Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
Fall honor list announced at NCC
Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon has announced the honor list for the fall semester. Students on the honor list are full-time and have achieved an average grade point of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale.
The following students from this area are on the honor list.
Hartley: Keith DeBoer, Practical Nursing; Cherryenne Hibbing, Associate of Arts; Lily Rons, Practical Nursing; Ethan Spronk, Industrial & Commercial Wiring; Brieann Van Sloten, Medical Coding.
Primghar: Jagger Anliker, Associate of Arts; Rosalie Jenness, Medical Coding; Brock Riedemann, Diesel Technology; Annika Wulf, Medical Coding.
Sanborn: Faith Kamanda, Practical Nursing; Jayden Lyman, Health Information Technology; Lyndsey Moser, Pharmacy Technician; Nathan Serr, Associate of Arts.
SDSU announces fall semester dean’s list
More than 3,200 students were recognized for outstanding academic performance during the fall 2022 semester at South Dakota State University in Brookings by being named to the dean’s list.
To earn dean’s list distinctions in SDSU’s colleges, students must have completed a minimum of 12 credits and must have earned at least a 3.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale. Nearly 1,400 students received a 4.0 and those are indicated with an asterisk (*).
Area students in SDSU’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences named to the dean’s list are Haley Berends and *Zachary Schoelerman, of Everly; *Ben Hargens, of Greenville; and *Ashilyn Hulstein, of Melvin.
Also named to the dean’s list was Reece Petersen, of Sanborn, a student in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
NCC named best community college in Iowa
Intelligent.com, a resource for program rankings and higher education planning, has included Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon on its list of the Best Community Colleges in Iowa in 2023. The research identifies top schools in the state based on tuition costs, the number of credits required to graduate and the online coursework delivery format.
NCC was awarded Best Online Experience on the final list. Intelligent.com implemented a unique methodology that ranks each institution on a scale from 0-100 across six categories. The scoring system compares each school on tuition costs, admission, retention and graduation rates, faculty, reputation and the student resources provided for online students.
Studies show that obtaining a degree increases income substantially, with graduates earning 84 percent more than those with only high school diplomas or those without a completed GED. The percentage difference in earnings continues to grow with higher learning degrees such as master’s, doctoral or professional degrees, with the unemployment rate decreasing to as little as 1.6 percent for those with a doctorate.
ILCC fall 2022 honors lists
Iowa Lakes Community College recently released the fall 2022 honors lists recognizing students who achieve the highest academic standards earning inclusion on the President’s List or Dean’s List.
For the Fall 2022 semester, 109 students earned President’s List, an honor achieved by those who recorded a “straight-A” or 4.0 GPA, and 227 students made the Dean’s List of students who earned a 3.25 GPA or higher for the semester.
In addition to achieving the required GPA, students must also be full-time and enrolled in 12 or more graded credits to be eligible for the President’s List or Dean’s lists.
Local students are listed below. An asterisk (*) indicates a 4.00 (A) GPA.
Everly: Justina Cherry*, President’s List; Taisya Newcomer*, President’s List; and James Rickerl*, President’s List.
Hartley: Daisy Rodriguez*, President’s List.
Royal: Gabriella Carpenter, Dean’s List.
NWI fishing report
Most lakes have 15-plus inches of ice. Larger lakes may have areas with thinner ice; use caution when going out, especially if using heavier vehicle. Ice formation will be slower with the amount of snow covering many lakes.
East Okoboji Lake: Ice thickness is around 15-plus inches in most areas. Deeper snow coverage has made getting around more difficult.
Black crappie, good. Try small jigs tipped with a minnow or tube jig and bobber. Bluegill, good. Use tube jigs, plastics, or other small jigs. Northern pike, good. Tip-ups are working well. Yellow perch, fair. Minnows work well; some sorting may be needed.
Ingham Lake: Use caution; there is an open hole in the lake with the aerator in use. Ice thickness is 13-plus inches.
Minnewashta Lake: Ice thickness is 16.5-plus inches.
Black crappie, good. Bluegill, good.
Silver Lake (Dickinson): Ice thickness is around 13-plus inches. Use caution; the lake aerator is in use. This creates an open hole on the east side of the lake.
Walleye, good. Best bite is at dusk.
Spirit Lake: The lake is entirely iced over with 16-plus inches in most places. The best ice is on the south end and Anglers Bay. Most accesses are clear of heaves and snow.
Walleye, good. Best bite is around dusk. Yellow perch, good. Use small jigs tipped with a minnow. Sorting may be needed.
