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Hello, and welcome to the 30th season of Dateline Delta.

I'm Barb Hanley-Miller, a member of the Delta College board of Trustees.

And today's show will explore the Michigan Reconnect program and preview the chocolate Affair.

To wrap up the show, we'll hear how a student is finding their way The Delta Way.

Learn about the history of Delta's covered bridge, and see how Delta is educating students for the upcoming midterm elections.

Michigan Reconnect, provides tuition free access to community college for Michiganders 21 or older without a college degree.

To learn more about this opportunity, we talked to James Perry, Dean of Enrollment and Access The Michigan Reconnect program is a program and a state initiative that assists students that have not received a degree or or skills training certificate in the state of Michigan, Eligibility requirements require a student to be a resident of Michigan for one year.

Also, if they have not attained any form of college degree, associates, bachelors, skills training certificate, then they can enroll into this program and receive free tuition and mandatory fees.

Program has been in existence for five years.

It started off as 25 and over.

Two years ago, they lowered the age to 21 years and it lasts for a year.

And then it went back to 25 years.

So this August, they reopened it to 21 and expanded it to 21 through 24 to be able to participate in a program.

So here at Delta, there's thousands of students, that participate in the reconnect program.

So if we look at reconnect 25 for the state of Michigan, we service 2,000 plus students each year with reconnect 25.

With the expansion going to 21 to 24, that dramatically increase the number from 2,000 to 3,000 and up.

Because we have more students that's able to take advantage of it.

Because the average age is 24 years old.

So that expansion was very important to our student base to significantly impact the low degree attainment in the region.

The student can sign up for the program by going to my delta.edu and going to our financial aid page.

Or they can go to the state of Michigan reconnect page and they can find the application there.

It is a last dollar amount scholarship.

So second class.

So usually students that are Pell Grant eligible usually are reconnect eligible.

However reconnect will pay for tuition and mandatory fees.

As a Michigan resident just turning 21, I was looking for a way to pay for my tuition.

And that's when I found out Michigan Reconnect went to age 21.

And so I was able to apply, which also helped alleviate the financial burden that can come with college.

Even though community college is cheaper, it's still better to not have to worry about those payments.

What I would like most students, especially in this region, the Great Lakes Bay Region, to know that Delta College would love to assist any students that have questions about how they going to fund their college.

If you're between the ages of 21 and above, you can come to Delta College.

You can come to our web page and we will assist you in finding the Reconnect application so you can obtain your associates or skills trade certificate.

There's something for everyone at A Chocolate Affair coming up Thursday, November 5th at Horizon's Conference Center in Saginaw.

Whether you enjoy seeing friends, dancing to live music, feasting on decadent menu items, sipping cocktails and mocktails, savoring decadent desserts in an elegant and welcoming space, or all of the above, you can purchase your tickets using the information at the bottom of your screen.

We can't wait to see you there!

For Cathy Autry, earning a college degree was a dream 50 years in the making.

At age 65, she decided it was finally time to pursue that dream.

Now she's a Delta College graduate with an associate degree in business management, graduating with honors.

Here's her story.

I've always wanted to go to college since I was a kid.

In high school, I wanted to go and get an associate degree in business management, but I became a teen mom at the age of 15 1/2.

So that kind of life changed my route in life.

A lot of things happened along the way as well.

I never got a chance to go to college.

I end up having six more children after the one.

Went through three marriages.

Like I said, I have seven children.

14 grand and two great grand.

So I'm retired from the Saginaw VA.

At the age of 65, something in me this told me just to try, just to go.

You're retired now.

Are your kids grown?

The grandkids are almost grown.

So you have time to do what you've always wanted to do.

And the door was open after that.

I applied for two schools.

Delta was one.

I won't name the other, but I never heard from the other.

All I heard was from Delta.

So I just went on, communicated with them, and they reached back out to me, and everything started moving.

Because everybody wants you to succeed at Delta.

I knew I was on the right path from day one, with the academic part that I had.

Cynthia Blahnik, she is awesome So she's also another encouragement to when I started, she was there for me.

Help me.

You know, pick my courses.

When I decided to come back, I asked for her to be my academic advisor.

And we we just we just meshed because she's another one.

She wants you to succeed.

She's gonna do all that she can to help you to succeed.

Anything that I needed from her, she was there.

I've been to her numerous times as well, because I felt like going to college at the age that I was.

