Dr. Megan Bolinder, Executive Director of Northwest Arkansas Community College’s (NWACC) Trails Trade School in Bentonville, Arkansas, shares exciting details about the school’s upcoming Trail Technician Program. Launching in the fall 2024 semester, the program’s mission is to provide world-class training and hands-on education in trail building, maintenance, and safety while connecting passionate individuals with rewarding careers while promoting sustainable, accessible and innovative outdoor recreation opportunities for all.
Learn more at NWACC’s Trails Trade School website here.
Dr. Megan Bolinder, Executive Director of Northwest Arkansas Community College’s (NWACC) Trails Trade School in Bentonville, Arkansas, shares exciting details about the school’s upcoming Trail Technician Program. Launching in the fall 2024 semester, the program’s mission is to provide world-class training and hands-on education in trail building, maintenance, and safety while connecting passionate individuals with rewarding careers while promoting sustainable, accessible and innovative outdoor recreation opportunities for all.
Learn more at NWACC’s Trails Trade School website here.
Hello and welcome to Visit Bentonville's A New American Town podcast. I'm your host, stevie, and today's episode is sponsored by Oztrails. Joining me today is Dr Megan Bolander, the Executive Director of Northwest Arkansas Community Colleges Trails Trade School in Bentonville, arkansas. Welcome, thank you. It's great to be here. Yeah, I appreciate you being here today and taking some time out of your work day. So first off, dr Bolander, what is your role at Northwest Arkansas Community College, or NWAC as we'll also refer to it as?
Dr. Megan Bolander:So it's a great question right now. I have been an academic administration since 2015. And I was the Dean of Communication and Arts, and then I was the Dean of Workforce Development, and now I'm an Executive Director of a brand new program, and so I feel like what I do is part project manager, part Dean, part maintenance and operations and part entrepreneur, because we're creating something that's never been in existence before From the ground up.
Stevie Emmons:Yes, Right here in Bentonville. Can you talk a little bit about the NWAC Bicycle Assembly and Repair Technician program?
Dr. Megan Bolander:Absolutely so. We're in our third year, which is hard to believe, and it is a nine course intensive bicycle industry employers association accredited bicycle technician program. It, too, was the first of its kind, and students take five courses in the fall and four in the spring, and the program covers everything classes from drivetrain to e-bikes to service operations and we've gotten feedback that our students, when they're done with a program, know about the equivalent of seven years worth of learning on the job in a bike shop. Wow, that's a lot. Yes, and when did that start? In 2021.
Stevie Emmons:Okay, so just a few years ago, yep, and the trail technician program, which is more about it's more what we're going to be talking about today. That lives kind of under the umbrella of that try of assembly and repair technician program, right?
Dr. Megan Bolander:Yes, they're, they're adjacent, so we consider them equivalent. They're right next door to each other in the building that we're currently renovating, and both are designed to help us pull off being the mountain bike capital of the world, so we're really grateful for the opportunity. It began with Walton, the family charitable support foundation, grant funding for the bicycle technician program, and then, in working with the wonderful Gary Vernon, we recognize that we needed also a really well trained workforce to build and maintain the trails, and so we now have the. The mission of our program is to provide world class training and hands on education and trail building maintenance and safety, while we connect passionate individuals with rewarding careers and trail construction design and maintenance, while promoting sustainable, accessible and innovative outdoor recreation opportunities for all.
Stevie Emmons:I love that the word safety or safely is in there. We love to make sure that people riding our trails enjoy them safely and make sure they get home the way they came out that day.
Dr. Megan Bolander:Absolutely, and safety is a huge component of our bicycle technician program and our to be trail technician program, because they're very it's a high consequence activity and bikes, if they're not put together well, can cause huge problems. Same thing with trails, and so we will emphasize safety from start to finish.
Stevie Emmons:That's amazing. And when this trail technician program kind of came to someone's mind one day, what did that start as, and how did that kind of evolve from ideation to execution?
Dr. Megan Bolander:So it's a great question and I think that's where some of the entrepreneurial piece comes in. Of course, what we do as a community college really well is respond to the community. That's, it's part of our name and in listening to industry over the past year, we we asked them what specific skills and competencies they thought were needed in trail technicians and crew members, managers, planners and we took their feedback and did our best to, with what we know our capacity is as a college, build out a building and a program and curriculum that will help us achieve those goals.
Dr. Megan Bolander:Sounds like a lot of collaboration went into this Absolutely Not just locally but nationally and internationally. Internationally, can you talk about that briefly? Sure, so there is a group in the EU that has been funded to put together trail building and maintenance curriculum similar to ours, and so we've been working with them from the very beginning so that the first three classes of our program are as similar as possible to the first three classes of theirs for a cross cultural exchange. And a number of those leaders who put together that program it was funded with an Erasmus grant from the EU will be here in Bentonville in April so that we can work together in person.
Stevie Emmons:That is so cool, wow, okay, and it's really interesting to see that kind of like cross continental collaboration together. That's really cool. I didn't realize that it was such a big deal to kind of have like some international folks working on this project with you.
Dr. Megan Bolander:Yes, and we you know, whether it's international or also the national group that we've been working with, which is the trail skills competency framework. It's a supported by American trails and also the professional Trail Builders Association and a number of other land management stakeholders. The whole desire is to make it to elevate the industry, to make trail building and maintenance its own occupation. That's recognized, that has defined standards to bring it along to where you know construction is. Now. We like to joke that trail building and maintenance is where construction was in the 90s, and so now there are so many operations and regulations and industry standards and we're hoping that we're helping bring that to trail building.
