The Lion's Roundtable (Guest: Dr. Jim Carlson)
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Todd Delaney:Discussing topics of interest to the university, Hammond and the surrounding communities, this is the Lions Roundtable. Now here's your host, Doctor. Amber Nero.
Amber Narro:Good day, good day. This is Amber Narro on ninety point nine, The Lion. We are here with doctor Jim Carlson. He is from North Shore Technical Community College. He's the chancellor, and he's gonna tell us about all the new programs and things that are happening and successful programs and things that are in the works we've been talking about just for the last few minutes while we've been sitting here.
Amber Narro:Welcome, doctor Carlson. So glad to have you.
Jim Carlson:Thank you. Happy New Year.
Amber Narro:To you as well. To you as well. Alright. So let's talk a little bit about the, the program at NTCC the programs that are available at NTCC and and things that are happening that are just kinda new and getting rolling. But we're also gonna talk about some of our history and things like that.
Amber Narro:Now I wanna get to know you as well. We were talking before we started. You and I share some some history over there at that Southern Miss. Yeah?
Jim Carlson:Right. Good time.
Amber Narro:Very good. I'm gonna get you to talk right into that mic because I'm having a little bit of trouble. Ah, okay. So it's not working for me. So we're gonna move you just one down, if you don't mind, to that yellow mic right next to you because I'm I'm having trouble with that one right now.
Amber Narro:So we must have silenced it or something. Don't have time to get You're into the perfect now. There we go. There we go. Alright.
Amber Narro:So doctor Carlson, we we share a little bit of history with Southern Miss. You were actually a Southern Miss grad too, a couple times maybe.
Jim Carlson:Yeah? Yes. So I did my undergraduate and master's degrees at the University of Southern Mississippi. My degrees were in speech communication for both of those programs, and we shared some, professors that we knew quite well. So, yeah, it's good to catch up with you and certainly, exciting to see all the great things going on at Southeastern.
Amber Narro:Absolutely. And, we share a program as well over at, Southern Miss somewhat. You went speech comm, I went mass comm, but we we had some professors that we absolutely adored. Doctor Wiggins is one of them. God bless.
Amber Narro:He he was so wonderful.
Jim Carlson:Yeah. He was a great guy, and he certainly was instrumental in me going to graduate school when I probably had no business going. So, thankfully, he, he pushed me forward.
Amber Narro:It was so you know, I got some great stories about Doctor. Wiggins. The first one, when I went over there, I I remember Jake and I, my husband and I were taking a, he was on a golf tournament and I said, you know, on my way to the golf tournament to come see you play, they miss, I had submitted my application, everything was rolling. I got there, and doctor Wiggins starts talking to me. He's like, man, we're gonna we're gonna, schedule this class for you and that class for you and blah blah blah.
Amber Narro:And I'm like, well, am I in in the program? He's like, well, yeah, girl. Come on over. You you're ready. What you would why you think I'm talking to you right now?
Amber Narro:So he was great. And then, on our first day of classes, he would he asked the class, tell me your name. I need to know who you are, and tell me how many years you sent you spent in prison. So, I mean, so we'd all come up
Jim Carlson:with like him.
Amber Narro:Oh, he's fantastic. He is fantastic. He said, I gotta know who I'm working with here. You know? So awesome dude.
Amber Narro:I miss him very much. He passed away several years ago. Just an amazing, just strength at that program at Southern Miss. So miss him very much. So you're over at let's talk a little bit about your history, though, because you have spent some time with some honors organizations and some other things.
Amber Narro:When you graduate from Southern Miss, we what year? About?
Jim Carlson:1998.
Amber Narro:1998. Where do you go from there?
Jim Carlson:So I I actually did a graduate assistantship within the department my second year. Because back in those days, when you had you were in the master's degree program, you had eighteen hours of credit, you could teach the introductory course. So I was teaching public speaking my second year in grad school, had no interest whatsoever to teach until I started doing it. And I was like, I actually kinda like this. It's kinda fun.
