December lends itself to taking stock of the year and reflecting on accomplishments. It’s an opportunity to pause and breathe before jumping into the next goals and challenges. At Centralia College, we’ve accomplished so much in 2022 and it’s important to take a few moments to celebrate how far we’ve come.
Here are some of the highlights:
• We are completing construction of a new on-campus athletic facility for baseball, softball and soccer.
• The college entered into a partnership with a private company to build and manage a 112-bed student housing unit that has broken ground at Ash Street and Centralia College Boulevard and will be open for students in the fall of 2023. This will not only provide better housing options for students, but we hope it will help alleviate local housing shortages.
• We celebrated 10 years of affordable bachelor’s degrees in Lewis County. Centralia College’s first bachelor’s degree, the bachelor’s in applied management, was first offered in September 2012.
• We launched our fifth bachelor’s degree, the bachelor of applied science in behavioral healthcare. This program trains professionals for the human services field, including social workers, community service managers, substance use disorder professionals, case managers, and more.
• Our sixth bachelor’s degree, the bachelor of science in computer science, was recently approved by the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges. We are working through the details and plan to welcome students in fall 2023.
• We were honored for our efforts to increase student voter participation in 2022. Centralia College was named a Most Engaged Campus by the All IN Democracy Challenge, a nonpartisan, nationwide effort to increase student voter registration and participation.
• We welcomed back the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic for the first time since 2019 and opened our campus to thousands of riders passing through or stopping overnight.
• In June, we awarded 449 associate degrees, 62 bachelor’s degrees, 23 certificates and 56 high school diplomas at our commencement ceremony.
• Our Centralia College Foundation awarded nearly $500,000 in scholarships in September.
• We welcomed three new deans, a new vice president and a new trustee, as well as dozens of new faculty and staff.
• We launched an effort to update our strategic plan and have been collecting feedback from students, employees and the community. This feedback will help us set priorities for the future and guide our strategic vision.
If you’d like to provide feedback and help us move into 2023 and beyond, visit the Centralia
College website at www.centralia.edu and click on the Strategic Planning banner.
As much as we’ve accomplished in 2022, there’s more to do. Happy New Year, Trailblazers.
Bob Mohrbacher is the president of Centralia College.
