Coming up on Pensacola State today, we'll explore the impactful new aviation mechanics program.

See our highlights from a meaningful PSC homecoming event and spotlight an Australian pipeline for Pirates softball.

Plus, will delve into a business management program that delivers big opportunities.

Hello and welcome to Pensacola State today.

I'm Steve Nissim, along with my co-host Rameca Vincent Leary.

There are so many remarkable things happening at PSC, and we're here to highlight the impactful people, programs, events and achievements.

Right, Steve?

Absolutely.

And we start with PSC homecoming.

The tradition continues to grow in popularity since returning a few years ago.

A week of events culminated with the ten student homecoming court being celebrated with new PSC basketball games.

It created an electric atmosphere high on school spirit and energy.

That's the idea.

That's why they revived a PSC homecoming court in 2023 after being dormant for 50 years.

The marquee moment announcing your King and Queen and the honors went to Mikayla Jolean, a cosmetologist, student, and Gabriel Nees, a first year business major.

The thrill and significance pretty overwhelming for both.

My heart dropped.

I'm not going to lie.

I was like, am I dreaming right now?

I was kind of like, shocked because I didn't think.

But I was like, yeah, I'm very thankful for this opportunity for sure.

It's been an awesome experience, something I'll remember forever for sure.

I was so shocked of, like, I can't really believe this is happening.

I mean, you get the nerves and you get worried of like, who's going to win?

Am I going to make it?

You're standing out in front of everyone.

I hear my name.

I'm like, I just can't believe that this experience is just wonderful.

It's like once in a lifetime and it just feels amazing.

So it's really enhanced.

My, time here.

Meanwhile, CTE month highlights the important programs and resources available for career and technical education students.

The initiative proved valuable once again in raising awareness for everything the college offers to help CTE students succeed.

Events throughout the month included the following A job fair.

Dress for success luncheon, learn CTE open House professional headshot opportunity.

Resume pop up workshop, and a festive beads and burgers social.

CTE is geared toward workforce training, providing assistance for vocational and college credit certificate students, including those pursuing associate of Science degrees.

Valuable resources are for the taking.

We have internships and co-ops.

We have a handshake job board where students can go and find jobs, co-op opportunities, part time jobs, full time jobs, internships.

And then we do resume assistance, mock interviews.

We give scholarships to students in our programs, and we have book loans.

So we have a lot of different resources and a computer lab for our students.

A new program in a PSC is proving extremely valuable to the school and providing a wonderful opportunity for students.

The addition of aviation airframe and power plant mechanics is a win on many levels.

A visit from the governor last summer with a $4.4 million grant in hand, made it clear a new aviation airframe and power plant mechanics program is a high priority.

It's now officially off the ground with a lot of key players and effort invested.

It took so many people and so much coordination from the airport to the school to the FAA to how do we set this up?

What do we do?

What are the regulations?

We're super proud of this.

It's truly been a community project.

Everything from equipment being donated to both Santa Rosa and Escambia counties, providing equipment and funding.

We also have the city they involved with it.

In addition, Triumph Gulf Coast, who has all come out to support this project.

There is a reason for all the enthusiasm.

Aviation mechanics are in high demand.

It's a growing industry with a huge need for skilled workers for the initial class of 19 students.

It's a valuable opportunity.

My mom actually found this program because I'd been looking at a couple others, but then this one was like, I got to get in this one.

I haven't seen any other program come through with all this learning environment, with all this hands on learning, it's really cool.

I looked into aviation and I saw that, they had a lot of opportunities for women.

And so I decided that I would try it out.

The program is currently housed in the St engineering hangar at the Pensacola International Airport, with a brand new building to be constructed soon.

Classroom instruction is backed up by some unique hands on experience, from a flight simulator to donated aircraft and tip top equipment.

The resources available are impressive.

I'm like, wow, this is a snap on.

And it's not just that the tassels are brand spanking new.

It's exciting to know that you get the opportunity to put your hands on something here that normally people won't get to experience on, that they're working in the field.

It's probably been one of the coolest things I've ever done.

It's been so fun to apply things I learned in high school.

I learned in college that I can actually put towards a career, that I can build things, take things apart, and put them back together.

40 more students will be accepted in May with further expansion to come.

The 18 month program will certify graduates in a wide variety of areas within aviation, mechanics.

People will be begging for them.

They'll have job offers, you know, like Steve wants to get them, but so does Leonardo's.

So does vertex.

So does, you know, a bunch of different companies.

So sky's the limit for them.

There are a lot of opportunities just because of how broad the field is.

And there's work anywhere.

I feel like once I'm done with the program I'm going to like going, you know, blazing.

And I feel like I'm going to be prepared to do just about anything.

