You're listening to LCC alumni stories, a show dedicated to highlighting the amazing alumni of Lansing Community College. I'm Steve Robinson, President of LCC. And on each episode I have the awesome privilege of getting to know one of our many inspiring alum's and hearing about their experiences at, and since leaving LCC, LCC alumni community is expansive and far-reaching. They're incredibly diverse group of people representative of all walks of life, working in hundreds of industries across the country. Lcc alumni stories shines a bright light on alumni who make a positive contribution to their community. And showcases those who have overcome obstacles and barriers to achieve academic and personal success. These are their dynamic stories. My guest today is Siso Dhladhla and he is a fairly recent alum of LCC from 2014. Siso is a marketing and design specialist at downtown Lansing incorporated Siso it's so great to have you as one of the first guests on alumni stories. Yes, I'm excited to be here two, is actually my favorite number, so it's good. Good. Siso two is a good number and you know, we met talking outside on the LCC campus. Tell me a little bit about your time here and what you studied. So I was studying photographic imaging. I did not finish my certification or but I still greatly appreciated my time on campus. I move back from Chicago and about 2013, and I was working, doing creative projects on my own, but I really wanted to increase my knowledge and understanding of photography. I had positive recommendations from one of my favorite photographers at the time, shadow to Aaron Bell, also known as o' boogie, really, really great photography o' boogie, what kinda stuff does this photographer? He does a lot of portraiture lifestyle. And it just was really fascinating to me. But when I learned about his understanding of optics and how he could technically break down a camera to complement his natural ability to take a good photo. I really, I really wanted to be part of the program. His schooling actually got him a job in an eye clinic because he had an understanding of how the eye worked in that's directed to his understanding of optics based from the class. So that's fantastic. We can probably put a link to that work in the show notes for the podcast. So you picked up some, I'm guessing, great and valuable skills when you are here in photography and imaging, what kind of things that you learn that you've been able to apply outside of LCC? Well, really it wasn't until I took that class or those classes that I was able to begin shooting in manual mode. And just a disclaimer of photos. A photo, you can take a great photo on any mode, on any piece of technology. Doesn't matter. matter. That being said, there is a certain sense of accomplishment that comes from being able to. Break down the camera before the shoot, and then get the image that you see in your mind by dialing the knobs on your own. It's just there's this technical proficiency and and understanding and accomplishment that comes from that. So before I started taking those classes, I wasn't thinking about ISO, wasn't thinking about aperture, wasn't thinking about any of the many dials on the camera. I was just trusting it to make decisions for me. So it was very empowering. Well, I know exactly what you're talking about to me. It's like knowing how to drive a manual transmission and a car, right? Exactly. And you know it without going off on a long tangent, I had another podcast that's called teachable moment. And one of the episodes was one of our photography faculty at my previous college explaining how manual mode works, right? You really do need to know the ins and outs of how those images get made. So that's cool. So you learn that in our program and that happens a lot of students pick up transferable important skills and they move them out. And what did you do with that ability to really break down a camera and build an image with all those technical...

You're listening to LCC alumni stories, a show dedicated to highlighting the amazing alumni of Lansing Community College. I'm Steve Robinson, President of LCC. And on each episode I have the awesome privilege of getting to know one of our many inspiring alum's and hearing about their experiences at, and since leaving LCC, LCC alumni community is expansive and far-reaching. They're an incredibly diverse group of people representative of all walks of life, working in hundreds of industries across the country. Lcc alumni stories shines a bright light on alumni who make a positive contribution to their community and showcases those who have overcome obstacles and barriers to achieve academic and personal success. These are their dynamic stories. My guest today is Graham Couch, a sports columnist at the Lansing State Journal. Graham, It is great to talk to you. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. We'll look. I have been looking forward to having you on the show and I, I just have to start off by thanking you for writing kind of intro to the community piece for me in the journal when you are obviously taken a little break from sports. Thank you for writing that great piece about me. I got a lot of good feedback on it while you were an easy subject. So that's, that's really the key to those stories, right? Oh, how was it, how was I easy? Because if I asked a question, you gave a great answer. Oh, that's that's flattering. Thanks. Well, we're talking today on the podcast because you are an LCC alum. Tell me about your time here at LCC. What did you study? What were you working on? Yeah, it was 90, 97 through 99, a couple of years here. And I grew up in Lansing with The Lansing Sexton high school and was not, I wouldn't say I was an incredibly serious student until late in my high school career. Okay. And became one here really and very much so. And came here with the idea that I would transfer would do two years in transfer and that's what I did. I went to