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Macy: Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Redlands Rundown, your official podcast of Redlands Community College, where we're committed to helping our students find success at college, in their careers, and with everything in between. My name is Macy Scotten. And with me, I have...
Sydney: I'm Sydney Dacus. I'm the career readiness specialist.
Macy: And I'm the coordinator of strategic partnerships. We both wear a few different hats here, but we're really excited to start this podcast and try to do a few different things with the podcast. But this is just our kickoff episode. So we'll talk a little bit about ourselves, our journeys as students, and now employees of Redlands, and some of the things that we think our students should know and the resource that we have on campus. So let's start with talking a little bit about how each of us found Redlands and got started here.
Sydney, I'll let you start.
Sydney: Yeah. I feel like I have a similar experience honestly to a lot of people. I wouldn't say that when I was dreaming of where I wanted to go to college, Redlands was necessarily the first one that came to mind, mostly because I grew up thirty minutes from here. Mhmm. And I wanted to go out somewhere different.
Wanted to go out farther. And I started looking at the different options for myself. Started thinking about money, timing, expenses just in general, not just of tuition but of if I have to live on campus, if I have to drive to campus Sure. What does that look like for me? And funny enough, my dad said, you have a full ride to Redlands.
You can go to Redlands or you can pay your way to another school. And that probably sounds like really harsh love to a lot of people Mhmm. But it was kind of the kick that I needed to realize this was the best move for me at the time. And I'm so glad it happened.
I'm so glad I ended up where I did. It created the perfect pipeline for me to come here and get my liberal degree and my Not my liberal, but my general degree which was called and is now called Liberal Studies. And then go on to USAO and do what I was hoping to do from the beginning. And so it turned out to be just the perfect plan. It did take a little bit of pushing from my dad and it took a little bit of resistance from me. But I wouldn't change anything for the world. And I think that's a very similar experience probably to a lot of our students. For sure. And not to say that Redlands isn't a great school because it is and I loved my time here.
But I think we don't always think about how perfect that a community college could be for a lot of people.
Macy: For sure. Especially when it's right in your backyard. Yes. And sometimes you are excited to get a little further away from home, but a start right in your backyard or somewhere close to home can a lot of times have a lot of upside, whereas going further away or to a bigger school may pose more challenges. So yeah, think your story is a great testament to that.
Sydney: You know, I I got here and I thought, oh my gosh, I would have died at OSU. Like, I yeah. I would have been late every day. Uh-huh. The campus is so huge.
I would have not I wouldn't have spoken. Not that I spoke here, I definitely would not have spoken when there was millions of people Mhmm. In a classroom, and this gave me the ability to really start finding myself and figuring out who I was and who I wanted to be.
Macy: Because you how big was your graduating high school class? 40? Yes. So I was the same. I graduated with about 50 students in my high school class.
So, yeah, the small setting is a great stepping stone before you transfer.
Sydney: And you have a little bit of a different story.
Macy: I do. So I am not an Oklahoma native. I grew up in South Central Iowa. My family was very involved in the club cattle industry, and I showed cattle all my life. And so I was actually enrolled to go to Iowa State University.
It was the spring. I was getting ready to graduate and was at a judging contest, had a great day, and then had a few other people from a few other junior colleges in Oklahoma reach out to me. Eastern Oklahoma is one of them and asked if I wanted to come be on the judging team. And so I was friends with the coach of the judging team here at Redlands, Brandon Callis. He's now full time faculty.
At the time, he was a judging team coach. And so I decided, let me go check this out. And so I came down for a visit. I think it was March of my, yes, March of my senior year. Came down for a visit and just fell in love with the campus and the community and family like feel.
And so I moved down here that 2018. I studied animal science here, was on the judging team, Made a lot of friends and a lot of great memories. And then I went to Oklahoma State afterwards and then came back. It's just been a really great place. So I I was that person that was going to stay close to home, but kind of in the back of my mind wanted to move a little bit further.
And I knew at some point I wanted to move out of Iowa and experience another area, and so I got the opportunity to move further from home. My family actually moved when I was a freshman, but this was such a great place to come and be a long ways from home, but not take very long to feel like I have a second family Absolutely. Here, and it just made that transition super easy. And I do I'm like you. It definitely set me up for a success when I transferred me to that bigger setting.
Absolutely. So that was my story, how I got to Redlands and how I became a student here. Mhmm. And we've talked both just a little bit about why it was a good fit at that time of our lives, but can you elaborate a little bit more on why it was a good fit for you then?