Stevie Emmons:And speaking of the EU, we know mountain biking is big all over the world, especially in Europe. So why did we land on Bentonville for this program? What makes Bentonville and NWAC such an ideal location for this program?
Dr. Megan Bolander:Well, personally, having had the privilege of visiting Scotland for the first time this summer to to work with this group, there are a lot of similarities between what Bentonville is wanting to do and sort of the cultural shift that mountain biking had in Scotland culture around the 80s and 90s, and so the metamorphosis that they have seen about mountain biking in Scotland, I think, is what we're trying to do here in Bentonville to make it, to invest in it, to make it a way of life. The topography is very similar. It's, I mean, it's so beautiful here and a lot of the topography is similar to what we saw in Scotland. But also, you know, bentonville has a big small town feel and there's so much generous investment that's going into outdoor recreation, wellness and the arts. People can live, work and play very easily here, and we also believe that I mean we're the largest community college in the state, so we just believe it makes sense for us to be the ones taking this charge.
Stevie Emmons:And Dr Bolander, do you have some insight into how groundbreaking this program is for the industry? Is it kind of the first of its kind, for example?
Dr. Megan Bolander:Sure. So definitely that has been funded to the extent that it has been. We are so grateful for the generous grant that we've received to try to pull this program off. And there are a few other trails-related training programs across the country. Some of them are at colleges, some of them are graduate certificates. There's also training provided by various land managers, like the US Forest Service. Ours is unique in that it is going to be in a world-class training facility which is adjacent to a bicycle technician program which is in the heart of the mountain bike capital of the world, and that we have curriculum that now has been recognized by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education that actually goes towards a college credential that's financial aid eligible, and so students have maximum access and maximum opportunity to stack credentials on top of each other that can lead them to various career pathways.
Stevie Emmons:That is the most perfect segue, because my next question has everything to do with career paths or maybe additional schooling people can pursue after this program. What are some things that you're hoping to see students accomplish after they complete this program, which, by the way, begins in the fall semester of 2024? Is that right? That's correct, ok.
Dr. Megan Bolander:So we will have a certificate for a trail crew member. We will have a certificate for a trail crew manager. We will have a certificate for trail master planning. Students can also become city recreation workers, state park workers, trail master planners, state park trail managers, trail company project managers and any other number of municipal and state or national park employees.
Stevie Emmons:Wow, those are all titles I probably hadn't even thought of before, or jobs and roles hadn't thought of before. So that is amazing. Now, visit Bentonville primarily serves visitors and emphasizes tourism to our area. What are some ways that this new program will tie into tourism efforts?
Dr. Megan Bolander:Well, we're really proud of the building and it's going to be really fun to bring people into tour and to just see how beautiful it is. But beyond that, we've worked really hard to develop everything we're doing in connection to national and, like I said, international organizations. So we've been working with groups and we've helped put together competencies that can now be found on trailskillsorg and that group we have brought to Bentonville twice to work on a national certification for trail technicians that anyone in the world can take, and so have really tried to bring people into what we're doing. But also, you know, Visit Bentonville is such a great partner. We're doing something really fun with them. This summer, In June, there will be 400 international police mountain biking association officers in Bentonville and we're going to host a training for some of them for a week.
Stevie Emmons:That is fantastic. That's so neat. Do you have any insight on what all they're going to learn about?
Dr. Megan Bolander:It's no joke. Their training is really rigorous, and so we're going to use their curriculum and our instructors will help get them through their certification program. It's quite a bit.
Stevie Emmons:And then they will all go home and tell all their friends and family about how they should visit Bentonville, arkansas. Absolutely, absolutely Well, dr Bolander, I have a couple of closing questions. One of them is if people are interested in this program, which again is starting this fall of 2024, what are some steps they should take to get involved and what are some admission requirements?
Dr. Megan Bolander:Absolutely Great question. So we're starting our first iteration of our programming as credit courses. So that means people actually apply to the college to take these courses towards a college credential. So you can go to nwacedu smack in the middle of the page as an apply now button and there are no admission requirements for our program other than those required for high school graduation. So we want this to be a maximum access program for people at any stage of their lives.
Stevie Emmons:And I know we went over a pretty good amount of info today, but if anyone has some questions or wants to learn more, maybe browse online on their own time. Where can they find some more information about this program?
Dr. Megan Bolander:Great question. So nwacedu forward slash trails and trades, all one word. So wwwnwacedu forward slash trails and trades Perfect, they can also email trails at nwacedu, or I'm always happy to answer anything, m Bolander, at nwacedu Fantastic.
Stevie Emmons:Is there anything else you wanted to talk about while we're here today? Anything we didn't cover?
Dr. Megan Bolander:No, we're just really grateful for the opportunity and are excited to see what happens in the next couple of years.
Stevie Emmons:Yeah, I know, myself and my colleagues, we can't wait to see how it goes. So we, of course, wish you all the best of luck getting this program off the ground, and we know it'll be successful for you Awesome, thank you. Thank you so much, dr Bolander, for your time and joining us on today's episode of Visit Bentonville's A New American Town podcast, and thanks to you, our listeners, for tuning in. Be sure to follow OzTrails Visit Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas Community College on social media. We will see you out on the trails.