PSC broke new ice with the first ever college night at a Pensacola Ice Fliers game.

The college sponsored the fliers matchup against the Evansville Thunderbolts on February 21st, producing a fun atmosphere at the Pensacola Bay center.

From PSC president Doctor Ed Meadows dropping the first puck to beat the pirate riding around on the ice.

There was plenty of Pirates flavor in the arena.

PSC students, faculty and alumni did their part cheering on the home team, although ultimately the fliers lost in a chilling 4 to 3 defeat.

Perhaps they could have used Pete the Pirate during the game.

He showed off his hockey skills in a pre-game warm up.

It's time for the president's perspective, where we get to hear the thoughts of PSC President Doctor Ed Meadows.

Thanks for letting us hang out for a little bit.

Yeah.

Let's, Good morning.

Or good day?

Good day to you, too.

So, some recent news coming out.

The amount of financial assistance PSC gave out went up significantly in the last year.

72% of students in the 2324 academic year received some type of financial aid.

It was 51% the year before that.

So how significant is that?

Well, it means that our financial aid staff, and our foundation, have been successful and, encouraging students, number one, to complete the Fafsa.

And, I've got to say that, Chief Escambia has had a role in that because I had a, a Fafsa initiative.

So any time that you get, recently graduated high school students that get prepared, for the financial aspect of what it costs to attend college, that's always a good thing, which results in, students, more students being eligible to receive financial aid.

And overall, when you look at, the amount of, federal financial aid that either comes through the Pell Grant or through, GI Bill and also state, grants that, sometimes are flow through from the federal government, coupled with an increase in the corpus of the foundation for scholarships.

Then, when you have more money available and a better educated student population about the availability of financial aid, then you're going to be successful and more students and a higher percentage of students receiving financial aid.

We just had CTE month at PSC, career and technical education.

How important are the programs and resources of C its, object to the mission of PSC?

Well, we have two primary missions.

One is university transfer for students and the other is workforce development.

And, the 28 colleges in the Florida college system have been touted, as, the, the work engine and backbone of workforce development in the state of Florida.

And so for Pensacola State College, we actually probably, have more technical programs than many of the other, state colleges, depending on the region.

So we're we're a little bit more comprehensive on the technical side.

And of course, we have one of the largest nursing programs in the state on the same side of things, when you look at, the need for, welders, carpenters, Hvac people, and, applied technology programs that, and local industry where they employ, our students and in a number of ways, we have a, an excellent program that's funded through a special allocation from the, legislature to lift technologies where we can actually train, veterans and active military, plus their dependents, and short term, long credit, certification programs, that put, our veterans and, and, and military to dependents to work almost immediately after 6 to 8 weeks of training.

So not only do we have the credit side of CTE, but we also have the Noncredit, that gives individuals immediate skills, to go to work in our region.

Earlier in the show, we did a story on the aviation mechanics program, a new program here at PSC.

How significant is it to be kind of on the forefront of what is a really a growing industry?

This is a two county initiative where our initial funding of $1 million came from Santa Rosa Economic Development, that was appropriated from the, the state, and our county commission and of course, and Santa Rosa County, they have been, tremendous partners for us.

And they recruited Leonardo helicopter.

Maintenance repair, which will certainly, be, an avenue of employment, for the graduates of this program.

Yes.

The engineering here, right across the street at the airport has been a tremendous partner for us.

It takes a large number of partners, Gulf Coast being one of those, the governor's job growth grant through the Department of Commerce and also the legislature.

Yeah.

And and helping to fund this.

The city has been a great partner as well.

The city of Pensacola.

So when you put all of those different public private partners together, good things can happen.

Okay, well, thank you for giving us the president's perspective.

Well, I enjoy, talking with you, Steve, about the college.

Any time.

Okay.

Thank you.

It's an opportunity of a lifetime for PSC baccalaureate students enrolled in the business management program.

Now they can earn transferable credits into WFS Master of Business Administration program.

All made possible through the PSC to you for articulation agreement.

To discuss this further, I'm happy to welcome Jerry Goldstein, professor at PSC.

And you know, he's joined by one of his prized students, Sheena Carr.

So glad to have both of you here.

Now, Jerry, we need to take everyone back to 2022.

So let's talk about the pathway that you had to actually embark upon for the articulation agreement to come into play.

Actually, it was a very collaborative agreement with, doctor, Ed Meadows, the president of Pensacola State College and now Doctor Michael Payne, who was the manager at the College of Business, and also with the then Dean, Dean fountain and assistant dean, Melissa Brode and President Martha Saunders.

It was a three year.

Yes.

It was a three year endeavor to get this done.

It's a very special program that's never been done in the state of Florida.

