MikeMooreMedia

Rockingham Community College 07.23.24

Derick Satterfield, Director of Enrollment Services. Fall enrollment, Center for Workforce Development classes starting in mid-August, welding program now double in size, short term certifications, financial aid, how to apply to RCC.
www.RockinghamCC.edu

Duration:: 13m
Broadcast on:: 23 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Mike Moore media podcast now from Rockingham Community College and Derek Satterfield director of enrollment services. Derek, how you doing? I'm doing great this morning. I hope you are. Yes, let's get an update on what's going on with everything in RCC. It's a busy time, isn't it? It's extremely busy time. So yeah, I'm glad to be talking to you today because we are getting ready for the fall semester. We are in the last throes of the fall enrollment process. So if anyone out there is looking to enroll at Rockingham Community College, there is still time, but we really need to talk to you before August 1st. Okay, so we just got a little bit of time left on that for sure. Okay, I know you had that one stop voting recently. Give us a kind of an update on that. That go well? Sure, that went extremely well. We had, I believe we had about 30 people registered to come and we went up with like 75. So it's really it was a really great experience for us. It was very busy day. I tell you what, I was tired on Saturday evening, but it was a great day. We had many, many people come in. We did everything from completing people complete the fastest and I had what surprised me the most was the number of new students coming in. It was actually very encouraging. We had a lot of new students starting from scratch and we were able to get them at least through the process of a government orientation. So I was very happy to see that. Oh, good. Okay, a lot of tacos. A lot of tacos. Oh yeah, we had a lot of tacos. Yeah. Okay, good. A Fiesta theme for that. Okay, now give us an update on Center for Workforce Development last I heard grand opening mid-August. How is that? Oh yeah, it's going great. We now we have to push back the official opening until sometime in September because that's when you know all the dignitaries could be there. But we are going to be open August 14th for classes. So machining, mechatronics and electrical classes will be in the new building. It is phenomenal. It is one of the best buildings I've seen in the kind of county. It's really nice. Well thought out. The machining labs are great. We have, oh we were able to bring some old equipment but about half the equipment is brand new. Same thing with mechatronics and electrical. So really some great opportunities there. And I think the faculty are just so excited to have spaces for we have different spaces for different skills instead of being crammed together. And I'm not co-operative to what those skills are but I know there's like cutting tables and measuring tables and in different areas they can actually separate into to do those different skills for those three programs. Yeah, okay. Let's talk about some new programs at RCC. You just you just mentioned mechatronics. Tell us what that is for those that may not know. Yeah, mechatronics. Yeah, sure. Mechatronics is one of our newest programs. It stands for mechanized electronics. It's kind of what we morphed our industrial tech, our industrial program into because all of the new factors, excuse me, all the new factors come into Rockingham County and you know Northern Guilford County, what we call advanced manufacturing. These are machines that run, you know, some people call it robots or really they're more just automated machines where palettes, you know, run on tracks on the floor and certain processes are automatically done and they just need people to not manufacture the materials but actually to repair the machinery that manufactured the material. So it's kind of an interesting concept. So it's a real very well-paying job, highly needed, especially places like Purina and Palawindo. So it's really really really good outlook for that program. And let me just give you an example. You can spend your lifetime, if you do mechatronics, you can spend your lifetime at Purina and never touch dog food. So it's kind of everything's automated and it just kind of works by by itself. Yeah, okay. All right, what about electrical programs? Yeah, we have good, nice, good, good electrical programs. We have separated to both. Electro is kind of the first step or the diploma program for mechatronics and that is just we have it's a one year, if you go full time you can do it in a year and it will get you it won't get you your electrician's license but it gets you the skills to get a job that eventually once you have enough work hours you can get your electrical electrician's license. Okay, and I wanted to for you to give us an update too on what's happening, what's happening with your welding department at RCC. Oh, great. Well, as you can imagine, it's kind of like Domino's falling. Once we cleared out machining and electrical for the in the new building, we were able to take our entire what we call IT2 or the back building behind our main industrial building and pray gut it and turn it into a pretty much a very large, very well-ventilated two-story welding shop. So it is a again, it is a beautiful facility. I like it because we have now 40 movement from 20 bays to 40 bays, so doubled our capacity. Wow. And instead of having different areas for different types of welding, every type of welding will be done in every bay. So we can have Meg on one side, TIG on the other, and just learn all those welding skills. And right now, if you come and tour, if we have an open house, I'd love for everybody to come and tour because the walls are nice and white, which will change significantly, you know, as we start to weld in there, but right now it's new and white and it's two-story interior so that the ventilation, the top notch ventilation, and you know, everything in there, so it's going to be a good place to work. Okay, good. So open house going on now, we can come see what it's all about. Yeah, well, we will have a official open house, so please look at the paper or, you know, Facebook for that. Right now, we're kind of gearing up for fall enrollment, so we're a little busy, but we will definitely have a full community Rockingham County open house when we get both of the, when the new building is, when we get the, that's scheduled for the new building. Okay, I was reading recently about 911 operator courses. Tell us about that. Yeah, this is a great partnership we have with what we call the other RCC, which is Richmond Community College in Rockingham, North Carolina, so we get a lot of people back and, you know, get confused, but this is actually a partnership with them. They