With enrollment growing and new programs launching, Fox Valley Technical College is preparing students for the future of work while meeting the needs of today’s employers.
Dr. Jennifer Lanter, Vice President of Learning and Chief Academic Officer, joined WHBY’s Hayley Tenpas to talk about FVTC’s growing University Transfer Degree options, high-demand healthcare programs and new offerings like Office Management, Office Coordinator and advanced technical certificates.
If you’re curious to see it all for yourself, don’t miss FVTC’s Fall Open House on October 7. With 200+ programs on display, lab tours, hands-on activities and free applications, it’s the perfect time to explore what FVTC has to offer.
Tap the video to listen to the interview or scroll down to read the transcript.
Tenpas: We are with Fox Valley Technical College today. Dr. Jennifer Lanter is with us, Vice President of Learning and Chief Academic Officer. If you have not caught wind, it is the start of a school year. Fox Valley Tech is four weeks in now, and we are going to learn more about what’s going on at Fox Valley Tech as we kick off our Focus on Careers series here on WHBY. Good afternoon, Doctor Lanter. Great to see you.
Lanter: Great to see you again. Thanks for having me.
Tenpas: Seven years you have been with the college. Remind us how you got here and what your role entails.
Lanter: I joined Northeast Wisconsin as a faculty member at UW-Green Bay back in 2007. That was my introduction to the area. I joined the Wisconsin Technical College System in 2015 and joined Fox Valley Technical College in 2018. It was about four years ago that I became the Chief Academic Officer.
Tenpas: Excellent. What does your role oversee as Chief Academic Officer?
Lanter: Ultimately, all the instruction that takes place at the college reports up to me. Our faculty development and all of our business and industry contract training do as well.
Tenpas: Okay, so just a couple of things.
Lanter: Yeah, enough to keep me busy for sure.
Tenpas: Four weeks in. Let us start by learning how the school year is going here in 2025.
Lanter: If you come over to the college, you will find our parking lots are full. We were talking about this with our district board last night, just fuller than they have been even since pre-COVID. I am really impressed with the number of students that we have on campus. In general, some of our fastest-growing programs live in our transfer areas. We are very much career-focused, but a few years ago, we started our University Transfer Associate of Arts and Associate of Science degrees. These are for students who want to transfer to a four-year institution. The Associate of Arts alone is up 32%. Associate of Science, those interested in STEM fields, is up 57%. The number of students we have interested in those programs is really impressive. Also impressive are our newly designed culinary and baking labs. They are gorgeous, and we have seen a lot of students take advantage of that as well.
Tenpas: We just had Chef Jeff join us, and he mentioned the energy that this year’s class has brought, and also the punctuality of those students. I know being in class and being ready to roll and to ready to learn, but I think we have to emphasize that amazing transfer program that is quite new and just the opportunity it brings students to stay home for a couple extra years, save a little money, uh, maybe work on the side, or just honestly figure out exactly what they want to study before they go to those more particular classes.
Lanter: Absolutely correct, and there are financial aid options for students to take many of those general education classes. They can focus on an area. There are enough electives where they can pick a focus, also. It is a really great opportunity for students here in the Valley.
Tenpas: A couple of other areas to highlight. I understand you are seeing a big surge in some of those health programs like surgical technology, occupational therapy and nursing, which are all full for next spring already.
Lanter: Yeah, we are talking about spring. Not just fall, but for spring already. And again, in kind of a post-COVID situation, we saw some of the enrollments dip. There were a bit of concerns perhaps over health care, and that has all gone away. Now we are filled to the brim with students in those programs, and the employers are thrilled, because that is definitely an area where we continue to hear we need more and more and more students graduating with degrees in those areas.
Tenpas: Yeah, and we hear all the time with the baby boomer generation, more health services are needed. So, there are job openings. That means careers depend on the demand of the workforce. I understand, Doctor Lander, that you have added some specific programs to meet what you are hearing from employers in those areas. They have just launched this fall. What are they? What do they look like?
Lanter: Yeah, a couple of programs in our business space. While we have had an Administrative Professional program for some time, areas that are new for us are the Office Management and Office Coordinator programs. In some cases, the workforce has shifted to a more remote focus, and there is more of a need for a blend of administrative professional skills and space management. We have degrees there, and then two brand-new advanced technical certificates. These shorter-term certificates are designed to build on top of programs where a student is already licensed in a specific area. One has a long title, expanded function dental auxiliary, but it is essentially an add-on for dental assistants that allows them to perform more advanced procedures. If you have tried to get in to see a dentist recently, you know it often takes months. Having additional individuals qualified to perform certain procedures is helpful. So, if you are a dental assistant and have an interest in dental auxiliary, that’s a great option. The same is true for our therapeutic massage program, where we’ve added an advanced technical certificate to teach more advanced skills.
Tenpas: Interesting. I just noticed my dental office is hiring, so I might send them your way. Again, in that health field, a few more are radiography, respiratory therapy and cardiovascular technology.
Lanter: These are all areas that we are hearing from. Our healthcare partners are needed desperately. And of course, all of that takes faculty to teach. It takes up space to run the programming. Right? These are accredited programs in many cases. So, these are areas that we are exploring. No promises yet, but we definitely have a great interest in offering these in the future. And we’re doing what we can to move those forward.
