CWI Compass Connect - June 27, 2017
In the Spotlight
Media arts students from the College of Western Idaho (CWI) spent the week documenting Southwest District Health’s (SDH) ReadyKamp. This year’s program trained 35 middle school students, from around the Treasure Valley, valuable disaster preparedness skills. The student film crew was on scene to document a mock school bus crash and building fire on the last day of the camp. They have been posting daily highlight videos on SDH’s Facebook page and they will use content collected for PSA’s — which the organization can use to generate interest in the community for next year’s camp.
News Highlights
CWI Announces Malepeai-Rhodes as Director of Institutional Effectiveness
College of Western Idaho (CWI) is excited to announce Alexis Malepeai-Rhodes as the new Director of Institutional Effectiveness. She will join CWI and lead the team’s efforts in planning, information, analysis, and assessment to support continuous improvement and effectiveness in achievement of institutional goals and mission fulfillment at the college.
Alexis is a native Idahoan, born and raised in Pocatello. She lived in Washington, D.C. for eight years, worked for BearingPoint and Deloitte consulting firms as a strategic business management consultant, and implemented large-scale, transformative changes agency- and department-wide for federal agencies. As a consultant, Alexis conducted strategic planning, project management, change management, customer relationship management, and business process re-engineering to streamline business processes and maximize efficiency and transparency.
For the past six years, Alexis was the Director of Institutional Effectiveness, Planning, and Research (IEPR) at Hazard Community and Technical College in Hazard, KY. As the Director of IEPR, Alexis was responsible for strategic planning, institutional effectiveness accreditation activities, assessment, business process re-engineering, and continuous process improvement. She holds a Political Science degree from Brown University.
Alexis is ecstatic to be returning to her Idaho roots and joining the CWI team. Please join us in welcoming Alexis to CWI!
CWI Celebrates Law Enforcement Graduates
Hundreds of family and friends attended College of Western Idaho’s (CWI) Law Enforcement Program graduation on Tuesday, June 20. The ceremony, held at the Nampa Civic Center, honored 31 students ranging in age from 18 to 48.
The event included highlight videos — showing law enforcement students as they completed weapons training, tactical driving exercises and hand-to-hand fighting. The graduates and crowd shared a laugh while they watched some of the blooper reels in the video. After the ceremony, a number of students gathered with family and friends as they celebrated in the lobby and posed for group photos.
“It was awesome, it’s a great opportunity for anyone who’s really interested in law enforcement, you have a lot of fun and grow with everyone — I love my brothers and sisters throughout this program,” said Almedina Sakanovic.
LeRoy Forsman, CWI Law Enforcement Program Chair, spoke during the ceremony and the keynote speaker was Sgt. Jamie Burns of the Nampa Police Department.
Each graduate received a CWI Law Enforcement Challenge Coin and the top performing students in academics, shooting and driving training received a plaque recognizing their stellar performance in those disciplines. At the end of the program, Forsman administered the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics as the students pledged to follow the strict guidelines outlined for officer’s behavior and conduct.
The CWI Law Enforcement Program is a comprehensive, hands-on training program accredited by Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). Students in the program complete all POST requirements. “This ultimately allows students to become very competitive regarding employment in the law enforcement profession,” communicates Brett Reid, Law Enforcement Program Coordinator. Eighteen graduates from this year’s class have already secured jobs or are in the final stages of the hiring process with various agencies.
Outreach and Advising Co-Present at Regional PNACAC Conference
Katie Price, Outreach Enrollment Advisor, and Erica Compton, Advising and New Student Services Manager, were recently selected to co-present at the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) pre-conference at Boise State University. Their presentation titled, Refugee Students in Idaho: Who Are They and How Can We Help?, was an appropriate addition to the IDEA pre-conference of the Pacific Northwest Association for College Admission Counseling (PNACAC) Regional Conference as its main focus is on underrepresented student populations in college admissions. The PNACAC serves a five-state region. In 2016, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho welcomed over 6,800 refugees to their cities and communities. The purpose of the presentation was to introduce the demographics and history of Idaho’s newest Americans and explore the relationship between navigating the admissions process and supporting the transition into relationship-building with academic advising for refugee students.
The 47 attendees were asked to address the following questions, “How do you identify refugee students on your campus? What student support initiatives would best assist this population? Do you have any initiatives?” Attendees broke up into small groups and discussed these questions. Many groups suggested that the best ways to identify refugee students were to use financial aid information, have students self-disclose (either on the admissions application or essay), connect with high school counselors and support programs like TRiO, or work with community-based organizations, such as the International Rescue Committee.
Attendees did not have any specific refugee-only programming on their campuses. There were many suggestions for support initiatives including the creation of a student mentorship program, scholarship assistance, and cultural competency initiatives. Many schools also suggested connecting refugee students to programs that are already available on campuses that have diversity centers.
Overall, the presentation led to a collaborative discussion on generating new ideas for best practices in assisting our newest Americans.
For more information, please contact Erica Compton ericacompton@cwi.edu or Katie Price katieprice@cwi.edu.
Catch the Winning Spirit with the Boise Hawks during CWI Night
Mark your calendars for CWI Night at the Boise Hawks on Wednesday, July 26! The Hawks will battle the Hillsboro Hops as they roll into the second half of their winning season.
CWI is proud to partner with the Boise Hawks for a fun night of baseball and fundraising. During the game, you will have a chance to play Baseball Bingo and one lucky future CWI student will be presented with the employee sponsored, $1,000 SCORE Big Scholarship.
Visit boisehawks.com to purchase tickets to the game. Each $15.75 ticket includes a hot dog, soda, and a third-base seat at the game. For each ticket sold, $5 goes toward CWI’s SCORE Big Scholarship. Faculty, staff, student, friends, and family of the CWI Community are encouraged to participate!
#CWINight
