What's Happening at Ranken Technical College

Ranken Technical College to Hold Adjunct Instructor Recruitment Fair May 6 and 7

Ranken Technical College will hold an Adjunct Instructor Recruitment Fair on Monday, May 6, and Tuesday, May 7, from 5:00-8:00 p.m. at the St. Louis location, 4413 Finney Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63113.

All positions are for part-time, adjunct instructors and will be available starting in August for the fall semester in various technical programs and the general education department.

Positions for the technical programs are open to teach day and evening classes. These technical education subjects require an associate degree: Automotive Maintenance, Automotive Collision Repair, High Performance Racing, Architectural, Carpentry, Heating and Cooling, Major Appliance Repair, Plumbing, Electrical, Information Technology, Mechanical Maintenance, Machining Technology, Advanced Manufacturing and Building Systems Engineering.

Positions for the general education department are open to teach day and online classes. Openings are in physics, math, college reading, composition, sociology, research methods, and computer skills in Microsoft Office Suite. To teach general education subjects, applicants must have a master’s degree. Instructors with MBAs are needed specifically to teach automotive service management online.

To qualify for an interview at the Adjunct Instructor Recruitment Fair, interested candidates with the necessary degrees should send their resumes to hr@ranken.edu. Applicants who qualify will be contacted and scheduled for interviews to be conducted during the fair.

Ranken Supports Local Robotics Teams

For more than 10 years, Ranken has been supporting robotics teams in local schools by providing resources such as lab time, machining and welding parts, donation of materials and student mentors. One such team is a FIRST robotics team from University City High School. Barb Bragg, Ranken’s STEM pathway development coordinator, used some of her grant money to help pay for some of the required materials for the team’s robot and much of the work was performed by students in the welding and machining microenterprises. The team competed this past weekend at The St. Louis Regional competition held at the Chaifetz Arena on the campus of Saint Louis University.

"We were really impressed by this team," said Vince Hotlmann, faculty project manager. "The adult mentors hardly intervened. The students came on campus, communicated their needs and stayed in the afternoon and evening to watch much of the work being performed. They asked a lot of questions and made decisions and changes as needed. It was a tremendous learning experience for the students."

Ranken students who supported the team included Cameron Monarch, Andrew Geldermann, Nicolas Goris and Benjamin Doty. Faculty and staff supporters included Jeffery Scott, Gary Young, Ben Wohldmann, Corey Blair, Paul Buneta, Brandon McLain, Tyler Blank, Vince Holtmann, Barbara Bragg and Don Pohl.

Ranken, along with Emerson, was also a founding sponsor of the FIRST Robotics Team 931 from Gateway STEM High School in 2001 and continues to support the team with the purchase of materials as well as the welding and machining of parts. Several faculty members and one machining student graciously donated their time, even coming in on a holiday to help complete the project. Supporters included Gary Young, Ben Wohldmann, Paul Buneta, Nicolas Goris (student), Barbara Bragg and Vince Holtmann.

"The parts Ranken made for us were right on and crucial for us to finish the robot on time," said Frank Dressel, coach for Team 931. "The keyway you broached in the coupling is vital to our Frisbee shooter working reliably and the rollers are key to our pole climbing mechanism. The parts Gary and Nick made for us on their day off  was the only way we could have got the hanging mechanism working by the deadline."

Team 931 also competed at the St. Louis Regional competition this past weekend and proudly displayed Ranken’s logo on their robot as well as in the pit area. Thank you to all of our faculty, staff and students who put so much time and effort into maintaining our partnership with these local schools and potential future Ranken students.

New Wentzville Location Holds Grand Opening

On Thursday, March 15 Ranken held a grand opening and open house event for its new location in Wentzville, Mo. Approximately 370 guests, which included potential students, local business leaders, teachers, counselors and alumni, attended the event held at the new facility located on Parr Road. To start the event, several members of the Wentzville Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the front of the building and presented Jeremy Sutton, site director, with a framed one dollar bill.

"I was very pleasantly surprised by the turnout," said Sutton. "I wasn’t sure what to expect but it stayed busy the entire evening. We are really excited to get students here in the shops and classrooms and watch this location grow."

This summer, courses in Information Technology, Automotive and BSAM will begin and then in fall 2013 the Advanced Manufacturing and Building Systems Design Technology programs will be added. Admissions counselors received 37 applications for the Wentzville location and three for main campus. Twelve students completed the registration process - four in Information Technology (2 summer, 2 fall), seven in Automotive (1 summer, 6 fall) and one in Advanced Manufacturing (fall). More are expected to complete the process within the next couple of weeks.

