During the fall semester of 2022, community resource specialists at Ozarks Technical Community College helped 604 students with non-academic needs such as food insecurity, housing insecurity and affordable childcare. Community resource specialists are relatively new positions at OTC. Their job is to remove barriers that might prevent students from completing their educational goals. “An expensive…
Herschend Entertainment owns amusement properties all over North America, but its roots and founders are firmly planted in the Branson area. Jack and Peter Herschend founded Silver Dollar City in 1960, and for most of the company’s first 50 years, Jack Herschend was the company’s President, Chairman and CEO. Despite his success and the success…
Students across the Ozarks Technical Community College system can attend a broader variety of classes thanks to the college’s implementation of Live Online courses. Live Online allows students to attend a class in person with the instructor in a classroom, via Zoom from another OTC location, or on any device connected to the internet. Live…
Dr. Trish White welcomes students to her calculus class at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday and dives right in with an equation. “What would have to be true for the numerator and denominator to be greater than zero?” White asks. The class is like any traditional math class, but only two students sit in front…
The Ozarks Technical Community College student group Politically Active will host a candidate forum on Wednesday, March 22, from 5:30–7 p.m. in Lincoln Hall, Room 211. The event is free, and the public is encouraged to attend. The election is Tuesday, April 4. All candidates running for Springfield Mayor, Springfield City Council, and the school…
In a recent State of the Student survey, 55% of undergraduate college students said they struggle to remain interested in their classes. A quarter of students said they would be more interested if instructors could relate the course material to their future careers. When Ozarks Technical Community College Instructor MaryAnn Morris needed to develop a…
Since 2019, Ozarks Technical Community College has saved its students nearly $1 million through Open Educational Resources (OER). Open Educational Resources are no-cost teaching, learning and research materials. OER learning tools are either in the public domain or are released under an intellectual property license allowing their use. “Open Educational Resources are high-quality, peer-reviewed materials…
Beginning in the fall of 2023, juniors and seniors at Branson and Hollister High Schools can start their education for a career in healthcare at the Ozarks Technical Community College Table Rock Campus. There is no cost for students who enroll in the OTC Career Center Health Sciences Program. Students who complete the health sciences…
Many people can recall a classmate who turned every notebook, folder or handout from the teacher into an art project. Those serial doodlers viewed any blank space as an unfilled canvas ready to be adorned with flowers, cartoon characters, animals and geometric patterns. American authors Jack Kerouac and Mark Twain were well-known doodlers, and archivists…
If you Google “Famous high school dropouts,” the names of celebrities like Harry Styles, Ryan Gosling and Drew Barrymore come up, but most high school dropouts don’t become movie stars or pop singers. In fact, high school dropouts are twice as likely to live below the poverty level than high school graduates. Having lived for…
Students in Ozarks Technical Community College’s Graphic Design Technology Program earned 25 medals at the 2023 Addy Awards. The event recognized the top advertising of 2022 for the Heartland Chapter of the American Advertising Federation. The 2023 Addy Awards were held on Saturday, Feb. 25, at Downstream Casino near Joplin, Mo. Overall, OTC students brought…
Creating opportunities for student success, collaboration and employment was the theme when faculty and staff convened for Ozarks Technical Community College’s fourth annual Innovation Celebration on February 21, 2023. The gathering was the first Innovation Celebration held in person since the inaugural event in 2020. OTC’s full-time employees got together at the White River Conference…
The Ozarks Technical Community College Board of Trustees approved funding for two major building projects for the Springfield campus at its monthly meeting on Monday, February 13. The two facilities will enhance the college’s ability to train much-needed professionals in healthcare and plumbing. Grant funding will pay for more than 70% of the cost of…
When Lebanon-based manufacturer DT Engineering became the first tenant of the industry partner space inside the new Robert W. Plaster Center for Advanced Manufacturing last fall, it paid off almost immediately. The company found an experienced employee among the Ozarks Technical Community College students taking classes in the PMC. DT Engineering hired OTC student Ben…
Ozarks Technical Community College saw a 38% year-over-year increase in dual credit enrollments in the fall of 2022. Dual credit courses are high school classes that count for college credit because they meet OTC’s learning objectives and standards. OTC’s increase in dual credit students reflects a national trend. While community college enrollment overall has declined…
Between the spring and fall of 2022, Ozarks Technical Community College more than doubled the number of students receiving the Fast Track Workforce Incentive Grant. Fast Track pays the tuition and fees for non-traditional students pursuing programs such as welding, nursing and teaching. In the fall of 2022, OTC had 111 students receiving Fast Track…
To meet the workforce needs of local plumbing companies, Ozarks Technical Community College will debut a plumbing program in 2024. To help cover the program’s startup costs, OTC received a $1.3 million grant from the Missouri Department of Economic Development for construction, equipment and scholarships. “OTC developed this program in conjunction with local plumbing companies,…
To help students prepare for the upcoming spring semester, all Ozarks Technical Community College locations will be open Saturday, Jan. 7, from 9 a.m. to noon. Student services staff will be available at each campus and center to assist students with last-minute admissions, enrollment, advising, financial aid and student accounts services. OTC’s spring semester begins on…
Everyone has seen the motorized shopping carts at the grocery store for shoppers who have limited mobility. But what if a customer comes to the store in a wheelchair? They have to get out of their wheelchair, get into the motorized shopping cart, and then, what happens to their wheelchair while shopping? Plus, they must…
The Ozarks Technical Community College Jazz Band will make its concert debut on Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. at Drury University’s Stone Chapel. The “Winter Joy” concert will also feature holiday favorites performed by the OTC choirs. The Jazz Band came into existence when Philip Forrester, an OTC music instructor, applied for and received…
The Missouri Community College Association (MCCA) honored Ozarks Technical Community College employees and donors at its 58th annual convention and tradeshow held in St. Louis from Nov. 29-Dec. 1. At the convention, MCCA recognized Emerson with its Award of Distinction, one of the highest awards MCCA bestows. In 2020, Emerson donated half-a-million dollars to the…
The first season of esports at Ozarks Technical Community College far exceeded expectations. That’s the assessment of the college’s esports advisor, Dr. Tiffany Ford. “We definitely had more students than we expected,” Dr. Ford said. “The competitive esports team is as large as we can manage right now.” Esports launched at the college in the…
In higher education, it is a common practice to offer science survey courses to non-science majors. While the official names for these courses may be “Basic Physics,” they are often referred to as “Physics for poets.” Most colleges offer several “for poets” courses, which feature wide-ranging technical concepts and little math. However, there is no…
The 2022-23 school year marks the fifteenth year of operation for the Middle College at Ozarks Technical Community College. In 2007, Springfield Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Norm Ridder approached then-new OTC Chancellor Dr. Hal Higdon with an idea to lower the high school dropout rate and help credit-deficient students get back on track. The Middle…
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.” Ozarks Technical Community College graduate Kaila DeJonge has suffered, and she has found meaning. In 1999, at just six months old, another driver hit the car carrying Kaila, her mother and two older sisters.…