Official SLCC Blog

Kristen Hall, Dental Hygiene Associate Professor In a field where dedication and empathy are paramount, Kristen Hall stands out as a beacon of excellence. Kristen Hall, Dental Hygiene Associate Professor, has been named educator of the year by the Utah Dental Hygienists' Association (UDHA). Her tireless outreach, collaboration with industry leaders, commitment to community service, and mentorship to new and adjunct faculty have earned her high recognition. Still, it is Kristen's dedication and commitment to educating, supporting, and nurturing future dental hygienists that she values most. “Kristen regularly demonstrates her dedication to excellence in dental hygiene education through her emphasis on ensuring each student has all of the hard skills and soft skills students need to be successful in their future career,” says Dr. Angela Belnap, Associate Dean of the Division of Allied Health. Kristen’s path to becoming a dental hygienist and later an educator was not an easy one...

  The Office of Engaged Learning provides all SLCC students with a transformative learning opportunity to study and spend time abroad or domestically through the Study Away program. This program not only provides students with opportunities but also opens the doors to the world and the benefits of studying away go far beyond academics. Studying away enhances students' educational experience as they immerse themselves far away from home, sometimes abroad, in a new culture and language while applying newly acquired knowledge. This opportunity empowers students to embrace new experiences while broadening their perspective of the world, fostering personal growth and making connections in meaningful ways. Patton Kirkpatrick, who participated in the Japanese Language and Cultural Immersion program in Spring 2024, says the experience was hard but amazing. "The program curriculum was challenging, and I did struggle with mobility due to my physical disability, but I got to experience s...

Initially drawn to medicine, Errol discovered a natural talent for computer science while working as a junior software developer in Zimbabwe. Encouraged by peers who recognized his skills and realizing that becoming a doctor would take ten years, he decided to pursue a path in technology.  Errol applied to Salt Lake Community College based on a cousin’s recommendation that Utah was a great place to live. “It was my first time coming to America, and it was amazing,” he recalled. He plans to apply his tech skills to medicine and improve lives.   I can be in medicine through computer science,” he said. I'm going to use computer science in medicine to create devices and software to make life easier for everyone.   Emphasizing the expansive nature of the field and its promising prospects. Errol’s advice to anyone considering a career in computer science is straightforward: “If you’re thinking about doing computer science, do it. There is a lot to do in computer science. It’s n...

  Vietnamese-American Viet Thanh Nguyen will speak to the complexities of war, refugees, and exile and his own personal journey. Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnamese American author Viet Thanh Nguyen will speak at Salt Lake Community College’s Big Questions Forum on September 25 at The Grand Theater on the College’s South City Campus. The forum’s theme this year is “Contested Spaces: Surviving and Thriving in the 21 st  Century.” The public is invited to the event and to engage in a Q&A that will follow the lecture.   Viet Thanh Nguyen writing reflects what it means to be displaced, what home means, and his own experiences as a refugee. “He is deeply familiar with the idea of contested spaces, he moved to the U.S. during the Vietnam War and lived in a refugee camp while separated from his parents for a while before he was able to reunite with them,” said Sahar Al-Shoubaki, Assistant Professor, Humanities and instrumental in bringing the author to SLC.   A conteste...

  The Community College was only one of five institutions to receive the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Research Grant, and the only community college. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s  Systems for Action (S4A) recently awarded Salt Lake Community College’s (SLCC) School of Health Sciences nearly $100,000 to study holistic admissions in health science education.   Only five awards were made across the entire nation this year through an S4A Call for Proposals to implement studies rigorously testing innovative approaches of helping medical, social and public health systems work together to dismantle systemic racism and address the health and social needs of people experiencing health inequities.   Holistic admissions help identify potential students who are not only academically strong but who also have important soft skills that are necessary in healthcare, such as responsive bedside manner, cultural competence, and the life experience to commit to a long ca...