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Nicolet College Receives $1 Million in Grants from State Tech College System to Further Higher Education in the Northwoods
May 6, 2022
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Keeping with its commitment to continually improve higher education in the Northwoods, Nicolet College recently applied for and received nearly $1 million in grants from the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) to advance instruction and services in numerous academic areas.
“In the end the biggest beneficiaries of these grants will be the students,” said Nicolet President Kate Ferrel. “They’ll learn the skills and receive a quality education that leads to careers with family-supporting wages.”
“In addition, the local economies in the Northwoods will also reap rewards by having that skilled workforce businesses need to be efficient, productive, and profitable.”
In all, Nicolet applied for and received 13 state grants that will total $989,348.
The WTCS awards grants annually and Ferrel made special note of the fact that Nicolet received all of the grants for which it applied.
"It’s not very often a college receives 100 percent of the grants it applies for,” Ferrel said. “This accomplishment is a direct reflection of the high level of innovation from staff across campus. The insightful ideas they put into the grant applications will advance higher education in the region and take student learning to the next level.”
The largest grant, $350,000, will be used to further expand the college’s “family” of patient simulators used to train students in Health Occupations programs.
This next generation of simulators will have advanced features that allow students to practice on what is known as high-risk, low-volume scenarios.
“Clinical training where students go out and work in health care settings is a central part of the education for many Health Occupations students,” said Candy Dailey, dean of Health Occupations at Nicolet.
“But being a rural area with relatively low patient volumes compared to larger urban areas, the students may not be exposed to that wide of a range of health conditions even though they are spending several months in these facilities. What these new simulators will allow us to do is create a variety of high-risk health scenarios that aren’t that common and thereby expanding their experience base when they start careers in health care facilities.”
Other funds will go to developing and implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion work across campus, culturally relevant curriculum within program areas, and the piloting of virtual reality assessment and simulations.
Grants will also go to enhance a variety of student support services at the college, upgrade the Career Services and Career Coaching programs at Nicolet, and support work-based experiential learning opportunities for students. Money from this family of grants will also be used to fund the Student Emergency Assistance program, which helps students pay for a variety of unexpected life events that would otherwise force them to drop out of college.
Still other funds will be directed toward programs for all middle and high school students in the Nicolet District visiting the college for career and college exploration events. These will include the Career Expo for seventh graders and the Heavy Metal Tour for eighth graders. High school students will have the opportunity to attend College Visit Day, Skills Competition Day, and Live From the Heart, an on-campus event where students interested in health care careers will video-conference in to watch a live heart surgery.
“At its core it’s all about creating opportunity for students, giving them the tools, knowledge, skills, and experiences they can benefit from in whatever professional endeavor they choose,” President Ferrel said.
View the videos below to learn more about some of the various grants and their impact.
For more information about Nicolet call the college at (715) 365-4493.