I remember meeting South Central College President Keith Stover in September 2011 during a day’s visit there. (I blogged all day about what I found on campus.) He was a dynamo early in the morning — and was not what you’d call formal. At the time he was focused on three things: improving the college’s Read more →
While visiting South Central College late last month, I ran into Cody McCall, a recent South Central grad who was hanging out in the shop for computer-integrated machining. Cody is a heck of a case in Minnesota higher education — the star high school student who forgoes a four-year college degree to attend a local Read more →
Remember Shawn Hagan, the former South Central College student in computer-integrated machining? He’s got a diploma in that field from the college, but is actually back at South Central — this time to earn an associate’s degree. He wants to go on to study operations management in a joint program run by the college and Read more →
While college grads across the nation with fancy degrees face no employment prospects, South Central has at least two areas that boast that either everyone who graduates gets a job — or that they can’t produce enough graduates to fill all the open jobs in their field. And those two are mechatronics and computer-integrated machining. Read more →
For a man entering his 41st year of education — and who has been at South Central College for more than a dozen years — 61-year-old President Keith Stover hasn’t lost his enthusiasm. He’ll talk your ear off about technical education, and is bearish on the future of manufacturing, agriculture and the college’s ability to Read more →
Lunch time — and I’m back in the cafeteria having chicken-fried steak with garlic whipped potatoes. It’s hearty stuff cooked up by students of the culinary program under the eye of food service manager (and instructor) Rebecca Hageback. They also prepare the packaged salads and sandwiches each day, along with the hot food such as Read more →
This is what I saw walking into the president’s office. They’re Stover’s twin grandsons. This guy is definitely not formal. (I’ll go over our interview later.)
Finally some time to gather my thoughts and get a little grub. I’m in the college cafeteria, the Crossroads Cafe, which is fairly quiet except for a business breakfast in the adjoining room. The cafe has the usual food-on-the-go — packaged breakfast sandwiches, granola, pieces of fruit in a bowl — and a little coffee Read more →
So it’s up-and-at’em at 5 a.m. for a 90-minute drive to South Central College, a two-year institution in Mankato. I arrive around 7:15 expecting to sit quietly in the cafeteria, grab some breakfast and collect my thoughts. (Oh, yeah — and I really have to go to the bathroom.) Nothin’ doing. President Keith Stover is Read more →
Two Minnesota students have made the Chronicle of Higher Education’s podcast series,”Say Something,” which interviews students around the country about what they’re up to. Shawn Hagen of South Central College builds aluminum guitars, and he talks about how they tie in with his management major. He tells the Chronicle: “I wanted to show future students Read more →
Alex Friedrich