I was 65 when I started.

I started as a full time thinking that I was going to be able to do it.

I've got time, but it's more than just having time.

You got to manage that time.

You got to have study time.

Don't have time to do homework.

And I really stressed myself out that first semester.

So I went back to her before second semester.

Started to talk to her.

She told me, Cathy, you're going to get that degree.

You don't have to rush.

If you want to go down part time, you can do part time.

So that's what I did.

Less stress on me.

I kept it part time all the way to the end.

And I was able to get my associate degree in Business Management.

And I also graduated with honors I didn't even know I was, like I said, with honors, because when I went to get my gown and cap the day of graduation, I went to one table and the young man said, okay, so you can go to the second table.

I said, well, why am I going to another table?

Because you are graduating with honors.

Say what, I cried.

I cried because, like I said, that was a childhood dream of mine and to have my family there too.

They came down, some from Ohio and most of my kids live in Ohio, so they all came down.

My grandkids were there.

And just to get to the finish line, even though it took so many, it took me 50 years to get there, but I got there.

That was the most impactful for me, and I did cry.

And afterwards some of my children, my older children, just said they're going to go to college, too.

So they did.

Some of them are still in college right now.

One is already I think she got her master's already, but she said mom, you were my inspiration to go back to school That was it for me.

I was, I was good.

It's never too late to start.

The thing that really, would really put a damper in your life is not to start.

If you have a dream or a goal or something.

Things may come, you know, along the path.

But keep following that dream.

And until you make that foot forward, that step forward to do it.

You'll never know what you can achieve.

And I found that out even though I started at 65.

But still, it still holds true.

Whatever your goal is, whatever your dream in life is, the only way you're going to achieve it is to put that one foot in front of the other and keep moving.

Keep moving forward.

The Delta College Covered Bridge was originally constructed in 1976.

Years of use and weather slowly weakened the bridge, forcing it to close in 2016.

Five members of the original construction crew returned to lead a team of Delta volunteers in restoring the structure.

Let's learn more about the history of our bridge.

In 1902, they drilled a coal seam about a mile east of here.

They put down their first, coal mine, and it was the Beaver Coal Mine.

And to get that coal out to where it needed to go, they put a railroad spur right through here out on the other side, through here.

And they needed the bridge and the railroad spur ran all the way out on the other side of Mackinaw Road and then straight north all the way out to the other side of Midland Road, and then connected to a railroad track that went between Bay City and Midland.

So they put in a bridge in this very site, to get them across the creek.

And so that's what the, that's the foundation that these guys put the bridge on.

The bridge was a project that terms of the bicentennial.

This was done for the bicentennial.

And, there was a committee and, took this on as a project.

In 1975, we decided that we like to go from one side of the crick to the other side, and the only way to do that is you have to go back out to the main road, come back in through the farm fields.

And we said, it's beautiful right here.

We got the foundation for a bridge.

Why not put a bridge in?

And we said, that would be great, you know, put it, let's put it, make it sure it's a covered bridge rather than just a open bridge.

And so we got permission from Don Carlyon, the president at that time, to go ahead with the construction.

And Don Carlyon was, gracious enough to be able to arrange for the financing of the bridge.

He had to give the final approval on everything that we did and, which was good for us anyway.

But we had a... We started in 75 because we wanted to make sure we get it done by 76.

So we had a good, good sized, group here that was helping out in the construction of this bridge.

And, we have some very talented carpenters to that worked with us, from the tech division.

The bicentennial celebration by Delta College was a big thing.

I mean, we had a picnic on, July the 4th, 1976 and this as Jim said, we started building this in 75.

It took us, several months off and on.

And we mainly worked on Fridays and Saturdays.

And it was a voluntary crew of needed.

Delta played a big role in setting our main beams, with the forklift.

But after that, everything was done by faculty.

My responsibility at the time was to, make sure that, we had the material and the equipment back here on Fridays and Saturdays to be able to work.

We all worked at it, we were all somewhat, novice in building.

We had a few that were quite, knowledgeable maybe but, it was a lot of fun.

And I think there were like 40 some people that worked on this, and it was, something that, just like anytime you, you work as a group towards a common goal, you have more fun and you actually put in the work.

And again, my job was to put the work parties together, and we extended the parties more than we did the work.

I did.

We had good support from the tech division and they had a residential construction department.

