tri couNty tech

Tri County Tech inspires higher ed through free, fast track program

by trina thomas with photos courtesy of Tri County Tech Director of Marketing Tosha Wyatt

It’s not unusual for Bartlesville to witness high school students that receive early college credit through Tri County Tech’s free and fast track program.

What’s common is to see students come from a life of harsh circumstances that fast track their degree and build a personal and professional life for themself that may have once been an unprecedented thought.

“We have a lot of nurses who did our fasttrack path, making $60,000 as a nurse at 21 or a young lady who said we saved her from a life of drugs and poverty,” Tri County Tech Director of Marketing Tosha Wyatt said. “She shared a picture of a refrigerator full of food purchased with her own paycheck not on government assistance and she was able to purchase her house not on wheels and not living in a trailer home anymore. We call it ‘life-changing learning.’”

Offering free credits, Tri County Tech accepts roughly 300 high school junior and senior student applicants to their high school program that originate from a public, private, virtual or home school located in Nowata, Osage and Washington counties, according to Wyatt.

Through the school’s partnership with Oklahoma Wesleyan University, graduates of high school, adult full-time programs or prior diploma option programs that are not offered anymore can apply for a maximum 30 credit hours of general elective and major credit toward the OKWU Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.) in Technical Programs degree or a maximum of 40 credit hours of general elective credit towards any Bachelor’s degree at OKWU, according to the Tri County Tech website. Additionally, the agreement between Tri County and OKWU will offer up to 15 credit hours for graduates from almost all adult flex programs.

Year after year, Tri County Tech secures accolades like the Improve Performance Quality and Get World Class Results Award, Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award, Great Place to Work Award; and is consistently recognized as a top 100 workplace for women in the United States by Forbes Magazine, according to the Tri Coun-

Students of Tri County Tech Fiscal Year 2022

Tri County Tech construction program

Tri County Tech medical lab during Fiscal Year 2022. Fiscal Year 2022 Tri County Tech students

Tri County Tech client in the cosmetology program

Tri County Tech students during Fiscal Year 2022.

Tri County Tech Main Campus

ty Tech website. Not only is the Oklahoma technical college a top place to work for women, but Wyatt is witnessing the impact made on what she calls “non-traditional gendered students.”

“We had an amazing student who came from the poorest school district in our bigger district,” Wyatt said. “She came to us as a female welder, went on to our welding program, went on to advanced certification at OSU in welding. By the time she was 21, she was running her own inspection crew across the nation making six figures and donated a kidney to her cousin. I mean, this girl is amazing.”

Wyatt says some of the popular programs offered include welding, machining, nursing, cosmetology and a high school CNA program.

“What a lot of our students will do is they can come to us as a high schooler if they think they are interested in nursing, get their CNA for free which is a pre-requisite for our LPN program and most LPN programs in the state and through their clinical partnerships,” Wyatt said. “… We have an articulation agreement ... where high schoolers can come get their CNA for free and then get their LPN program. … They can get credit hours through the articulation agreeement for the BSN program through Oklahoma Wesleyan University that takes off almost a full year of electives for them and have some core classes.”

According to Wyatt, the high school program inspires learning through other ways like allowing students to figure out if a career path is right for them without the high price tag attached once leaving high school.

“My niece went through the CNA program as a junior thinking she might want to go through the program, and she realized she was not nursing material,” Wyatt said. “It saved her tons of money being able to experiment. Our goal is 90% retention and 90% placement and we achieve that goal.” Wyatt said. “Our vision is to inspire success through life-changing learning experiences and we really do try to live by that.”

Programs available to high school students include: Applied Welding Technology; Automotive Collision Repair; Automotive Service Technology; Computer Repair & Networking; Construction Technology; Cosmetology; Creative Communications; Culinary Arts; Drones and Aviation; Early Care and Education; Energy and Power (NEW program); Medicine and Biosciences; Pre-Engineering; Pre-Nursing; Precision Machining Operations; and Teacher Prep.

High school districts eligible for the Tri County Tech high school program include: Barnsdall, Bartlesville, Caney Valley, Copan, Dewey, Pawhuska, Nowata, Oklahoma Union, South Coffeyville, Wesleyan Christian School and Wynona.

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