Lake Superior College News Releases

Are you graduating from high school and thinking about college? Are you looking to change your career path? See your future at Lake Superior College’s spring open house on Friday, April 25 from 3 to 6 p.m. where you’ll find opportunities at every turn.More than 60 booths will feature information and demonstrations by various departments. There will also be free chair massages, refreshments, door prizes, and a drawing for six free college credits.

LSC offers an Associate of Arts, an Associate of Fine Arts, and an Associate of Science degree, which allow students to complete the first two years of a bachelor’s degree prior to transfer to a four-year university or college. LSC also offers more than 90 certificate, diploma, and degree programs in career/technical fields.

More than 130 online courses are offered through the popular Virtual Campus. These classes include fully transferable Minnesota Transfer Curriculum courses as well as electives, technical program courses, and developmental courses. For more information, call 1-800-432-2884, ext. 7601 or visit www.lsc.edu

LSC is a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. With more than 4,800 students enrolled this spring semester, LSC is northeastern Minnesota’s largest two-year college. LSC provides a wide range of programs and services, including liberal arts and science courses for transfer, technical programs intended to provide occupational skills, continuing education, and customized training for business and industry. LSC is also a leader in Internet-delivered courses and programs in Minnesota.

Originally published in the Outlook Edition of the Duluth News Tribune on 3/23/08. Written by Janet Blixt.

An innovative job shadowing program is helping students in Lake Superior College’s electronic industrial controls program understand how their technical education translates into well-paying and challenging jobs. As part of LSC’s curriculum, industrial control students now spend entire days with industrial control professionals at the Sappi paper mill in Cloquet, the NewPage paper mill (formerly known as Stora Enso) in Duluth, the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD), Minnesota Power, Mielke Electric, and the USG fiberboard plant in Cloquet. Each student visits every industrial site for a day through a fall and spring semester-long rotating schedule.

The industrial job shadowing program first developed several years ago when NewPage approached LSC with the idea. “Our industrial controls and internship advisory committees and our workforce development department both recognized the need to cultivate workers for area industry. They expanded this onsite job shadowing program for our electronic industrial controls students,” said electronics instructor and faculty member Mike O’Mara. “Students are able to spend time with professionals. They get a sense of what a specific job would entail at a pulp and paper mill, a wastewater treatment plant, a power plant, or with a company that installs and services industrial controls.”

Industry anticipates a sixty percent turnover in these jobs in the next ten years due to retirements. The companies in these areas offer competitive wages and benefits.

“The job market for industrial controls is full of opportunity,” said Steve Wagner, LSC’s vice president of workforce and community development. “The demand for educated and skilled electronic workers is healthy here in the Northland.”

Brooks Thompson is an electronics industrial controls student at LSC and also a full-time maintenance employee in the Georgia Pacific Superwood plant in Duluth. He is enrolled in LSC’s program with financial support from his employer to upgrade his electrician skills.

Thompson was onsite at the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD) plant in Lincoln Park, Duluth last October where he spent the day job shadowing master electrician Larry Wolter. WLSSD provides solid waste management and wastewater services for an approximately 500 square-mile region that includes the cities of Duluth, Cloquet, Hermantown, Proctor, Carlton, Scanlon, Thomson and Wrenshall, and the surrounding townships. For WLSSD, the job shadow program is beneficial because it allows students to see their operations and provides an opportunity for WLSSD staff to interact with potential future employees – employees who could likely fill future openings. Because wastewater treatment processes have become highly automated, electricians need expanded skills and experience with computerized operations.

“The trend toward increased automation will continue,” said WLSSD assistant director Marianne Bohren. “This trend not only elevates the level of skills needed to keep our systems running, but it also increases the demand for trained technicians throughout the region. We have a very skilled team in place, but most will be retiring in the near future. Our operation depends on our ability to find qualified replacements.”

Wolter’s job as master electrician for WLSSD involves designing and maintaining operating systems and approving some of the work completed by other electricians and instrument technicians. For the job shadow day, Thompson spent eight hours with Wolter at the wastewater treatment plant. “I watched him install conduit for one of the main compressors in the system,” said Thompson. “We talked quite a bit about why he was running things a certain way. I assisted him with minor tasks like getting tools and holding the flashlight.” Thompson appreciates the job shadow program as a value-added part of his college course. “It’s a great idea to expose you to what you’re getting into by working with the guys in a real job setting.”

Jacob Karas is another LSC electronic industrial controls student who has experienced several job shadow site visits, including the Sappi and NewPage paper mills. “It was an eye opener for me at the mills. I was surprised at how intense it can be at times with a paper roll coming through and then other times, pretty laid back, depending on what’s going on out on the floor.”