Jim Carlson:And I still was planning to get into sales, because at the time, pharmaceutical sales was like a big thing for everybody, you You got a company car, you got to take people to the Saints games, you know? It's a cool thing. That was kind of So my personal, you know, plan. But fortunately for me, when I was getting close to graduate in May '98, Doctor. Erickson, who was our department chair in the speech comm department, he says to me, he's like, Hey Jim, how would you like to teach up at Jones Junior College One for the of their instructors was having twins, and she wanted to take the summer off.
Amber Narro:I guess so.
Jim Carlson:I was like, Okay, well, how much does it pay? You know? And they they told me. I was like, yeah. It's not so bad.
Jim Carlson:So I taught four night classes that summer after I graduated. And about maybe July, they came to me one night after class, the the the night dean, you know, at the time, who's now the president actually of Jones.
Amber Narro:Oh, wow.
Jim Carlson:Doctor Smith, he's like, hey, Jim. Mary Ann wants to take the year off to spend time with the kids. Would you be interested in sticking around for at least a year to teach? And I was like, yeah, I got nothing else going on. Why not?
Jim Carlson:Right? So I did, and that turned into seven years. Wow. So I taught a full time faculty member at Jones Junior College for seven years, so 02/02/2005.
Amber Narro:What were those topics?
Jim Carlson:We always had public speaking, interpersonal communication were the two that I always taught. Interpersonal communication was always my favorite person. You know, it's just the the stuff you could have students, you know, kind of experience and do to kinda get to know who they are and how they make those, you know, thoughts and decisions. So that was always fun, I thought. But, basically, what happened is I went to a wedding for one of my friends, my now wife.
Jim Carlson:Her friend was marrying my friend. We knew each other in college. We never dated. But we saw each other at the wedding. We started talking.
Jim Carlson:We started dating from afar. She lived in New Orleans. I lived in Hattiesburg.
Amber Narro:Well, there you have it.
Jim Carlson:And at some point, we decided to get married, and I moved to Louisiana. So that's kinda how I got to the great state of Louisiana. But
Amber Narro:I turned my Mississippi boy into a Louisianan man as well. So don't you worry
Jim Carlson:about that. They don't leave yeah. I actually am from Wisconsin, and, you know, I always joke that Mandeville is far north as I could get my wife, so
Amber Narro:here we are. Mhmm. Until they start talking bad about those northerners.
Jim Carlson:That's right. About that I
Amber Narro:12 kinda area right there. It's about the line of it.
Jim Carlson:That's right.
Amber Narro:I love it. I love it. Alright. So you you come to Louisiana. Thank you for that, by the We love keeping smart people here and and wonderful, people.
Amber Narro:So we appreciate that. But you spent some time also working with Phi Kappa Phi. Yes?
Jim Carlson:Yes. So ironically, I live two blocks from Delgado Community College in New Orleans, but I never, was given an opportunity to work there. So I applied for this position over at Baton Rouge Community College, and I took the job. And literally three weeks into commuting from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to teach over at BRCC, which was pretty new at that time. Yeah.
Jim Carlson:Hurricane Katrina hit. And, our house, flooded and
Amber Narro:Oh, I'm sorry.
Jim Carlson:I didn't know that. No. No. They've it was, you know, it was an interesting time, and it all worked itself out, but my wife and I, we ended up moving to Baton Rouge for seven years. But I taught at BRCC, was department chair for the liberal arts and foreign languages, and I got an opportunity out of the blue.
Jim Carlson:I didn't even know what Phi Kappa Phi was because I was not an honor student as an undergraduate, And I became the chapter relations director. Phi Kappa Phi happens to be headquartered in Baton Rouge. They were at LSU for about thirty years, and then after Katrina, they discovered that they hadn't paid any rent in thirty years, so it was time for them to move. So they bought this nice building on, Goodwood Boulevard, and, I worked there for seven years as their director of chapter relations, and it was probably my favorite job I've had until, I got to NTCC.
Amber Narro:Very good. Now it's funny that you say that because in National Collegiate Honors Conference, I, I went there in November with a couple of students here at Southeastern, and Rebecca Shoot from, the Phi Kappa Phi office said, hey. Let's do lunch while you're at the National. And we were sitting there talking, and we were very ashamed that we're forty five minutes from each other, had never met each other, had to go all the way to San Diego to do lunch.