Sydney: Yeah. I think looking back I had these big dreams of like, let me go explore the world. And I think that is great. That is not my personality type.
Sure. I thought it was. But I was wrong. Mhmm. And being here, it didn't make me feel smaller, but it made me figure out, I don't wanna I don't wanna do that.
I do like being close to my family. Like being able to call my sister and say, hey, do you wanna run and grab a to eat? Mhmm. But more than anything, it really set me up for success with the school that I was transferring to, which is Yeah. So at the time, funny saying this now, but at the time, I wanted to do speech pathology. And that was like my dream. It had been my dream for my whole entire life. Yeah. There are not very many programs in Oklahoma for it.
And USAO is one of the best and biggest programs actually of that program in the state. And so I just knew like, I'm going to USAO. It's where my dad graduated from. It's where my mom graduated from. It's where they met.
My sisters have gone there and loved it. And so what made the most sense for me at that time was not going straight into USAO, but to save money while I was here Mhmm. Be able to live at home and commute to Redford For sure. And get just that general education that Yeah. I would have gotten anywhere else but I got it for a much cheaper price Yes.
Here. And I got the added benefit of being able to, I got to commute from home. I didn't have to spend money to live on campus. Yeah. And I think that's a great experience for people who do get to live on campus because of the setup that we have.
Mhmm. But at the time, I had honestly just gotten over being sick. Mhmm. And so it wasn't a point in my life that I wanted to be away. Sure.
And it gave me an opportunity to stay close to my family. And like you said, it also put me in a place where I met people that felt like this isn't scary, this isn't hard, these people care about me. Mhmm. Whether they really know me or not, they know me enough to know that they want me to succeed and I can feel that. Right.
Yeah. So that for me, that was a big pull. Yeah. For you, was it the judging team or was it?
Macy: Well, I would say when I was before I came here, I would say it's gonna be a good fit because of the ag program and the judging team. I would say now reflecting back, I feel like it was a good fit for me because of the people that are here, both the faculty and staff and the students. Mhmm. Like I mentioned, I moved it was seven and a half hours from my hometown Yeah. To El Reno.
And being able to move down here and still feel like my people were here Mhmm. That made it such a great fit. Yeah. Whether it was my friends that were on the judging team with me Yeah. Or my coach or my professors in the classroom, everybody just made me feel at home.
And I feel like that was why Redlands was such a good fit for me because I could move that far from home and still feel comfortable. Being here and not, you know, of course, I miss my family Yeah. But it wasn't impeding on my ability to have fun on the judging team and focus in classes where you have people that are around you that are supporting you and wanting you to succeed. So both of us have different perspectives. You know, with you mentioning, you were staying at home when I was living in the apartments, but for regardless of what your situation looks like, there's a lot of different aspects that make Redlands a good spot.
Sydney: And I think it's so funny because I would have told you when I was 18 and coming to school here, I was kinda doing it begrudgingly. Like I was a little bit like, my dad's gonna have to come here. And looking back now, I wouldn't change any of it for anything. It's so funny because I look at it and it's just such a realization of it's exactly where I was supposed to be at the time. And you think you know a lot at 18?
And some people may. I did not at 18 and so being able to look back and realize like, landed where I was supposed to for sure is really really cool.
Macy: Yeah. It is. Okay. So one question. Was there anything that surprised you when you were a student here about Redlands that that you wanna talk about?
Sydney: Yeah. I think honestly the people. I feel like the people really surprised me because you know, you're in high school and everyone says like, you can't slack off in college. You can't do this in college.
Like, you can't just miss class. And then you get to college and people are so kind and so understanding. Especially here. I know that's probably not the case everywhere, but I felt like a lot of the time with my professors Mhmm. I did just have this relationship where like, no, they weren't my friend, but they were someone that was a mentor they were a mentor to her.
Yeah. And I think specifically, I had one relationship with my history professor, James Taber, who, he absolutely changed my life. He changed my viewpoint on the way that I looked at history Mhmm. And on my interest levels in history, to be honest with you. And I ended up having a history minor at USAO because I loved his classes so much. And so I think the people surprised me, but also the people that brought out interest in me really surprised me. The fact that someone was able to like plant this knowledge Yeah. And maybe excited by it. Yeah.
Because I would have told you before like history.
Macy: Yeah that's kinda how I feel now. I shouldn't say that but I feel that way a little bit now sometimes.
I think for me, mine's gonna be very specific. But I do think there's great opportunities for our students here, and I think this goes against probably the stigma of community colleges where you may not have as many opportunities to kick start, you know, where bigger universities might have more opportunities for research and things like that. I actually was part of our research program in the spring that we have here.
