For Dora Lafferty to move ahead in her career, she needed to continue her education and earn a degree.

That’s why she turned to East Central College in the Fall 2012 semester to work toward a certificate and later an Associate’s degree.

Lafferty is the plant manager at Quality Custom Molding (QCM), Linn, Mo. She has been employed with the company, which makes custom blow molding products, for 14 months.

The Washington resident earned a GED more than 20 years ago but never graduated from high school.

About six years ago, Lafferty was working at Pretium Packaging, Hermann, Mo., when moving up the ranks at the company had stalled.

“I had already been supervising but if I wanted to advance, then I needed a degree,” she said. “And if I wanted to go anywhere else, then I would need more education.

“That’s when I began back peddling to a degree.”

Lafferty obtained a certificate on 2014, but it wasn’t until she earned her Associate’s degree in business management in 2016, graduating with honors, that she was promoted.

Earning an Associate of Applied Science degree allowed Lafferty to land the production manager position at Pretium.

“After graduation from ECC in 2016, it opened up new positions and different roles,” she said. “I absolutely feel that I am better at my job because I continued my education.”

Lafferty left Pretium in early 2019 to become the plant manager at QCM.

She added that career advancement was possible without a degree but it would take much longer to get where she is now.

Lafferty also was recognized in 2016 with the Achievement Award for Outstanding Performance in Business, and she was invited to serve on the Accounting and Business Advisory Committee at ECC.

Easy Transfer

Lafferty wasn’t done continuing her education after ECC. She will graduate in May from Central Methodist University (CMU) with a degree in business management.

“I still need a bachelor’s degree to get where I want to go,” she said.

Through ECC’s transfer degree program, Lafferty quickly and easily began taking courses toward a bachelor degree. CMU is located on the ECC campus in Union.

“While nearing the end of my journey at East Central, my last semester was not full, so I decided to start taking classes to obtain my bachelor’s degree at the same time as my associate’s degree,” she said.

Lafferty explained that she spoke with Dr. Richard Hudanick, Dean of career and technical education, who suggested she enroll and begin working toward a bachelor’s degree right away.

“After talking with Dr. Hudanick about my options, I decided on CMU,” she said. “CMU was an easy and quick transfer — all of my classes were available online, making it very flexible and convenient.”

QCM and COVID-19

According to Lafferty, QCM’s product serve a variety of industries, including healthcare, construction, consumer goods, agricultural, sporting goods, lighting, toys and maritime.

The company has seen increased production of medical plastic products due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One product that has been in high demand is a “Hazmat caddy,” Lafferty said.

She explained that the caddy is made from molded plastic and has compartments to hold cleaning supplies, towels, tools and anything else that may be needed for a hazardous material spill, or a medical situation.

“Every piece of the caddy was molded at QCM and then put together in another department,” she said. “Our customers needed them as quickly as possible, so we stepped up and helped out.”

The company produces plastic cups and pitchers, as well as bed pans, which are used in hospital rooms.

 

An East Central College graduate signed on to help patients in New York City — the new epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

Chris Barnes, a critical care travel nurse, enlisted to be part of the team of medical professionals treating patients in New York City.

He graduated from ECC’s nursing program in 2012. He then transferred to the University of Missouri-Columbia where he earned a Bachelor of Science in nursing.

Barnes originally is from Pacific, Missouri. He has been living in Austin, Texas the past few years.

He arrived in Queens, a borough of New York City, which has an estimated 123,000 known COVID-19 cases.

Barnes noted that he is impressed by the number of nurses and doctors from other parts of the country who have traveled to New York to help their health care peers.

“I wish you could be a fly on the wall to meet the brave people coming in to help,” he said. “Despite it being such a scary situation, this is arguably one of the most loving situations I’ve seen collectively from humans first handed.”

Barnes recently shared with his friends on social media why he thought it was important to help.

“We have arrived to help minimize the death rate here while attempting to reduce the trauma impacting the survivors and their loved ones despite the very scarce resources given,” he wrote.

He’s impressed by the sacrifices made by those who’ve joined the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m witnessing hundreds of our country’s most fearless CNAs, LPNs, RNs, PAs, NPs, CRNAs, and MDs coming together, leaving their family’s and slowly trickling in the lobby doors one at a time to help these desperate people,” Barnes wrote. “People with various backgrounds, who talk different, look different, have different values and possess different belief systems.”

According to Barnes, he and other medical professionals will work between 84-100 hours a week for many weeks to come.

He said that the pandemic is not only impacting the sick and health care workers, but it has affected everyone in the U.S.

“Everyone is hurting in some fashion whether it be financially, emotionally, physically or spiritually,” Barnes said.

“You have to do your part at home too,” he added. “Stop procrastinating and complaining. Find a way to be “the light” from your own window.”

In closing, Barnes urged his friends and family to be open-minded and kind to each other.

“The information of what we know in regards to COVID19, the economy, international affairs, etc. has been, and will continue to, change on a daily basis,” he said.

“Listen more than you speak. You do not need to believe everything you hear or read. You also don’t need to disagree with everything you hear or read,” Barnes commented.  “Please be as unbiased as possible during this time before forming an opinion and attempting to spread knowledge.”