Jim Carlson:Right. It's not that far away.
Amber Narro:I know. But that's a great that's a great thing for this area that this National Honor Society is headquartered here, right So
Jim Carlson:when they first started I back in the eighteen hundreds, they were at the University of Maine. And, basically whoever became the executive director in those days, it was typically a former professor. They would move it to wherever that person was at. So it went from Maine to University of Michigan to LSU. And for some reason, we were in the honors college at LSU French House, you know, in in this great area.
Jim Carlson:And they had a sweet deal. They didn't pay any rent for for, like I said, for thirty years. And then I guess because when Katrina hit, things were a little tight on the real estate on campus, and they discovered that who's this honor society? Why are they here? You know?
Amber Narro:And Right.
Jim Carlson:So as you can imagine, if you don't pay rent for thirty years, you can probably buy yourself a building pretty quickly. So they did that, and they refurbished Hays Town. I put Town Hays, I became the the name of the architect, which is a kind of famous architect in the area. They bought a commercial building there and redid it, and, man, it's really really a nice place for.
Amber Narro:Oh, I love that you were there when all of this is happening, that you're giving me this rich history. I love it. I love it. So the the time spent at, Bot Kappa Phi, obviously, was great for you because you bring, when you come over to NTCC, anything between those two?
Jim Carlson:No. No. So, basically, I'd gone back to to get my doctorate while I was at Phi Kappa Phi. So I was working there for about a year, and I was like, I really wanna I've always wanted to get my doctorate, not for any reason other than I wanted to prove to myself I could do it. Yeah.
Amber Narro:And we needed you at NTCC. You just didn't see that happening.
Jim Carlson:I I didn't even know NTCC existed, you know, at that point. And true story, I was on a trip to visit our chapter chapter up up in in the the Northeast, so I did a little tour. I went to Rhode Island, University of Connecticut, Salem State, and my last stop was Northeastern University, which is in Downtown Boston. And I was talking to the chapter relations or excuse me, the the chapter adviser for the chapter at Northeastern, and great guy. He had been teaching there for sixty years at that point.
Jim Carlson:I mean, it was a crazy story. He was in his lane.
Amber Narro:Is he a 147? Was God bless him.
Jim Carlson:He was he was pushing 90 at the time. He was the It might have been 57 or 58, but it was it was like Yeah. That's a He still, like, would go and he'd been retired for, like, twenty years, but he was an emeritus professor and he still taught, like, two classes and ran the chapter.
Amber Narro:That's amazing.
Jim Carlson:Anyway, he was telling me because I was he used to ask him about myself, and I told him, I was like, you know, I really wanna work on getting a doctorate. I said, problem is I travel so much with a job. It's just hard to, like, commit to being somewhere on every Tuesday or Thursday, whatever the scenario would be. And he said, you know, we're doing this new program, which is a doctor of education that'll allow you to do 80% of it virtually online, which was sort of new at that time. It was 2,008, and 20% would be residents, which you could do during the summertime.
Jim Carlson:And I was like, well, that might work. I went and talked to the dean and went back home, talked to my wife, applied, and lo and behold, I was in the very second cohort of that program at Northeastern and I graduated in 2013 officially with my doctorate. And yeah, my graduation ceremony was actually during the, remember when they had the Boston Marathon Bombing? Yeah. Remember they closed the city down when they were looking for the the person?
Jim Carlson:Yeah. Yeah. That happened when we were graduating. So we the whole city was shut down. We actually did I actually never had a graduation.
Jim Carlson:They but they did mail me my my diploma and my my gown. But, yeah, that was a wild time.
Amber Narro:I hope you took some pictures.
Jim Carlson:Oh, wow. It was a it but Blossom's a great city. I got to spend four summers up there for this, you know, for that program.
Amber Narro:But I'm so sorry
Jim Carlson:that happened. I'm so I mean, it's it's all water in the bridge, but it was a it was a great program. I would highly recommend it for anybody that's interested in going back that may not wanna do Southeastern, which is also great.
Amber Narro:Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, to have to have a a ceremony kinda marked with that an off awful event is ugh.
