Students in Southeast Technical’s Carpentry program are putting the finishing touches on a two-family home in Red Wing and a single family home in Winona. In keeping with Southeast Technical’s emphasis of putting students in real-world learning environments, carpentry students apply skills and techniques learned in the classroom to these home-building projects, and along the way, gain invaluable work-related experience that impresses future employers.

With a shortage of qualified carpenters in the job market, graduates of Southeast Technical’s Carpentry program find numerous job opportunities. Southeast Technical offers diploma and associate degree programs in carpentry, and also provides certificate programs for carpenters who are seeking additional training. To learn more, visit the Carpentry program page.

Student work was on display at Southeast Technical’s annual guitar show May 10 on the college’s Red Wing campus. Instruments crafted by first- and second-year students in both the Guitar Repair and Building program and Violin Repair program were played by professional musicians and recording artists, including Phil Heywood, National fingerpicking champion and recording artist who has toured and performed with Leo Kottke; Bill Cagley, a well-respected guitarist best known for flatpicking traditional American and Irish fiddle tunes; and Bob Douglas, an early member of the Prairie Home Companion Powdermilk Biscuit band and “mandolin wizard.”

Graduates of Southeast Technical’s Guitar Repair and Building program and Violin Repair program are in high demand. Both programs are known nationwide for producing skilled technicians, many of which find employment in music stores, independent repair shops, manufacturers, and through self-employment. To learn more, visit the Guitar Repair and Building program page or the Violin Repair program page.

Professional photography images taken during both the Winona and Red Wing graduation ceremonies are now available for purchase from the Jolesch Photography website. Click a link below for your campus.

Winona Ceremony	Red Wing Ceremony

Click a button below to view photos taken by Southeast Technical staff!

Events include social hour at 5:30 with Dinner at 6:30 p.m. Both a silent and live auction are planned for golfers and dinner guests. Silent Auction items include gift certificates and an assortment of trendy gift baskets with something for everyone. Live auction items include a We-no-nah Canoe Kayak, an outdoor gas grill, donated by Target and a patio campfire unit donated by Hearth and Home. A cash raffle with grand prize of $1000 is also currently underway.

Live auction items are on display at Econo Foods Burnside location and on the college campus in Red Wing. Register for golf, dinner or both by visiting www.southeastmn.one/alumni or by calling 1-877-853-8324 ext. 2663   

Graduation is right around the corner, are you ready? A list of frequently asked questions is available on the college website to help guide you through the processes leading up to commencement. Graduation Ceremonies are Tuesday, May 10, in Red Wing and Wednesday, May 11, on the Winona campus.

Larry Cortez, a student in Southeast Technical’s welding program, has created a meaningful project that combines a piece of personal history with a piece of his heart and serves a community need all at the same time.  Cortez, a Native American and descendent  of the Crow Creek Tribe near Ft. Thompson, South Dakota, enrolled in the welding program this past fall and was required to complete a number of class projects that test both knowledge and skill of the trade. Cortez, under the direction of his instructor Gary Stoika, brought an idea to the drawing board to build metal crosses (grave markers) for his community’s cemetery back home on the Crow Creek reservation in South Dakota.

The idea arose from a need Cortez had been aware of his entire lifetime. After years of less than optimal care, the cemetery in his home community became a site of neglect and improper maintenance. As a result, many Native American grave sites had lost their wooden cross markers due to age, burnouts to control brush and weeds and lack of funds to maintain the area to the proper level of integrity of any cemetery.

Through his coursework in the welding program, Cortez easily saw this as a project with a purpose and took on the task of developing a design, jig and manufacturing process for creating metal/welded crosses.  The new markers would replace remnants of earlier grave markers and even identify the location of many unmarked or minimally marked graves.

The project incorporated Cortez’s newly acquired welding skills with his personal mission to bring integrity and proper marking to the cemetery site.  A little support from his fellow students, who helped assemble some of the crosses, and access to tools and materials were all it took to make the project take on a new life. Through connections with Lyle Rustad, a local diversity foundation director, and helping hands from Trinity Presbyterian Church in Rochester, Minn., the two men were able to coordinate an effort with three churches back home and further continue a mission the Rochester church had started several years ago to give the aging cemetery a facelift.