Tenpas: All right. More to come here. We are going to pause, but our Focus on Careers continues after the break. If you have a question, you can text it in at 920-281-1150.
Tenpas: Welcome back, everybody. It is our Focus on Careers, a segment that I really enjoy. We have been doing this for about four years now, connecting with Fox Valley Technical College and learning about what the workforce looks like, what the needs are, and how we are training the next people to enter that workforce. Today, we are honored to kick things off with Dr. Jennifer Lanter, Vice President of Learning and Chief Academic Officer. So, let’s talk a little bit about our students. I think we all try to understand younger generations, but generations are mixed when it comes to Fox Valley Tech. There are a lot of non-traditional students as well. What are students looking for? How are you working to meet their needs, and what does your average student bring when they show up at Fox Valley Tech in 2025?
Lanter: Yeah, students expect flexible offerings and online options rather than just in-person. But when they are in person, they want hands-on learning activities, which we seek to provide in every one of our programs. We also see more students entering and exiting at different times that work with their lives. That is why we are building stackable credentials, which build on each other and move students closer to a longer-term degree. That is something they are very interested in. You mentioned what they come with. I think they arrive with all kinds of needs, and we provide wraparound services to help. Things like our food pantry, mental health counseling and transportation assistance are all available. We are not just looking to educate students, but to provide for the needs they bring with them.
Tenpas: Yeah, shout out to someone I care for who is currently collecting donations for that food pantry. I love that. I have a cousin attending Fox Valley Tech right now, and I checked in with him last week. I asked how he was doing these first couple of weeks, and he said, “We’re finally getting into the hands-on stuff. We’re finally getting into working.” He is in machinery and all that, and I am so happy for him. He is loving it, and that’s what Fox Valley Tech provides. That flexibility is needed too. Students depend on online classes, and they might allow a non-traditional student to finally be able to take classes because they are prioritized online.
Lanter: Yeah, absolutely. And we have hybrid courses too, where maybe they are not meeting every single week, maybe it is every other week. So, there are a little more flexibility there. And we very much cater to the part-time student who is not in a position to dedicate five days a week to classes. So, we are there for those students as well.
Tenpas: I want to ask about what might be coming up next, because I feel like there is always a little construction happening at Fox Valley Tech. Maybe a refresh, maybe it is a huge expansion. You know, it is nuanced. Right. Any facilities or anything planning that’s coming up that you are really excited about?
Lanter: Yeah, as a college, we are taking this year to construct a comprehensive facilities plan to make sure our facilities and spaces effectively support our mission, vision and goals. We are really developing that roadmap for the future. For example, those programs I mentioned earlier in healthcare are going to require space, so where are we going to put them? We want to make the best use of the spaces we have and make sure our facilities are aligned with where the need is and where we are seeing program growth. Right now, we are just coming off the heels of a four-year project in our culinary space, and we are taking some time to evaluate what we need to do next. It is an all-hands-on-deck planning activity involving community members, college staff and our student population as well.
Tenpas: Excellent. Are you using AI to help figure any of that out? I ask because it is such an interesting new technology, of course, and there are really creative ways to utilize it smartly. How is the college approaching AI?
Lanter: Yeah, AI is so interesting in the technical college because our instructors need to learn it. They need to understand how to use AI to help facilitate learning, but also how it applies to their area of expertise. How is it being used in machining, and how is it being used as an instructor? They have to keep their finger on the pulse of AI in many different areas. As a college, we also want to use it to make our business processes as efficient and effective as possible. We are using it in that way as well. There is no shortage of requests from staff to use a variety of different AI platforms.
Tenpas: An ongoing conversation, I am sure. All right, I know we might have some very curious listeners out there going, wow, I have not been to Fox Valley Tech in a really long time. What is it looking like with all these changes and additions of programs parking lots filled? If you’re curious. Guess what? There’s an open house coming up.
Lanter: There is an open house. You do not even have to wait for the open house if you want to come on in. Our beautifully redone Entrance 10, our main entrance. Please come any time, but yes, we definitely want to highlight our Fall Open House on October 7th, which runs from 3 to 7 p.m.. You don’t have to register. There are more than 200 programs on display. Our faculty are there to show you the labs and share with you what offerings are available. You can have a structured tour. You can explore at your own pace. A lot of hands-on activities and even informational sessions on how to help pay for college. If that is something that you would be interested in learning more about. And importantly, you can apply for free that night, so we waive any fees associated with the application process. We have food trucks, which is a huge, huge selling point for our staff who get to spend a few extra hours at the college that day.
Tenpas: We love that. So, check it out if you would like the details sent your way, just text Fox Valley Tech to 9202811150. Otherwise, that date, October 7th, from 3 to 7 p.m. here on the Appleton campus. Jennifer, great to see you.
Lanter: Yeah, great to see you.
Tenpas: Anything else you want to add before we part ways?
Lanter: We are going to show off many of our facilities that night. So, I will just highlight that our main campus people think about. But our transportation building is there, our ag center is open as well, public safety training center, etc.. So, we are open in our locations to show you what we have.
Tenpas: All right. I hope the start of the school year continues to go well and in about two weeks, we are going to dig into a more specific program through Fox Valley Tech. Thank you, Doctor Lancer, for kind of kicking off this wonderful series.
Lanter: Happy to be here. Thank you.
Tenpas: Thank you. All right. Fvtc.edu is their web.
