Given that so many Mt. Tahoma alumni find a home at CPTC, it is critical that they have the supports necessary to succeed. This is where the Mt. Tahoma Alumni Association stepped in.

Clover Park Technical College’s (CPTC) Associate Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness Samantha Dana and Dr. Claire Korschinowski, Dean of Instruction, will participate as fellows in the Strategic Data Project for Postsecondary Career and Technical Education (SDP-CTE), sponsored by the ECMC Foundation.

“I realized I wanted to do something more creative, and that’s what baking is all about,” Suparscaia said. “I also really believe that the job you do should bring you joy, so I started looking at culinary and pastry schools and colleges that offered programs. That’s how I found Clover Park.”

2021 winner Megan Davey is currently a tenure track NDT instructor at Clover Park Technical College (CPTC) where she teaches radiography, eddy current, and ultrasound.

The Clover Park Technical College student is one of only 30 students in the country selected to receive the spring Phi Theta Kappa Walgreens Pharmacy Technician Certificate Scholarship.

While typically a segment of a traditional engineering degree, CPTC offers a direct path to careers in this emerging field. In fact, the college kind of has the market cornered. The BAS degree is the only four-year mechatronics program offered in the Pacific Northwest, the only 2+2 (associate + bachelor’s degree) mechatronics degree in the U.S., and one of only 10 mechatronics BAS programs in the country.   “The BAS builds on technical skills offered in the Mechatronics Associate in Applied Science degree program, with additional emphasis on the engineering piece of the field that industry partners are looking for,” said Jason Sawatzki, CPTC instructor and co-founder of the BAS-Mechatronics program. That includes hands-on work with wireless communications systems, robotic integrators, distributed networking systems, simulation technologies, artificial intelligence, data analytics and more.

“This program is all about getting your hands dirty,” said Jeffrey Turner, CPTC instructor and founder of the BAS Cybersecurity program. “Students will leave the program with the tools, skills and advanced courses they need for a career in cybersecurity.”

Rachael Butler spent two years at Evergreen College before shifting gears. After completing the dental assisting program through Bates Technical College, it took two years on the job to realize dentistry wasn’t her passion. So in 2014, Butler walked onto the Clover Park Technical College (CPTC) Lakewood campus ready for something new.

“I enjoyed being able to learn and practice different types of welding, use various machinery and understand how metal reacts when heated,” Danley said.