Kansas has 105 counties, and every one of those counties has Kansas State University Research and Extension personnel working to improve the lives of those who call them home.
As part of his new presidential initiative to focus on the people of Kansas and their communities, K-State President Richard Linton has committed to visiting communities throughout the state every academic year, to listen and learn from the Kansans who live there and find out how K-State, the nation’s first land-grant university, can use its work to improve their lives.
These community visits are more than just photo opportunities — they’re intended to engage Kansans beyond the Manhattan campus and help the university shape a new strategic plan to be a “next-generation land-grant university.”
On Sept. 27, K-State came to Dodge City and the Ford County region, and the team learned about the unique needs of western Kansans. One stop, at the Dodge City Community College Library, discussed labor and education initiatives that are working and offered a chance for community members to provide their input on what is needed for the future.
Helping a workforce
Ford County is home to two meatpacking plants, which have workers from diverse nationalities and cultures. At the Cargill plant alone, 30 different nationalities are represented in its workforce, explained Jeremy Burr, manager.
Cargill shared how it has found success in retaining employees by working with them to meet their needs outside of the workplace. Maria Bustamante leads the team at Cargill that works with families to build community relationships, partners with vendors and government, or even adjusts policies at Cargill that can help team members balance family and work.
Pathways for success
Cargill identified in the mid-2000s the need to help children of their employees on a path to higher education, and navigate the unfamiliar territory of secondary education for many families. The Cargill Transfer Program is a suite of programs for multicultural, first-generation, Pell Grant-eligible students to make a path from their senior year at Dodge City High School, to two years at Dodge City Community College, to finishing their degrees at K-State. Then, hopefully, these students will return to Dodge City with skills that will help their families and the community at large.
The point is to introduce all of the different career opportunities in agriculture that some families may not be aware of. and provide a pathway to getting that degree that families want for their next generation.
As Bustamante said, many families want better for their children — they just need help identifying how to get there. The point of this program and others that Cargill supports is to help children from very family-oriented cultures feel comfortable leaving the community for a time to get their educations and then return to the community.
The session also brought up ways that K-State Research and Extension can help families find a path to educational opportunities, and the need to help nontraditional adult learners on their paths to getting trained before changing careers.
Importance of education
“From K-State’s perspective, we know the importance of higher education in Kansas,” Linton said. “We recognize [that] in the last decade, we’ve gone from 54% to 44% of students from high school going to any kind of college, whether it’s a four-year, a two-year or a technical college. So I think the more we can do to partner and work together to be able to talk about the value of higher education and what it could mean to the quality of your life is vitally important.”
Harold Nolte, president of Dodge City Community College said he sees its role as helping grow the community by helping students get educations that will help them with job opportunities in the community — whether that’s at the new Hillmar Cheese plant or in other industries.
Linton said working with partners in community colleges is just one way that K-State can help communities grow.
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