SMC organizing business honors chapter
Southwestern Michigan College is adding a third opportunity for students to earn honors distinction while at the college. SMC has been approved to create Gamma Nu Chapter of Alpha Beta Gamma, the international community college business honor society. It will join Sigma Psi, the chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for community colleges, and SMC's homegrown Honors Program as avenues for the college's brightest students to shine academically.
SMC graduate talks transfer success

Elisabeth Fellows
Transfer students can have it all.
Elisabeth Fellows, 21, reached that conclusion starting at Southwestern Michigan College, then continuing to Grand Valley State University, where she’s a senior studying medical laboratory science to work in a hospital.
Students starting college in high school
Southwestern Michigan College’s Early College programs let students jump-start higher education by earning credits while still in high school, often for free.
Jeremiah Wilson of Edwardsburg took advantage of the Early Middle College (EMC) partnership, which allows high school students to earn enough credits for an associate degree free of charge, between SMC and Edwardsburg High School.
SMC Honors Program showcases projects
Southwestern Michigan College’s finest students put their finest work on display during the college’s second Honors Showcase Dec. 12 in the art gallery of the Dale A. Lyons Building on the Dowagiac campus.
Fourteen students enrolled in SMC’s Honors Program presented posters and answered questions, simulating a professional conference experience unheard of for most college freshmen and sophomores.
SMC students attending national psychology conference
What a difference a year makes. Three SMC students, two barely out of high school, the third still in high school, are getting chances to attend a higher education national conference.
Kristen Arnold, a Southwestern Michigan College elementary education major from Oklahoma; Sydney Harmon, a White Pigeon psychology major; and Justine Grisham, a dual-enrolled Edwardsburg student, can attend the Midwestern Psychological Association's annual meeting next spring with SMC faculty.
Social work students tutoring at Stepping Stone
Every Monday afternoon Dr. Donald Ludman’s social work students tutor for Ester Stanley’s free after-school program at The Stepping Stone, 214 Miller St., Dowagiac.
Stanley, a Dowagiac teacher for 32 years, visited Ludman’s Introduction to Social Work class in October.
After her presentation, several students asked to visit and are now engaged in tutoring elementary-age students in reading, mathematics and social studies homework.
Improving nursing education
Southwestern Michigan College’s first 50 years produced 2,974 nurses.
From the very first graduation of 20 women from Dowagiac, Cassopolis, Edwardsburg, Marcellus, Decatur, Lawton, Berrien Center, Buchanan, South Haven and Paw Paw on Feb. 5, 1967, at Dowagiac’s Federated Church, nursing has been a flagship program.
By expanding the Nursing and Health Education Building, President Dr. David Mathews said, “We’re trying to position the college so the next generation has access to affordable, highest-possible-quality college education close to home. This is the last piece to our puzzle” after $8.6-million O’Leary and Daugherty building upgrades and three residence halls costing $7.5 million each.
The project “allows us to double the size of our ACEN-accredited nursing program,” Mathews said, “and add another health-related occupation,” such as occupational therapy assistant or physical therapy assistant.
SMC sociologists research Generation Z

Kaitlynn Kendall, Olivia Ziemer
Two Southwestern Michigan College students and Professor Dr. Barbara Karwacinski presented research on “Educational Expectations and School Experiences: What Makes Generation Z Students Happy” at the Michigan Sociological Association’s annual conference at Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids.
SMC sent the only undergraduate presenters for the second year in a row.
Kaitlynn Kendall, from Edwardsburg, returned joined by Olivia Ziemer, from Hartford.
Fall 2017 President's, Dean's lists announced
Southwestern Michigan College named 46 students to President’s List for the 2017 fall semester.
Students honored on President’s List must earn a perfect 4.0 grade-point average (GPA) on a 4.0 scale while carrying a full study load of at least 12 credits.
The 185 students making Dean’s List earned at least a 3.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale while carrying a full study load.
Student finds fit blending technology, agriculture
What a difference six months made.
Southwestern Michigan College/Michigan State University fruit and vegetable crop management major Nathan Oman set off for five days at Muskegon Community College in January as part of an unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for agriculture course that included building and maintaining drones.
Oman, 26, a 2010 New Buffalo High School graduate and part-time firefighter, was among eight students from MSU Ag Tech partner schools enrolled in the inaugural class.
Niles Campus debuts four ‘FlexForward’ programs
Four “FlexForward” programs debut at Southwestern Michigan College’s Niles Campus this fall.
FlexForward programs consist of 100% evening and online-hybrid classes designed to fit working students’ schedules so they can earn a degree without drastic changes to their schedules.
Online-hybrid courses offer the best of both worlds. They meet on campus just once a week, while the remainder of coursework is completed online. This provides students the convenience of online courses while retaining the benefits of meeting instructors and classmates face-to-face.
Ag Tech's new ABCs: apps, bees and compost
On May 6, Southwestern Michigan College and Michigan State University’s Ag Tech partnership graduated its first eight students at SMC’s 50th commencement.
Italian honeybees moved into two hives on campus on April 29.
Stacey Rocklin, coordinator for the MSU Institute of Agricultural Technology at SMC, relies on three phone applications to collect interior temperature and humidity data to monitor hive health.
Environmental science a booming field

Deirdre Kurtis
Thanks to such issues as climate change, fracking and the need to replace aging infrastructure, the public is more attuned to the environment.
Environmental science employment is forecast to expand 15 percent by 2022.
Southwestern Michigan College’s Associate in Science transfer degree provides a sturdy, affordable foundation for baccalaureate degrees opening doors to fields from A to Z — acoustical engineering, archaeology, agriculture and astronomy to zoology — with forestry, botany, geology, biology, hydrology, seismology, entomology, meteorology and climate science, among many others, sandwiched in between.
Tech truck visits Niles Campus
Turbine Technologies’ Mobile Engineering and Technology Training Center’s “maiden voyage” brought the climate-controlled semi to Southwestern Michigan College’s Niles Campus Sept. 6.
Faculty, including Robotics Professor Michael McGowan and Physics Professor Andrew Dohm, and students, toured the trailer, headed to Western Michigan University from Niles.
Marketing technologist speaks at SMC
Modern digital marketing careers combine creativity, technology and analytics, Elmer Boutin told Southwestern Michigan College business students Oct. 2.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Boutin said. “There’s still a need for creative writers and artists, but it’s amazing how much data is generated.”
Boutin, who knows SMC Dean of Arts and Sciences Dr. Scott Topping from the Army, directs organic search for GTB.