Former Hamilton County Coroner, Dr. O'dell Owens took the reigns of Cincinnati State last September. In this month's My Soapbox, he talks about the important role of technical and community colleges in sustaining innovation, cultivating economic development, and bridging the gap for non-traditional students.
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Q: You've been on the job close to six months now. What do you see is Cincinnati State's role in our community?
Owens: Cincinnati State is a community college, and that's the key word, "community," and that means that a community college needs to be sensitive to the needs of the community, both the business needs and the student needs. The business community needs a community college to develop people who can immediately go to work - we put people to work. And we're nimble and that means that we can change our training programs very quickly to meet those business needs. A four year school has to take two or three years to change their majors or add new majors, but at a community college you can quickly respond to the needs of the community. And 95% of the students who go to a community college remain in that same area, unlike a four year school.
Q: One of the programs that you have to meet those needs at Cincinnati State is your co-op program, one of the largest in the country.
Owens: We are the largest community college co-op program in the country. And what that does is it really helps the students do two things; really decide if this is a major for them. Oftentimes students get into a major and then when they finish college and go get the job they find out it's not what they thought it would be like. But our students have that opportunity early on in their career to be involved in those co-ops. Now because of that, about 65% of our students have a job before they graduate, 81% have a job within three months, and 92% within six months.
Q: The recession took quite a bite out of co-op programs throughout the country. How do plan to keep your students connected to our business community?
Owens: You're right, the economy has impacted it but even more so of a problem looming in the future is the fact that the state has required colleges to go from a quarter to a semester system. So now how do you work in that co-op, is it a co-op for a whole semester? half-semester? And then you have to go back to your business community and say 'I know you put us in the budget for ten weeks but now can you put us in for sixteen weeks?' One of the things we do, every outside contact that we have we're always asking for co-op jobs. If you followed the dialogue we're having with Middletown, very early on I told them I would need co-op jobs out of Middletown not just for any student that we may have in the Middletown program when we start that program but jobs for students here on the main campus. We're constantly looking for co-op jobs and hopefully by being nimble and training people in more relevant jobs there will always be people out there saying 'yes, bring your co-ops here, it's exactly what we need.'
Q: Do you see Cincinnati State's campus expansion to Middletown as part of the regional picture of how we educate our students, creating jobs and working with our local companies?
Owens: Middletown will be more of a story of how a community college can help drive economic development. By coming to Middletown and having a presence, especially in their downtown area, we're hoping that, and Middletown hopes that making that investment in us, that would help to galvanize a plan and begin to bring other people in with other businesses. From that, you have more people working and more families who are able to send their kids to college.
Q: I think Cincinnati State might surprise people who have an image in their head about what community colleges offer: For example, the fact that the school is one of 16 across the nation that offer a pipeline for internship opportunities with Disney, and the Midwest Culinary Institute has really put Cincinnati on the map for culinary training in our region. What are the things you've found in your first six months on the job that make the school unique for you?
Owens: I think one is our workforce development and that's a place where people can go and get training and not necessarily have to get a degree. They can get training or a certificate program that leads to a job. The other big surprise for me has just been so many other pockets of jewels. We have an outstanding accounting program that people can come here, spend two years, get a diploma and go right into an accounting firm and become a valuable employee. These are students that have been trained in accounting and also already had a co-op. So many little pockets like that, our Energy program, our weatherization program, I'm just amazed each day that I see new pockets of expertise on this campus.
Q: Early in your career you were an innovator with in-vitro fertilization. Pioneering technology and medicine are economic drivers for our region still. While Cincinnati State isn't primarily a research institution, how can Cincinnati State contribute to our innovation?
Owens: Certainly when you're a technical school - we're a community college and a technical school - it's that technical area that has to lead the real innovation: IT, laser, robotics, are the areas that you expect to see some innovation out of them. We want to be on the cutting edge, you want to be able to introduce that technology. We're into energy, solar panels, weatherization, and so for us to stay relevant and current and be able to put our students in those kinds of jobs we have to be part of that wave of innovation. We don't do that hard core research like the University of Cincinnati but we're involved in cutting edge from the tech standpoint.
Q: During your terms as County Coroner, you made children the focus of much of your outreach, particularly the infant mortality rate and childhood education. You obviously don't leave these passions behind, so how can Cincinnati State, its students and faculty be a part of these continuing efforts?
Owens: When you look at Cincinnati State our average age is 27. Cincinnati State is a place where people who have never found success in themselves can find success here. This is a place where we will forgive past failures but never forgive giving up so we're bringing on to our campus that woman with two kids who is a single parent - we're bringing that guy who dropped out of high school and is now 28 or 30 and really wants to change his life around. By educating those individuals, giving them an opportunity at a degree or one of our training programs so they can at least get a certificate or a job and then we'll help break that cycle. They'll now have an income that will allow them to get out of that particular neighborhood where maybe they have been there for two or three generations. And it's really their children that we're also going to impact because hopefully these will be parents that will say 'don't go through what I went through.'
Photography by Scott Beseler.
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