Yeah. Professor Brenda Witt was over that. It was it's a NASA funded, I believe, program where we do research on freshwater sponges.
Sydney: Mhmm.
Macy: And I'm giving her a shout out right now because I went on and did my masters and did research, and that was the only undergraduate research experience that I had, and it made a huge impact on me developing, you know, my design for my project in grad school, collecting data, analyzing, reporting on that. And so having that opportunity to be a part of that program at Redlands made a huge impact several years down And the so I think sometimes you think that you're giving up opportunities like that by going to a smaller school, but really, we have just just as good opportunities, and then you're doing it in a smaller setting where you maybe are getting more out of it. And so that was one thing that surprised me that we had that kind of opportunity on campus here, and I'm so glad me and a couple of my friends did it at the time. We had a great time with it, and it was the spring that we got sent home for COVID early. So we didn't get to finish out everything, but we did get to go out, find freshwater sponges, develop our our plans for the research. And it was just a really good learning experience. Mhmm. So it was great to have that kind of opportunity to learn that before I went into grad school. Yeah.
So it's fun to talk about some of the different things that surprise you a little bit.
Sydney: You should ask her to reenroll in the program so that you can finish it now.
Macy: So that way I can finish my poster and present about my findings. Okay. So I wanna transition a little bit now and talk a bit more about what makes Redlands unique and we've kind of hinted to a lot of these things with our personal experiences and things that stood out with us. But talk to me a little bit about what you feel like makes Redlands unique whenever you're talking with somebody about our campus and what we have to offer.
Sydney: Yeah. I think it always comes back to the people, to be honest with you. Mhmm. And not even just the people, but the size that we are and that we're able to maintain, mostly because it does give you those personal relationships.
Macy: For sure.
Sydney: You know, you sit in a classroom and I've had students when previously when I used to enroll students who would come in and say like, what do you mean I'm only gonna have 20 people max.
Macy: Yeah. A lot of high schoolers have bigger classes.
Sydney: A lot of high schools do. And for me, it's I also have those students who are coming from a small town like I did, who are like, oh, thank goodness. Mhmm. Thank goodness I'm not gonna get lost in a crowd. Yeah.
Absolutely. And I think that is something that I emphasize so much when I'm on the road, when I'm talking to people about Redlands is you're not just a number to us. I have students to this day, I don't even enroll anymore, but I have students to this day that will stop me in the hallway and that I still know like, I know where they're from, I know what classes they were taking. Yeah. I know what job they're doing, and I know these things about them that you don't get to have that experience at a lot of different places. Not because intentions aren't well but because there's so many people on that campus. How are you supposed to possibly know everyone?
Macy: Yeah.
Sydney: And so I would say the connections that you're able to make for sure and then just the flexibility that we allow. Yeah. And we have so many online classes. We have classes that you can commute to. Mean, that's what I did for two full years.
I did a lot of online, but I also came up to school here. And so it gives people flexibility from all different backgrounds because you may be a working mom, you may be a single dad. Yeah. You may be all these different things or you may just be having to work to pay for college. Yeah.
And so maybe you can't be here from eight to four, whatever it might be, but you can get your degree online.
Macy: And I feel a little bit of like, that's what we pride ourselves on is at Redlands, we are really here to work around you and your schedule, and we are gonna try to make it work as best as we can. So you don't have to make any more sacrifices or you have these other boundaries that you're having to, you know, get over to be able to come back to school and finish your degree. Or if you've never been to school, you know, come for the first time and do your degree. And so having that flexibility of the online classes, the hybrid classes, in person, Yeah. It really opens the door for a lot of our nontraditional students because we do have a lot of those here.
Sydney: And I think it all ties back to that connection that you make because like you said, that is our goal is to make this easier on you. It's to break those barriers down. And so I think a lot of big colleges and campuses, they can't have that personal touch of like, what makes this easiest for you? Yeah. What makes it where you can do this and where you can accomplish this? But I just think it is such a wealthy environment in the sense of how you feel when you leave here. Yeah. For sure. What about you actually? Have comments?
Macy: Yeah. So the other thing that I was gonna mention, we've talked a lot about doing your general education curriculum here, but also I don't wanna skip over the fact that we do have specific majors and programs, you know, regardless of what your interest And so, like I mentioned, I went through our animal science program.
