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Scott Webb: You know, life happens. And when it does many people have to press the pause button on their education here to tell us why now is a great time to unpause and return to school is Nick Kettman, Admissions advisor at Kirkwood Community College. This podcast is brought to you by Kirkwood Community College. I'm Scott Webb. So Nick, thanks so much for joining me today. I understand that a lot of people who start college can experience setbacks. You know, they get in the way of earning a degree. What are some of the common reasons people might pause or even give up finishing their college degree?

Nick Kettman: Like you mentioned, there's multiple reasons why students might stop going to college or pause their college journey. Some of those could be personal reasons whether that would be health-related or maybe it's family related. I know sometimes when you have a new child, for example, that might put you on pause or other reasons might be even job opportunities. So while the student is completing their degree, maybe they have a job offering. So they want to pursue that for the time being, but they might realize along the way that it might be beneficial to still come back and complete that initial degree that they were intending to get. That it might help with the career advancement as they upskill themselves a little bit. So I would say it's never too late to come back, but whatever a person's reason for pausing, they have just as big of a reason why to come back to college too.

Host: So for those who did leave college before they graduated, why is perhaps now the best time for them to come back and especially go to Kirkwood to finish their degrees?

Nick Kettman: Now is definitely a great time to be looking to come back to college. One thing that has been brought about by the pandemic is I would say that colleges as a whole, we are finding ways to adapt to the current situation and become more resilient in the delivery method that we have for education. I feel like colleges are really changing up how we offer classes, whereas a program that might be a traditional where you'd have to do a lot of that face to face, is now providing more online opportunities or hybrid opportunities. I know that the online format can cause anxiety for a lot of people, which is completely understandable, but we're trying to do our best to still offer as much face to face as we can. So some of those hands on lab classes are still going to be face to face. We will limit the number of students in there to practice social distancing, but you'll still get that on campus field, but we are moving more and more options to having an online presence of that too. So that will make it much more flexible. So as people are working around whether it's jobs or family or whatever those personal commitments might be, they're going to have more opportunity to be flexible with their class schedule as well. So I think that is one thing that's really making now a good time to come back.

Host: You know, I know Kirkwood already has one of the lowest tuitions in the State, but what about scholarship opportunities for those still concerned about the cost of an education, which is quite high?

Nick Kettman: From a scholarship standpoint through Kirkwood, for example, we offer over $3 million in scholarships. That goes a long way at a community college and spreads out and is able to help a lot of different students. So one option is Kirkwood can help with those scholarship opportunities, but there's going to be a few additional opportunities that are going to help from the cost side of things for students, especially I would say with the non traditional student population, one of those would be if, if a student is, or a person is currently working, they should check with their employer. Cause there's so many employers and companies who believe in education and completing the degrees, getting their credentials, that there's a lot of tuition reimbursement or tuition assistance programs through employers. So that would be another option that's going to cut down on that cost is maybe your employer is going to help you fund that education. The other option right now through Future Ready Iowa is called a Last Dollar Scholarship. Now this is a scholarship that covers the tuition for a lot of the in demand jobs out there. So a lot of those programs that are more hands on ranging from the health side, agriculture, industrial tech nursing, there's a wide range of these that are really in demand right now. And this would allow a student essentially to go to college, tuition free.

Host: You know, I think one of the apprehensions about people going back to school is that maybe they just feel like they've forgotten what they learned. I think for those of us, who've been home working with our kids and teaching our kids during COVID-19, it's become abundantly clear how much we forgotten, you know, about math and other things. So what free academic services are offered to students to help keep them on track, and help them be successful.

Nick Kettman: You know, fourth grade math should be easy, but just the ways you do it may not seem like it anymore. That is one thing too, that definitely causes anxiety starting out is just the fear of, can I still do it? Do I know the material? If it's a class you've already taken, is that still going to be in my mind? But as far as the resources that Kirkwood offers there's several things in place to help students, to help get you right back to where you were before you took that pause. Whether that would be through our learning services department, we do offer free tutoring that is offered both face to face, but we also offer the online tutoring as well. So students are able to get free tutoring for any of their classes. So any class that we offer, any classes students can enroll in, you have the free tutoring. The other beneficial part is small class sizes. So even prior to social distancing, and all of that, the average class size at Kirkwood is 21.

