North Central Michigan College based in Petoskey is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.
Officials said the college received its charter in 1958, and opened its doors a year later with 150 students.
Kathy Bardins is the Communications & Events Specialist for N-C-M-C and shared some of the progress that’s been made over the past six decades.
“We went from six programs to 63 programs. We went from one building to eight buildings on the Petoskey campus and our two centers in Gaylord and Cheboygan, again growth all the time,” Bardins said. “We are very responsive with the community, we listen to what the community needs are.”
She noted that N-C-M-C is the fifth largest employer in the area, and that attendance has grown from those first 150 students to over 27-hundred today.
The college maintains a focus on community while offering area citizens a resource for higher education.
“We have a student and community resource center. We have a free walking track for the community, so anyone can come and walk on the track here, in the college,” She said. “It also has a regulation sized gym, which local schools and organizations can book time for basketball and volleyball practice. That’s a wonderful gift to the community.”
N-C-M-C works closely with the community as a training center through the Corporate and Community Education program, which provides professional development, and job-specific training for area workers and those seeking employment.
“We’ll be celebrating all year actually. We began in January. We’re doing a series of newspaper inserts that covers the college’s history one decade at a time,” Bardins said. “We’ll be doing one of these a month. It will reflect the history of the college, the accomplishments of the college, as well as what’s happening in the world.”
She said there will other public events which will be announced in the future.