Alumni Stories with Beth Kuiper

Alumni Stories

You're listening to LCC alumni stories, a show dedicated to highlighting the amazing alumni of Lansing Community College. I'm Steve Robinson, President of LCC. And on each episode I have the awesome privilege of getting to know one of our many inspiring, alums and hearing about their experiences at and since leaving LCC. Lcc alumni community is expansive and far-reaching. They're an incredibly diverse group of people, representative and all walks of life working in hundreds of industries across the country. Lcc alumni stories shines a bright light on alumni who make a positive contribution to their community and showcases those who have overcome obstacles and barriers to achieve academic and personal success. These are their dynamic stories. My guest today is Beth Kuiper. She earned an Associate of Applied Science in 2012 with certificates in kitchen and bath design and fashion and merchandising. Beth currently works as the community and Program Outreach Coordinator for downtown Lansing incorporated. Welcome to the show. You're my very first guess, beth, on this podcast. So I'm really happy to have you on and have you an opportunity to learn more about you and your experiences at LCC and what you've been up to since. So it's great to see you. Great to see you as well. I gotta say I woke up this morning at 03:00 AM, just excited to be here and be the first one silent for a long walk. And I thought about all the great things that I could talk about because LCC was very important in my life. So one thing I want to talk to you about is you have taken on a pretty cool new role at LCC and you're gonna be helping us out. Talk to me about your role in this new advisory committee. So I was asked about six weeks ago, two months ago by Cathy Zell at the foundation to join the Academic Advisory Committee. And I was just tickled because it was something that I've always want to do is give back however I can. So what we're looking at is that LCC is got their 40th year anniversary? Yes. I mean, do it with a foundation has a 40th anniversary excuse. No, that's okay. That's right. It's an important birthday. Yeah, absolutely. So we are looking at ways to celebrate and go out there and spread the word and just help lift up others by celebrating these 40 years. Then I'm really looking forward to it. So I'm looking forward to the beginning parts like we've already started, just like the ideas, the concepts. I'm looking forward to any kind of fundraising and the event planning, but I'm really looking forward to the return that we're going to give to people. So if I can open up my house in my kitchen to students in need and help cook meals. Or if I can drive people, whatever I can do to help them satisfy their goals like I was able to. And LCC was the one that helped me. They helped with childcare. They helped me with any kind of tran transportation if I needed that. So I just look at how can I take what was given to me and give it to the next person that is so exciting to me. And you're gonna see a lot of me in that work because I plan to be very, very active with our LCC Foundation. Great. Look forward to it. So you studied kitchen and bath and tell me a little bit about what you what brought you to LCC and what it was that was so positive about your experience here. So LCC was important in my life, like I said. So as soon as I graduated from high school and we've gotta rewind quite awhile. So we're going back to 1998. I decided to start taking business classes because that's what I wanted to originally go into me and when I kinda have fallen into that role again, but we'll get to that later. So I start with business classes and I slowly transitioned over to interior design classes. And this was still at the LCC downtown campus. Okay. So I started with these classes. I fell in love. I end up moving over to Grand Rapids and going to Kendall, where I did not finish, but I took many studio courses as well as I went to GRC C, which is the Grand Rapids Community College. Well, I wasn't able to finish and I started my family. So I think anyone who is a parent with young kids. And then I decided to go back and finish my degree. LCC just made sense. So I came back to LCC and at this time, the interior design program had moved to the West Campus. And I almost look at it because I had already had experience in the field. I had worked on the residential side and sales as well as like any kind of furniture design as well too. So it's almost like if you took a cereal box and on the back it's got like the little maze. Instead of starting where you're supposed to start. I kinda started at the end, I feel like and I went Yeah. So it was nice. So when I went to take these classes, I totally understood exactly everything that they were talking about. And I was able to apply myself in a sense that this also gave me the opportunity to volunteer and also focus on my school. And n-k it, excuse me, NK BA, student chapter president. And I just try to rock and I also, oh, and I also work to, wow what you know what, there's so many cool students stories like yours, but let me just hear more about that. So you're a student leader, you're president of a student club. And I'm guessing that k and b, kitchen and bath, is that part of what was that organism what was your student leadership experience like? Yes. So it's the NKBA and since for the National kitchen and bath association. Ok. And so our Lena Dudley Hines was the director. What awesome lady. I mean, I cannot give her enough props. She really is the one who elevated me up to this position that I'm in now, I would've never had the experiences or the opportunities if it wasn't for her all at LCC. However, as a student chapter leader and President, it was that represented some challenges, but it was so rewarding. So we work together, the faculty and I, to give these experiences to students that they wouldn't have been able to do. And because of this chapter, it wasn't so much about like fundraising or or just meeting together. It was experiences at was going like one time we went down to Canton, we interviewed with other people down in Detroit. So we got this real-world experience which I was lucky enough to already have however many students didn't it to home and they were able to talk to professionals. So when you go in as a professional, talk to other professionals, it's almost like you're in competition. Whereas if you're a student, you're not competing with them, you're just getting knowledge, okay, what? That's one thing that some people don't realize about the great experiences at community colleges is that these great student clubs and student leadership experience. So you're able to bring your professional experience to bear in the student club. That's really cool. And you started off on the downtown campus, went to GRC C and then came back, correct? Yeah. I have to interject. My my late father is an alum of G RCC? Know that college really well, it's a really great place. But you finished than the right place whether with LCC. So tell me after after graduating, you