And so they built houses and stuff like that.

We design houses, we had architects as part of the college and so forth.

So we we thought we had the talent.

And at that time we were relatively younger and we could probably do anything, you know.

And so, I guess we were just young and dumb and we said, hey, let's just do this project.

Well, mother nature had the big part in it because of had a big deluge of water that came through and a lot of the surrounding farms here dump water into this creek.

And it got so high in the water, got plugged up here, and it started to go behind the foundation and washed away that foundation, and it came down in.

So at that point, we now had a structural problem with the bridge.

And they said, listen, is it it's probably unsafe for people to be on that bridge.

So we barricaded it off.

Then the college maintenance group came out here and they got the foundation back up to what it should be, and and then they reopened the bridge.

Then they said, then someone says, hey, you know, it's getting kind of shabby looking.

You know, some of these boards were kicked out over the years and, names were on it and stuff like that, you know, And then we looked at the roof and there was some of the shingles were missing up there.

You could see the sky.

And they said, okay, hey, let's say I think we got to do a major revamp of this bridge.

So they decided that they would have a campaign, raise some money, so they can have money in order to replace all the parts of the bridge that needed to be replaced.

So then he said he started on the restoration of it.

When the bridge was completed, then they decided that where can we have paths back here?

So they started developing trails.

And I think the trail goes all the way to Four Mile Road.

It does.

And that's one of the... because this parcel that Delta College is on is a one mile by one mile, and, they had 640 acres in here, and they just developed a portion of it just for the campus.

And then the rest of the the, rented out as farmland.

And they also have and had nothing but woods back in on this section over here.

They had an archery course set up back that way.

They do do a cross-country meet out here every fall.

There's an Al Kayner invitational here every fall.

It's been here for years and years.

And all the local schools really look forward to participating in that cross-country course.

And it this bridge opens up a new venue, a new way for that venue to take place.

The trails here were put in, at the very first, was just for cross country.

And one of the ideas of expanding that and being able to use the other part of the campus for running was the bridge, because the only access you had was going, taking the road around it.

And, this area is, an ideal nature area for schools, to come out and, in terms of the vegetation, the trees and all that and the animals.

If you ever want to see any deer, all you have to do is come out here and you, you'll find all kinds of, wildlife I think is really helped in expanding the opportunities for, for people to visit nature at Delta College.

Don Carlyon, the one vision that he had for the use of the bridge for classes to come out here and actually have the class, on the bridge.

And that's the reason why he decided that.

Listen, if I have 30 people standing on the bridge at the same time, you know, we want to make sure it's structurally sound enough that it's not going to sit there and sway or something like that, when they have that amount of people out on the bridge.

And, so, we were thankful for him.

And of course, when we got the beams there, that was another one.

But we had the college and equipment here that they can move the beams around for us.

And but I'm excited that it's in beautiful shape right now.

And I know I'm not going to be around for the next 50th year celebration of the bridge.

So, but I hope it's there.

And I hope the people in the meantime, will have an opportunity to come out here and enjoy it.

It's just been a it's just a beautiful a place in nature to have this bridge.

I like to thank all of the people that volunteered to come out here and work with us, to put this thing together and make this vision come true.

Of having a structure here that's useful and, open to the public.

So we do thank, all of the volunteers that we had in the, college to help us.

Looking back, of course, it was a great opportunity to be able to do something like this and to be able to leave it behind and, none of us that I'm aware of had any experience close to this.

We had a lot of fun in doing it.

We made a lot of friendships among ourselves have been with the faculty because all of us were probably only 3 or 4 years maybe 5 working at Delta.

That early in our careers, and it, was a good kickoff, I think.

It was a way for us to continue our social activity because we as a faculty, had an opportunity to have many social activities together, whether it be golf league, whether it be the bowling league whether it be events at the college.

When Nate Doan used to come in and have at Christmas time.

And Nate was just the fantastic Santa Claus of all times and to have him on campus and stuff like that.

So we as a young faculty, we all age together.

We had families together.

So we had a lot of times to participate as a family.

And so we weren't strangers, you know, for the people, working on the bridge, we were all close friends at that time, and still remain so.

The covered bridge is located on the east side of our campus, and it is open to the public, every day.

So please stop on and, visit us.

It is part of the overall trail system that goes all across our campus here in Bay County.

And if you want more information or where the trail system actually is.

More information can be found on our website.

