By BRENT MARTIN
North Central Missouri College in Trenton celebrates throughout this year its 100th anniversary.
North Central President, Lenny Klaver, says the college has been on a growth spurt, pointing in particular to its partnership with Missouri Western State University on the Houlne Center for Convergent Technology on the St. Joseph campus.
“We took a risk to do this and it is the first two-year, four-year partnership in the state where we have combined on a facility to meet workforce needs,” Klaver tells KFEQmmunity. “And I think when you consider that St. Joseph is the third largest exporter in the state of manufactured goods and industry, if all things go well, we’ll be continuing to ramp up as the years go forward.”
Based in Trenton, North Central Missouri College serves a 17-county region of north-northwest Missouri. It all began 100 years ago in the third floor of the Trenton High School with only 57 students. Enrollment at North Central continues to inch upward. This fall, NCMC saw a 2% increase in enrollment with a record number of students enroll: 1,987.
Klaver says a foray into the western part of its service area has helped North Central. The college recently remodeled at old car dealership to open a branch in Savannah.
“It’s worked very well. Our growth in Savannah has been tremendous. We’ve had great support from the community,” according to Klaver. “We’ve continued to grow in enrollment, overall, with a large part of that growth in Savannah.”
Klaver says the key to growth over the years and growth in the future is a focus on the individual student, what the college calls the uncommon attention it gives its students.
“And that we meet the needs in the terms of the technical and career areas, whether it’s agriculture, industry, health care, nursing, etc.,” Klaver says. “We need to keep our ear to the ground on what’s going on in the regional economy and we need to continue to meet that in terms of the programs we offer and the quality of the programs we offer.”
Klaver says it’s all about staying current.
“We need to be able to adapt on the fly. We need to be able to continue to offer quality; the affordable, accessible opportunity for students to get a college education that otherwise they may not have.”
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