Jim Carlson:Yeah. It was Yuck. It was, you know, in the positive thing I wanna say about that program was they they had a really interesting faculty there because it was in a city like Boston, and you have so many great universities, you know, But in one I was doing a public policy class there and
Amber Narro:Love those.
Jim Carlson:My professor was Michael Dukakis, the former governor who ran for president of The United States. And, that was pretty interesting to be able But, to yeah, at that time, he was teaching, at Northeastern, half a year, and the other half of the year, he taught at UCLA.
Amber Narro:That's amazing. That is a very cool story. So I love that. Alright. You finish at Phi Kappa, Phi then, and the job comes open at at NTCC.
Jim Carlson:Well, so Or My wife had gone back to school as well. Okay. She had gone back to get her nurse practitioner degree here at Southeastern. She's a Southeastern graduate for her master's degree. And she finished a year or so ahead of me because of the circumstances, you know, just took a little longer for the doctorate program.
Jim Carlson:And she got offered a job at Covington Orthopedics. So she accepted that position. We moved to Mandeville. I was traveling a lot for Phi Kappa Phi. Sure.
Jim Carlson:So I was doing the commute back and forth to Baton Rouge, you know, when I wasn't traveling to, you know, university.
Amber Narro:Oh, wow. That's a long commute. It really is. It gets old.
Jim Carlson:But I was I was steadfast. I said, I'm not gonna accept a new job just because of the commute. You know? Right. I said I wanted to wait till I finish my doctorate, and I picked something that was going to be better for, you know, for me long term.
Jim Carlson:And honestly, at the time when I moved to Mandeville, I had no idea we even had a community college. And all of a sudden, one day back when we used to have actually papers on Sunday, I always read the paper, and there was an article in there about this North Shore Technical Community College that the legislators had approved to become basically, they took the technical colleges, Hammond being one of them, Greensburg and Bogalusa. They combined them together and created North Shore Technical College. And then the following year, they made them North Shore Technical Community College, and they funded to be able to build a new campus in Macomb and a new one in Walker. And we became a, well, beginning of it, a full comprehensive community college.
Jim Carlson:So, when I finished my program, I ultimately applied for a position, and I became the dean of academics and came to work at NCC.
Amber Narro:Love that. So dean of academics, that's about what year?
Jim Carlson:That was in 2014. I just had my eleventh year anniversary at NCC.
Amber Narro:That's amazing. And just a couple of years ago, you become?
Jim Carlson:Yeah. I became the chancellor back in well, I was the interim chancellor in May '23. Doctor. Wainwright, our the only chancellor of NTCC at the time, became the new president here at Southeastern.
Amber Narro:Yes, he did. Thank you very much for that, by the way.
Jim Carlson:Yes, he's a great guy. His leadership is I'll always be grateful for it because he gave me the opportunity to be where I am today, but he also groomed the chancellor over at Nunez Community College, Doctor. Tinney, another southeastern graduate. She is a chancellor over there, and so just speaks highly for his ability to prepare his team for that next opportunity.
Amber Narro:She's wonderful as well. I've gotten some opportunities to work with her too because I did some adjunct work at, NTCC many moons ago and taught, speech communication there. And while I was kinda coming up and needing some cash to pay off some student loans, it was great. I appreciated it very much.
Jim Carlson:Yeah. The Connect to Success program. That was actually part of my job too was to run Connect to Success in addition to be the dean of academics. And as as we were building new campuses, it evolved from there. Wonderful.
Amber Narro:Now we've got we spent a lot of time getting to know you, and I think that that's valuable in this. We've got some great leadership around education in this area between you, doctor Wainwright. I I mean, let's just start it with Melissa Stelly who, you know, is the superintendent of of Tangeweb Parish School System. She is amazing. Absolutely.
Amber Narro:And the feeder, the opportunities that she gives and and we all steal from each other. Right? They just the Tainsborough Parish just stole, one of our first year success people over to help run some of their things, and and and work with students who are wanting to continue their educations. And we're working with her. They're they're bringing some people over next week to work with me with the honors program and trying to figure out how we can get all of these students real interested in staying here.
