Strong partnerships provide great opportunity for KCKCC students and the entire region!
Amazon Educational Program: Through the continuous effort of Tami Bartunek and others, this last week KCKCC took a significant step in creating a partnership with Amazon’s Fulfillment Center, MKC6, to be the educational institution of choice to offer college classes at the Amazon facility!
With this partnership, KCKCC will offer afternoon and evening classes at Amazon in conjunction with their “Career Choice” educational program. Several
classroom spaces will be available and courses are tentatively scheduled to take place around 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. to serve Amazon employees before they begin their evening shift, and 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. to serve their employees who are getting off their normal day shift.
But the partnership does not end there! Amazon offers educational benefits for 
team members who have at least one year of service and are interested in a career in certain fields; specifically, Information Technology and Computer Science, Healthcare Delivery and Lab Services, Mechanical and Skilled Trades, and Paralegal. We have shared program curricula with Amazon’s management team for certificates and degrees we offer in these fields. With their next step, Amazon management will be identifying specific programs that will be eligible for funding under their Career Choice program.
More work is yet to come as we will be able to host a college/career fair at the Amazon site as well as offer on-site enrollment opportunities. Stay tuned is more information will be coming in the next several months!
KCKCC at Wyandotte High School: This last week was definitely a great week for advancing KCKCC partnerships! On Tuesday, several of us went down to 
meet with USD 500 Superintendent, Dr. Charles Foust, Wyandotte High School Principal, Dr. Mary Stuart, and her staff to further discuss planning and implementation efforts to offer KCKCC classes at Wyandotte high school in fall 2019.
During our conversation, several focus areas were identified, such as college gateway and developmental education courses to serve non-high school/community members who are ready for college-level work, 200 level work to build upon 100 level courses currently offered in the daytime to Wyandotte high school students, and ESL and GED courses to help those community members who are not yet ready to take college-level coursework but are interested in advancing their education and skill sets.
To learn more about what KCK downtown residential and nearby business communities are looking for, general community listening sessions will be held on Thursday, February 21 and Wednesday, February 27, 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. at El Centro, 50 Minnesota Ave. – Business sessions will be held on Tuesday, February 26, 7:30 – 8:30 a.m. at El Centro, and also Tuesday, February 26, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. at the KCK downtown library, 625 Minnesota Ave.
As an unexpected surprise, Dr. Stuart shared a photo from their History of Wyandotte H.S. book. Looking at their areal plan, in 1928 it appears the plan was to locate the “Junior College” on the same property of the high school. Funny how history can have a way of being circular in nature.
Stay tuned for a soon to be released announcement of our new partnership with T-Bones Baseball!! 