I am working for Metropolitan Community College - Kansas City as Director of Career and Technical Education. I provide coordination and oversight for our many career-oriented programs; these are certificates and degrees designed to prepare students for immediate employment, though many of them also provide opportunities for transfer to four year schools in the region. The work is always interesting, as we strive to match our offerings to area employers' needs. Our programs can also clearly make a difference in the lives of our students and in the local job market.
I knew through my experiences as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at UMKC that I loved teaching. I began teaching full time at an area private high school before I completed my degrees. When a position teaching math opened up in 2000 at (then) Blue River Community College in Independence, I jumped at the opportunity. This kind of position allowed me to be very involved in instruction, but also gave me the flexibility to continue with some research and other educational interests. I was even able to teach an occasional physics course, and after some additional training I collaborated with other faculty to start a renewable energy program where I got to teach introductory courses in renewable energy and in photovoltaics technology.
Metropolitan Community College (which includes the Blue River location) offered many avenues to become more deeply involved and advance through the organization. In 2010, I was invited to participate in an administrative internship program with MCC's Institute for Workforce Innovation, which was being formed to provide corporate training, customized courses, and other types of continuing and professional education. I gained a new appreciation for the work that goes on behind the scenes to support the faculty who do the instruction. I found I really enjoyed the challenge of learning an entirely different type of work. I then moved into an internship in Career and Technical Education, and in 2011 I accepted a position as director of that department.
As a community college administrator, I like being able to remove bureaucratic obstacles for faculty (or at least mitigate their effects). It gives me great pleasure to watch the professionals in our faculty working in a broad array of programs, all continuously improving and trying to give their students the best possible opportunities in life. And I even get to teach a course every now and then. I hope graduates of the UMKC program will give some real thought to what kinds of work they really want to do, and then consider community college work as one possible, very rewarding career option.
[At UMKC, from 1989-1997 Tristan taught for us as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. His Ph.D. advisor was Dr. Noah Rhee. From 1997-2000, he taught at Johnson County Community College, and before that taught grades 8-12 at the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy from 1996-2000. He has also taught for us as an Adjunct Lecturer, most recently teaching Stat 235 Elementary Statistics, and Math 300 Linear Algebra I. In 2005, Tristan won the Missouri Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.]
Tristan Londre´