Updates from Olympic College

The 2018-2019 school year was full of change for Olympic College. The school year brought new leadership, new buildings on campus, new programs, and more. With our mission in mind and our students in our hearts, we persevered through the changes and came out hungry for more.

As a fresh employee, I joined the Classified Staff Development Committee (CSDC) to meet new people and give what I had to support the incredible staff at our college. As an Alumnus of the school, I thought I knew how hard these teams worked; I quickly discovered that I did not even know the half of it.

With the school year ending, it was time to celebrate the people who worked tirelessly through the changes. The CSDC hosts an annual event called The Classified Connection, which brings all classified staff together for a day of connecting, learning, and growing. I had the honor of serving on the committee through the planning process and was able to witness the small seeds of ideas flourish into fruition the day of the Connection.

We invited all of Olympic College’s classified and part-time staff to the Connection to join us at the Kitsap Golf and Country Club on June 21. We started with breakfast and icebreakers, heard from our speakers, ate a delicious lunch, and celebrated our staff. We had incredible speakers, including a few of our Administrative staff and motivational humorist Sharon Lacey. The speakers provided us with knowledge on topics like Financial Health, Leading from all Directions and How to be an Outlook-Ninja.

We carried on our Care-Bear tradition; Staff, faculty, and students nominate employees based on their passion and hard work.  The committee chose four winners and created personalized bears to celebrate these special people. We had over 70 gifts donated from different staff and departments around campus that we were able to pass on to our awesome employees. We also took this opportunity to recognize years of service for those who had an anniversary year.

When we think of “What is best for my school?” the first thing we often think of is the students. The Classified Connection is our way of saying thank you those who wake up, show up to work, and dedicate themselves to serving those students. It was a full day and honestly, it was a lot of work. Given the opportunity, I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

                -Mackenzie Klinker, Program Coordinator – Olympic College