With the 2026 midterm elections just a few weeks away, Delta College has been educating and informing its students about the importance of participation in democracy.

To learn more, we talked to Lisa Lawrason, Professor of Political Science and Co-Campus Coordinator of the Democracy Commitment at Delta College.

At Delta College, it's really important that students get the sense that they can become co-creators in the kind of society in which they want to live.

We want to empower students to use their voices to create positive change in their communities.

Of course, there's a myriad of ways to do that, but certainly elections are at the centerpiece of our democracy and are kind of the pinnacle of making our voices heard to shape the world in which we live.

To elect lawmakers that represent our interests and values and will make our priorities their priorities.

So our goal with the democracy commitment at Delta College is to get students, voting in elections, because that we know simply when they show up and other like minded citizens with similar issues and interests and values show up with them, their concerns get at the forefront of lawmakers minds and capture their attention.

In order to invite students to participate in the process.

We are holding a variety of events throughout the fall.

Starting with our election engagement week.

We have a theme each day.

The first day is had a vote day, and we were super excited to have a partnership with our county clerks, where they came out to the campuses and set up a mock voting location.

So we've given them a test drive of the voting process through this mock voting location that our Bay County Clerk, Katie Zanotti, and Saginaw County Clerk Vanessa Guerra and students were invited to go through that whole process, ending with, you know, feeding their vote, their ballot into the tabulator.

Another event we held that I thought was really meaningful was a panel of our local county clerks and deputy clerks.

So we had representatives from Bay County, Midland County, Saginaw County, all speaking to the safeguards in place to ensure the integrity of the ballot and election security.

I was so privileged to moderate that panel, and it was an excellent discussion that I think really reinforced the confidence that Michiganders can have, that their vote is secure.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of voters casting their ballot with confidence, knowing that the result is going to reflect the true wishes of the people in their state.

So we want students to know that even if they're turned off by the candidates and, you know, the political parties that they represent, there's much more on the ballot besides just the candidates.

And so we say the ballot is bigger than the politicians And all of this is in a hope to invite students to participate in this election, to communicate to them that their voice matters, that they have unique insights and creativity and a perspective that is needed in the public realm.

And that this fall's midterm election is a really important way for them to make that heard.

The voter registration deadline for actually submitting a form is 15 weeks before the election.

However, in Michigan, if you show up on Election Day and have not yet registered, we do have same day voting and registration in Michigan.

So if the election sneaks up on you and you kind of get caught off guard.

You can show up to your local clerk's office on Election Day up until the polls close, and register and vote on the same day.

But also keep in mind that Michigan now has nine days of early voting.

So if you're somebody who likes to physically feed your ballot into the tabulator, you have more opportunities than just on Election Day.

A really great website with all the information that you would need to register and vote is michigan.gov/vote.

When you go on that website, you can fill in your information and it will pull up a sample ballot so that you're not caught off guard on Election Day.

You know what you're asked to vote for.

It'll also show your voting location if you want to vote in person on Election day, and of course, confirm if you're registered.

So that's a really great website to have bookmarked on your web browser to get all of your voting information so that you can be prepared on November 3rd.

I want to personally thank Lisa and all the volunteers who have helped educate our students about the importance of participating in our democracy.

Now let's see what's on the Dateline Delta Calendar of Events.

The Delta College Planetarium will be hosting a series of shows during the month of November.

For more information about these shows and events happening at the planetarium, visit their website at delta.edu/planetarium.

The Delta College Planetarium will be hosting Observe Saturn Family Night on Friday, November 13th from 6 p.m.

to 10 p.m.. The event begins with family activities in the lobby, a show in the dome 360 theater, followed by viewing on the observation deck.

Delta College Public Media will be hosting a Bob Ross Painting Workshop on Saturday, November 21st from 10 a.m.

till 4 p.m.. This fun, interactive experience includes light snacks and a tour of the public media facilities.

For further information on these events or other campus activities, contact the Office of Marketing and Public Information at (989) 686-9490, or visit our website at www.delta.edu Well, that wraps up our show.

Please join us again on November 22nd when we highlight what's happening here at Delta College.

One of America's leading community colleges.

Now, I leave you with the sights and sounds of Delta College for Dateline Delta, I'm Barb Hanley-Miller thanks for watching.

Local production scene on Delta College Public Media are made possible with support from viewers like you.

Thank you.