continue with your business? Yes. So what I did is so I was working at the same time that I was going to college, but I was working at a reupholstery shop in down town Owosso. And that's when I was able to get into the main street program because Owasso was originally a DBA and they had just been end to the main street program, which was through Misha at that time, which is now through the MET C. Okay. So that's I said on the design committee, I started getting involved in that sense. Chaired, multiple art walks. I worked on a bike rack Subcommittee, a pocket park. And then when I graduated and finished my degree with LCC, that's when I moved to East Lansing. That's when I started and I hit my professional degree. So I went into kitchen and bath design, which is very challenging but fun at the same time, it's almost like playing Tetris. Interesting. So when you say Tetris, you mean like moving things around, making sure everything fits? Correct. Okay. Yeah. With enough wiggle room and leeway, so doors and dishwashers and whatnot can open. So it's a very complex very complex designs as what you have to deal with. In addition to that, there was also kitsch or excuse me, closets that I worked. Okay. Right. Well, having survived a couple of kitchen remodels, I I know what you're talking about. And it plays such an important part in any home, right? That that room, those rooms, the closet in the kitchen, all this experience. So you talked about has to be so useful in your rule role with downtown Lansing. So what brought you to downtown Lansing incorporated? What's your role like and what's exciting on the horizon right now? Yeah, that's funny that you ask because it's like it's been such a row that has had somebody twists and turns. And LCC has helped with all those from the business classes to the design classes, to the connections that I've made. So when I went into kitchen and bath, I then transitioned over to commercial design and that's when I had the flexibility, my schedule ticket back into the main street program, which I've always been very passionate about. So I joined the design committee once again, but this time for downtown Lansing. And then within a year, year and a half, I was chairing that committee. And then Kathleen Edgerly Mindy Belledu was the executive director at that time. Okay. I joined and then Kathleen Edgerly came in in September of last year 2019. She then hired C So as our marketing and design specialist. And then I was hired shortly after in November. Well, and to start here on the Downtown Campus of Lansing, Community College has to be important for your role because we're LCC is such an important part of downtown. So what what what are your major goals or initiatives that you have gone on at downtown Lansing incorporated. And how do they relate to your experience as an LCC alum? So we've got a lot of great things going on for downtown Lansing, and we did. And of course everybody knows the world kinda went put on the brakes. Like around March COVID yeah. Right around March 16th, I think it was. So, no, we totally pivoted and we reallocate it, our whole like resources and everything that we had been working on. It's like if you took all these ashes, you threw them up in the air and everything just finally fell. It's like it took us about four or five weeks to figure out the best way to help our downtown Residence visitors and small business owners. So what we're doing now is we're looking at reactivation we had just recently applied for and granted the match on main Grant, which is a $50 thousand grant through the immediacy. We were one of 11 throughout the state that was awarded this. And what we were able to do was give ten downtown businesses that had kind of slipped through the cracks for other grant opportunities. We gave them $5 thousand each and they could use that on lease. They could use that on anything that had to do with social media, anything to like help promote anything other than pretty much working capital. Just because we had to turn around and show those to the immediacy. So all those receipts and that's when things kinda get lost. Some we looked at those big, how can we help out with those big chunks? And that's what we focused on. And that's what we're still going to focus on. So during the winter now we're looking at what do we do now that we're going to be step inside, right? So those are our next steps and we are really weren't joining forces. We are we've got four different committees, so we've got design, outreach, promotions, and economic sustainability are vitality, okay? And so I really focus on the design and public spaces. So that's where really gain a lot of knowledge found my background on design and then also the economic vitality. And once again, that was from a lot of classes LCC for business. Well, that's so exciting and it's really important to me to have one of our alum's so active in making the downtown area so vibrant. And I say that as a brand new resident and I'm really happy to be living downtown. And I guess that's the last question I'd want you to think about. And I want to tell you this first. So when I speak to graduates, I always tell people, continue to tell your community college story. You told me yours when we met. I mean, what what is it that makes you proud to be an LCC grad? So, you know, that's kinda hard. There's a lot of things, like I said, a graduate in 2012, so lot of twists and turns in the last eight years. However, I think it was having that hope that I could provide for my family. So when I when I graduated eight years ago, I had an 11-year-old, an eight year old, and a seven year old, which is a lot of young kid. Yeah, definitely. And I wasn't able to provide for them on my own at that time. Okay. So LCC gave me this opportunity to earn a great wage and to really elevate myself past any point that I I wouldn't have been able to do on my own or even working. And just not saying that real-world experience doesn't matter because it absolutely does. But to have that education in addition to that's what really skyrocketed me. And I was able to meet so many great people because LCC as a connector, that answer just makes me so happy because that's why we're here. And the fact that your experience here, you turned that into a great opportunity for your family in a way to give back to downtown into this region. I'm really proud of you and it's really cool to talk to you about. Thank you so much for being on the show is great to learn a little bit about your LCC alumni story. This episode of LCC alumni stories was recorded and engineered by Steve Robinson in the Michigan room at LCC is downtown campus and produce virtually by Brock Elsesser from LCC is digital media, audio and cinema program. The soundtrack is licensed to the college through DeWolf music. Thanks for listening, tune into future episodes and learn more about what our alumni have been up to. If your an LCC alum and want to share your story, send me an email at [e-mail]. Until next time, keep learning. This has been LCC DMAC Lansing Community College, digital media, audio and cinema.