia College and started my first nursing job my first paycheck belonged only to me, and maybe the nearest outlet mall.” 

Another Kaskaskia College graduate who has achieved success in local healthcare also shared his experience of success, thanks to KC.

“Before I became president of two community hospitals and a rural health network, before I led multimillion-dollar health care initiatives and before I sat on a board shaping the future of healthcare in Illinois, I was a student at Kaskaskia College,” Damon Harbison, President of SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital and SSM Health Good Samaritan Hospital said. “That’s where my journey began. While I was washing dishes in the cafeteria of the hospital that I am now the president of, I earned my Associate of Applied Science in radiologic technology degree. That degree was not just a credential; it was a gateway to the future.” 

Harbison said that he went on to Washington University following his time at KC, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Radiologic Technology and later he earned his Master of Business Administration degree at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. 

Another community college graduate, Amanda Hoekema, who is now a mechanical engineer at Intermountain Electronics, spoke at the event. She did not speak about her personal success, but about the success of the partnership that Kaskaskia College has with Intermountain Electronics. 

“On behalf of Intermountain Electronics, I want to express our deep appreciation for Kaskaskia College and the incredible partnership built over the past few years,” Hoekema said. “KC has been and continues to be an integral part of developing our manufacturing workforce. This institution isn’t just about educating students; it’s transforming lives, empowering industries. Through their support, we’ve launched two departments of labor apprenticeships for welding and electrical apprentices.” 

Hoekema said that KC not only provides a quality labor force, but also English classes for non-English speakers and tailored training programs. She said that KC’s professors understand their processes and teach to their standards. 

Beyond Intermountain Electronics, KC President Evans said that KC has involvement in nearly every industry in Centralia and its surrounding communities. 

“You cannot really speak on the company’s behalf without having some type of relationship with Kaskaskia College. Whether it’s the restaurant industry, whether it’s the hotel industry, we have employees that work for those. Whether it’s the lumber industry, the retail industry, the healthcare industry, your nursing homes, the rehabilitation areas all have a connection to KC. They are either employing one of our graduates or they are owned by one of our graduates or our students, our staff and the people who live in our district are utilizing their services. That can be said not only for Centralia, but for the entire nine counties that we served.” 

Evans shared with the Sentinel a state data fact that claims that about 90% of community college graduates stay within a 50-mile radius where they finished their degrees. He said that this means that students are staying close to home, all while having strong success and bettering their own communities.