So it went through a lot of channels and a lot of people to thank for this incredible opportunity to think on the air, as we would know.

So let's talk about the business climate analysis course.

How many weeks is it?

It's a regular semester at Pensacola State College.

That's, 16 or 18 weeks.

Whatever the semester is.

But there are two courses of, embedded inside of that job.

4451 business climate course.

And the reason there's two courses is because these are the same two courses that all students would take entering into the MBA program at the University of West Florida.

They're identical courses.

And we'll talk more about the specifics in just a moment.

But there is someone who works at PSC who wants you to hear this special message.

Take a listen.

Everyone.

Jerry Goldstein is an entrepreneur and a philanthropist, but he's here because he loves our students.

He loves Pensacola, and he loves seeing us all thrive.

I can't say enough great things about him, and I feel blessed that we get to have him in our classroom, teaching our groups.

Sina, you just heard Doctor Payne.

Don't you love him?

I do, I absolutely loved Doctor Payne and the whole family at the business program at PSC.

We have a little bit of history I taught you for two classes in the business department.

But take us back to the first time you heard Jerry Goldstein speak.

I invited him to several of my classes.

What was your first impression?

Well, I thought that what he was selling was amazing.

To have the opportunity to go ahead and start my MBA over at UW and be 10% ahead of everyone else, and to do it at the price of PSC tuition versus tuition.

That really appealed to me.

What was really funny about my story is that I was actually about to graduate, and I already had all of my credits that I needed to have my bachelor's degree through PSC.

So I re-enrolled at PSC as an independent student, just to take his class so that I would be prepared for with astounding, because when you told me you were going to do that, I said Bravo.

The economic benefits, and then also having an opportunity to come back to PSC.

Jerry, we have to dive into this course, split in half.

So the first half, tell us what the emphasis is.

The first half is a case analysis.

The course is divided and designed, for actually identical skill sets to be utilized, but applied in a little bit different way.

So the first eight weeks of the course concentrates on, on a single case.

The second course applies the same skill sets, but it's applied to an industry analysis where you're analyzing three companies simultaneously under the same industry.

But the skill sets are identical.

I love that.

And speaking of skill sets, we had an opportunity to take a sneak peak in one of your classes recently, and the students were doing their case analysis presentations.

Chipotle.

Doesn't that make you hungry?

Well, I don't know about making me hungry, but, it is, it is part of the course where students need to learn to be able to speak in front of, a group because this is what they're actually going to be confronted with when they graduate.

Hopefully one day, whether with a master's in MBA and they're going to be presenting to, to corporate boards and to managers on very specific, problem solving or things that they need to look at.

So they need to not only know how to write, they also need to know how to present.

Absolutely.

So the second half of the course, more writing involved in that.

Correct.

Almost identical in terms of the length of pages.

It's the application of the skill sets that are being applied where you're analyzing.

Of course, in the first half, as I said, in one case.

But those skill sets now are going to be applied to an industry where you're analyzing three companies simultaneously.

Love that.

Now, Sheena, after you took the course, you transferred those two and they count as two classes, correct?

MBA program at UW F so your journey started there.

How well did Jerry prepare you for this wonderful, momentous moment in your life?

I can absolutely say that without his class, I would not have been prepared for you for the program.

There were skills that I needed to have before getting there that I was not taught there.

There's there are things that you should come into the class already knowing as an MBA level student.

And I obtain those skills from Jerry Goldstein and from his class at PSC.

Now, Jerry, you and I have worked closely together for quite some time.

There are a lot of people watching who may be interested in taking your course, and you have really allowed us to put your website up on the screen.

Your email address rather on the screen for anyone who wants to contact you personally, as well as our PSC website.

So tell us about the enthusiasm you have knowing that you have more, many, many more students who are interested in this program.

Well, first, I'm grateful for you, Doctor Larry, for promoting this program in your classroom.

And that has really jumpstarted our program here.

Being able to explain the attributes, and the opportunity that, these students have at Pensacola State College.

As I said, this doesn't exist anywhere else.

So, even if students are not sure if they want to get a masters or an MBA, this gives them a window of opportunity to see what that's going to look like, because the course is taught with the same cases, the same grading rubrics, the same rigor, the same expectations.

And oh, by the way, the same instructor that taught absolutely year at the university.

So, my job is, is not as a gatekeeper.

My job is to prepare students to be successful in the MBA program and the course has been designed because they're going to see everything I taught them downstream again.

Absolutely.

Sheena, one quick word from you.

If you had an adjective to describe Jerry Goldstein, what would that be?

Oh, wow.

Outgoing, outgoing and everything that he does.

Outgoing as a teacher, he wanted us to know every single thing that he could possibly teach us.