Amber Narro:That's the important thing. Right? We gotta get these students educated here so that they will live here, become tax paying citizens, and and just kinda grow our community.
Jim Carlson:Oh, absolutely. I mean, it takes all of us to make that happen. I mean, k through 12, the community college, and the university. You know, the the thing that's interesting about a community college is alumni predominantly stay and live within 20 miles of a campus in which they attended. And I know Doctor.
Jim Carlson:Wainwright looked into some data and Southeastern has a really high percentage of their alumni who stay and live in Louisiana, which is a very good thing because our state needs talent. You know, for a long time, really, the state of Louisiana has lost a lot of talented young people to places like Houston, Austin, Atlanta.
Amber Narro:Stop stealing our children.
Jim Carlson:And it's a opportunity for us to to reverse that and us be the next kinda place to be.
Amber Narro:Indeed. And I think, you know, we talk about the education side of it. I think Robbie Miller has done a lot of work in that space as well to make sure that Tange Pro parish is just thriving. His his entire thing is move here. You know?
Amber Narro:And it means more than physically move here. It means be productive, right, in this area. And we, I I repeat this constantly on this show because I think this number is staggering to me. We talked about it before the show started, but Bridget Laborde, who comes to us a lot of times for representing North Shore Technical Community College, and thank you for her to her for sending you today so that we can chat with Glad
Jim Carlson:be here.
Amber Narro:Yes. Indeed. But, she talks about there being 16,000 people, adults, you you reminded me, that are not that did not complete their high school diploma who are coming to use NTCC as a way to start building their family and to really change their family trees through getting their high school diplomas. You were mentioning before the show that there it don't be afraid of this, adults. If you haven't done this, we're gonna make sure that you are in a cohort of of people with this who you can relate to.
Amber Narro:You know? We're not gonna stick you in a class with with 16 to 18 year olds who might have different different goals to finish that. You're gonna be among people who are trying to achieve the same thing that you are, and you guys are creating some comfortable spaces for both.
Jim Carlson:Oh, absolutely. Know, one of the things with adult ed, you know, in the state of Louisiana, it's this was kinda mind boggling to me because I I guess, you know, graduating high school in 1992, I remember maybe one or two people dropping out, you know, of school. I don't remember it being a big, you know, issue back then. And then, you know, fast forward, I come to NTCC, and it's really my first experience working at an institution that served adult education. So I was just mind blown to find out that in the state of Louisiana, we have 600,000 working adults, which, you know, means they're age 23 to 67, I believe.
Jim Carlson:And they do not have a high school diploma. Their highest, you know, education is less than high school. And to me, it's like, how do we find a way to get them to the very base level, which is what we call the high set, which is the high school equivalency here in the state. We are adding the GED back. It's really, know, people always ask, what is that?
Jim Carlson:You know, they're the same. They're basically the ACT and the SAT, you know, for high school equivalency. It's just a different test, but it gets to the same outcome, which is the equivalency of a high school diploma. But, you know, I was shocked by the high numbers that we have in the state of Louisiana, but, you know, there's 16,000 Tangible Parish. There's 10,000 in Saint Tammany that are, you know, adults that and they weren't weren't that's the highest educated parish in the entire state of Louisiana, and there's still 10,000 people who are working adults that don't have a high school diploma.
Jim Carlson:So we gotta find ways to fix that, and by serving them through our adult education program, the truth is you may come in, take a few tests, go to class for a few days, go test, and you're finished because you're at that level. Or you may come in and you might be at a really low level, and you have a customized program that helps you get to where you need to be to be able to pass the HiSET, and we see it every day.
Amber Narro:Doctor. Carlson, when somebody comes to you and says, I've been working this long, why do I need a high school diploma now? I've been working in the field for twenty years. Why do I need to do that?
Jim Carlson:Well, I mean, to me, it's probably your opportunity to do something beyond where you are today, and high school equivalency is kind of the gateway to other options. So a lot of our students, they don't just go to the adult ed program and stop. They'll do the HiSET program and then they'll transition in either the community college, pick one of our associate's degree programs, or they go to the workforce division where Bridget works and we do what we call training for IBCs. Our IBCs which is industry based certification, which means they basically, they'll do a training program but at the end they'll have a credential that makes them employable. So for a perfect example would be like heavy equipment operator.