have an online program for 911 operator and we can do your, about the first year of classes you'll do with us, things like computer, we have a integrated computers and a business course and a communications course you can do with us, and then you finish up the second year online with Richmond Community College. Okay, for 911, people who are interested in 911 operation, and this goes beyond like many, many people can, you know, you get kind of on the job training, you should be a basic 911 operator, but this program will allow you to be a supervisor or a shift manager for one of those facilities. Okay, I'm hearing so many good things too about woodworking carpentry and all of that. Yes, carpentry course skills, which we fill those classes the minute we get them, and we have a new one for the fall, which we just opened up, so we have plenty of room in that one, and those are a big need. We've had this community, everybody wants carpentry, a lot of people are trying to work on houses and everything in need employees, so it's a really good program, and it's taught in our woodworking facility, which is in downtown Reebville. Okay, well, we're talking with our friends at Rockingham Community College, in case you just tuned in Derek Satterfield, Director of Enrollment Services, and you told us just in the first little bit of the program here about the deadline to register for fall semester, so tell us again when that is. Sure, now we'll take you any time, we're open access, we'd love to talk to you anytime, but really if you're looking to come to the fall, we really need you in here by August 1st, which of course next Wednesday, so you know, just come and contact us either on the phone or in person, we'd love to talk to you. Okay, when we come to RCC, what document should we have ready? Thank you for asking, if you can bring your high school transcript, that's the biggest thing for us. Most things at college are based off that high school transcript, so having that in your hand really makes the process go much much quicker. RCC has done a lot to add short-term certifications to your curriculum there, bring us up to date on all of that, what are you offering for the fall? Sure, we're often quite a bit, I can just give you just a brief mattering, right now we have a new advanced EMT program, excuse me, it should start, I believe at the end of this month, and that is for people who are currently EMTs and just want that next step and the progression towards your paramedic, but this is kind of like the middle tier to get you before you're paramedic. Medical assisting is always important, that is, you know, the working in a doctor's office assisting patients, you know, getting them registered and taking back to the doctor. Central sterile processing is something that I didn't know existed but is a high need in the area, and that is people who maintain the sterile field and cleanliness of operating rooms. Pharmacy tech, of course, is always needed, I don't think you, I've never seen a pharmacy or walk into a pharmacy, didn't have a help, wanted sign. Yeah, and let's see, cyber security is getting more and more important. If people out there know what these are, but we were offering comp TS certifications, which is that it's a national certification for cyber security, and we hope to this spring have a Cisco certification, which are two very important certifications for the industry. Okay, I see also listed here a certified production tech. Yes, that is a process, a training that people who are in production environments, it helps you become, move from the floor basically to supervisor, it's a certification, it didn't say natural certification that both is recognized for things like Purina, Pella, and Ruger firearms, recognize that credential, and it helps you, didn't have to get a job to serve, it helps you move up the ladder quickly. Okay, Rockingham Community College can help in so many ways with scholarships, financial aid, is it too late for those? No, and yes, and I know Mike, this is a kind of a double-sided answer for you, but it is not too late to do the application for financial aid. We encourage everyone to go ahead and do the FAFSA, F-A-F-S-A, at studentaid.gov, go ahead and do that. Now, it probably is too late to have a scholarship by the time school starts on the 14th. We're just, it takes about four weeks to process, so we're kind of behind the eight ball here, but now what you can do is what we encouraged us to do at this point is to go ahead and fill that out. You can pay, put a fourth down as a deposit, and then if your financial aid kicks in, oh, mid-September, you get that deposit back, so it's just kind of a, we always encourage people to at least start, and if you can do as little as a fourth down, we will hold your classes for you. Oh, that's great. Okay, so how do we apply to Rockingham Community College? Yes, it's really easy. You go to our homepage, RockinghamCC.edu, where most people will just Google Rockingham Community College in the upper right corner. You'll see the big orange apply button, and click on that, and do step one, step two, and step three. It's pretty easy. It really is. You make it so easy to attend RCC. And why should someone attend Rockingham Community College, for those that may be new to the area, what do you have to offer that maybe kind of make you stand out among the other? Oh, sure. Well, we have just about everything here. I mean, anything you'd ever want to do, any career that you have your mindset to, we can help you here. I mean, if we can't help you here, we'll help you get started. We send people all over the state to either universities or different programs, if that's something very specific, or we have things here that can really, if you're looking for a job, we have everything from a one semester program, all the way through a two-year program. You'll hope you get that good job, and really, you know, start a career for yourself. So it's, everyone has a spot here at Rockingham Community College. I believe it. Okay. The best way to get in touch with you? Yes, is a caller number, which is 336-342-4261. In our extension is 2333, or if, when the automated machine comes down, I'll ask you, it'll be, click one, touch one for admissions and just tap one. Okay. All right. Derek, always great to talk to you. Thanks for the update. Absolutely. Thank you much. All right. You take care. All right. Thanks. All right. Bye. All right. That's our monthly podcast from Rockingham Community College, and on the program today, Derek Satterfield, Director of Enrollment Services, Director of Enrollment Services at RCC. Please go to their Facebook page and go to their website often to get more update, what's happening, good things happening at Rockingham Community College, and that is RockinghamCC.edu. [ Silence ]