Photo caption: Brooks Thompson and Jacob Karas are among the LSC students participating in a new job shadowing program.

Originally published in the Outlook Edition of the Duluth News Tribune on 3/23/08. Written by Janet Blixt.

Lake Superior College has been awarded two Minnesota Job Skills Partnership (MJSP) grants totaling $489,181 to provide customized workforce training programs over a three-year period for St. Luke’s and Northstar Aerospace of Duluth.

“We’re pleased to partner with St. Luke’s and Northstar Aerospace. Both healthcare and aviation are growing industries in the Arrowhead region and we plan to support their workforce needs with this intensive training,” said Steve Wagner, LSC’s vice president of workforce development and customized training.

Lake Superior College will provide training to eighty Northstar employees in machine operation and machining. Northstar Aerospace specializes in aircraft seats, precision machined components, parts and assemblies for the aerospace industry. The training program will compliment the company’s plan to develop a career pathway program that incorporates strategic recruitment of entry level employees, career laddering of existing employees through skill development, and the development of a customized training program that teaches the knowledge, skills and abilities that Northstar employees need to be the best in the industry. “We want to provide our employees with the tools and training to produce the highest quality machined components, parts and assemblies for the aerospace industry,” said Kevin C. Snyder, vice president of human resources for Northstar Aerospace. “Receiving the MJSP grant represents the cornerstone of Northstar’s six strategic employment and training initiatives running concurrently over the next five years.”

Lake Superior College will partner with St. Luke’s hospital and clinics to develop a customized Lean Healthcare Training Program. St. Luke’s is a comprehensive health care system with more than 2,200 employees serving a 17-county region in three states.

Over the course of the three-year grant, 192 employees will learn the Lean Health principles and share them across the health system. “We are excited to partner with Lake Superior College through the MJSP grant to implement Lean Healthcare principles at St. Luke’s. Lean Healthcare gives us a common approach to improving processes for the care of our patients through the St. Luke’s system,” said John Strange, president and chief executive officer of St. Luke’s.

Health care experts around the country are embracing the Lean Health concept, which was originally based on the Toyota production system for improving manufacturing processes. The process eliminates unnecessary steps and works to provide the right resources at the right time for patient care and employee satisfaction. Several years ago this same model was modified and implemented in the healthcare industry. Lake Superior College has already partnered with Itasca Community College and three other colleges in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system to develop the core of this curriculum.

The Minnesota Job Skills Partnership acts as a catalyst between business and education in developing cooperative training projects that provides new job training or retraining of existing employees. MJSP grants are given to educational institutions with businesses as partners. Grants are awarded by the MJSP Board to educational institutions who partner with businesses to develop new job training or retraining for existing employees. All training projects pair at least one public/private accredited Minnesota educational institution and one business. The program is part of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), the state’s principal economic development agency.

LSC is a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. With more than 4,800 students enrolled this spring semester, LSC is northeastern Minnesota’s largest two-year college. LSC provides a wide range of programs and services, including liberal arts and science courses for transfer, technical programs intended to provide occupational skills, continuing education, and customized training for business and industry. LSC is also a leader in Internet-delivered courses and programs in Minnesota

(Duluth, Minn.) — The Lake Superior College Office of Public Information has received a Paragon award at the 34th annual conference of the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR). LSC won a Silver Paragon, representing second place in the national competition, in the Online Newsletter category.

“We were very excited to learn that we had won a Paragon,” said Gary Kruchowski, LSC’s director of public information and government affairs. “Every member of our department contributes to this online newsletter and we’ve also had great support from our web development staff, so this is an award for a real team effort.”

View LSC’s award-winning newsletter, “The Wave,” at blog.lsc.edu/wave.

The National Council for Marketing & Public Relations represents marketing and public relations professionals at community and technical colleges. As one of the fastest-growing affiliates of the American Association of Community Colleges, NCMPR has more than 1,500 members from nearly 600 colleges across the United States, Canada and other countries.

The award was presented on March 11 at NCMPR’s national conference in Savannah, Georgia. Learn more and see a complete list of award winners at www.ncmpr.org.

LSC is a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. With more than 4,800 students enrolled this spring semester, LSC is northeastern Minnesota’s largest two-year college, providing a wide range of programs and services, including liberal arts and science courses for transfer, technical programs intended to provide occupational skills, continuing education, and customized training for business and industry. LSC is also a leader in Internet-delivered courses and programs in Minnesota.