East Central College alum Shauna LeAnn Smith returned to the Art Department last semester as a visiting artist and educator.

Her art installation—“The Gilded Doorways”—was a way for her to honor the place and the people that helped guide her life and career.

While installing the work on campus, Smith meticulously placed gold flake on the doorway to ECC’s art studio. She noted that gold is an energizing color — a substance that has historical and visual merit, and value.

Smith, who graduated from ECC in 2014 with an Associate of Fine Arts degree, added that coupled with the literal and figurative power of a doorway, the gilded entryway “represents that the space and department you’re walking into is special.”

 

Smith transferred to Missouri State University after ECC where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She is currently the Museum Assistant in Education at the Springfield Art Museum.

Smith noted how special the community and learning environment surrounding the ECC Art Department is, and how she wanted to return and give back to the department.

The Union High School graduate remembers visiting ECC during the Art Department’s High School Portfolio Day.

“I didn’t foresee what was next,” she said. “Nobody in my family had gone to college, and my path wasn’t clear.”

However, studying art at ECC opened Smith’s eyes.  She began to see a world outside her own, and realized the possibilities for her future as an artist.

“I was amazed every day,” she said. “You can be that kind of person?”

In 2012, Smith went to London with the Art Club, another experience that affirmed her choice to be an artist.

“I began to realize I could go places in the world,” she said. “It was something I was capable of doing.”

Smith’s Vision

Smith proposed her vision to Jennifer Higerd, assistant professor of fine arts; and Adam Watkins, assistant professor of fine arts and department chair during an alumni art show at ECC last spring.

Her project, “The Art Department as Place and the Power of Human Participation in Place-making,” was accepted, and she spent her days at ECC working on “The Gilded Doorways,” and teaching and mentoring students’ “site-responsive” works of art.

“No matter where I am in the world, so much of East Central stays with me,” Smith said. “I have so much care and love for this place, professionally and personally.”

According to Higerd, Smith has blossomed as an artist and educator.

“It makes my heart swell and glow to see Shauna come back and be in the room with such confidence,” she said. “She has grown into the role of artist, and artist as teacher.”

When Watkins saw the proposal for The Gilded Doorways, he said, his emotions took over.

“We always like to think that we’re making that type of impact,” he said.

While attending ECC, Watkins added, Smith was “inquisitive, and always looking, trying to get more answers and dig deeper—she always showed up to class with questions and wanted to be part of the conversation.”

“It was amazing to have her back,” he said. “Now she’s a peer — challenging and asking questions of the next generation of students. It’s powerful.”

Collaboration

 Smith’s residency consisted of two parts: her public work of art, The Gilded Doorways (which can be seen around the doorways of HH 250 and HH 260), and instruction and mentorship for students’ site-responsive works of art. Students in Higerd’s Design I and III classes worked in small groups to create these pieces.

One of the collaborative works was created by Design III students Logan Bartle, Caroline Cox, Olivia Tucker, Anna Wright and Grace Hoener. They worked together and considered their varying mediums, and how the differences could represent unity.

Cox said the project provided a way to express what the school means to the students, and the friendships that developed during the collaboration.

Bartle and Cox shared the impact of having Smith as a visiting instructor.

“It’s eye-opening to see someone who is so successful come back,” Bartle said.

“It makes you realize you can do it too,” Cox added.

Bartle, a Sullivan High School graduate, plans to pursue art education at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. Her part of the project is abstract paint and flowers.

Cox is a Washington High School graduate who plans on studying art therapy at Webster University. She worked with modeling clay to contribute to the piece.

Tucker, also a Washington graduate, contributed illustrative drawings.

Wright, of the Gerald area, was homeschooled before coming to ECC. She is planning on attending the Kansas City Art Institute next year. Her ink and watercolor are featured

Hoener, from Hermann High School, plans on pursuing art education, and her pen drawings helped complete the large-scale piece.

The individuals’ contributions meet in the middle, a large paper mâché sculpture of connected hands making the American Sign Language sign for “friendship.”

During a November 19, 2019 critique, Smith coached the student artists:

“Take up space,” she guided, encouraging them to use their voices to critically discuss their work.

“We all have different styles and backgrounds; as it gets closer in the middle, we come together and learn from each other,” Tucker said.

She added that the hands were a visual representation of their new friendship, and integrated gold between the interlocking fingers to pull in the Gilded Door project.

“I love that you all found a way to collaborate and still brought your individual, authentic selves,” Smith said to the students. She stressed the importance of creative problem-solving and the “energy of collaboration.”

“You unleash a power of creativity,” she said, “when you recognize the time, labor and energy that goes into art-making.”

Residency at ECC

Smith emphasized that she wanted her residency at ECC to show her deep appreciation for how the college shaped her as an artist and person, and to demonstrate how much power there is in community.

Smith has played many roles at ECC: visiting high school student, student, alum, featured artist and teacher. Watching her grow and evolve as a person and artist has been, as Higerd and Watkins reiterated, such an honor.

Smith’s journey is far from over. Next, she plans to attend graduate school and continue to make an impact on the students, communities and art spaces that she inhabits.

At ECC, her Gilded Doors remain — the shining gold doorways reminding all who enter that they deserve the education and transformative experiences ahead.