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Wes Chambers – Presidential Award

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• Wes is continually advocating for students. He has worked with the Chief Development Officer (Frank Stewart) to secure scholarship funds through the Gene Haas Foundation and Paragon Medical.
• Wes worked with Mason Lefler (Associate VP for Educational Innovation) to secure the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. Through this large NSF project grant, Wes has worked to acquire advanced machining technologies, redesign curriculum, and employ new recruiting efforts (open house for high school students and parents).
  
  Comments from his students include:
• Wes is always very helpful and bends over backward to help his students succeed.
• He makes things easy to understand, is always willing to help, and has a great attitude.
• He always remembers his students and wants them to excel. He remembers us, asks about our lives, he cares.
• Even though he is busy, he is available. His classroom fosters learning and creativity. He doesn’t just want you to pass off requirements blindly, he tries to help you learn and internalize the information. Best teacher/mentor I have ever come across and am really grateful for all the work he does.

Alan Briggs – Purely Positive

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Comments made about Alan by his fellow co-workers:

• Oh my gosh, his smile lights up the hallways!  Alan always seems to have upbeat, encouraging interactions with all.
• He is the definition of purely positive. He is always happy, and willing to help. Give this man a cookie!
• Alan is always just so happy and always makes you feel loved.
• Have you met Alan? I’ve never met someone so cheerful and positive in my life.
• Alan is always happy and having a great time. Even if he’s got deadlines or a rough day, he always has a smile on his face and is focused on being happy and helping those around him be happy. He never has a bad day, they are all good days and he’s always happy to be where he is and doing what he’s doing.
• Alan is always super happy and positive whenever he comes to work. He always brings a smile to everyone’s faces and is always very understanding.

Lisa Virgin – Collegiate Support

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Comments made about Lisa by her fellow co-workers:

• Lisa is always going the extra mile to help however she can. She is creative and positive as well as an absolute joy to be around!
• Reliable, always helpful, and willing.
• Lisa is always supportive and kind to her coworkers as well as the students she works with. She always asks how her coworkers are and if they need anything. Lisa is just very supportive and determined to make BTECH a great place to work.
• Lisa is a welcoming presence at the BTECH west building, she engages warmly and positively with students and staff alike. She helps all staff wherever she can, and is a positive representative in her position at the college. A great person!

Alex Baltodano – Hidden Gem

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Comments made about Alex by his fellow co-workers:

• Alex is the man! He is willing to help anyone. He is quiet but hilarious. He works quietly behind the scene making sure all the college’s devices work and you never know he’s doing it. We couldn’t live without Alex B.
• Patient (always having to fix our errors and work with non-IT folk).  Sense of Humor (listen closely – when he speaks it will make you laugh – he says it how it is).  Dedicated (weekends, evenings, holidays – he has to keep things running 24/7…and it seems something is always breaking).  Nice (very easy-going and helpful, even when there is a lot to do and not much time or resources to do it).  Professional (always treating others with the utmost respect, even in higher stress moments or requests).  Have you ever seen him even raise his voice?  I sure haven’t.  And his job would certainly make me raise mine!  Go Mr. Patient Propeller Head!
• Always involved in community-building activities, or just chatting positively with everyone wherever he may wander.
• One of his favorite sayings is, “Just push any button”.

Emily Hudson – Outstanding Achievement in Teaching

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Comments made about Emily by her fellow co-workers:

• Emily is a 110%er. I see her reaching out to her students with extra help. She is willing to give her all to the committees she is assigned to. Emily is very friendly and caring to all she meets.
• Emily is always ready to do what she can for the student. She has a passion for students to succeed in life. She is kind, welcoming, and caring. She can’t help but be inspiring as she encourages students to succeed and strives to support her colleagues.
• Emily strives to help her students learn and understand the concepts being taught. She truly cares about her students and wants to see them succeed. Emily is a great advisor and her students love her.
• She loves teaching.  She is always trying to find more efficient ways to teach.  She inspires her team and celebrates their achievements.  She takes on tasks assigned by administration without complaint.  Most importantly she loves the students!!
• Emily does everything in her power to help her students be successful. She challenges them and supports them to work hard to reach their goals. Forward-thinking in the classroom and constantly looks for better ways to do things.

Elizabeth Fallentine – Teacher of the Year

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Comments made about Elizabeth by her students:

• Elizabeth goes above and beyond. She makes her students feel their worth and confident in themselves.
• As a student, I never felt embarrassed or guilty for not understanding something because she was always open to sitting down with me until I understood the material. She is patient and caring and is so knowledgeable. She teaches with experience that can’t be learned from the book. I have never had a teacher be so kind and willing to teach me and make me feel like I wasn’t inadequate and instilled confidence in me every time I talk to her.
• Elizabeth goes the extra mile every day for us. You can tell how much she cares about each one of us, and how personally invested she is in our success.
• She is an angel on earth! She always goes out of her way to help and encourage us as her students. She puts so much time and effort into teaching and helping us learn. I have been personally touched by how much she cares!
• She is very caring and truly cared about her students. She goes above and beyond to make sure we are doing well and helps lift us up when we are down.
• Elizabeth has done absolutely everything to help her students be successful and learn the material we need to know. She always shares her support and care to us and asks how she can help us in being more successful. She shows she truly wants us to become the best nurses and is always motivated and encourages us to be our best. She’s the best!
• She cares so deeply about her students. She will meet with you after class any time you are needing help or have questions. I have never had a teacher care so much about her student’s success. She deserves to be recognized!
• Elizabeth goes above and beyond to help us succeed in every test, quiz, and class! She is always open to our suggestions and different ways of learning and she is so willing to adapt to our needs. She is a great teacher that always has our back and wants to see us succeed.

