When I visited South Central College (SCC) on August 26, the fall semester had just begun. For President Annette Parker, it was the beginning of her last academic year at SCC.
About a week before my visit, Parker — who has served as the college’s CEO since 2013 — announced her plans to retire on July 1, 2025. She’s become a big part of the small community – and so has her family. I saw proof of that in her office. On the desk sat a container of pasta, made by her grandson during his second day of culinary classes at the college. Another grandson will graduate in the spring, at Parker’s last SCC commencement.
There is pride in her voice when she talks about her family. She’s also proud of all she’s accomplished during her 11 years at SCC. As we talked, she reflected on her presidency and how the college has changed to match the needs of the community.
Past to present
South Central College’s campus in North Mankato, Minnesota, opened in 1946, a technical school built primarily to support veterans using new GI Bill benefits. Many of those first students gained skills to open businesses in the community. The college’s Faribault Campus opened in 1964.
Since its beginning, SCC has been “beloved” by both communities and has enjoyed strong partnerships in the region.
“That’s what I inherited,” Parker says.
The college has largely been known for its career and technical education programs, which made Parker a good fit as president. Much of her early career in higher education had been in career and technical education faculty and leadership roles.
Before working in higher education, Parker was an auto worker at General Motors in Michigan for a decade. She decided to go back to school and earned her associate degree at Lansing Community College. Immediately after graduating from Lansing, she became a faculty member and eventually an administrator.
Later, as a system director with the Kentucky Community & Technical College System, Parker served as executive director of the Automotive Manufacturing Technical Education Collaborative, a National Science Foundation-funded consortium focused on strengthening the automotive manufacturing workforce. During this time, Parker earned her doctorate degree from Western Kentucky University.
Her “non-traditional” journey to a college degree and beyond has helped her connect with students.
“Students can imagine a similar path,” she says.
Making ‘big strides’
SCC was just starting to grow its transfer pathways when Parker came on as president.
“We were relatively young in terms of a being a ‘comprehensive’ college,” Parker says.
Now, there are several transfer pathways for students, including psychology, early childhood education, biology, business, communication studies, economics, pre-social work and psychology, all of which aim to let students transfer seamlessly to Minnesota State universities.
SCC works especially closely with its biggest – and closest – transfer partner, Minnesota State University, Mankato. Since 2019, nearly 9,000 SCC students had transferred to that university.
“We’ve made big strides in our transfer agenda,” Parker says.
She adds that when she walks onto Minnesota State Mankato’s campus, it “feels like I’m at home.”
On the flip side, about 1,700 Minnesota State Mankato students have transferred to SCC.
Strong partnerships
A theme that kept coming up as I talked with Parker is strong partnerships. The college clearly has strong partnerships with the state’s four-year universities. It also has strong partnerships within the community – particularly the business community.
When it came time to make much-needed renovations to the North Mankato campus, the business community stepped up. The college had received bond funding from the state in 2019, but when local business leaders toured the campus, they declared the funding wasn’t enough to truly make a difference. So, they donated nearly $1 million to help transform lab spaces.
Mankato Clinic and Mankato Clinic Foundation have provided $350,000 to improve three labs in the health sciences area. Other industry partners donated funding to upgrade welding labs and the agribusiness lab.
Parker says SCC already has “donations in the hopper” to do a match for the next round of bond funding.
And it makes sense, industry teaming up with the No. 1 workforce training provider to keep their community working.
“That’s how communities – especially rural communities – will survive,” Parker says.
On the right path
Another thing Parker is proud of is having SCC join Achieving the Dream (ATD) in 2018. The college’s ATD moniker is “Just 1 More.”
“Each one of us makes a difference for one more student every day,” Parker says.
Part of that work involved creating a “culture of evidence,” according to Parker, by making data accessible to faculty and staff so they could be empowered to improve results.
Since joining ATD, there have been improvements for at-risk populations, even the student demographic has changed. The immigrant population has grown exponentially, especially in Faribault, and the number of students of color at SCC has increased annually. The college has closed the equity gap for Black/African-American students.
Parker acknowledges there’s “still work to do” to close the equity gap for Latino/a students, but “we’re doing the right things and we’re on the right path.”
In another move in the right direction, the college has increased the number of apprentices through its Learn-Work-Earn program. SCC has nearly the top number of apprentices in the state each year.
“We took a strong culture and put it on steroids,” Parker says.
Looking forward
As her last year at SCC begins, Parker is not phoning it in. She’s doing everything she can to ensure that SCC is in great shape when she hands it off to her successor.
The college is in the first year of a new strategic plan, one that doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but instead is about “doubling down on what we believe in,” she says.
And that is serving the community and providing opportunities for everyone to succeed.
“The institution’s bigger than any one of us,” Parker says. “I feel like South Central’s in a really good place.”
