Southeast Technical Student wins "Platform Committee Member of the Year"

The "Platform Committee Member of the Year" honor is given to one student annually by the Minnesota State College Student Association. Jenna Lubinski was nominated for the award by several of her fellow student leaders and then selected by a committee of MSCSA students to receive the honor. The Platform Committee is MSCSA's elected board that recommends their legislative stances for the year.

Lubinski is President of Student Senate and has been very active with the Platform Committee. One of Lubinski's fellow students nominated her because of her leadership and dedication to making sure her fellow students are being heard.

Jenna is a full time student at Southeast Technical, studying Retail and Sales Management. In addition, Jenna serves as Student Senate president on the Winona campus; works as the Southeast representative of the Minnesota State College Student Association (MSCSA); is a DECA member; works in the Learning Resource Center (LRC) on campus; networking with other students; and lobbying for higher education at the state and nations capitals.

Jenna was instrumental in working with her fellow student senate members at the Welcome Back Picnic to register students to vote. In addition she worked tirelessly to reach out to other campuses to make sure their voice was being heard in the MSCSA.

See her acceptance on YouTube

Aaron Paul remembers his aunt playing Motown songs on her acoustic guitar for him when he was a toddler. "Music has always been a part of my life," he said. Since Aaron was 15 years old he has dreamt of building and fixing guitars. Two years ago he came to Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical and completed the Band Instrument Repair program, then enrolled in the Guitar Repair and Building program. After 15 years he is now truly working towards his dream.

Aaron says, "Until you come here and see how it’s done you don’t really put much thought into how it was made." Building his first guitar Aaron remembers, "When it reached that point where it actually started to look like a guitar, I thought, wow! I did this; I made this with my hands." Aaron says you can tell if you have an instrument that is made by hand just by holding it, "The quality is better. I think a hand-made acoustic guitar beats hands down a factory made." Guitar Repair and Building students from Southeast Technical are highly trained. They learn to check the sound by tapping, listening and making precise adjustment for the best possible sound. "It's still always going to come down to a person for that sound," said Aaron about factory built guitars.

Aaron hopes to someday put the skills he's learned in both music programs at Southeast Technical into use in a full scale shop of his own. Running the office will be Tanja Niemi, his now fiancé who is also a student at Southeast Technical in the Administrative Assistant and Supervisory Management programs. In mid-April Aaron performed in the annual Southeast Technical Variety Showcase. During his performance Aaron worked his proposal right into the lyrics of the song. Aaron and Tanja have been together for a couple of years. They had already been planning to get married and had decided to "skip the proposal." He decided not to skip it after all, "She deserved that grand statement and attention." Under a spotlight and in front of more than 150 people he popped the question. Aaron plans to make their wedding bands from wood left over from the guitar he built.

This semester Aaron started building an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar. He has chronicled these builds on his blog, If You Build It, They Will Play. You can see Aaron's hand-made guitars along with about 50 others at the annual Guitar Show on the Red Wing campus. In addition, Aaron inherited that acoustic guitar his aunt used to play for him. "I recently repaired it, so it would play the way it should," he said, adding, "That was a great feeling." Aaron's journal of repairs to this special piece of family history is also featured on his blog.

The Minnesota State College Student Association Instructor of the Year honor is awarded annually to only one instructor chosen from among 47 campuses across the state. Beurskens was nominated for the award by one of his students and then selected by a committee of MSCSA students to receive the honor.

"I for the first time believed in myself because of a teacher that wouldn't let me give up on myself. Because he taught me in order to be a better writer I needed to be a better reader," wrote Southeast Technical student Alyshia Brinkman in her nomination.

Beurskens has taught college writing and literature for nearly 20 years. "He is an incredible instructor, passionate about his students and their writing, well deserved," expressed Jo Poncelet, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, adding "We are lucky to have such amazing faculty!"

Beurskens accepted the award at the MSCSA Spring General Assembly on Saturday, April 20 at the Breezy Point Resort in Breezy Point, Minn.