Columbia College, Chicago. But I came in looking for and got a very, I think, Rich, diverse experience with all sorts of philosophy course is public speaking courses, course freshman comp and all the stuff in left. But I left here with my academic confidence, which was a big thing. And because I hadn't always had that, some of which had been my fault. But took part in the student newspaper. The lookout, took part in the radio station, did play by play for the men's and women's basketball teams, which is which was a lot of fun. I still have those tapes someday. I'll go back and use guy, You're check tapes from doing like play-by-play here with the stars. Because I thought this was the key. I thought I was gonna go to play by play. And like this was this was the path I was going to need these I guess your portfolio? Yes. That's right. That's what I was thinking. And yet, the lookout was an amazing experience too, and really lead to a lot of, you know, I don't know if I I don't know if we'd be sitting here. We may have come across the same path eventually, but my initial plan was not to do, was not to get back into journalists might done in high school a little bit until I transferred. And I was working in the testing lab, the placement testing lab. And so I Little flyer that they needed a sports editor. Okay. And I had been reading a book at the time by Dan Patrick and Keith Oberman who were doing sports centers big show on ESPN. And they had, you know, one of the things they had this chapter on how to be a sports caster. And there were really adamant, not waste, don't waste time like you've at least be on your be on your student newspaper staff or be on the air if you want to be on the air. And so I just went and didn't wind up doing that because I had the testing lab lab job full-time. But wind up covering the teams and writing 5-6 stories, uh, an issue and that led to the radio deal. And so it was it was a really, a really good experience, I should say. I I mean, I...

You're listening to LCC alumni stories, a show dedicated to highlighting the amazing alumni of Lansing Community College. I'm Steve Robinson, President of LCC. And on each episode I have the awesome privilege of getting to know one of our many inspiring, alums and hearing about their experiences at and since leaving LCC. Lcc alumni community is expansive and far-reaching. They're an incredibly diverse group of people, representative and all walks of life working in hundreds of industries across the country. Lcc alumni stories shines a bright light on alumni who make a positive contribution to their community and showcases those who have overcome obstacles and barriers to achieve academic and personal success. These are their dynamic stories. My guest today is Beth Kuiper. She earned an Associate of Applied Science in 2012 with certificates in kitchen and bath design and fashion and merchandising. Beth currently works as the community and Program Outreach Coordinator for downtown Lansing incorporated. Welcome to the show. You're my very first guess, beth, on this podcast. So I'm really happy to have you on and have you an opportunity to learn more about you and your experiences at LCC and what you've been up to since. So it's great to see you. Great to see you as well. I gotta say I woke up this morning at 03:00 AM, just excited to be here and be the first one silent for a long walk. And I thought about all the great things that I could talk about because LCC was very important in my life. So one thing I want to talk to you about is you have taken on a pretty cool new role at LCC and you're gonna be helping us out. Talk to me about your role in this new advisory committee. So I was asked about six weeks ago, two months ago by Cathy Zell at the foundation to join the Academic Advisory Committee. And I was just tickled because it was something that I've always want to do is give back however I can. So what we're looking at is that LCC is got their 40th year anniversary? Yes. I mean, do it with a foundation has a 40th anniversary excuse. No, that's okay. That's right. It's an important birthday. Yeah, absolutely. So we are looking at ways to celebrate and go out there and spread the word and just help lift up others by celebrating these 40 years. Then I'm really looking forward to it. So I'm looking forward to the beginning parts like we've already started, just like the ideas, the concepts. I'm looking forward to any kind of fundraising and the event planning, but I'm really looking forward to the return that we're going to give to people. So if I can open up my house in my kitchen to students in need and help cook meals. Or if I can drive people, whatever I can do to help them satisfy their goals like I was able to. And LCC was the one that helped me. They helped with childcare. They helped me with any kind of tran transportation if I needed that. So I just look at how can I take what was given to me and give it to the next person that is so exciting to me. And you're gonna see a lot of me in that work because I plan to be very, very active with our LCC Foundation. Great. Look forward to it. So you studied kitchen and bath and tell me a little bit about what you what brought you to LCC and what it was that was so positive about your experience here. So LCC was important in my life, like I said. So as soon as I graduated from high school and we've gotta rewind quite awhile. So we're going back to 1998. I decided to start taking business classes because that's what I wanted to originally go into me and when I kinda have fallen into that role again, but we'll get to that later. So I start with business classes and I slowly transitioned over to interior design classes. And this was still at the LCC downtown campus. Okay. So I started with these classes. I fell in love. I end up moving over to Grand Rapids and going to Kendall, where I did not finish, but I took many studio courses as well as I went to GRC C, which is the Grand