Corporate College Grand Opening Welcome by Roderick Nunn

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Good afternoon. I’m Roderick Nunn, Vice Chancellor for Workforce and Community Development at St. Louis Community College. I welcome all of you here today to celebrate the grand opening of the Corporate College – the newest addition to St. Louis Community College’s growing network of facilities and programs bringing demand-driven workforce training to our region.

How appropriate that in our 50th anniversary year we are opening the college’s first facility dedicated solely to corporate education and professional development, unlike any other asset the college owns. It will offer a full menu of workforce solutions designed to advance business and individual success in a rapidly changing economy.

It was purchased in 2010 and renovated in 2011 to have nearly 30,000 square feet of new space to serve the needs of corporate St. Louis. As you will see later during your tour, the renovated space includes: 10 classrooms, including a unique 360-degree collaborative training space; four conference/break-out rooms, including two executive-level conference rooms; a 175 seat multipurpose room; two computer training labs with a total of 36 stations; and a testing and assessment center.

The Corporate College will serve as a professional development hub for St. Louis business with a robust set of offerings. If you peruse the catalog in your packages you will note classes on entrepreneurship, franchise education, Six Sigma quality management, Chinese language and culture for the business professional, as well as unique programming such as our Industry Innovation Insights seminars. It also offers corporate St. Louis with a “home away from home” in the form of over 18,000 square feet of meeting and event space including the outstanding customer service provided by our staff. We’re honored that so many friends of the College could be here to share this special day with us. Your support and partnerships make it possible for us to, as the sign you saw coming into the building says, “advance people, businesses and communities.”

Before we get started, I would like to recognize some of our special guests. First, I’d like to recognize members of our college leadership team in attendance. Our chancellor, Dr. Myrtle E.B. Dorsey, and Dr. Craig Klimczak, Vice Chancellor for technology and educational support services. We have three campus presidents here today: Dr. Cynthia Hess from Forest Park, George Wasson from Meramec, and Pam McIntyre from Wildwood. Also Ashok Agrawal, Vice President of Academic Affairs is representing the Florissant Valley campus. In addition, Jo-Ann Digman, Executive Director of the STLCC Foundation, DeLancey Smith, director of communications, and Anisha Morrell-Charles, special assistant to the chancellor. Let’s give them a round of applause.

Also joining us is the Chair of the St. Louis Community College Foundation board of directors, Becky Kueker.

Let me also recognize the elected officials here today. Of course, you will hear from St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley later in the program. In attendance are:

John Scates, Senator Roy Blunt’s Office

Mattie More, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill’s office

Lou Aboussie, U.S. Congressmen Wm. Lacy Clay’s office

Tishaura Jones, MO State House of Representatives

Sharon Pace, MO State House of Representatives

Mary Nichols, MO State House of Representatives

Pamela Tanner, City of Bridgeton Ward 1

Linda Eaker, City of Bridgeton, Ward 2

Ferd Fetsch, City of Bridgeton, Ward 3

We also have a number of business, community and economic development partners here in attendance today. I can’t call all of your names but I do want to recognize a few of our special guests:

Kathy Osborn, Executive Director of the Regional Business Council

Gene Gorden, Executive Director of the St. Louis County Division of Workforce Development

Ronald Chesbrough, President of St. Charles Community College

I would also like to take a moment recognize the individuals who worked to design and renovate this beautiful facilty. We acquired the facility in the Fall of 2010 and less than a year later we offering courses.

Lori Thompson and her team (Paul Messey, Ken Kempf, Karla Weaver)

Trivers Associates, the architects for the project (Andy Trivers, JoeRuma, Joe Brinkmann and Bruce Capelle)

Jeremy Zanitsch (TESS), telecommunications

McClure Engineering, the electrical and mechanical engineers (Chuck Dale-Derks and Eric Rogers)

ICS, the construction contractor (Chris Hastings)

TD4, the electrical contractor (Tommy L. Davis, Jr.)

One last thank you to the professionals who work at here at Corporate College in Workforce Solutions Group and the Continuing Education division. They have been working passionately and skillfully over the past few months in preparation for this day. Many of them are easy to spot as they are sporting white Corporate College shirts today.

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