Bert's Alerts—March 6, 2020

Congratulations to Dave Nicholas, College of Western Idaho’s (CWI) Faculty of Distinction for February 2020. Nicholas, an Associate Professor of English, has been with the College since 2009.

“I like being surrounded by students, faculty, and books. Teaching puts me near all of that,” he said. “I like meeting and knowing my students and seeing how something as simple as a 16-week class can change them in small ways, even if just by getting them closer to their goals. Not all jobs give you the chance to actually meet and know the people your work impacts. It is very satisfying to know my efforts make a difference.”

In addition to English composition, creative writing, and CWID (Connecting With Ideas) classes, Nicholas also oversees several internship opportunities, such as Storyfort, and CWI’s student-run literary magazine, Stonecrop, published each spring.

“Dave does an outstanding job of giving students opportunities to engage directly in the literary community at CWI and throughout the Treasure Valley,” said a colleague. “He is simply and outstanding teacher. His students are routinely effusive about his approach to teaching and what they have learned in his course.”

"Dave is one of my real-life heroes,” said Joe Davidson, a former student of Nicholas. “He is hands down one of the most compassionate and hard-working educators I have ever met and is constantly trying to foster opportunities for his students. I was lucky enough to take his undergrad literary magazine class once as a student and then again as his intern, and I directly attribute the work I was able to do there and the connections I made because of it to leading to my current position as Assistant Director for Storyfort, a nationally-recognized literature festival. There are very few opportunities in the world for undergrads to work on literary magazines, let alone be responsible for every facet its production. Dave has worked hard to build that class into the amazing experience it is today. I will always look back at learning from and working with Dave as some of the greatest highlights of my collegiate career."

Nicholas was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the The University of Utah. He went on to complete a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Boise State University, where he met his wife, Shannon.

“We were both working on graduate degrees in English,” Nicholas remembered. “Moby Dick was the course text. Can’t say we fell in love over that book, few can, but that’s where it all began or us.”

The couple has four kids. As a family, they enjoy camping in national parks.

“Sixteen down… a whole bunch more to go!”

The College of Western Idaho (CWI) recently completed work on a comprehensive local needs assessment (CLNA) in compliance with the 2018 Perkins V federal legislation. The assessment will help provide a clear view of labor needs in our ten-county service region. 

The assessment will also provide insight about opportunities to provide needed training to the local labor market and emerging industries in our service region. Results from the needs assessment will inform annual Perkins V applications and CWI institutional strategies to address current and future needs of the local communities and businesses that make up Region 3 and the State of Idaho.

CWI is required to conduct a local area needs assessment every two years consisting of analysis in six parts including:

• Student performance
• Size, scope, and quality
• Industry and occupation alignment
• Program of study implementation
• Recruitment, retention, and training of qualified Career and Technical Education (CTE) personnel
• Equal access

The CLNA is the first step and is meant as a tool to gather information, analyze and identify areas where programs of study could be initiated or improved. The CLNA results then inform the Perkins application (Perkins IV referred to it as a Local Plan) which is due every four years. The application is meant to be a high-level overview of the recipient’s CTE program and how they will incorporate their needs into existing policies and procedures.

Thank you to those who were able to participate in the research. Your participation in this process will help CWI better utilize federal funding to deliver local workforce training to meet employer needs.

The Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment results may be found at www.cwi.edu/clna.

The Emerging Scholar Committee is excited about the opportunity to select another group of Emerging Scholars! Faculty are encouraged to nominate students based on perseverance, innovative thinking, and professionalism both in and outside the classroom—not primarily on academic status. Students nominated must plan to enroll in six or more credits for the 2020-2021 academic year in both fall and spring semesters and have a minimum GPA of 2.0.

Thirteen students, two from each school of instruction, will receive a $1,000 scholarship to be applied towards their tuition for the 2020-2021 academic year. Students receive awards from nominating faculty at the Connections Project April 23. Nominations will be accepted through April 6, 2020.

Nominate an Emerging Scholar today!

College of Western Idaho’s Visual and Performing Arts department is proud to be hosting its fourth-annual Juried Art Show, open to currently registered students at the College. Selected works will be displayed in the CWI Art Gallery during the College’s annual Connections Project event, April 23, and will remain on display through the summer. This year’s juror is CWI Art instructor, Bryan Moore. One artist’s work will receive the Connection’s Excellence Award and be honored during the awards ceremony. The selected artist will additionally receive a $150 prize.

Last year, the exhibition was honored to have Dan Scott, a professional artist and Art Department Chair at Boise State University, serve as juror. Scott selected 13 works to be featured at the Connections Project event selecting Arielle Johnson’s untitled still-life drawing featuring a skull as the winner.

Artwork must be submitted by Friday, March 13. For full submission details, please visit the Connections Project page in myCommons on Blackboard. Questions can be directed to karenbrown@cwi.edu.

Mark your calendars for this year's Connections Project, April 23, 2020, at the Nampa Campus Academic Building from 3-8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

UPDATE: This event has been canceled due to the concerns associated with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and may be rescheduled in the future.

Why can’t we have “just the facts” when it comes to politics? What motivates us to think we are right even when we are wrong? In a political era dominated by social media and polarization, this lecture will focus on how emotions, values, and reasoning influence our understanding of U.S. politics and political information. 

College of Western Idaho’s (CWI) Political Science Speaker Series and Common Read Series invites you to join them for, “Political (Mis)Information and Motivated Reasoning,” Wednesday, March 18, at the Ada County Campus Pintail Center at 6 p.m. The event will feature the expertise of Dr. Kylee Britzman who specializes in political behavior, political psychology, political communication, and gender and politics. Britzman received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2018 and has since been teaching at Lewis-Clark State College. Her writing has been published in the Journal of Political Science and the Social Science Computer Review.

This Common Read event is made possible through support from CWI’s Office of the Provost; School of Social Sciences and Public Affairs; Department of Culture, History, and Politics; and the Liberal Arts program. All are invited to attend. Contact Kim Scheffer at 208.562.2606 kimscheffer@cwi.edu to learn more or with questions.