Hailey Ropelato – Teacher of the Year

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Comments made about Hailey by her students:

• She is so encouraging and supportive. She really knows a lot about what she teaches and her enthusiasm is contagious! Hailey is just so cool!
• Respectful, encouraging, understanding, and supportive.
• She’s a great/fair teacher, always helps, always there for us.
• Hailey has given me so much advice on how to improve my work and what works best. She is so respectful and understanding too, encouraging me to achieve higher. 
• Hailey encourages her students to do their best work and dedicates her time into helping students succeed. She’s very kind hearted and caring.
• Hailey always encourages us to do our best and supports us. She’s determined to help us succeed and I appreciate her so much!

Sydney’s instructors greatly impacted her experience in the program. Sydney explained that she has always been a shy person, but her instructors helped her open up and express herself. Sydney said they accepted her for who she is.  

We were so happy to meet Sydney, and we look forward to seeing where she goes in the future!

Meat Services also offered fun games for State Fair participants to play and win free BTECH merch such as t-shirts, hoodies, and hats. Apart from talking to students, the Meat Services instructors were also able to meet with members of the Utah Beef Council. Jason commented that the council was interested in learning more about Meat Services and their role in agriculture services for Utah.

Overall, this event provided great connections and exposure to Meat Services and allowed others around the state to learn about the hands-on training experience at Bridgerland Technical College

To help spread awareness about mental health, Cache County held an “Ignite the Light” concert on Thursday, September 30th, at 6:00 PM.

Alex Boye and other local bands came together to perform at the Cache County Fairgrounds. Not only was there great music and entertainment but food trucks also provided free food to the public!

Bridgerland Technical College was a proud participant in the event. We had one of many tents sharing resources and information about mental health. Resources for our students include the SafeUT program and app that helps youth stay healthy and safe in schools. SafeUt provides high-quality, confidential counseling services and it is available to download and use at no cost to our students. 

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The Cache Humane Society recently had a dessert auction to raise funds for their Community Clinic.

The auction included all kinds of desserts donated from various bakers throughout Cache Valley. One of these donations came from Culinary Arts at Bridgerland Technical College.

Jonathon Walters, a Culinary Arts instructor, shared some details about the program’s involvement with the auction. “We donated three different kinds of desserts made by the high school students in our class. We have double chocolate crinkle cookies, a lemon blueberry pound cake, and peanut butter blossom cookies.”

Getting involved in the auction was a personal decision for Johnathon.“We were doing some baking projects, and we just wanted to make sure that we had an outlet for that. We also believe that it’s important to support our community, and this was a way for us to do both.”

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Congratulations to Mattracea (Mattie) Semrad on becoming the first Platinum Performer for the new Therapeutic Massage program!

Mattie chose Bridgerland Technical College because of the learning style, the atmosphere, and the people. She said her favorite thing about the program and the school was how much support students had from the staff. Additionally, Mattie wanted to thank her instructor, Cheri Gillham, for her efforts in helping all of her students succeed.

Now that Mattie has finished the program, her dream job would be working for herself and having her own business. She would also like to work with home care and hospice cancer patients to improve the quality of their lives through massage.

We are so happy that Mattie had a fantastic experience in the Therapeutic Massage program. We look forward to seeing where she goes from here!

But the real treat was hearing from the governor. His positive and encouraging thoughts about BTECH and what technical education means to the state inspired all attendance. Thank all those who participated and made the amazing event possible.

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The start of someone’s educational journey is exciting, but it can also be a little overwhelming. Because of this, BTECH has started gifting students an orientation gift box to welcome them to our school. These gift boxes include a Wear It Wednesday T-shirt and stickers.

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Putting these boxes together has been a rewarding experience for all involved.

These boxes have been distributed to designated areas on your given campus. Please review the following locations below and email marketing@btech.edu if you have any additional questions. 

Logan Campus – in the Student Success Advisor area, in the brown cabinet.

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Logan Campus – West building location – By the receptionist area on the west side of campus. The double doors in between the fire extinguisher and room 1812. There is a pink closet inside where we will store the boxes. 

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Brigham City Campus – In the copy/workroom underneath the colored paper.

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We’ve tried to make access to these boxes as easy as possible.

We have shirt sizes ranging from small – to 3xl. Please don’t be afraid to reach out and make sure your student has the size they need!