ECC Insiders

The strength of rural community colleges in America

The Rural Community College Alliance (RCCA) are advocates for the nation's rural community colleges. The RCCA helps its member institutions serve the 89.3 million people who reside in rural America. There are 600 publicly controlled rural community and tribal college that provide access to general education for transfer, as well as techncial, vocational and occupations programs. Joel and Leigh were joined by members of the RCCA board, that include Dr. Leah Barrett of Northeast Community College in Nebraska, Dr. Jon Bauer, East Central College in Missouri and Dr. Ron Slinger of Miles Community College in Montana. The college presidents share their impressions and opinions of the value and importance of the nation's community colleges. More information about RCCA can be found at https://ruralccalliance.org/ [https://ruralccalliance.org/]

The U.S. community college closest to Russia

Leigh and Joel are joined by Justina Wilhelm, the president of Iḷisaġvik College. Iḷisaġvik College is located in the North Slope Borough of Alaska, America's northermost municipality. Justina took 2 planes and nearly 24 hours to arrive in Union, Missouri for the Rural Community College Alliance national conference, held on the ECC campus in September 2025. She provides a unique perspective of the community college, located on the northern tip of Alaska - 340 miles from Russia. There are similarities between her college and U.S. mainland community colleges, but also differences given the location. Find out more about Iḷisaġvik College: https://www.ilisagvik.edu/ [https://www.ilisagvik.edu/]

Apprenticeship Consortium

East Central College is part of a consortium with three Missouri community colleges for the MoSEPWorks apprenticeship program, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor's ABA2 apprenticeship program. The program focus of the consortium is teacher education, health care and manufacturing. Students can start out in a pre-apprenticeship and transition into an apprenticeship. Apprenticeships are structured, paid training programs that combine on-the-job experience with classroom instruction to develop high-level skills for a specific trade or profession, Learn more at https://www.eastcentral.edu/blog/ecc-launches-education-apprenticeship-to-strengthen-local-workforce/ [https://www.eastcentral.edu/blog/ecc-launches-education-apprenticeship-to-strengthen-local-workforce/].

It's not the same old GED program anymore

Adult Education and Literacy (AEL) programs in Missouri are offering more than the GED and English Language Acquisition courses. In an effort to meet the workforce needs and stay relevant, the programs are providing students with Integrated Education and Training programs, or IET's. A student will take coursework in an IET and the GED to provide them with job skills needed to enter the workforce concurrently with the completion of GED/High School Equivalency test. Examples of IETs include: * Certified Nurse Assistant * Basic Construction Technology * Substitute Teaching Certificate * Paraprofessional The episode guests include AEL directors from East Central College, St. Charles Community College, and Crowder College. The director of the DESE Adult Education and Literacy programs, Megan Wadley, provides the statewide perspective of the importance of the inclusion of the job skills programs. The AEL-IET strategic plan has additional detail: https://dese.mo.gov/media/pdf/ael-iet-strategic-plan [https://dese.mo.gov/media/pdf/ael-iet-strategic-plan]

The strength of Missouri's Community Colleges

Brian Millner, the President and CEO of the Missouri Community College Association (MCCA), joins the podcast to discuss how the association works to showcase the importance and strengths of Missouri's 12 community colleges. Learn about about MCCA at: https://www.missouricolleges.org/ [https://www.missouricolleges.org/]