Dr. Jermaine Ford - President - Florence Darlington Technical College

This is Coffee with Cool People. I'm Chip Munn. Great to be back with Dr. Jermaine Ford. Dr. Ford, how are you?

Oh, I'm doing great and glad to see you today. And we went through some little nasty weather there the other day, but, um, glad everything is settled in here.

It is definitely nice to, to have that kind of done and taken care of. So hopefully we'll have some good weather here. Yeah, that was— it was kind of a scary one, really, or at least they made it out to be.

Well, you know, especially when you look at residents that live on the perimeter and may have some flooding in their area or things of that nature. So I was glad everybody was safe and wasn't as bad, no more than tree limbs down and things of that nature.

Yeah, you'd much rather be overprepared.

Oh, absolutely.

For something like that. Absolutely. No question about it. Dr. Ford, you are the president. Yes. Of Florence-Darlington Technical College. Been here since '21?

Yep, 2021.

Going on 3 years.

Yeah, 2 and a quarter, but almost 3. Yeah.

How did you get here?

Tell me about you. That's a funny story. So I was in Louisiana. I had been there for about 7 years. Prior to that, I was in Illinois for a good chunk of time. And while there, I talked to our system president and I said, man, I'm ready to take on and get a presidency. And he said, man, I don't have anything right now. It'll be like 5 to 7 years. Why wait 5 to 7 years where you could be president right now? So I then started to look, and then when Florence-Darlington Tech came up, I started to do my research and saw it, and I said, "Wow, this is a great fit." First, I'll talk about the community. I grew up in a community that looked just like this, so I said, "Okay, I can identify with the community," and so that was a check. And then looking at what Florence-Darlington Tech was when I first got here, I'm like, "You know, I think I can come in and really do some great work," and understanding with the direction that the board wanted to go with the school, I said, That's just a great match and a great fit. When I brought my wife in for the interview, what Syl did, we sat in this very restaurant in one of the tables up front, and I said, okay, dear, what do you think? And she says, you know, feels like home. I said this, I was feeling the same thing. I just needed her to say it. And so once she said it and they gave me the call, I mean, we've been running ever since. But it's been a good journey, these 2 and a quarter, almost 3 years.

Yeah, well, it is. And the Little bit. You and I went through the, um, we were talking earlier, the Fellows in Education program together a year ago or so. So you were even newer then. Yes. And, um, one of the things that I remember is one of the things that strikes me about you is you're super engaged. Oh yeah. You don't strike me as somebody who does things halfway. Where's that come from?

You know what, that really does come from my upbringing and my foundation. Um, raised in a small community, so we— everybody knew everybody, you know, everybody looked out for everybody. And it was nothing like that type of a community. It's much smaller. The community I grew up in was much smaller than the Florence region that we're in. But what I find is the same spirit that I grew up in, it's here. Family, faith, fellowship, fun. And to see the progression that we've made here in the city, I mean, who wouldn't want to be connected to that? I'll say the other thing that I feel real connected to when I think about the history of Florence-Darlington Tech in our 60 years in existence, going back to Dr. Fore and Michael McCall and Charlie Gould, all the way up to me. When I look at that and look at how we were birthed out in this community, in the region, I'm telling you, I just want to just give back and just connect. And one of the ways that we connected in 2023, for the first time in our 60 years, we had Community Day. So we were in, we served 3 counties altogether, Florence County, Darlington County, and Marion County. So for the first time in our 60-year history, instead of doing a social service event here or there, we were in all 3 counties at the same time, had more than 100+ volunteers, and we were with our t-shirts, we were, you know, painting and fixing fences and picking up paper and restocking shelves and volunteering at some of the, like the Boys and Girls Club, Habitat for Humanity. You talk about a feel good. It just felt good to not only have been invited in the community and welcomed in the community, but then to be able to give back to the community. We give back from the educational side, but to give back from a service side, I'm telling you, that was for me like the hallmark of my 2 and a quarter years so far, just to be able to connect to the community in that way. I love this community. I love the fact that we believe in faith, we believe in family, and those are all the values that I adhere to.

Sure. Well, it is, uh, it's interesting, right? Because, um, I would have to think that you all, particularly where you're situated, you know, definitely, um, geographically well situated to be able to serve all those counties. But, but it's got to be good for them to see you coming out. Where'd that idea come from?

