Official SLCC Blog

Marisa Dawn Egbert discovered her love for civil engineering during a pre-engineering class at Salt Lake Community College, where she attended with an athletics scholarship and played on the women’s basketball team. Her focus at SLCC was on STEM-related (science, technology, engineering and math) courses. She transferred to Utah State University and earned a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering. In 2000, Egbert became state coordinator for the MATHCOUNTS in Utah and continues to lead the program, which annually benefits about 500 middle school students and more than 60 participating schools statewide. Over 5,000 Utah students have participated in MATHCOUNTS, a national nonprofit foundation that strives to engage students of all ability and interest levels in fun, challenging math programs to expand their academic and professional opportunities. Marisa Dawn Egbert Over the past decade, her relationship with SLCC has come full circle through her work with MATHCOUNTS as...

To say that Gerard Craft has found success as a chef and businessman would be an understatement. He received Food & Wine’s Best New Chef and Innovator of the Year awards. He was one of Inc. magazine’s Star Entrepreneurs under 30. And he won the James Beard Foundation Best Chef: Midwest award. In 2005, at the age of 25, he opened the restaurant Niche in Missouri and has since extended his offerings as part of Niche Food Group in St. Louis to include Taste by Niche, Brasserie by Niche, Pastaria and Porano Pasta, and a second Pastaria is expected to open in Nashville this summer. His success has grown from an addiction to the restaurant life he developed while he was a snowboard photographer in Salt Lake City. Before opening his first restaurant in a rehabilitated building in Benton Park, St. Louis, he cooked at Bistro Toujours in Park City; Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles; and Ryland Inn in New Jersey. Gerard Ford Craft Craft continues to build his culinary niche on a...

" I loved being in that environment with students and colleagues to have my senses awakened — sense of adventure, sense of stamina and endurance, sense of awe toward the natural beauty, sense of curiosity about history, geography, the Havasupai culture and a sense of personal and group accomplishment. " — President Dr. Deneece G. Huftalin A group of SLCC faculty, staff and students is ready for a long hike Lifelong Wellness General Education course, Fall 2016 The students bundled against the early-morning chill in March, cinched straps on packs and looked down more than 2,000 feet at the desert descent they were about to make into Havasu Canyon on the Havasupai Indian Reservation in northern Arizona. They smiled for a group portrait at the canyon rim and took off, heel-toe, heel-toe to the crunch of rock and dirt under foot. Anticipation of the spectacular unknown muted conversation about whatever hardships might loom on the strenuous 10-mile hike ahead of them. ...

They found damselflies, leeches and aquatic worms. They measured the oxygen and pH levels in water samples. Some even ventured into mountain streams and onto trails for the first time in their lives. These 20 female students from four middle schools in the Salt Lake Valley participated in WaterGirls, a program to keep girls interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) at a time in their lives when they’re most likely to lose interest. Girls collect water samples from a creek. The excursion to Big and Little Cottonwood canyons was led by SLCC geosciences Assistant Professor Maura Hahnenberger to teach the girls to conduct hands-on research. She was assisted by volunteer female scientists from SLCC, as well as s cientists from the University of Utah and the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center. Hahnenberger received a $6,500 innovation grant from iUtah that allowed her to supply transportation, equipment and food for the girls as they visited the canyons. ...

Salt Lake Community College plays a key role in a new program to allow high school students to integrate quickly into career paths in the diesel technician field. A student practices on a diesel engine Utah Diesel Technical Pathways encourages students to take diesel tech classes in high school and continue in the diesel technical programs at SLCC for a certificate of completion or an Associate of Applied Science degree. It offers hands-on internships through industry partners. The program was initiated by the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, SLCC, Canyons School District and Jordan School District. It will create a brighter future for students, says Brady Southwick, president of Cummins Rocky Mountain, one of the industry partners. The program was announced in February at Cummins with SLCC President Dr. Deneece G. Huftalin and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert. It will help students toward “meaningful, lucrative and rewarding careers” as diesel technicians, Huft...

Solar Ready Vets Graduating class from Hill Air Force Base at a solar array on base. Nearly a year after President Barack Obama visited Utah and challenged the Department of Energy (DOE) to increase the scope of its Solar Ready Vets program administered in the state by SLCC, a DOE official is lauding the program as a model for others across the nation. "This partnership with community colleges for us is designed to meet the needs of a broad range of American citizens and help them get access to jobs in the dynamic clean energy sector," said Deputy Secretary of Energy Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall at SLCC's Solar Ready Vets commencement ceremony in late March at Hill Air Force Base. Eighteen veterans graduated in the ceremony. The program trains veterans for careers in the high-tech solar industry. Deputy Secretary of Energy Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall. SLCC in association with the DOE tweaked the Solar Ready Vets curriculum f...

More than 70 percent of students entering SLCC intend to transfer to four-year schools Wendy Vu was inspired at an early age to pursue medicine as a career. Her father was an orderly at the old Cottonwood Hospital in Salt Lake Valley and she began volunteering there the summer after eighth grade. Now she’s a third-year medical student at the University of Utah. Vu's trajectory toward medical school is one that included Salt Lake Community College. In academia, the College is highly regarded for its role in helping well-prepared students transfer to the state’s four-year colleges and universities, and thousands of successful students each year follow the transfer path through SLCC. Wendy Vu. During high school, Vu took concurrent enrollment classes at SLCC. In 2008, she graduated from Taylorsville High School and from SLCC with an associate’s degree. “I had all of my general studies requirements taken care of at SLCC, which was a lot cheaper and helped save time when I g...

Sometimes life — family, mortgage, career — gets in the way of finishing a bachelor’s degree. It did for Josh Schreiber, 36, a father of three and an insurance broker who in 2017 expects to finally graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. The best part for Schreiber is he’s taking all his classes without having to visit any school other than SLCC. “At the end of the day, it’s a lifelong goal,” says Schreiber, whose degree will be from Utah State University. Schreiber says getting admitted to the USU Jon M. Huntsman School of Business was easy for him. He filled out an online application, qualified academically, paid USU and began taking USU-administered classes at SLCC. Josh Schreiber. He’s one of hundreds who benefit from SLCC’s university partnerships that offer bachelor’s degree programs through SLCC campuses. The College has partnerships with USU, Utah Valley University and Weber State University for bachelor’s degree tracks at SLCC that include ...