Brenda Autry Journalism Blog

Marc Rose is a full-time welding instructor and the department chair of the welding program at LBCC. Rose is an alumnus of the LB welding program. He lives in Lebanon with his wife, Kim, daughter Emma, 16, and son Luke, 14. This is his fifth year teaching full-time and he taught part-time for six years prior to that. The welding program has gone through a barrage of changes over the last few year. Just as things were beginning to settle down covid-19 hit and threw their program into disarray once again. Despite the challenges they've faced, the entire department has come together and found a way to teach hands-on skills online. Marc Rose How did you get started teaching? I wanted to teach right out of high school, but I wasn’t the most academic of students and I couldn’t see myself going to school for four more years. So, I kind of lost focus on that dream for a while. But about 11 or 12 years ago, Dean Dowless (a welding instructor at LB) contacted me about teachi...

Emily Whittier was hired last term as a part-time instructional specialist in the non-destructive testing program at LBCC. She began working in the industry about 15 years ago when she found that her job as a hairdresser just wasn’t paying the bills. Emily Whittier prepares a part for testing “I had to figure something else out,” Whittier said. “I got a job at Selmet through a temp agency. I started out as an entry-level darkroom attendant and I really liked it. It was easy, fun and even though I initially made less money per hour, I was making more because I always got 40 or more hours a week.” Whittier, who also works as a level II radiographer with Pacific Cast Technologies, makes about $29 an hour now. She worked at Selmet for 11 years and received on-the-job training that enabled her to move forward in the field and obtain her level I and level II radiographer certifications. Currently Whittier is one of only two females employed in academic roles in LBCC's A...