Westpointe Center Receives Community Partner Award from Horizonte

Horizonte Instruction and Training Center, an educational institution in the Salt Lake City School District, recently honored the new Westpointe Workforce Training & Education Center with its 2019 Community Partner Award.

Westpointe granted Horizonte students six scholarships for courses in Plastic Injection Molding Technology and Composites Technology.

"This ensured that our students received training to meet the ongoing demands of Utah's high-growth industry," the award citation said. "Horizonte plans to expand next school year to provide courses in all trades to all our students. Thank you, Westpointe, for your cooperation with our school."

Assistant Principal Liz Gonzales presented the award to SLCC Associate Vice President Rick Bouillon at Horizonte's graduation ceremony in June.

New Staff Association Executive Board Elected for 2019-2020

This week SLCC’s Staff Association elected a new executive board, with delegates representing the employees at each campus. 

President: 
Sean Crossland

Delegates:  
Susanna Garcia (Jordan)
Jim Buchannan (Miller)
Fen Rong Liu (South City)
Emily Barnes (Taylorsville Redwood)
Jan Rogers (Taylorsville Redwood)
Idolina Quijada (Airport Center, Library Square, West Valley and Westpointe Centers)

Delegate-Elects: 
Shauna Gordon (Jordan)
Mireya Castillo (Miller)
Brett Campbell (South City) 
Malin Francis (Taylorsville Redwood)
Trina Frandsen (Taylorsville Redwood)
Gina Alfred (Airport Center, Library Square, West Valley and Westpointe Centers) 

We’re grateful for the committed work of President David Brower, Secretary Jan Meigs, and outgoing board members Jill Gardner, Angie Hunter, Christina Rice and Rosie Summerhayes.

We’re excited to see what the new year—and new executive board!—have in store. 

Cool Classes: Hiking

Joli Nay (left) and student Bella Manuel hike the Church Fork trail in Mill Creek Canyon.

Salt Lake Community College instructor Joli Nay hikes with students for eight weeks each summer. Dream job. Right? Looking at Nay at a trailhead on a summer’s day – t-shirt, sunglasses, shorts – you think, ‘Really? This gig pays money?’ It’s true. “It’s just fun,” she smiles. “I get paid to hike.”

Nay actually teaches several courses within the Exercise Science Department at SLCC. Skills? Bunches. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education, a master’s degree in exercise science, a bachelor’s degree in combined psychology, Spanish and communications and even a Fit Tech degree from SLCC. That’s a lot of academia. But hiking, worth one required credit within SLCC’s Lifelong Wellness program, gets her out of the classroom and into the woods.

There are no prerequisites. All skill levels are welcome. Hike at your own pace – you just have to go with at least one other person. “This is one of the few classes at SLCC where I encourage people to bring others,” says Nay.

Student Brielle Bowyer (left) and her mother Kelly Bowyer head toward Grandeur Peak.

The first to arrive at the Grandeur Peak hike in Millcreek Canyon are the Bowyer ladies, Brielle, 26, and her energetic mother Kelly, 58. At least since her daughter was born, Kelly gets up every morning at 3:30 a.m. to exercise before going to work for 10 hours as an office manager for a doctor. Why invite Mom? “Because she’s my best buddy,” Brielle says. “And she’s my hiking buddy.” They hike at least once a week during the summer anyway. “I love hiking so much,” she adds. “I figured, I’m going to be hiking anyway, I might as well get credit for it.” Brielle, a surgical tech who took a break from education to earn money for college, is back on track as a pre-med student at SLCC toward becoming a doctor.

The Bowyers, early to class, take off first from the Church Fork trailhead near a gushing waterfall as the teacher waits for the rest of the group to arrive. McKay Nielsen and Maddy Heitman – they want to hike faster than the rest of the group, 11 in all – are the next two to buddy up. Like everyone else in the class, they’re at least expected to just show up – attendance is a big part of the grade – and also complete “modules” outside of class. Homework involves taking pictures while on hikes and writing about the experiences.

Maddy Heitman (left) and McKay Nielsen buddy up for a hike.

“I get to learn all of these new trails that I’ll do again in the future with buddies,” says Nielsen, 24, of Farmington. He’s studying computer science at SLCC and envisions a career in cyber security. He and the other students are also encouraged to engage in trail maintenance and picking up trash as well as simply being kind and courteous to other hikers on the trail. After all, Nay says, they’re representing the college while hiking. She also talks with students about appreciating all of the enviable outdoor offerings in Utah.

Heitman, 19, has already traveled oversees quite a bit on faith-based missions and loves the outdoors, especially in her home state. “I love hiking, so, it’s an easy class to do over the summer,” she says. Heitman plans to graduate next spring from SLCC and pursue an undergraduate degree in sociology, but not before taking a gap year to do more humanitarian work.

A group of Joli Nay's hiking students stop to rest.

Pairs and groups stagger their starts and head up the mountain, followed by Nay and a few other students, including Bella Manuel and her one-year-old son, Ryker, on her back. Manuel, 21, of Taylorsville, is one of five family members, including Mom and Dad, currently going to college – a sister is headed to SLCC’s Fashion Institute.

