New EGT Department Head Relates to Non-Traditional Students

CONTACT: ROGER BURGESS, EXT. 2286

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2/3/2000
(By Lisa Garrett)

PENDLETON --- Roger Burgess identifies personally with the non-traditional two-year college students.

Mr. Burgess, of Marietta, who began this semester as the head of Tri-County Technical College's Engineering Graphics Technology department, says he can relate to juggling demanding work and college schedules with family obligations – a schedule that many of his students experience on a daily basis. Mr. Burgess himself was married at 19 and worked to put himself through college at Murray State University.

"I'm a first-generation college graduate," he said, "and typically we have to break new ground." In 1972 when Mr. Burgess got out of the Army, he and his wife had a one-year old child, and he went back to school full time while working a 40-hour a week job at a manufacturing plant in Kentucky.

"I drove 105 miles per day going to school, to work, and back home," he remembers.

He holds a B.S. in manufacturing technology, a master's in engineering technology, and a specialist in college teaching (SCT) degree from Murray State University. He taught in the Manufacturing Engineering Technical Group at his alma mater and served as the interim chair of the Engineering Technology Department.

He spent the last 10 years as head of Greenville Technical College's Engineering Graphics Technology department.

He says he's really enjoying teaching the first-year Engineering Graphics Technology students. "It's an advantage for a department head to be involved with new students as soon as possible so they can feel free to come in with questions or problems. It's important to establish a good relationship as soon as possible."

He and his instructors, John Norris and Shawna Lloyd, "make it a priority to be responsive and attentive to all students' needs," added Mr. Burgess.
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