About a year and a half ago James Kieweg was driving late at night, speeding too quickly down a windy road.
“It was like midnight. I was going too fast. I went off the road, and I wrapped my truck around a tree at like 60 miles an hour,” said Kieweg.
The accident lost him his leg, an eye, and put him in a coma for two weeks.
Not long after that as he was working towards recovery, Kieweg lost his housing. He spent three weeks sleeping in the bushes outside the grocery store.
“I was in a bit of a rough spot,” he said.
Eventually Kieweg was able to stay at the local shelter, which then connected him with local agencies to try and find work.
That brought him to Nicolet College.
“I hadn't thought about school since like 2010, since I got done with high school, but like I said, just taking the next, right step and trying to keep your head above water for the positive mindset. It's kind of the hardest part, but it's the most important,” said Kieweg.
The Nicolet College Foundation was able to support Kieweg, not just with classes, but also with bus fare to get to school and the security deposit for his place.
He’s now participating in the year-long welding program Nicolet offers.
“It's been an amazing experience. I've been really, really blessed for all the help I've gotten,” he said.
Kieweg was nominated and chosen to be an ambassador for the Nicolet College Foundation. He was one of two ambassadors that spoke Monday morning as part of a short presentation at Nicolet College to begin Community College Month.
“April being Community College month, we thought, April 1, let's just kick it off right and make sure that people are aware of the good work that we do, the lives that we transform,” said Nicolet College President Kate Ferrel. “The stories that you heard this morning from our two ambassadors are just two small snippets of the work that we do every day at Nicolet.”
There’s been a lot of changes over the 50-plus year history of Nicolet College.
Ferrel says Nicolet is parallel to the economy and how the economy works.
“[It] used to be colleges would expect students to wrap college around their lives. Now, the student is in the driver's seat because they're working two jobs. Community college students are really busy people, often single parents taking care of mom, grandma, their kids. We have had to become much more flexible over the years.”
Ferrel says the college is all about agility and flexibility these days.
One of the biggest things she wants to stress is the college is not “the Northwoods’ best kept secret”.
“When we hear stories about students who went off to get a four-year degree and then come back for a technical diploma or a nursing degree. We constantly hear people say, ‘If only I would have done this first, if only I would have gotten this kind of training first. It would have like, really set me off on a different path with my career,’” said Ferrel.
She encourages people to consider Nicolet College as “Plan A” rather than a back-up.
“We're turning over our curriculum so it's relevant to what's going on in the workplace now. Students can be guaranteed that when they leave Nicolet College, or even come for just a few credits, they're prepared for whatever it is that the workplace needs, because it's actually the workplace that's influencing our curriculum through our advisory committees,” Ferrel said.
Nicolet College offers more than 70 programs that range from two-year associate degrees to short-term technical diplomas and certificates.
