The Garden City Telegram
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Career exploration
Published 11/20/2008 in News : Education
By SHAJIA AHMAD
Outside the Southwest Kansas Fire Training Center, students watched as firefighters reacted to a mock high-rise fire, raising a water hose three stories high.
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Laurie Sisk/Telegram — Casey Hamlin, fire science student at Garden City Community College, prepares for a drill Wednesday as high school students involved with GCCC's Exploration Day observe at GCCC.
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Laurie Sisk/Telegram — Garden City High School senior Christy Calderon examines a Meti Simulator, a mannequin that simulates basic human body functions, Wednesday as Larned High School junior Jessica Smith observes during Exploration Day at Garden City Community College.
The temperature inside the four-story facility, which opened earlier this year, can reach more than 1,000 degrees, creating heat and smoke to simulate real fire, said Larry Pander, the fire instructor at Garden City Community College.
The purpose of the simulation is to allow students of fire science to face the real thing alongside coursework, Pander said.
"Firefighting is not just going in and putting a water hose to the fire," Pander said, as he addressed the crowd of high-schoolers gathered inside the spartan first-floor living room, where wall sensors record high-heat temperatures. "It involves math and science and a whole lot more."
More than 600 juniors and seniors from across western Kansas converged on GCCC Wednesday to learn about nearly two dozen career fields during the college's Exploration Day 2008 -- more than the event has ever attracted.
Students, broken into academic and technical program areas, were allowed the chance to use power tools, throw stage punches at the direction of a drama instructor, speak with firefighters, use stethoscopes on robotic patients and more.
Welding, one of the planned demonstrations that attracted dozens of students -- almost all males -- could be attributed to the strong need for welders in the region, said Steve Quakenbush, the director of information services at GCCC. Quakenbush lauded the welding lab as state-of-the-art, a facility that has been revamped and a program made stronger this semester, he said. The lab includes recently installed learning stations that guide trainees through shielded metal arc welding, gas metal arc welding, Tungsten inert gas welding, metal fabrication, plasma cutting and other techniques.
Inside the John Collins Vocational Building, students gathered to get a firsthand look as instructor Tom Brungardt demonstrated.
"You're going to practice here, but you're gonna be tested the rest of your career," Brungardt said, reminding the students that the college could provide the certification required to weld in the state, certification that must be renewed every 15 months.
Merl Seger, a welding instructor from Stanton County High School in Johnson City, brought a group of students interested in enrolling in a welding school in the region. Seger was thankful for the opportunity for his students to see the facilities at GCCC, which will aid in their decision-making, he said.
The possible future nurses of America gathered inside the Penka Building to use stethoscopes on robotic patient simulators, which mimicked the symptoms and conditions experienced by live medical patients.
Nursing instructors gathered the students around the dummy-hospital beds.
Maddie Wilkin, 17, a junior from Lakin High School, said she was interested in a career in nursing because she really enjoys being around people.
"It seems like this is an interesting career where you're always going to encounter something different every day," Wilkin said.
Many of the featured associate degree programs lead to certification and career readiness in two years, and others involve transfer after graduation to a bachelor's degree program at four-year colleges or universities, according to college officials.
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