See his acceptance on YouTube

2013 Guitar Show

Mark your calendar for this year's Guitar Show!  If you love music and appreciate fine woodworking, you'll enjoy seeing and hearing these beautiful instruments. Join Southeast Technical in celebrating the pride that comes from a job well done. The Guitar Repair and Building students at Southeast Technical invite you to see their newly completed instruments!  More than 50 handmade guitars will be on display.

1:00 p.m. Music program and demonstration

2:30 p.m. Drawing for handmade, Slope Shoulder Dreadnaught guitar (tickets still available in the bookstore on both campuses - $5 each)

Guitar Show Flyer [PDF 444KB]

Guitar Raffle Flyer [PDF 23MB]

Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical Band Instrument Repair Instructor Lucas Pemberton recently returned from presenting at the National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Technicians annual conference in Portsmouth, Va. The conference is a gathering of approximately 300 technicians from around the world and serves as a forum for technicians to share their knowledge and experience with others in the field.

Pemberton presented two clinics on metal lathe operation as it applies to band instrument repair.  He provided examples of tools and parts which can be made on a metal lathe and conveyed why a metal lathe can be a profit-making purchase. "Over the last 20-30 years parts have been plentiful. This is not so much the case anymore. Having to make parts or tools is becoming a necessity again and it is up to us as leaders in the craft to teach others," said Pemberton. His clinics were well attended with as many as 100 among both sessions.

Pemberton has been presenting at this conference for the last six years. "Lucas' star is rising in NAPBIRT – the level of respect from those in the craft continues to grow as he interacts with those in the field," said Band Instrument Repair Instructor and colleague, John Huth. Southeast Technical instructors annually present at the NAPBIRT conference and this year is no exception.

Southeast Technical has 11 lathes for students to use and learn on. In addition to Pemberton, 13 Southeast Technical students attended this year's conference.

The Southeast Technical Variety Showcase was a huge success this year. The event had an attendance of more than 150 spectators. This is about 15 percent more than last year. "It was an excellent show with all of the acts doing a great job and a special surprise at the end of the first set," said David Vincent, event coordinator and Guitar Repair and Building Instructor.

The audience was entertained with a variety of string, horn, woodwind and vocal performances; along with poetry readings and even a wedding proposal.

Tanja Neimi and Aaron Weiss

Aaron Welch, of Stormy Weather, worked his proposal into his song. His girlfriend, Tanja Niemi accepted the proposal happily. "I had an inkling when he told me that he reserved a seat for me up front. I was still stunned though,” said Neimi.

"Wow, what an amazing evening!" said Jo Poncelet, Dean of Music, adding, "The MC was fantastically entertaining. The musicians were incredibly talented. Carrie’s poetry was extremely intriguing. It was truly a phenomenal Variety Showcase."

If you missed it, next year's event has been scheduled for Saturday, March 29, 2014; mark your calendar.

Download the program for a complete list of performers and bios (PDF 224KB)

A group of Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical students and faculty from both campuses volunteered to help with the Fools Five Road Race last Sunday, April 7. Students were assembled from a variety of programs across campus. "These students were instrumental in creating a safe roadway for the 3,000+ race participants," said Jim Ziegler, Southeast Technical faculty and Fools Five committee member.

The race, which includes a one mile and an 8k walk/run, raised over $83,000 for cancer research. Pledges are donated to Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation and the Rochester Eagles Cancer Telethon, which donates to the Mayo Clinic, the Hormel Institute for Cancer Research, and the U of M for Cancer Research. In addition, "Be The Match," part of the National Marrow Donor Program, added 40 more people to the national registry.

Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical humanities instructor David Lee Echelard was selected to present at the Desire2Learn IGNITE Regional User Conference Minnesota 2013 in Bloomington, Minnesota this past week. Jo Poncelet, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, notes, "Being able to present to his colleagues elevates his technological skills and shows us that David is using D2L to its fullest potential in his online classes."

Echelard's presentation covers integrating online digital humanities arts resources into the curriculum using the Desire2Learn learning environment, including how he has used these resources to develop online class curriculum. The presentation included how to integrate digital humanities into the curriculum by familiarizing people with digital arts and humanities resources, new forms of digital mediums that will improve and enhance learning, encourage creativity and new ideas.