Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) is a
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
community college
A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior s ...
in
Traverse City
Traverse City ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population was ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...
. Founded in 1951, it enrolls nearly 4,000 students. NMC offers
associate degree
An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree.
Th ...
s and professional certificates,
bachelor's
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...
degrees through the
Great Lakes Maritime Academy
The Great Lakes Maritime Academy at Northwestern Michigan College is located on West Grand Traverse Bay in Traverse City, Michigan. The academy was established in 1969 as a Maritime college to train men and women to be licensed mariners on ships o ...
and Great Lakes Water Studies Institute, and
bachelor's
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...
and
master's
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. degrees granted by partner universities through NMC's University Center.
NMC has a branch campus on Grand Traverse Bay that houses the Great Lakes Culinary Institute,
Great Lakes Maritime Academy
The Great Lakes Maritime Academy at Northwestern Michigan College is located on West Grand Traverse Bay in Traverse City, Michigan. The academy was established in 1969 as a Maritime college to train men and women to be licensed mariners on ships o ...
, Great Lakes Water Studies Institute and Hagerty Conference Center. Another branch campus near
Cherry Capital Airport
Cherry Capital Airport is a public use airport located southeast of the central business district of Traverse City in Grand Traverse County, Michigan, United States. It is owned by Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties.. Federal Aviation Ad ...
is home to NMC's aviation and automotive service technology programs, and offers training in manufacturing, construction, renewable energy and information technology. NMC also has an observatory (the Rogers Observatory) and an ACEN (Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing) accredited nursing program that has a long-standing association with nearby
Munson Medical Center. The campus is home to WNMC-FM, which began as a student organization in 1967, and is now a
community radio
Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popu ...
station broadcasting at 90.7 FM.
Dennos Museum Center
The
Dennos Museum Center
The Dennos Museum Center is a fine art museum and cultural center located in Traverse City, Michigan on the campus of Northwestern Michigan College (NMC). Most notable for its permanent collection of Inuit art, the Dennos Museum opened in 1991 a ...
is a museum of fine art affiliated with Northwestern Michigan College. The museum consists of an outdoor sculpture garden, several galleries for temporary exhibits, and the Inuit Gallery. It offers an array of exhibitions and programs in the visual arts, sciences and performing arts. The Museum's signature collection is
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territorie ...
art of the Canadian Arctic, one of the largest and most historically complete collections of these distinctive sculptures and prints in the United States.
Opened in 1991, the Museum Center features three changing exhibit galleries and a sculpture court; a hands-on Discovery Gallery and an Inuit Art Gallery; and the Milliken Auditorium. A significant collection of outdoor sculptures by international and Michigan artists surround the Museum on the campus of Northwestern Michigan College.
Great Lakes Maritime Academy
NMC is home to the
Great Lakes Maritime Academy
The Great Lakes Maritime Academy at Northwestern Michigan College is located on West Grand Traverse Bay in Traverse City, Michigan. The academy was established in 1969 as a Maritime college to train men and women to be licensed mariners on ships o ...
, one of
six state-operated maritime academies that receives aid from the federal
Maritime Administration Maritime administrations, or flag state administrations, are the executive arms/state bodies of each government responsible for carrying out the shipping responsibilities of the state, and are tasked to administer national shipping and boating issue ...
. As NMC is located on the shores of
Grand Traverse Bay
Grand Traverse Bay is a deep bay of Lake Michigan formed by the Leelanau Peninsula in the northwestern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The bay is long, wide, and up to deep in spots. It is further divided into two east and west arms by the Ol ...
, a long protected water of
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
, Great Lakes Maritime Academy is the only U.S. Maritime Academy on fresh water.
In 2013, Northwestern Michigan College won approval from the
Higher Learning Commission
The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Io ...
to offer a Bachelor of Science degree in maritime technology through the academy, becoming the first community college in Michigan to be able to offer its own accredited bachelor's degree. The college awarded its first bachelor's degrees to two academy students in January, 2014.
Michigan community colleges add 4-year degrees into mix
Notable alumni
* Andrea Lynn Kritcher
Andrea "Annie" Kritcher is an American nuclear engineer and physicist who works at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She was responsible for the development of Hybrid-E, a capsule that enables inertial confinement fusion. She was electe ...
* Chasten Buttigieg
Chasten James Glezman Buttigieg ( ; born June 23, 1989) is an American teacher, writer, and LGBTQ rights advocate. He is married to Pete Buttigieg, the current U.S. secretary of transportation. He was an advisor, spokesperson, and social media ...
* Jerry Dennis
Jerry Dennis (born 1954) is an American writer of nonfiction and short fiction. He is known for writing about the effect of human culture on the natural environment.
Early life and education
Dennis was born in Flint, Michigan and grew up in rur ...
* Aaron Draplin
Aaron James Draplin (born October 15, 1973) is an American graphic designer, entrepreneur and author based in Portland, Oregon.
Early life
Aaron Draplin was born in Detroit, Michigan on October 15, 1973, to parents Jim and Lauren Draplin. At 1 ...
* Kevin Elsenheimer
Kevin Elsenheimer (born August 21, 1965) is an American judge, lawyer and politician from Republican Party and a former minority leader of the Michigan House of Representatives. He is the former Director of the Michigan Workers' Compensation A ...
* Michael Masley
Michael Masley (born September 22, 1952 in Trenton, Michigan, United States) is known for his musical work on the Hungarian cymbalom. His unique method of playing the instrument comes from his invention of the bowhammer, a cross between a fiddle ...
* Bart Stupak
Bartholomew Thomas Stupak (; born February 29, 1952) is an American politician and lobbyist. A member of the Democratic Party, Stupak served as the U.S. representative from from 1993 to 2011.
Stupak chose not to seek re-election in 2010. He dep ...
* Jason Allen
References
External links
Official website
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Traverse City, Michigan
Community colleges in Michigan
Maritime colleges in the United States
Educational institutions established in 1951
Education in Grand Traverse County, Michigan
Buildings and structures in Grand Traverse County, Michigan
Two-year colleges in the United States
1951 establishments in Michigan