And as long as you're a sponge, you can soak it right up.

Many thanks to both of you.

I know I'm excited.

Australia is literally on the other side of the Earth, but Pensacola State has become a far off second home for many Aussie softball players.

The 10,000 mile journey is proving beneficial for all.

The novelty of being an Australian in Pensacola comes with interesting questions like do you ride a kangaroo to school?

Like, no, we don't live in the middle of the bush.

There is actually cities around.

Or they just tell us that we sound British and I'm like, that's a totally different country.

There's always the socks and questions about, you know, as far as the snakes, but then also just random things you don't expect.

We got asked like what language people speak in Australia, you know, which I thought was obvious, but they just ask you to say like, oh, can you talk for me?

But then I get stuck because I'm like, what do I even start with?

What started with some coaching connections is now a full fledged Australia to Pensacola softball pipeline.

Nine Aussies have played for Pensacola State over the past six years.

You'll get a couple here, show them that we can make them a little bit better and take care of them.

And I think that the the word has gotten out that we do a pretty good job with them.

Three current pirates are part of the Aussie pipeline Corey Prichard, Kiara Trim and Abby Morris.

They're enjoying the advantages of playing softball in America.

We practice every day here and there's no opportunities in Australia really like that and to me, like coming out, practicing every day was crazy because I've never done so much training a lot more and stuff like that, which is like good a lot more reps has made me feel better in my ability.

Prichard arrived in Pensacola last year as a heralded recruit, having played for the under 18 Australian national team when she first got here, I was like, you might be able to be the best shortstop we've ever had.

And then we we went out and she didn't fail the ground ball for the first four games, and I thought I might be the biggest liar in the history of America.

But then she got her life together and she really has turned into that player.

I feel like that was a lot of nerves and wasn't playing things confidently.

But then I got some more confidence and things come easier.

Prichard earned second team all conference as a freshman and is keeping it up as a sophomore, hitting for average and power.

Along with stellar play at shortstop, trim came to Pensacola following her sister Jenna, an all conference star, in 2022.

But Kyra's freshman season was far from smooth.

Significant struggles at the plate led to a loss of playing time, although I wouldn't want to, like, wish that upon anyone.

That's part of the game and it did make me grow as a lot as a person.

It made me like, realize how much I had to wanted for myself and have that determination for myself.

She's totally turned it around as a sophomore on top of outstanding play in left field, Kira has become a key bat in the everyday lineup.

The maturity and the leadership she has.

You know, she took it.

She understood she needed to get better and are hurting there now.

This year shows how much she's worked on it.

She said some of the best At-Bats we've had here.

Morris is solid as a lineup regular, but her biggest contributions come with game changing play in the field.

We've asked her to do it all.

Last year she was our starring second baseman and now she's our starting center fielder.

And like again, just the growth.

I think it is the practice time and how much they care and want to get better with all the time.

We get to have with them.

I've proved myself, I can do I get more balls than I could have before when I was back home, and if anything, I'm lacking outfield more than I like the infield, which is something I never thought I would have said before I left here.

Yet another Australian signed with PSC for next season.

While this trio will move on having further cemented the Aussie bond with Pensacola, I enjoy having around.

I enjoy their accents, I enjoy their work ethic, I enjoy their perspective on life.

I enjoy that sometimes the American kids that have summer all the time come in like, oh, practice.

And they get you, which changes everybody's perspective.

And I think it does bring some of the program.

I started saying when I went back over Christmas break, I was like, oh, I've got to go home soon.

And my mom was like, well, this is your home.

But you just yeah, you got to adjust and yes, feel comfortable here.

I've loved it here.

Like, it would be sad to leave actually, because, it's just the growth I've had is amazing.

We cap off the pirate sports report with some very clutch plays of the month, women's basketball taking on Northwest Florida, the nation's second ranked team, and clinging to a one point lead with just over a minute left.

Audrey Benson drains the pivotal three pointer.

A sophomore from Trussville, Alabama, Benson's momentous shot helps the Pirates pull off the upset puts the PSC baseball trailing John Logan to nothing with two outs in the eighth inning, bases loaded for Dallas Dale, and he delivers.

Dales hit, clears the bases.

A freshman from the Orlando area with a three run triple.

The difference in a comeback 3 to 2 lead.

Finally, Pirates softball trying to hold off Montello State in a tight game.

A deep drive is trouble, but Abby Morris to the rescue.

A leaping grab by the sophomore from Australia ends the threat.

Morris's clutch catch helps PSC secure the win Well, Steve, that does it for another jam packed episode.

But there are so many more PSC stories to tell.

Look for a new episode of Pensacola State today every month.

Thanks for watching.