friday takeout

Travis Hunt

Learning Management System Administrator | Peosta Campus

Which of the following aspects of your upbringing most contributed in shaping the person you came to be and why/how?

Growing up on a dairy farm just north of Edgewood, Iowa, absolutely has shaped me as a person. It was there that I learned the challenges and rewards of working hard for what you have. Farming is certainly not an easy profession! It also helped me become a creative thinker. Sometimes you may have a challenge come up, and you have to creatively think of a solution in order to move forward.

Additionally, being from a small town encouraged me to be involved in many different things. This shaped my interest in being a “jack of all trades” growing up (and now). Sports, music, drama, speech, FFA, Meals on Wheels – you name it, I was likely involved. This has continued, as I find myself enjoying many different hobbies: biking, drumming, bass guitar playing, sports, technology and vinyl records, just to name a few.

Where do you find the greatest alignment between the College's Vision/Values and your own personal values and priorities?

Northeast Iowa Community College’s commitment to community aligns well with my own personal values and priorities. Northeast Iowa is home to me, and I have seen communities rally together during difficult times, celebrate during the great times and continue to grow despite challenges. One specific example that sticks out is Hope church in small Littleport, Iowa, near my parents’ farm. In 1999, a devastating flood tore through the town and literally wiped everything out. That small community and many nearby communities rallied together to clean up, tear down and create a new vision for the town. Unfortunately, much of the town was unable to rebuild because of proximity to the river. However, the community came together for the small Hope church to keep it alive. They cleaned up the church, raised it up and placed it on the back of a large semi-trailer. The church made a short journey over the bridge and river, up the hill and out of town. The church is still active today and reminds the community how they worked together to accomplish a daunting task. While I have only been at the College for a few months, I also see those values in the people here at NICC. Together we can accomplish great things!

If you could invent any product, no matter how unrealistic it may seem, what would it be and what would it do?

Obviously, if I could invent any product it would be a cure to cancer and other diseases impacting society today. However, to keep it “lighter,” I would love to invent a product that would teleport people and things. How great would it be to order some food from an eatery many miles away and have it pop right into your home? Want to visit another country for an evening? Boom, done. Want to spend your lunch break walking through the Redwood Forest? Sure! The opportunities are endless.

What was your favorite cartoon/comic/book growing up?

Outside of the usual suspects (Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Scooby Doo), I have always loved the Kool Aid Man. A Kool Aid Man figurine sits proudly on my desk and occasionally you will see me in a Kool Aid Man t-shirt. He is quite possibly one of the most random characters ever. A pitcher of red sugary liquid that crashes through your house walls to bring some refreshment? “Oh yeaaahhh!”

What do you most want to accomplish at Northeast Iowa Community College?

Mostly, I want to help create more avenues for technology to inspire teaching and learning. Working with Brightspace is so rewarding. The platform is robust and has great potential for creativity. It is fun to introduce new ideas and see new features come to life in the system. To help students learn and not experience technology as a barrier – but as a catalyst toward learning – is the challenging and exciting part. Just in the past few months, I feel we (Online and Blended Learning and D2L) are making progress toward facilitating student success, saving instructors time and promoting use of the platform. Plus, it was nice to get a few cheers when we announced the built-in Assignment Annotations feature. Those cheers were definitely a highlight of my time at NICC so far. Hopefully there are more to come!

I will end with a little bit of promotion toward an item our team released earlier this fall. If you are interested in anything Brightspace (video tutorials, step-by-step tutorials, new features, etc.) visit our brand new Brightspace Knowledgebase today!