Jim Carlson:It's not a you're not getting an associate's degree, you'll get a certificate that gets you an opportunity to work in the the industry as a heavy equipment operator level one, and that's a fourteen week program.
Amber Narro:And you know, the both of us are sitting here having started school at some point not knowing exactly what we're gonna do with the next thing, and it ended up opening a door for us. Right?
Jim Carlson:Oh, absolutely.
Amber Narro:And you talked about that you went and got your doctorate. You wanted to do it. You didn't know exactly what was gonna happen because of that because you're at a that doesn't require it. Right? You're Absolutely.
Jim Carlson:At
Amber Narro:needed. Phi Kappa Phi and working in that area, traveling all over the country, meeting people, whatnot. And you said, this thing is just nagging at me. Right? Mhmm.
Amber Narro:So listen to that gut feeling because I was at North Oaks. I started my career at North Oaks in marketing and said, think I wanna go back and get my master's degree. Right? And while I'm well, I didn't know why at that time. So I I started my master's degree.
Amber Narro:Much like you, I got the opportunity to, stand in front of a class, and I was like, this feels pretty good.
Jim Carlson:Mhmm.
Amber Narro:This feels pretty natural. Right? Finished my master's degree and immediately applied for my PhD because I had the opportunity while I was working on my master's degree to come and talk to a class at Southeastern, and it just felt right. You know? And at that point, when I went in, I didn't know what I was gonna do.
Amber Narro:So don't don't ask the question, why do I need it now? Of us. Ask that question of yourself. Right? Because Absolutely.
Amber Narro:You might you may need it soon. And you don't you certainly don't wanna have to say no to an opportunity just because of something that, you know, you could have taken care of. And it's like $75. Right? Right?
Amber Narro:To get your high school diploma.
Jim Carlson:Right. No. It's actually free until you take the test. The test is only thing you pay for. And we do have some grants for people if they have we usually do it's called a depart or excuse me, the Dollar General, grant.
Jim Carlson:We apply for every year and that helps people take the test that may not be able to afford it. We wanna remove all the barriers.
Amber Narro:I love that. So you could actually get your high school diploma for free. Essentially. So ask the questions. Make make sure you ask the questions.
Amber Narro:And the question is the answer is gonna be no until you ask the question. So just make sure you do that. Right?
Jim Carlson:Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people, they drive by probably our campus here in Hammond. It's been there for fifty years. It actually turns 50 this year.
Jim Carlson:Wow. And they see it and they probably, their perception is that's the Votech because that's what it used to be. Used to be Louisiana Technical College campus site. Doctor. Wainwright was like the regional director for like three different campuses.
Jim Carlson:And you know, today it's a fully comprehensive community college. I mean, can walk in the door and can do something as simple as a forklift operator certification that'll take you, you know, six hours. Then you can go work in Robert at the Walmart distribution center, or you can stay for two and a half years and become a registered nurse. We wanna be that for people. We wanna provide them with an opportunity for them to have a better life for themselves and their family.
Amber Narro:Right. And it speaks volumes as well. Right? You you tell a story about going to get your high school diploma that says to the rest of your family that this is important. Yeah.
Amber Narro:You know? Absolutely. So set your family up as well for that opportunity. 2026. Mhmm.
Amber Narro:You're you're looking forward. You we're right at the January, looking down the the the whole 2026 opportunity. It's gonna be a great year. Tell me what this looks like at NTCC for you. I think for
Jim Carlson:us, we're just gonna continue to build on the momentum we've had over the last several years. So just to give you a little history, NTCC in the 2024, we had enrolled over 6,000 students at our five campuses across the the five parishes we serve, which made us by total headcount the third largest community college in Louisiana. And this year, we had 6,400 students, which kept us in that spot. We're still a ways behind BRCC and Delgado and we'll probably never catch up to them because of the proximities of them being in the major cities in Louisiana. But it's not about the number you enroll, it's about the number you help.