And so our agriculture department is one of our bigger departments that we have here. I don't know off the top of my head how many students we have, but that has continued to grow because of our livestock judging team that I was a part of and help with now, our beef show team, our shooting sports team. Mhmm. All of those competitive teams have really helped grow our ag area. And then we also have our artificial insemination certificate where students can learn how to AI livestock hands on.
And so while we do have general ed curriculum, we do also have very specific things. So, you know, agriculture, like I mentioned, animal science, ag ed, ag comm, those are some of the degrees that we have. Nursing is another really popular one that we have. Obviously, you start and do your prerequisites, but then you can finish with your RN degree, and that sets you up to go into the workforce or if you wanna transfer on for your BSN. Yeah.
That's another opportunity for a lot of students, and there's a huge demand for nurses right now, especially in Oklahoma. Awesome. So that's a promising area. I'm trying to think of other majors that we have as well.
Sydney: We have psychology, which is huge, especially if you're transferring into somewhere else. Mhmm. Just lots of different things that
Macy: Yeah. Our junior computer science degrees. Yeah.
Sydney: Absolutely. Just so many different things that really do open the door. I mean, we even have, you know, our athletic training degrees For sure. Our pre professional sciences degrees. So like, if someone does want to go to med school one day, med school's expensive.
Yeah. I have one of my best friends is in med school right now and every time I see her I go, so when do you graduate again? Yeah. And every time she gets a little bit angry with me. But it's expensive and so I think when you think about it, if you can save two years getting your, and yes, it's your general education, but it's those science classes that you're gonna have to take anywhere else to go to med school. And so we have so many different options and like you said, our computer science programs, and you have a very interesting viewpoint on this because of the programs you've developed. If you can talk about that.
Macy: Yeah. We and I skipped over this part. So we also have applied technology degrees, and those are designed to allow our technology center students that have done a program at an Oklahoma Career Tech Center the opportunity to get college credit for the programs and certifications that they're doing there. And then they do those gen ed classes, and they finish with an associate of applied science, with the emphasis in that area where they studied, whether that's automotive collision, you know, business and accounting.
It might be health careers. But we have 19 in those area areas. And since the 2023 to the 2025, enrollment in those areas has increased increased by 77%. That's awesome. And so we see students taking advantage of that because we know they have great employment opportunities when they finish those programs at the tech centers, and we want them to take advantage of that. The nice thing with those degrees is all that coursework can be done online. So there's no obligation for them to come to campus to do class. So they can kick start their career and then finish an associate's degree to go for promotion, maybe open their own business someday. Mhmm.
So that's been another area of degrees at Redlands that's been really, really popular and has opened a lot of doors for students. And even we've had instructors at technology centers that have come to us and said, okay. I'm ready to finish my degree. Mhmm. And they're taking advantage of that opportunity.
So, yeah, a lot of different areas to study. And even if you're not sure, like we talked about, we said, we think we know a lot at 18, but you're probably gonna change your mind a few times on what you wanna major in. You have a lot of flexibility And that's okay. I think my freshman year within one week, I changed my major like three times. Is not an exaggeration.
I did do that. And that's okay. It is.
Sydney: Yeah. I changed my major my senior year of college. Yeah. Like, I was about to graduate and I said, no. It's okay.
It's not gonna work. And looking back, again, I wouldn't change that for anything. Yeah. And not just for the educational piece of it, but it was just like this foundational piece of a lot of my life. The fact that I was able to change my major, just the people that I met through that and the experiences that I had.
And so I think we look at change and as this like unknown as a horribly scary thing. And it is, don't get me wrong. I hate change. I hate not knowing things.
Macy: Mhmm.
Sydney: But some of the greatest things in my life came from a spot in my life that I was not certain of. For sure. And so I I think you and I both work with students after graduation. Yeah. A big part of both of our jobs is Mhmm.
Helping them get employed, helping them find these steps. And so that's something I always talk about is like, don't feel alone Mhmm. Because so many of us have no idea. Yeah. And it's okay.
Macy: And that's what we're here to help with. Yeah. If you are a student and you feel like you're unsure if your major that you're in right now is a good fit for you and you're considering something else, you don't have to keep those emotions to yourself. You can come to really anybody on campus, a professor, an advisor, you can come to my office, you can stop in wherever.
Whoever you feel comfortable with and I promise that whoever you're talking with is gonna be happy to help you themselves and if they can't answer those questions Yeah. They are gonna take you to somebody that can help. So don't keep those emotions to yourself. Know that it's normal. But we are here to help you if you're feeling that way.
Sydney: Absolutely.
Macy: So okay. So I wanna talk a little bit about the podcast. What students or listeners, not that you don't have to necessarily be a student at Redlands.