"I think a lot of people in this area have been waiting for this," stated a potential Automotive student. "Now we have the opportunity to get a Ranken education without the drive into downtown St. Louis."

Thank you to all of the faculty and staff who helped make the event a big success and to the instructors who worked hard to make their areas show-ready. For additional photos of the event, check out Ranken’s Facebook page.

Phi Theta Kappa Honors Student of the Month

Pictured: (back L-R) DeAndrae Brock, Kurtis Arens and Bryan Sohn. (Front L-R) Meghan Krato and Taryn Underwood

On Tuesday, February 26 Ranken’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) held their monthly meeting. The meeting included the introduction of the new officers for the 2013/2014 school year which include Meghan Krato as president, Bryan Sohn as vice president, Kurtis Arens as secretary and Taryn Underwood as the reserve officer. Krato discussed the benefits of being a member of PTK and reviewed the criteria and requirements of membership.

As part of a new incentive PTK will honor one student from a designated division as the "Student of the Month." The student is chosen based on the following criteria:

» Strong work ethic in classes

» Professionalism in looks and actions

» Willingness to help others

» GPA must be satisfactory or better

The division selected for February was Automotive and the student selected was Automotive Import Technology student, DeAndrae Brock. In addition to attending Ranken, Brock is also taking courses towards a manufacturing engineering degree through Southeast Missouri online. He also holds down jobs at Jiffy Lube and Pappas Toyota. In his spare time he loves "tinkering" with cars and adding to his hot wheels collection, which now includes over 400 mint condition cars still in the original packaging. He is also very talented musically and loves to play the baritone, trumpet, trombone, tuba and classic guitar. He previously served as the lead baritone for three years in the band at Southeast Missouri State University.

"DeAndrae is probably one of the hardest working, most polite, well-spoken individuals that I have ever met," said one of his instructors. Another teacher stated, "His work ethic is second-to-none and he always sets the example for his classmates. He strives to be the best at everything he does and has a passion for learning."

HPRT Program Heads Up Schaeffer's Million Mile Engine Challenge

Photo: HPRT students had the opportunity to tear down an engine that turned one million miles.

Being a long-time customer of Schaeffer Oil, Tom Baumann, president of Security Transport Services, Inc., located in Topeka, Kansas, thought the company may be interested to learn of their engine that would soon turn over 1,000,000 miles. Baumann contacted Schaeffer’s Kansas City representative, Doug Rogers, to let him know of the impending milestone of the 5.4L engine in their 2003 Ford E150. Schaeffer sent out a crew to help document the big day and secure the engine for tear down.

 

Schaeffer then contacted Ranken’s High Performance Racing Technology (HPRT) instructors, Jim Gray and Jason Gann and asked them to perform the engine tear down and inspection as well as to help create a video documentary of the inspection for marketing purposes.

"We’ve had a good working relationship with Ranken over the years," said Steve Brewer, executive vice president of sales & marketing. "We have taught some lubrication classes for the HPRT program and some of their guys have visited our plant. Most importantly, Ranken is the recognized leading trainer in this industry for the Midwest and we value their opinion on all things mechanical." When the vehicle arrived at Ranken, the Automotive Maintenance Technology department removed the engine and then HPRT began the process of disassembly. "When I heard about this engine that had a million miles I was very excited to just be able to see it, much less have the opportunity to disassemble it," said Gray.

Gray and Gann, along with HPRT student Shauna Wollmershauser took the engine apart and inspected various areas to measure wear all while being filmed by a camera crew. What they found once they started completely shocked everyone; a completely clean engine. Very minimal wear could be found upon inspection. The main bearings were completely even, there was no caking in the block, no tarnishing, varnishing or discoloration could be found and there were no signs of additional heat due to oil failure.

"I was completely surprised by what we found," said Gray. "I have seen engines with only 15,000 miles that have more wear and dirt than this one did."

Since the vehicle was used to haul state and federal prisoners, the maintenance records and Department of Transportation inspections were immaculate and well documented. 

"The engine is what it appears to be…. a one million mile gasoline engine with no history of major work and 8,000 mile service intervals," stated Brewer.

The engine was kept by Schaeffer to do further research and for presentation at their Saint Louis headquarters.

"I would attribute the lack of wear to the integrity of the oil," said Gray. "I have tested a lot of racing oils as well as over-the-road production oils and I was very impressed. I have used Schaeffer racing oils for about 10 years and I am still amazed at the lack of wear that was on an engine with that many miles. It far surpassed anything that I thought we would see.

To watch the video visit www.youtube.com watch?v=hDF1zcaxrNU.