OTC receives four awards from Missouri Community College Association

Representatives from Ozarks Technical Community College have returned from the 48^th Annual Missouri Community College Association Convention with four awards in hand. Held last week in Kansas City, the convention drew hundreds of faculty, staff, and administrators from the 12 community college systems across the state.

Jackie McKinsey, founding member of the OTC Board of Trustees, was honored with the Trustee Leadership Award. In her time on the Board, Mrs. McKinsey has helped to guide the college through the hiring of both of its presidents, through the building of a second campus and three additional locations, and much more. She has also served on a number of other boards throughout the city and state, including 12 years on the Springfield School Board, two years on the Missouri School Board Association, and 20 years on the Missouri Special Education Advisory Board. In 1996, she was appointed by the governor to the Missouri Women’s Council, and in 2004, she was named one of the Springfield Business Journal’s Most Influential Women.

Michael Pulley, instructor of English at OTC, received the Missouri Community College Association’s Senior Service Award. Pulley has spent the majority of his career teaching at the high school and collegiate level, and has been a faculty member at Ozarks Technical Community College since the day the institution opened its doors in 1991. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Southwest Baptist University and a Master of Arts from the University of Missouri St. Louis.

Two students from OTC were chosen for the Association’s Student Leadership Award. Christina Polosky, a student at the OTC Richwood Valley Campus, plans to graduate from OTC in December of 2012. She has been involved in OTC’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for two-year institutions, and has served as a tutor at the OTC Richwood Valley Campus. After OTC, she plans to transfer to a four-year institution to earn a degree in math. Fran Ferguson, a May 2012 graduate of OTC, has also been involved with Phi Theta Kappa, as well as OTC’s Student Government Association. In the fall of 2013, Ms. Ferguson plans to attend Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, where she will study psychology and communications. After that, she plans to attend Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, to finish a master’s degree and Ph.D. in positive psychology and leadership studies.

The Missouri Community College Association is a professional education association designed to promote the growth and development of Missouri’s community colleges and community college employees. MCCA provides advocacy, education, information, and networking opportunities in service of the state’s 5,700 community college faculty, staff, administrators, and trustees.