Partner in Excellence Award: Kansas City Kansas Community College

Greg Mosier
I was contacted by Jeff Novorr, the VP for hospitality services, with this idea, and it just rang a bell immediately.

Jeff Novorr
We changed our employment requirements so that some positions in our health system did not require a high school diploma, or a GED. If you come in without a high school diploma or GED, your ceiling for growth is very low, and we wanted to create opportunities, and the only way to start that process was to have that GED.

Greg Mosier
It's amazing. And it's only because we work so closely together that it's successful. It's all about the students.

Carmen Hunter
A lot of people would love to go to school and work at the same time, and Kansas City Community College has given us the opportunity to come in and work. That means a big thing to a lot of people.

Bob Page
The entire program has had a great impact on our health system. Our partnership with the Kansas City Kansas Community College has really been instrumental in our GED program.

Jeff Novorr
We couldn't do this program without them.

Tammy Peterman
The relationship that our health system has had with Kansas City Kansas Community College is really so important and actually so powerful. Of course, it's about the GED program, but really it's about people.

Carmen Hunter
Being a single parent was really like a big brick wall that I had to climb. I didn't want to give up. I just didn't know how to go back to school and work at the same time and applying at the health system really opened that door for me.

Nancy Phelps
We see education being the core of workforce readiness and development. Building that workforce of tomorrow. So whether that impacts our own talent pipeline or honestly, whether it's opening doors for the entire workforce of our community. Programs like this do that.

Bob Page
The GED program has been a great way to create those pipelines, because we're taking people, providing them an educational opportunity and then allowing them to flourish inside of our own health system.

Tammy Peterman
People have no idea how important this program has become. It's part of our culture and part of who we are. Many of our staff have been mentors to the GED students, and that's just become really fun to watch. Those relationships have become true friendships.

Jeff Novorr
We have a graduation once a year. There's a lot of people in there. Some of them are the friends and family members of the graduates who, again, never thought they'd see their loved one graduate high school.

Carmen Hunter
The day of the graduation was very emotional for me. I cried a little bit, and I really wish my mother was still here so she could have seen the accomplishments that I have made in life.

Bob Page
All you have to do is come to the graduation ceremony, and you watch the relationship between our staff that went through the program and the folks from Kansas City Kansas Community College that mentored and taught them during their time. And you just see hugs and they're genuine hugs.

Nancy Phelps
I actually had the privilege of attending the graduation ceremony last year. I was the stranger in the back row, crying tears of joy, celebrating with the graduates and their families.

Greg Mosier
It's great to see these students graduate. This partnership is something very special.

Tammy Peterman
This is an opportunity for us to support them in their journey of life and you know what happens? Those individuals become very loyal to our health system. They stay in our health system and they do great things.

Jeff Novorr
29 graduates in five years, 29 individuals who never thought they'd have the opportunity to go back to school and get that diploma. And of those 29 graduates, 70% of them have moved on to additional roles within our health system that they would not have been eligible for otherwise.

Bob Page
You see people from almost like late teens all the way into their 60s going through the program, which is just so heartwarming.

Jeff Novorr
The college has been the best partner we could ask for. We had no idea whether this crazy idea was going to work or not, and they've been by our side the whole time to make sure that it does work.

Tammy Peterman
I think it's a perfect partnership.

Carmen Hunter
It’s made me a better person, a better leader and a better woman.

Greg Mosier
We get great joy from seeing that because that's what we do. That's what we live for at the community college.

Nancy Phelps
It's a lovely partnership that's innovative and unusual and opening doors to opportunity. That's the perfect collaboration.

Greg Mosier
We're really excited, honored and very humbled by this award because together we're really super excited.