What's Happening at Ranken Technical College

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.

Next Entrepreur Workshop Scheduled

Bill Fennewald, Ranken INEET 1965 graduate is the next guest speaker for the Alumni Entrepreneur Workshop series scheduled for February 27 at 11:00 a.m. in the Staley Auditorium. Recognized as the 2012 Distinguished Alumnus, Bill started working with his father at Fennewald Pump LLC, became president/CEO and now, 50+ years later, is still an integral part of the business plan's success. 

Join Bill as he shares his work ethic, work skills and tips for building a successful business with family and for family.

It’s time for RankCAN!

Every year, Ranken students and faculty are encouraged to participate in the RankCAN competition, which showcases their technical skills and creativity, as well as benefiting local food pantries. This year the them for RankCAN is “Company Logos.” Groups can choose any company logo to re-create using canned and boxed food, and two winners will be chosen – one based on overall design, the other based on number of food items collected (highest student-to-food ratio.) The use of technology from technical programs is strongly encouraged in sculptures. Faculty are encouraged to allow class time and resources for the can build, if possible.

All technical programs as well as student organizations are strongly encouraged to form a team. Winners will receive a dress down day, RankCAN T-shirts, and a pizza party. The faculty team advisor will win a $50 restaurant gift card at the restaurant of their choice. Voting will be done online through Ranken’s Facebook page. The food collected will benefit two local church food pantries, a community group, and Ranken students in need of food.

The official dates for RankCAN activities are:

• November 1 - December 3 - Food collection period
• November 5 - December 3 - RankCAN sculpture building period
• November 7th - Last day to register a team
• December 4 - Facebook voting begins
• December 7th @ 12:00 noon - Facebook voting ends.
• December 8th - Winners announced through email
• December 10 - Tear down sculptures & box up food for pantries


To enter, teams must register by Wednesday, November 7th.

Official rules:

• The use of technology will be accepted and encouraged in the displays. Unless the technology is meant to be visual, the devices installed for operation should be covered by food products.
• Sculptures must remain standing throughout judging.
• It is not necessary for all collected food items to be used in the sculptures.
• Food donation items can include any canned or boxed food item
• All labels and packaging must be intact (cannot be removed or altered for the contest) Packaging may be covered in another material (ex: construction paper, foil) but all covering must be removed prior to donation.
• Voting is open to the general public, students are encouraged to lobby their friends and family to “like” their sculpture’s photo on Ranken’s Facebook page.
• The photo with the most “likes” as of December 7th at noon will be the winner for design.
• When the winner is designated, the marketing office will contact their faculty adviser to determine the optimum date for a dress-down day, as well as t-shirt sizes for ordering.
• On the dress-down day, students must wear their RankCAN competition winner shirts.
• See LaTrina to be assigned a space for your sculpture building

LaTrina A. Rogers
Director of Residential Life
T (314) 286-4824
larogers@ranken.edu

May the odds be ever in your favor!

A Note of Thanks

Ranken wouldn’t be the institution that it is today without help from generous contributions. From January 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012, the alumni, faculty, corporations and friends below gifted $1,000 or more for programs, equipment and scholarships. Any gift of any size is welcomed. We couldn't do it without you - thank you!

Advertisers Printing Company Inc.

American Express/Members Give

Anheuser-Busch InBev

Gertrude and William A. Bernoudy Foundation

bioMerieux Inc.

Boeing Company

Cardinal Steel Supply, Inc.

Chelar Tool & Die, Inc.

City of St. Louis Community Development Adm.

Classic Aire Care

Datotel

Charles Disbrow

Dobbs Tire & Auto Centers

Dennis Donnelly

Drury Hotels Company, LLC

EMS Group Inc.

Emerson

Enterprise Holdings

Fluke Corporation

John Henry Foster Company

Robert Gau

Goedecke Company Inc.

E. Reuben & Gladys Flora Grant Charitable Trust

Heidtman Steel

James Hoagland

Mary Ranken Jordan & Ettie A. Jordan Foundation

MB Steel Company, Inc.

Major Brands

McCarthy Building Companies

Michael McMillan

Mississippi Lime Company

Monsanto Fund

National Sales Company

National Science Foundation

Marianne Nothum

Pepsico

Jerry & Peggy Ritter

Rotary Club of St. Louis

Santie Oil Company

David Schepers

Seyer Industries Inc.

Drew Shands

Stan Shoun

Snap-On Industrial

Edith Spink Estate

Strait-Flex International, Inc.

True Manufacturing

Tubular Steel Inc.

U.S. Department of Education

 

Discounted Blues Tickets Available

Ranken Blues fans can now purchase discounted Gold, Silver and Bronze level tickets for 10 season games thanks to the Blues and Ranken's Alumni Relations offices. 

Discounted tickets are available online only through Ticketmaster at this web site https://oss.ticketmaster.com/html/go.htmI?l=EN&t=blues&o=6962936&g=549 using the code word RANKEN.