Jim Carlson:I think for us it's about continuing to serve our community in ways in which they need it. And for us to be able to do that, we have some infrastructure needs, so my goals have been to help develop not only the thriving populations of Livingston Parish, Tangibao Parish, and St. Tammany Parish, but also our rural campuses were up in St. Helena and Washington Parish. In Washington Parish, we have our Sullivan campus, which by the way is the oldest or the original trade school in Louisiana.
Jim Carlson:The Sullivan Memorial Trade School was built and opened in 1930. Now that's not the same building we're in today, but we haven't had a new infrastructure project in at the Sullivan campus since the eighties. And we have groundbreaking, hopefully in March or April, because we're going to bid this month for a new diesel technology building, which is gonna be great because it's gonna not only prepare the students that are in, you know, that area that are interested to do that, but it's gonna track business to the area, which is very important to the Washington Parish area.
Amber Narro:Oh, gosh. Obviously. Especially, like you said, the Washington Parish area. It is one that I think is often, not considered
Jim Carlson:Mhmm.
Amber Narro:As as import but, man, there's some property out there. Oh, absolutely. It it's time to go. So Absolutely. We're we're starting to get stuffed over here.
Amber Narro:Let's go. Let's go.
Jim Carlson:And they put the new highway in. They're just they're finishing the last leg of it, which would be a four lane highway all the way connecting I 12 to Bogalusa. I've driven the the new part. It's not all like I said, we're in the last leg, which actually will be right in front of our campus in Lacombe. And, they should be done, I would think, within this year or pretty close.
Amber Narro:Take a picture right now because it ain't gonna look like that in six months.
Jim Carlson:Exactly. Right?
Amber Narro:So I love it. I love it. One of the things that I also wanna mention about you, because I think this is important. You come to NTCC from Phi Kappa Phi
Jim Carlson:Mhmm.
Amber Narro:And you have spent seven years of your, career working with honors students with with honor society that recognizes students who are high performing. And you brought that to NTCC and said, not only do we want people to come here and just get their high school diploma or just get their certificate, we want them to also understand what it means to level up and be part of an organization that they can put on their resume, take to their potential employer and go, oh, yeah. Yeah. Guy might have the same credential as I do, but look at this extra mile that I went. Talk to me about, Phi Theta Kappa and the opportunity for students at NCCC to join a national honors organization for people who are in community colleges?
Jim Carlson:Yes. So when I got hired in well, I started in December 2014, but soon after the the Christmas break, doctor Wainwright says to me, he was, I got I got a goal that I want you to accomplish and is to bring Phi Theta Kappa to North Shore Technical Community College. So I started working on that path. The problem was at the time we were doing the transition from a technical college to a full comprehensive community college, and that required to be changing our accrediting body, which we were COE accredited, which is typical for a technical college and became SACSCOC accredited.
Amber Narro:Welcome to the club.
Jim Carlson:Oh, yeah. So many people have no clue as to like how of a difficult of a challenge that is because you cannot apply for and achieve SACSCOC accreditation while you're building new facilities. And we were legislatively mandated to build the new Lacombe and Walker facilities. So we were doing a program called
Amber Narro:Connects Assessment. Of academics to do.
Jim Carlson:Exactly. But actually, Southeastern was instrumental the entire time. I worked very closely with Jeff Temple. Doctor Temple helped us. You guys served really as our accrediting body during that time frame, so all of our faculty, everything went through you all.
Jim Carlson:And when I first got there, Doctor. Tinney had 24 classes on our transfer matrix for students. But when I got here, started noticing that it was very interesting that the number of students that came in with multiple needs on the developmental side, so they needed developmental English one and two or math one and two. So it means they were gonna be with us at least three semesters to get to comp one and college algebra level. So I was like, we gotta give them something to take while they're here to take with them when they transfer over.
Jim Carlson:And we actually grew that 24 courses on the matrix to 72 working with Doctor. Temple and I. And that totally changed what we were able to do and was really flourishing all the way up to COVID, really. COVID kind of changed the game a little bit in terms of the Connect to Success program. But I back up, and I said that because Phi Kappa Phi did not allow you to have a chapter unless you were regionally accredited at the time.
