Bert's Alerts—March 22, 2019
Celebrating 10 Years!
As CWI reaches its 10-year milestone, we are sharing stories of empowerment through our students, alumni, and faculty.
CWI in the News
News Highlights
10-Year Celebration Campaign Kicks Off
College of Western Idaho (CWI) celebrates 10 years of student success with this year’s commencement. The 10-year Celebration Campaign will recognize student success, talented faculty, and quality programs while building excitement for the future! As we celebrate this milestone, we want to reflect on all CWI has empowered; families, community, business and industry, partnerships, and numerous lives throughout the Treasure Valley and Idaho.
The Communications and Marketing team, in collaboration with CWI faculty, have embarked on an awesome mission of reaching out to alumni and documenting their stories of success since graduating from CWI. These stories will be shared through mass media efforts, outdoor, social, and digital media, as well as numerous internal and external channels. Most importantly, the CWI website will be transitioning from cwi.edu to cwi.edu! A customized, campaign landing page to support the 10-year celebration, cwi.edu/BeMighty, will also be launched and feature stories on alumni, faculty, upcoming celebratory events, and more!
CWI Website’s New URL – cwi.edu
College of Western Idaho (CWI) is pleased to announce its transition to cwi.edu! The use of a .edu URL is limited to accredited, degree-granting institutions of higher learning. With accreditation through Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, CWI can now register and administer a URL of .edu.
The transition from cwi.edu to cwi.edu will be a phased approach. The external website will move to cwi.edu with the launch of the 10-year Celebration Campaign; however, the current URL of cwi.edu will continue to work. The timeline for additional changes related to the .edu transition is currently being planned out. Implementation of these .edu changes will begin summer of 2019. Ordering of new stationery to reflect the new website URL and emails will happen once all phases of the .edu implementation are complete. Ongoing communication will be distributed internally to help share information related to the entire .edu transition.
English Faculty to be Featured at Storyfort
Storyfort, a literary festival that coincides with Treefort, will feature members of College of Western Idaho’s (CWI) English department. Faculty will participate in panels and events for an inspiring experience of narratives, March 20 to 24.
Malia Collins: Refugee Artisans – Quilting a Narrative Panel
Thursday, March 21, 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
Owyhee Hotel
Catherine Kyle: Telling it Strange
Friday, March 22, Noon - 1:30 p.m.
Owyhee Hotel
Liza Long: Human Library
Friday, March 22, 3 – 7 p.m.
Saturday, March 23, 1 – 5 p.m.
Owyhee Hotel
“I’ll be sharing experiences as the author of an award-winning nonfiction book, "The Price of Silence", about parenting a child who has mental illness,” said Long.
For more information, visit Storyfort online.
Writing the Novel Event
Storyfort and College of Western Idaho are proud to present Writing the Novel – an intimate conversation, reading, and novel-writing discussion with novelists, Jonathan Evison and Jamie Ford. Join us as we discuss their novels, Lawn Boy and Songs of Willow Frost, and explore the craft, process, grit, and art of assembling and delivering a quality novel.
Saturday, March 23, 2019
3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
MING Studios
Writing the Novel is a ticketed event, but free and open to all with a suggested donation of $10. Tickets are available online or at the door as space allows. The author’s novels, Lawn Boy and Songs of Willow Frost, are available for purchase at the CWI Bookstore located at the Nampa Campus Micron Education Center.
Scholarships Open for 2019-20 Academic Year
The College of Western Idaho (CWI) Foundation scholarships application period is now open for the 2019-20 academic year. One application makes applying for scholarships at CWI easy and provides students with a number of scholarship opportunities in the College’s academic and career-technical programs. More than 200 students received scholarships through the Foundation last year.
Nichelle Boyce, a Biology-Healthcare student and 2018-19 scholarship recipient, has worked multiple jobs in order to make her dream of an education possible. As the recipient of the LTH Don’t Give Up Scholarship, Nichelle says because of scholarships like this she will be able to graduate debt free even as a single mom.
“I have been able to become a positive example to my children. Even at such a young age they understand that to obtain your dreams, you have to challenge yourself—sometimes that means you have to be temporarily inconvenienced,” she said. “Because of CWI, our lives are changing.”
New scholarship opportunities are available for the 2019-20 academic year including the new Nagel Foundation Scholarship for second-year Career Technical Education students.
Students interested in applying for scholarships must have the CWI admission application completed, be accepted, and have myCWI login information. The application closes March 31, 2019.
Visit the Grants and Scholarships page to learn more or apply.
Cybersecurity Awareness: Malicious Attachments
Opening malicious attachments can infect your computer with ransomware and other forms of malware. Beware of attachments in emails you were not expecting, always keep anti-virus software updated regularly, and use caution when opening attachments contained in emails with attention-grabbing subject lines such as:
- Urgent document needs your attention
- Delivery Details
- Payment Notification
- Invoice
- Resume / CV
Cybercriminals often disguise malicious files in many types of file extensions such as: .zip, .rar and .7z. Look out for macros within office files like Word documents, Excel files, and PowerPoints presentations. Cybercriminals will attempt to get you to turn on macros by showing fake warnings when the malicious document is opened. Malicious files can also be hidden by multiple file extensions with such as this executable file example: file.gif.exe.
Contact Mike Wilson at mikewilson1@cwi.edu or 208.562.3193 with questions or for more information, and stay tuned for more tips and information on cybersecurity awareness in future issues of Bert’s Alerts.