For each ticket purchased, a donation will be made to Ranken's Alumni Association Scholarship Fund by the Blues organization. This season give a gift of education by having fun with the Blues! Discounted tickets are available for these game nights only:

1. Tuesday, October 23 - Chicago
2. Saturday, November 17 - Nashville
3. Thursday, November 29 - Columbus
4. Wednesday, December 12 - Minnesota
5. Saturday, December 29 - Philadelphia
6. Sunday, January 13 - Montreal
7. Friday, January 18 - Vancouver
8. Sunday, February 10 - Detroit
9. Tuesday, March 12 - Edmonton
10. Thursday, March 28 - Los Angeles 

Anyone with questions should contact the Alumni Relations office (314) 286-4895. 

 

Ranken Announces Programs for Wentzville Location

Photo: The Carpenter's Union facility will be the home of Ranken's new location in Wentzville, Mo.

In May of this year, Ranken’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approved development of a new location in Wentzville, Mo. Though an exact physical address was not known at the time, the College recently announced that the Carpenter’s Union stepped in and volunteered their facility located on Parr Road off of Highway 40 in Wentzville. The space includes a large lobby area, several classrooms, a boardroom, a considerable amount of shop space, offices and a large space for meetings and events.

The College has been working closely with the City of Wentzville, industry and potential students to get feedback about what courses should be offered at the new location.

"We are working with Wentzville’s Economic Development Group and the Chamber of Commerce to study the local area and tailor our course offerings to the region’s needs," said Ranken President Stan Shoun. "Through focus groups and conversations with local employers, we will customize our curriculum to help attract and train the students those employers need."

This week it was announced that beginning in June 2013 day courses in Automotive Maintenance Technology and Network Systems Management would be offered as well as evening courses in Automotive, Information Technology and a web-blended BSAM program. Tentative course offerings for fall 2013 would include Advanced Manufacturing and a program exclusive to Ranken, Mechanical, Electrical, Piping and Design. Adding a diesel program to the new location is also in consideration.

"We are tremendously excited about this opportunity," continued Shoun. "Wentzville is poised for economic growth and we definitely want to be a partner in that growth."

You can follow all of the latest news on the new location on the new Facebook page at Ranken Technical College Wentzville.

 

RDCD Holds Construction Kick-Off Meeting

Photo: Carpentry Instructor Jeff Bosick speaks with students who will be working on the RCDC home this year.

On Friday, August 24 faculty and staff involved with the Ranken Community Development Corporation (RCDC) held a Construction Kick-off Meeting to introduce students to the expectations and process involved with building a home that will turn their classroom experience into real-world experience.

The event began with John Wood, vice president for student success giving an overview of the program that included the history, funding, acquisition of lots and how the homes are sold followed by Kelley Raftery, ART instructor introducing the floor plan, elevations and other exterior features of the new home. Next, Carpentry instructor Jeff Bosick gave a presentation of the green building techniques that have been implemented, followed by information about plumbing and HVACR systems given by Drew Shands and Chris Brueggeman, respectively. The event ended with a presentation from Carpentry department chair Bryan Hicklin who gave an overview of work site policies and procedures including safety, teamwork and the importance of respecting the surrounding neighborhood and community.

Construction will begin on the new home on Evans Avenue next week with the Superior Wall foundation installation and rough framing. Once completed, the home will be the 54 home built by RCDC since its inception in 1994.

 

Adventure Academy Introduces Technology to Kids in Fun Ways

Photo: Students in the Criminal Justice camp had the chance to solve mock up "crime scenes."

On Friday, July 20, Ranken wrapped up another week of camps as part of the 3rd annual Summer Adventure Academy. Approximately 180 kids attended the 12 different camps offered this week which focused on technical areas such as go-kart assembly and racing, robotics, web design, machining, carpentry and construction, welding and jewelry design and production. Due to the success of the past two years, the College added three new camps for middle-schoolers which included health technologies, water ecosystems and criminal justice. A higher level robotics camp was also offered for high schoolers this week and was taught by Charlie Blair, a teacher from Gateway High School and advisor for the school’s robotics team, Perpetual Chaos.

"These camps continue to be successful because kids look for ways to have fun with technology and want to be challenged to broaden their skills," said Stan Shoun, Ranken’s president. "This is a perfect age to introduce students to the concept that high-tech careers are not only challenging but also fun, and we’re allowing kids to learn in an environment that lets them focus on interesting projects, in small groups."

Campers came from all around the St. Louis Metro Area to attend this week, many from the St. Louis Public School District which offered scholarships for some of their students to attend. Marcus Wiley, an 8th grader from McKinley Middle School was one of the lucky students to have the chance to attend the Summer Racer’s Camp free of charge.

"Our Language Arts teacher told us that if we wanted to try to win one of the scholarships to attend camp we just had to write an essay about why we wanted to come," said Wiley. "I really wanted to do the racer’s camp so I was really excited when I was chosen to go."