West Okoboji Lake: Most bays have safe ice for small machines. Ice thickness is about 15.5 inches at Emerson Bay, about 15 inches at Haywards Bay and 11 inches at Triboji. The bluegill bite in Little Emerson Bay and out from Triboji has been very good.
Black crappie, fair. Try small jigs tipped with a minnow. Bluegill, good. Use tube jigs, plastics, or other small jigs. Yellow perch, fair. Try small jigs tipped with a minnow. Sorting may be needed.
Plenty of variety in baby names at Spencer Hospital last year
The year 2022 represented another fun year in Spencer Hospital’s Birth Center with around 250 new babies welcomed into the world.
“Our birth center team enjoys getting to know each family and being a part of each birth experience,” said Ann Polaschek, birth center director. “Each baby is special and often we see their personalities emerging from day one, so it’s fun learning what names parents have chosen to go with each child.”
The most any name was used was three times, with three each of baby boys named Charles, Ezra and Tate. However, some names with similar pronunciations yet different spellings were used more than once, such as Colt and Kolt for boys and Kally and Callie for girls.
A few other names that were used at least twice include little girls named Mila, Olivia, Paisley, Paityn and Teagan; and boys who were named Noah, Milo, Lawson, Jack and Beau.
Traditional names from the first half of the 1900s continue to be popular such as Amelia, Emma, Nora and Hannah making the list for girls, and Ezra, Henry, Jack and Leo on the boys’ list. Popular names from the late 1950s and 1960s are making the list too, including Diana, Elizabeth and Susan for girls and Anthony, John and William for boys.
WIT receives $2.2M grant from the DoE
Western Iowa Tech Community College has been awarded a $2.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education for the purposes of strengthening retention of its Arts and Sciences students, improving transfer pathways to 4-year colleges and universities, fostering a culture of equity, and training employees on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
In the first phase of the five-year grant, the college will hire additional staff to focus on increasing completion and transfer rates among Arts and Sciences students seeking their bachelor degree. Personnel will be responsible for facilitating connections with transfer institutions, mapping clear and accessible transfer pathways, identifying barriers inhibiting student success, and improving the onboarding processes. The grant will be used to evaluate experiential learning approaches, where students gain valuable soft skills and real-world learning.
There will also be a renewed focus on retention of minority students caused by a lack of connectivity and gaps in cultural competency. By creating mentorship programs, professional development opportunities, and scholarships for minority students, WITCC aims to improve transfer students to 4-year schools for minority students.
The second phase of the grant will focus on fostering a culture of equity by funding a Center for Diversity Enrichment within the college. The centralized student center will house student resources related to diversity, equity and inclusion as well as outside community resources specific to underrepresented populations. The student center will promote engagement of diverse learners in a safe environment where they will experience a sense of belonging and inclusion.
Additionally, WITCC will be closely partnering with the college’s Department of Inclusion to make available ongoing, college-wide DEI professional development and training for all employees. The college will also undergo an instructional design review to ensure that equity and access are attained within the classroom.
By improving the college’s cultural competency as well as retention and completion through the grant, WITCC will build a campus where every learner is supported, provide degrees to more students and ultimately increase educational attainment in our community.
Legislation proposed to create uniform election recount procedures
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate is proposing a bill to the Iowa Legislature that streamlines the recount process for elections.
The bill standardizes the recount timeline in all 99 counties, provides additional flexibility for the makeup of recount boards, and requires uniform methods for how ballots are recounted, reconciled, and reported.
“The integrity of Iowa’s elections is my top priority and this bill would help ensure we have clean, secure elections and a recount process that is uniform across the state,” Pate said in a news release. “We’ve had the opportunity to identify these areas of improvement while observing several large-scale recounts in recent years.”
Pate recommends in his proposed bill that all counties conduct their official canvass of elections on Tuesdays. That would ensure the recount timeline is uniform for every county.
The proposed legislation would also increase the size of recount boards, depending on a county’s population. Currently, recount boards are comprised of three members. Under the proposed legislation, recount boards for counties with a population of 15,000-49,000 would increase to five members. Counties with population over 50,000 would have seven members. Additionally, the members of the recount boards, aside from one designee from each candidate, would be comprised of precinct election officials selected by the chief judge of the judicial district.
Finally, the legislation proposes recounts be conducted in a uniform manner. If a candidate requests a hand recount of ballots, all ballots involved in the recount must be tallied by hand and machine. In recent years, candidates have requested a hand recount in some precincts and a machine count in others. The proposed bill seeks to end that practice.
The Iowa Legislature’s 2023 general assembly began on Jan. 9.