Manuel is attacking her general education courses on her way to becoming an art teacher at a high school, where she hopes to pick up her passion again for softball as a coach (she played for colleges in Iowa and Ohio and, as a catcher, played in an NAIA World Series). She’s still getting back in shape after having a baby and, feeling the heat and altitude, has to turn back early for this hike. “It’s a good way to get outside with the little one,” she says, glancing over her shoulder while bouncing down the trail. “I hate turning back early, but I’m outside.” Back at the trailhead, just as she predicted, little Ryker was fast asleep.

Bella Manuel's hike back to the trailhead puts son Ryker in a relaxed state.

Student Athletes Make NJCAA All-Academic List

A large number of Salt Lake Community College student-athletes received individual recognition on a national scale for their academic prowess earlier this week.
 
In its annual All-Academic list, the NJCAA honored 20 SLCC student-athletes for their academic success during the 2018-19 academic year. In order to be considered for the list, a student-athlete had to have a minimum of a 3.60 cumulative GPA.
 
Salt Lake had three student-athletes make the NJCAA's First Team, which requires a perfect 4.0 GPA. Those student-athletes were spread across three different teams as Colton Moore (baseball), Holland Vande Merwe (volleyball) and Nikole Oliver (women's soccer) all made the list.
 
The Bruins had five student-athletes earn NJCAA All-Academic Second-Team honors, fulfilling the requirement of a GPA from 3.80-3.99. SLCC players who earned this honor included: Baylie Saunders and Sarah Spencer (women's soccer); and Bruna Correa, Dawson Day and Hellen Lacava (women's volleyball). 
 
SLCC had 12 mentions on the NJCAA All-Academic Third Team, including: Alex Bumpus, Drake Lewis, Kru Flint and RJ Hazen (baseball); Dominique Estrada, Jayne Schiess, Madison Schmidt, Samantha Tippetts, Siuana Pauni, Summer Miles and Sydney Hathaway (women's soccer); and Talia Myers (volleyball). In order to earn Third Team honors, a student-athlete had to have a GPA between 3.60 and 3.79. 

Salt Lake also had two teams earn the NJCAA All-Academic team honors earlier in the week.

Cool Classes: Pickleball

Brett Davis (center) offers Pickleball tips to Hunter Brown (right) and Michael Talbert.

Michael Talbert shows up to pickleball class early on a Friday with a new Gamma Fusion 2.0 paddle. “I upped my game,” he explains to Hunter Brown, who arrives with his fiancé Lauren Smeddon on this June morning.

Brown begins to twist at the waist. Once. Twice. He’s finished warming up. In a few minutes, he and others will take part in lessons and games on a shiny, newly refinished floor in the Lifetime Activities Center on Salt Lake Community College’s Taylorsville Redwood Campus.

That’s right. It’s a class for pickleball, one of many fun courses from which students can choose within the Lifelong Wellness program to fulfill a one-credit requirement within their majors while at SLCC. Pickleball, in case you haven’t heard of it, shares some of the tennis vernacular – serve, volley, fault, doubles, singles – only the serves are underhand, the court is smaller and there are paddles instead of racquets. The ball, however, looks more like a whiffle ball.

Avery Jones smashes a return in Pickleball.

Now you’re ready to play pickleball. And so is Talbert, 40, who lives in Sandy with his wife and child. The 13-year Navy veteran worked on aircraft while in the military. Now he’s at SLCC studying aviation maintenance and plans to continue with aerospace at a four-year school and then, hopefully, a job with Boeing. “I didn’t know what it was,” he says about pickleball. “Now I’m in the class, and it’s fun.” He heard it combines elements of badminton, tennis and ping pong. He’s right.

Oh, and there’s a “kitchen” in pickleball, but you’ll have to take Brett Davis’ pickleball class if you want to know more about that. Davis, also a tennis instructor at SLCC, has been teaching pickleball at the college for four years, during which time the sport has grown in popularity. “It’s very competitive,” he says. “It’s strategic. It’s like chess, because it’s slower (than tennis). You have time to think. And you’re not as sore (as with tennis) afterwards.”

Zarina Khan chooses a paddle for Pickleball.

But what about the name – pickleball? Davis, no doubt like a lot of serious pickleballers, heard it has something to do with how a dog named Pickles chased the ball belonging to the people who invented the sport. Pickleball allegedly arose out of boredom. No surprise there, as was probably the case with most sports. And the name may have also been derived from a comparison to oarsmen who were “leftovers” from other boats. You’ll have to cobble together your own sources for a more definitive answer – or just go with the dog story.

Suffice it to say, Brown, 20, and his fiancé have a blast on the pickleball court. He is taking pre-med classes at SLCC and wants to be an anesthetist. “He signs up, and I’m like, ‘What? He’s taking pickleball?’” laughs Smeddon. “I really didn’t know what it was, and then my mom started getting really into it. He played with her, and it was super fun.” Future mother-in-law, also a tennis player, usually beats Brown at pickleball. Strategic, indeed.

Members of Brett Davis' (wearing blue hat) Pickleball class.