To assist in the continued effort to get more young women interested in technical careers, Ranken held two camps intended for females only; Tools for Success and Bling It On; although most of the other camps had at least one female camper, like Katie Brandt who participated in the Wood Works camp. Brandt is a 7th grader from Litchfield Middle School in Litchfield, Mo., and she selected Wood Works for personal reasons.>/p>

"My family does a lot of renovation work around our house," said Brandt. "I picked this camp so I could learn more about different tools and how to use them. Now I can really help my dad out when we are doing projects together and I’ll know exactly what he is talking about when he asks me to get a tool for him."

Camps were held Monday through Friday this week from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and today, a "Family Fun Day" was held to celebrate the final day of camp. All campers, family members and volunteers were treated to lunch in the dining hall and parents had the opportunity to see first-hand what their kids have been working on all week. The day included battling robots, a "crime scene", a jewelry runway show and car racing. The annual go-kart race was held in the Cook parking lot (congrats to the black car team for their first place finish!), and individual timed trials in the wheelie cars were held on the Finney parking lot.

"We believe these camps are truly unique in this area," said Shoun. "We are excited to be able to use our campus, our expert instructors and our extensive technical training space to offer this opportunity to local students. We plan to continue to make the camps bigger and better year after year."

This week six more camps are running for high-school aged students. Camps cover computer technology, gaming, NASCAR racing engineering, machining, air brushing and welding.

Additional photos and videos are available on Ranken’s Facebook and Flickr pages!

First Students Join New Machining Micro-Enterprise

Pictured L-R: Jeremy Franklin and Ghregory Wellmaker. Not pictured: Nicolas Goris

Due to the success of the partnership Ranken formed with bioMerieux, the College established a new machining micro-enterprise last August, which began with the manufacturing of various parts for St. Louis-based Hunter Engineering. The cooperative has grown to include partnerships with other companies like Ehrhardt Tool and Machine, Triad Manufacturing and Kemco Aerospace. Like bioMerieux, Ranken students are hired and receive specialized workforce development training and education which results in an on-campus job as well as college credit. Unlike bioMerieux which is located in the Mary Ann Lee Technology Center, this new operation is based out of the Precision Machining department and is under the direct supervision of PMT instructor Ben Wohldmann. Both mico-enterprise partnerships fall under the Education and Manufacturing Cooperative department under the direction of Vince Holtmann.

Congratulations to PMT students Nicolas Goris, Jeremy Franklin and Ghregory Wellmaker who were the first to complete the 90 days of training and evaluation to become lean manufacturing machinists! In this position students are expected to ultimately take responsibility for ordering/receiving material, sawing, process design, programming, production runs, inventory control, quality control, and shipping of the product.

"This really is a win-win situation," said Holtmann. "Our students get the opportunity to apply the skills they are learning in shop in a real world work environment, Ranken has the chance to partner with great local companies which help provide equipment and become potential employers for our students and the companies find a cost-effective solution for having parts made without having to send the work overseas."

"We are really proud of the work our student workers are doing," said Wohldmann. "We are very strict about what goes out the door and they are meeting our high standards by ensuring only quality parts are shipped to our customers."

Ranken Sponsored Soapbox Racer Takes First

 

Photo: Nathan Hansen polishing his car prior to the derby competition.

On Saturday, June 2, the city of Lynchburg, Va. held its first soapbox car derby since the mid-1990’s. The Hill City Classic which was held at Falwell Airport, had 22 participants entered in two divisions (stock and superstock) who raced 60-pound hard plastic kit cars which replaced the soapbox cars used in the 1960’s. Since there are no engines in soapbox derby cars, the only difference between stock and superstock is the size of the driver. In superstock, the cockpit is larger to accommodate pilots ages 13 to 17, as opposed to the 10 to 13 range for stock.

The event was organized mainly by a group from the Greater Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce and was supported by donations from local businesses including Central Virginia Community College (CVCC) and Babcock & Wilcox (B&W). CVCC provided a number of scholarships that ensured an economic cross-section of competitors, a team of engineers from B&W helped develop some of the entries from the Jubilee Family Development Center and a lot of fathers, mothers, uncles and neighbors helping assemble the cars.

Barbara Bragg, Ranken’s STEM Pathway Development Coordinator, who is originally from Virginia, heard of the revitalization of the derby and wanted to participate. She learned that 13 year old Nathan Hansen, who is the son of Kim Hansen, an adjunct faculty member at CVCC and strong STEM enthusiast, was entering the competition in the super stock division so she decided to sponsor him in Ranken’s name.

"Not only have I known Nathan’s family for years, but I also saw it as a great opportunity to make Ranken’s presence more dominant in that area," said Bragg.

The 22 cars were raced down a 550-foot-plus hill which coaxed gravity-fed speeds of around 30 miles an hour and the difference in the finish was around two seconds. At the end of the double-elimination competition, Hansen, who was a winner at a competition held in Wanesboro, Va. and a national derby participant last summer, defeated the only female in the field to win the super stock division. Hansen, along with the winner of the stock division, will move onto the National event held in Akron, Ohio on July 21.

When asked how he continues to have success in derby competitions, Hansen laughed and said: "Put flames on your car."