I hope we have a bigger audience that's listening. Maybe students that are thinking about coming to Redlands or even some of our alum. But I want to let our listeners know what they can expect from this podcast. And we've talked about some of the ideas that we have, but can you kinda touch a little bit on some of the ideas or what you're hoping that we can accomplish with this.
Sydney: I think a big goal for me, like I touched on earlier a little bit, I am the career readiness specialist here. You and I work very closely together and a big part of my job is getting students ready for that next step after college. Mhmm. And that sometimes is transferring to another school, other times it's going into the industry. And so for me, yes, I want to get them those success tips and tips and tricks.
But I also want them to know just how many resources we really do have And here on then also, I'm very hopeful to interview local business owners Yeah. And get to talk to them and give students and alumni and anyone else who's listening to this just the insight of how did they create this? Yeah. How did they get from point a to point b?
You know, I think of all that stuff that's like, how did I become a millionaire? And I listen to that stuff, like, I wanna know Tell me your secrets. I wanna know what you did because I wanna do it. And so I think it's even more personal and so intentional that it's local businesses Here.
That it's people that because sometimes when we're hearing Kim Kardashian talk about it, it's like, yeah yeah, okay. Mhmm. Like, sure. I could do that.
But am I going to? No. Is it gonna be successful if I go out and make pajamas? No.
But if I talk to a local business here that started up their own bakery or their own floral shop Yeah. Or started selling vehicles or whatever it is. And I know you work with like CL Boyd and so many different people. And that's such a powerful informational source.
So I think those are really my hopes for it is like the resources on campus, the opportunities that we have, and then also local businesses really getting involved with them.
Macy: Yeah. I completely agree. I think this will be a great resource for our students because really, if you're on campus here throughout the year, there's a lot of times where we don't have a ton of students that are here in person because we have students that are on competitive teams that have to go to practice, so they're traveling for for games. Yeah. We have students like yourself that commuted to and from, and so they came to class, and then maybe they went to work afterwards, or they went home.
And we have some students that are totally online. And so some of the things that we'll talk about, the resources that we have at Redlands, you know, the business owners and professionals that we have on the podcast, the things that they have to share. We want all this information and resources to be accessible to all of our students regardless of what your schedule looks like, how much time you're spending on campus. And so that's really my hope with the podcast is to make this information accessible to anybody, even students that are thinking about coming to Redlands. So they have a little more insight on what their time might look like as a student here, what they can expect.
And, you know, oh, yeah. When they're here, they might recognize you or I or a faculty that was on here or another student. And so that just gives them a little more insight on, okay. I can see that there's a good sense of community here.
Yeah. I really like the things that you guys talk about. I can relate to that. That's my hope and plan for the podcast.
Sydney: I think definitely being able to bring the idea of college back down to earth and making it less scary. And I'm excited because some of the guests that we already have lined up are going to be able to give us insight into how do I do this if I'm a first generation college student? How do I do this if I'm low income? How do I do this if I Went to college but haven't gone again and I need to start over? Or how do I do this if I'm just graduating high school and and I've never done this before? Absolutely. And so, like you said, I think just getting it back to that ground level and making it accessible for people to know it's okay and Yeah.
Like, we're here to help.
Macy: Yeah. For sure. And I think that kinda takes us into our last portion that I wanted to talk about before we kinda wrapped up. You know, we want our students to know that they have support here at Redlands, we'll get into a lot of the resources that we have in later episodes. I think one of our next episodes will be talking about some of our resources on campus and interviewing a very wonderful woman.
Yes. I'm very excited. But we just want our students to know, you are not alone with this. Whatever you're worried or whatever you're going through, we are here to support you. So please let us know what we can do.
And we hope that this is helpful to you to maybe get some answers or some insight and make you feel a little bit better. Yeah. But, yeah, let us know if you have any requests or anything that you want us to talk about in the future, for new episode ideas and topics. We would love to hear your feedback. So if you wanna let us know, stop by campus, visit with Sydney or I, or even comment on wherever you're watching and let us know if there's something you want us to cover, we would be happy to do that.
Absolutely. So anything else?
Sydney: No. I think just this is supposed to be a fun thing Yeah. And it's supposed to be an accessible thing like we talked about. So I think audience members getting involved in doing Absolutely. This about like, hey, here's here's a real thing that I wanna hear about.
Macy: Yeah. We wanna know what you So wanna well, thank you for joining us on our very first episode of the Redlands We are excited to talk with you again in the future. And so we'll see you next time. Bye, guys.
