Source: Granite Falls Advocate Tribune  Photo and story credit: Jessica Stölen, Editor

Over the last couple of years, Minnesota West Community & Technical College’s Granite Falls campus has added new programming to provide technical skills in a variety of fields. Last year, with the rising demand for healthcare workers throughout the nation, the campus added two new programs – the Surgical Technology and Medical Lab Technician programs. The lectures are offered via ITV or Zoom from the Luverne campus to the Granite Falls campus, while the labs are offered on site in Granite Falls with an instructor physically present.

The Surgical Tech program is led by Allied Health Faculty Amy McCuen. There are required in-person lab days on campus throughout the program’s duration. In the first and second semesters, the students are on campus for two days. In the third semester, students attend in-person for three days, and in the final five weeks of the third semester, they are in clinicals two days a week, and labs three days a week. The final semester is entirely time spent in clinicals. Once clinicals are completed, students take a certification exam to be board certified.

The Medical Lab Tech program is led by Allied Health Faculty Dr. Rita Miller. Required in-person lab days for the MLT program are on campus two days a week, three days a week in the second semester. In the third semester, it moves to three days a week. From January to June the students are in their clinicals for 40 hours a week at a hospital site in a laboratory. Upon completion of classes, students have the opportunity to take a board certification test. Students can opt to take the test at a later time, as the certification test for the MLT program is not included in the course costs.

Additionally, the Granite Falls campus will now offer a welding program on campus. It has, in the past, been offered intermittently, but will now run as a full academic year diploma program.

Minnesota West also offers a Lineman program. “It’s one of those unique careers where you can start out as a lineman and end up being a CEO of a company,” says Dean of Student Services and Enrollment Rebecca Weber. The diploma program offers the hands-on training on the campus grounds, as well as CPR, First Aid and CDL training.

The Granite Falls campus is also working on a bonding project that will allow for construction to flip the entry of the building to face Highway 212, and create a more open concept for the student services area.

Enrollment continues to grow at the campus. Post pandemic, the college as a whole has increased enrollment 5.79 percent for the spring term. With the legislation for a workforce development scholarship, Minnesota West is now able to provide $2,500 scholarships geared towards trades that are in high demand that will take effect in the fall term. The Northstar Promise is a Minnesota legislatively funded initiative that provides the scholarships for Minnesota residents and targets families who have a gross salary of $80,000 or less with a goal to close the equity gap. Minnesota West also just released this spring a PSEO Reach scholarship, offering a $2,000 scholarship to graduating high school seniors who have taken nine or more credits from Minnesota West as PSEO or Reach students. “We see a lot of our students that take a class here and are sometimes maybe a semester away from earning a degree. We want them to be able to finish that and try to offset those costs. We’re very excited about that and we’ve had a good response so far,” says Weber.

Minnesota West is also working with other transfer schools, particularly Southwest Minnesota State University to try to address the issue of the shortage of teachers. “So we offer a two-year degree in early childhood education with the intent to transfer and earn credentials from a four-year university so that we can get more teachers trained and eligible to go into the field,” says Weber.

Minnesota West will also be offering a “College is For Me” program in June on the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th. The event is geared towards first generation students and English language learner students. “It’s really to get them prepared to come to college and that college is for everyone. College is for traditional students, non-traditional students, anybody who wants to upgrade their skills, anybody who maybe never went to college but always wanted to. That’s what the day is for, it’s really just to say, hey, you belong here. We can help you achieve your goals,” Weber says.