Jim Carlson:So I actually petitioned the national organization that we should be allowed and they actually changed their rules. And so now community colleges and community and technical colleges, regardless of whether you're nationally accredited or regionally accredited, could join. So us and Central Louisiana Community College and Northwest, which they're all now in the SACS club, but at the time, we were all three making that transition. So we all were able to get into, Phi Theta Kappa and reward students for their success regardless of what their major is, and it's been a great thing.
Amber Narro:Love it. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. Eric Summers here at Southeastern. I always repeat it.
Amber Narro:And I know that this isn't
Jim Carlson:Another USM alum.
Amber Narro:Absolutely. SMTTT. Right? But, I know that Eric Summers talks about, about setting the bar high, you know, and he didn't invent this statement, but he really lives it when he talks to our our students. And that if you set the bar high for students, they will meet it, you know, and that's that's the attitude that I think that we all need to have in this moment where we're talking about students who are, you know, trying to to get around things and the whole AI thing is coming in and and, you know, students don't really care and online learning and is it really them and all of the other things.
Amber Narro:If you set the bar high Yep. They will meet it because they are going to come out and compete against people who are setting the bar high. So we've gotta do it for all of our students so that they can all have the other that opportunity. So thank you for bringing that organization to NTCC Well
Jim Carlson:said.
Amber Narro:And showing students what they can do to level up and make sure that they don't just have the same credential as somebody else, but they took it a step further because that's important.
Jim Carlson:Oh, exactly. And and we actually I I wanted to add too that this past December, we had our first installation ceremony for the new, new for us, the adult education honor society. Yeah. So our adult ed students can earn an honor society membership as well through their good work. So like I tell people, it doesn't matter what your program is or what level you're at.
Jim Carlson:If you're succeeding, you should be recognized for that success. And as you move forward, you can continue to be recognized regardless of where you are at. So I hope all of our PTK folks go on to Southeastern and become Phi Kappa Phi members because I think that shows you that there is an opportunity for everybody to be recognized as a top student. And by the way, I was not Phi Kappa Phi or PTK because I was an average student.
Amber Narro:That's okay. And that's that's wonderful because you took an opportunity later to level up. Right? Oh, And That's that's important.
Jim Carlson:And people like you know, we had mentioned Jean Wiggins. I mean, they they're the ones that challenged me to go to graduate school. I'm like, wait a minute. Like, I'm I'm kinda like an average student here. And, honestly, I I never thought I'd be a chancellor of a community college.
Jim Carlson:You know? I mean, I I was gonna sell pharmaceuticals. You know what mean? That was kinda my thought pattern. Actually, originally, I was a hotel restaurant tourism major until I discovered that I'd have to work nights and weekends for the rest of my life, and I changed my major to speech communication.
Jim Carlson:So it you just never know where the road's gonna lead you, And I tell people all the time, if you come to a fork in the road, take it and do the best you can and make the most of it. And I think that's what people need to do, and I think that's the way people can move forward.
Amber Narro:In this parish, I just wanna re reiterate this because it's so important. You literally can start in kindergarten and get a doctorate in this parish and never leave Tangipahoa Parish. 100 So it can happen right here. So it it let's let's do it. Let's do it, everybody.
Amber Narro:Alright. Thank you so much. I appreciate your comment, doctor Carlson. I've been talking to the North Shore Technical Community College chancellor today, doctor Jim Carlson. He came to talk to us about all the opportunities at North Shore Tech, introduced himself a little bit, and I hope he comes back and talks to us soon and shares a little bit more about North Shore Technical Community College.
Amber Narro:If not, he's gonna send Bridget, and you know she's gonna tell us. So I appreciate you coming today.
Jim Carlson:Thanks for having me.
Amber Narro:And thank you for listening here on Thursdays and Fridays at 09:00 on ninety point nine FM, the Lion. I'm Amber Narro. We're at the lion's roundtable. Y'all have a great day.
Todd Delaney:Thank you for joining us today. If you missed any part of the show, you can listen to the lion's roundtable on demand at our website, lionupradio.org. The podcast version is also available for download from Amazon, Google, Spotify, and TuneIn.