So that allows students to really get to know their classmates, but it really allows them to connect with their professor. So they are going to get a one on one connection with that instructor and the professors do have all have certain office hours every week. So that would be set aside that they can help students one-on-one even outside of the classroom. And then the additional service, I would say through our career services office, they do a lot working with students, kind of again, get those skills back to where they need to be and help them figure out their passions. As long as the student is passionate about what field they're going into, that's going to kind of help that intrinsic motivation cause they're going for something that they enjoy and they know they can see those benefits in the long run too.

Host: You know, it's possible one of the reasons somebody left college or hit the pause button as we talked about is maybe they were just in the wrong program, you know, or maybe their interests have changed over the years and they want to refocus. So what kinds of options to students have when it comes to majors and other programs of study at Kirkwood?

Nick Kettman: We offer over 120 different majors to choose from. And there's a wide range. We do have shorter certificate routes. So if somebody just wanted to build some skills, we have one year diploma routes. We have two year applied science program. So if you're looking to complete that two year degree, more of a hands on focused, designed to get right out in the workforce, you can, and then we also have strong transfer options. So if you are thinking you really want to go back and maybe your eventual career would require a four year degree or beyond, we can get the first two years out of the way at Kirkwood and then transferring that on afterwards. So we've transferred in the last five years, transfer students to colleges in all 50 States. So I would say there's a wide variety of programs. As far as helping kind of narrow down and figure out what the best fit for a student would be. I again, would really encourage students to connect with our career services office. So they do have different online assessments. So some of those personal assessments, career outlook, it really looks at a student's current skills, what they want to do, what type of field that they want to get into, and that can help narrow down what a student would be interested in. And they can meet one-on-one with one of our career services, visors, and they can really help make sure that they're getting into the right field.

Host: You know, we've talked about balancing work and life and college and how Kirkwood can help. Let's talk about when people look to the future and investing in their future, why is finishing that degree so important right now, perhaps more important than ever as we look to the future?

Nick Kettman: Essentially, every dollar invested in your education at Kirkwood on the backside of that, when you are looking for a job, the return investment is going to be over $6 per dollar spent at Kirkwood. So it really does set you up for success, sets you up for a higher salary or higher hourly wage when you get out there. So it just really gives you that foundation. And like we kind of talked about earlier, that's something that can never be taken away. Once you get that credential, you always have that credential. So as you are looking for jobs anywhere along the line, that will be beneficial. And then that is another area that our career services office, again, they will be able to help with resume writing. They have free resume writing, help. They will do mock interviews with you. So that way you can practice that interview before you get out there. So when it comes time to that interview, submitting that resume, you're going to have a solid foundation to knock that out of the park.

Host: So Nick, as we wrap up here today, what are the next steps for anyone wanting to look into starting or finishing a degree at Kirkwood?

Nick Kettman: I would say the first and best step that you can do is please connect with our admissions staff. So as I mentioned, I am one of the admissions advisors. So we are great resources for students to really get you through all the steps to starting. So the very first one being the free application that you can do right online, and we can walk through and making sure that you have all the steps completed, but then keep in touch with us or throughout your Kirkwood journey. So, as I talked, the connection piece of things, as long as you are connecting with somebody on campus, we are going to be here for you and really help you throughout your entire journey. So as we talk through all of the resources that Kirkwood offers, we don't expect students to just naturally know all of those resources. That's our job. If you stay in touch with us, we will make sure that we keep connecting you with the correct people, the correct resources, the correct department, all along your journey to completing that degree. So definitely reach out to the admissions office. We would love to get to know students more, hear about what your passions are, what your end goal is, and then we can help you set up that plan for what that's going to look like, but then we're going to be with you walking every step of the way as well.

Host: Yeah, that's great to know. And of course, kirkwood.edu, that's a great place and a great way to get started. Thanks so much for your time and stay well. For more information on the resources that Nick mentioned or to apply for admission, visit kirkwood.edu. And thanks for listening to this podcast, brought to you by Kirkwood Community College. I'm Scott Webb stay well.