The Kenai Peninsula College (KPC) Kenai River Campus has been host to several beneficial community gatherings recently. First was a visit from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs director Susan Yeager to explain new policies for veterans and discuss needs with local vets, “We’ve been enjoying the opportunity that these town hall type meetings provide. We are committed quarterly to go to all the sites where there are VA’s all the way from Fairbanks to Juneau and the benefits are two ways as it benefits the VA staff to hear firsthand from our customer the vet is experiencing with the VA and we hope to help the vet learn how to better navigate the VA system and its bureaucracy for healthcare, benefits and memorial affairs. We bring staff that can do one on one problem resolution with veterans. Our attitude these days now is to serve the customer, we’re here for the veterans and that is our mission,” said Yeager in an interview with the Dispatch. 40 some veterans turned out at the Kenai River Campus to do just that and Yeager encouraged vets that have had bad experiences in the past with the VA to give another try.

Friday, March 20th then KPC hosted the 2nd Member/Student match up presented by the Kenai Chapter of the Support Industry Alliance. The day included a luncheon with members and students and a tour of the Process Technology facilities at KPC. “We often find that our student population is inversely proportionate to the jobs available. When jobs are harder to find more often students decide to go back to school for additional skills. So with the slight down turn due to the price in oil we are expecting to see more students coming through our program,” explained Assistant Professor, Process Tech. Jeff Laube. According to the Process Tech program coordinator Sandie Gilliland who addressed the members and students the hire ratio for grads is still very high, “We see fewer large companies offering internships and actively recruiting students, but we now are seeing smaller companies and more of them coming to the campus. It ends up evening out and the hire ratio for our students who want to go to work is still very high following graduation,” he said. Gilliland attributed the selection of the Process Tech faculty and staff for the continued high ratings of KPC’s program. Gilliland also helps companies start and develop internships programs for Process Tech. and Instrumentation students.