It’s been a year since the Allied Health division at Seward County Community College moved into a shining new building. The project, a result of a capital campaign sponsored by the SCCC Foundation, totaled $4 million and brought four healthcare career paths to the main campus.

Yet 2020 brought more than exciting new opportunities to campus — it also introduced the COVID-19 pandemic to Southwest Kansas, and SCCC. When classes shifted to remote emergency mode, the gleaming classrooms remained empty as students attended virtual lectures via Zoom, and completed clinicals.

“We operate according to the regulations of our certifying bodies, and they varied in their ability to be flexible,” said Dean of Allied Health Dr. Suzanne Campbell. “In the end, we were able to schedule student lab sessions and clinical placements by the end of summer.”

This academic year opened cautiously — on campus. With a COVID-19 Playbook in place, mandatory masks, and social distancing practiced, students filled the halls, labs, and classrooms in the Colvin Family Center for Allied Health. Many of them, incoming freshmen, are not aware of the years of fundraising and donor engagement that built the walls that enclose them.

That will change this month as donor appreciation plaques are installed in 10 locations around the building. These correlate with special gifts earmarked for particular spaces, and, in the case of lead donors the Colvin family, and major donors Marvin and Mona Winger, acknowledgement of their contributions in the main hallway.

“Of course, the Colvin family’s name is on the exterior of the building, and there is also a striking eagle sculpture in the main foyer,” noted Chandler Kirkhart of the SCCC office of Development. “Even so, we felt it was important to recognize the people who made this project possible, and to carry that gratitude forward through the generations of alumni who will learn in this building.”

Categories: Allied Health Division, Capital Campaign, Friends of SCCC