Unpack it with us. Jackson Unpacked airs locally at 89.1 FM or via live stream Sundays, Mondays and Fridays at 12:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m.
Central Wyoming College is putting the finishing touches on its first permanent home in Jackson after 50 years of bouncing around rentals.
Now, twice as many nursing and culinary students, many from low-income families, will be able to learn the region’s essential trades.
“I feel like this project, in a way, helped bridge some of these notions that we have about us,” said community college President Brad Tyndall.
Tyndall said he was eager to prove doubters wrong as he walked through the nearly complete atrium where electricians lined wires and prepared to hang a sculpture of tumbleweeds in the shape of a whale. Many people never thought next month’s opening would happen, he said.
“Every time there’s been a naysayer, we just push through,” Tyndall said.
The new space next to the public high school just south of town takes up roughly a third of a football field. It includes a large industrial kitchen and observation bays with one-way glass for instructors to watch emergency room simulations.
The Jackson campus cost about $30 million, including 2 acres from the Lockhart ranching family. Much of that came from public dollars following the first local sales tax allocation back in 2017. About half of the bill came from federal American Rescue Plan funding for healthcare-related projects.
Culinary student-turned-professor Grace Lutz says the permanent space will increase access to higher education.
“Having a home base will allow for the community to partake in classes. And really, I think, support student success,” she said. “It’s kind of hard to teach on things that are breaking down all the time.”
Lutz said she “floated from kitchen to kitchen,” across at least three locations as a student.
Years ago, Sen. Mike Gierau rented out his restaurant, Jedidiah’s, for the culinary program. The Democratic state legislator from Jackson helped secure multiple rounds of funding.
“When I go to the legislature and ask for money for a project, it’s never the first money in. As always, the community’s already stepped up. We’re already 100% behind this,” he said.
Another infusion he pushed for this year helped get the area’s only college campus to the finish line. The new building will allow CWC to add 200 more students, doubling the size of its nursing program and tripling its culinary capacity. About 95% of students currently come from the Jackson region.
At age 33, Jennifer Jarlinski is taking health prerequisites as she hopes to get into the selective nursing program. Her first stab at college looked a bit different.
“[I] was just, like, stumbling my way through,” she said. “Trying to figure out what I really liked and also, like, being 20. So my priorities were a lot different.”
Jarlinksi is grateful for the established pipeline to employment at the area’s largest year-round employer, St. John’s Health, and that other students are around her age (CWC’s average student age is 28). The college’s current space downtown in the Center for the Arts has been convenient, but Jarlinksi says it can only do so much to build a community.
“It just doesn’t feel very college-esque,” she said. “You can definitely tell they needed more space.”
Having a stand-alone space will help with visibility in the community, students and administrators said. Jarlinksi didn’t even realize there was a community college in town until she started looking online.
The school meets a need for students who don’t come from well-resourced families. Some 65% of students are “at risk,” meaning they are poor, eligible for federal assistance, first-generation, or did poorly on academic testing, Tyndall said.
The rooms will serve more than those enrolled. Science labs could soon open to youngsters learning about biology and chemistry outside of school. The industrial kitchen may host classes for anyone learning to cook.
“Our vision is to have the ‘Culinary and Hospitality Institute of the Tetons,’” Tyndall said. “There are so many great restaurants here; let’s rock it. Let’s make this nationally renowned.”
As one of the few culinary programs in Wyoming, CWC is barely beginning to meet the need for high-skilled chefs at dude ranches and restaurants, he said.
They’re also planning to host simulations for hands-on trades. On a recent visit, Gireau tried a truck simulator, imagining better safety on Teton Pass as a result of that kind of community programming.
Eventually, high schoolers will be able to walk a few hundred feet to start earning college credits. And more working family members can keep their job in town while working toward a degree.
The Center for the Arts offered current tenants first crack at CWC’s rental space and hopes to announce who is moving in by the end of September.
The community college will host a grand opening on November 5.
