2009-2010 annual report - Heartland Community College
2009-2010 annual report - Heartland Community College
2009-2010 annual report - Heartland Community College
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
HEAD OF AREA LAW ENFORCEMENT AWARDED<br />
FOR ACADEMIC PERSISTANCE AND ACHIEVEMENT<br />
Normal Police Chief Kent Cutcher<br />
“There was no doubt in my mind I was<br />
going to finish, but [<strong>Heartland</strong>] made the<br />
transition from not being in school for<br />
so long very easy.”<br />
There are many individuals for whom academic<br />
progress is pursued in concert with career<br />
accomplishments. As life unfolds, people are<br />
faced with choices that sometimes postpone<br />
their goals. Normal Police Chief Kent Crutcher<br />
is one such example. At the <strong>2010</strong> <strong>Heartland</strong><br />
commencement ceremony, he was recognized as<br />
the <strong>2010</strong> Distinguished Alumni award recepient.<br />
For Kent, as for many others, <strong>Heartland</strong><br />
<strong>Community</strong> <strong>College</strong> is always ready to assist<br />
when students are ready to continue their<br />
studies and reach academic goals.<br />
A Normal resident for most of his life, Crutcher<br />
attended Normal <strong>Community</strong> High School and<br />
then Morrison Institute of Technology. When<br />
Crutcher started college 25 years ago, his<br />
Marine Corps commitments postponed the<br />
completion of a degree. After four years in<br />
the Corps, he met and married his wife, also a<br />
Marine. Once they started a family, his education<br />
seemed to take a back seat to life’s ensuing<br />
responsibilities.<br />
Crutcher joined the Normal police force in 1985<br />
and gradually worked his way up through the<br />
department. Though his career was going well,<br />
he still aspired to earn a bachelor’s degree. He<br />
started with classes at <strong>Heartland</strong> <strong>Community</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong>’s Towanda Plaza campus, taking one or<br />
two classes at a time on his way to transferring<br />
to Illinois State University.<br />
He admits going back to school still isn’t always<br />
easy, but <strong>Heartland</strong> gave him the enthusiasm he<br />
needed to keep going,“There was no doubt in my<br />
mind I was going to finish,” he said.<br />
Currently, he is continuing his education in a<br />
criminal justice graduate program. In his address<br />
to <strong>Heartland</strong>’s <strong>2010</strong> graduates, he advised<br />
“Don’t try to be the smartest person in the<br />
room. But if you think you are, try to find smarter<br />
people in the room...how else will you continue<br />
to learn?”
Change language