Story by Micah Oelze
Photo by Brittney Seger

Terria Ashby is by no means a traditional student and she knows it. Ashby is a 45-year-old grandmother returning to college to study early childhood education through BARTonline.org, Barton Community College’s online learning platform.

Ashby works from home running a childcare center, where on an average day she takes care of seven children.

Teaching and caring for children comes naturally to Ashby, from “playing school” as a kid to watching over her siblings and babysitting as a student for income.

March 16, 2017
Story and photos by Micah Oelze

Law enforcement professionals realize the nature of their work can put them in dangerous situations where hand-to-hand defensive tactics are required. The criminal justice program at Barton Community College has acquired two padded training suits, known as RedMan suits, to allow students to experience such situations first-hand safely.

Great Bend Tribune
Published March 12, 2017

You would have to have been living in a bubble to be unaware of the fires that swept across over twenty Kansas Counties and Oklahoma, Colorado, and Texas this past week.  And these are in addition to the major grass fires from last spring.  Media has reported the devastation and the why – howling winds that changed direction, low humidity, and a great deal of fuel due to last summer’s rains.  But what exactly is the connection between fire and the prairie.