Well, you know, I'll say this. From a leadership perspective, we got to know what's going on and you can't know what's going on sitting in the office. So when I was going through the interview, I told the board, I said, look, if you want someone to just sit in the office all day long, I'm not your guy. I want to be engaged in the community, from the Rotaries to the chambers to the community events, to economic development. I want to be plugged in. Why? Because that's what we need to be doing. But it really does come from how I was raised. So growing up, my father growing up, will have me to cut my grass. Then I had to cut the neighbor's grass, and then I had to cut two houses down as well. And so I came home one day and said, Dad, why the heck am I having to cut all of these yards? He said, well, our neighbor works a couple jobs and he needs the help, and the neighbor down is a senior and she needs the help. So I then started to really develop from a young age a sense of community. And this environment here is so rich. It's all about community. It's all about plugging in. And so I've made that a priority day one. Here is what I have heard since coming. Dr. Ford, man, I've never seen anybody from tech to be as engaged as I've seen you to be. And it's really coming from a genuine place. It's not, you know, it's not a farce or anything like that. I'm genuinely interested in, you know, what's going on in the community. How can we help tying it back to do we have the right programs that tie into that for economic success for our students and community, tying back to family sustaining wages. With no debt, you know. So in looking at that, I see it through multiple lenses, from economic development to community development to this just being a phenomenal place to live. And this is my way to contribute. Again, going back to my foundation, I was raised, you don't just take from a place, you give to a place. You make that place better in any way that you can. You make it better. So I really do see from a more servant leadership perspective. Yeah.

Well, you mentioned seeing things through a different lens. Uh, the extent— other than us having met briefly before— the extent of my preparation for our time together was to watch your, uh, initial video when you first joined Tech, couple minutes on YouTube. And one of the things you referenced that I found interesting was that you are a community college graduate. Yes. Yourself. Tell me more about that.

Oh, what a story. What a story. So going through high school, you know, just kind of like an average student, just trying to figure out life, not really connecting the dots. But I knew I didn't want to disappoint my mother, so I knew I needed to do something. But I didn't even know what that something was. Graduated from high school, no plans whatsoever, applying to colleges all over the place, still with no plan. My father comes to me one day, says, son, What are you going to do with your life? And I said, I'm still trying to figure it out. He said, why don't you go to Moraine Valley Community College? One, it will be affordable. Two, you'll be able to kind of figure it out without a big price tag while you're figuring it out. And three, it'll be an environment where you can succeed. The best advice that I got. Going to Moraine Valley Community College, for me, I really found not just my voice, I found that, man, I am a good student. But I had to apply myself. Right. So in doing so, those 2 years enabled me to really pay for myself. So I worked in a 10-minute oil lube place in the Chicagoland area. So I did that on the weekends. I worked 10 hours on Friday and 9 hours on Saturday. And those 19 hours that I worked 2 days actually paid for my tuition because the tuition was so affordable. I was able to make monthly installments. Sure. I was the first one in my family to graduate from college and to see my mom's face Now fast forward 2 years later from my start, to know that I had graduated, it just meant the world to her. And then from there, leaving the community college experience, I said, okay, I can conquer the world, you know, because that really gave me the fresh start that I needed. It gave me the confidence that I needed, and I didn't have to spend a big price tag trying to figure it out. So that's another reason connected back to Tech, that A, the students that come here either to transfer, to a 4-year or the students that come in to go straight to work. Either way, we're talking about an affordable education because majority of our students receive some form of aid to help them to go through the experience without mounds of debt. So when they go to the workforce, they're going to the workforce not owing a whole lot, if anything at all. Sure. Or if they're going straight to the transfer route, same thing. So that was my story. And to see, and that's when I sat down with our students, I said, look, I was just like you. I came from environments just like you. And they can find someone to really identify with.

For sure. And I think that makes a big difference, particularly in a place like this. And I think that, at least from my standpoint, one of the things that— and I don't know when it started, but I've noticed over the last maybe handful of years is that Florence-Darlington Tech used to be much more of a commuter school. You came in, you left. You did your, you know, your 3 hours of classes, you statin', and then you were gone. You guys have gone a long way, I think, over the last, again, we'll call it decade, just for, you know, for the sake of discussion, in adding sports programs. And what do you attribute kind of that too, and what difference does it make?

Sure, sure. When you look at the history of the Technical College, in the birthing of the Technical College, it was 100% just dedicated on the vocational side, if you will, in the birthing of it. But as we've matured and matriculated, we still are focused on that. That's, that's still key, but we're more comprehensive now. So looking at the full student experience, working with traditional students and non-traditional students, students that are traditionally in your high school bracket and non-traditional students that are not in your high school bracket. That comes with making sure that we can meet the stakeholder needs because a student coming to us from high school or some other area that wants to do sports, as you mentioned, we have a world-class championship baseball team and softball team. And it's exciting to see those young men and women. And I'm saying, just to see their faces of how they able to contribute back to society as a citizen of Florence-Darlington Tech and a citizen of our region. What's surprising, we get a number of students from out of state that come here to play. Right. Really fascinating. And to see those young men, I'm talking about, and young women disciplined with great pride, they wear that uniform. So I'm so excited. About Coach Preston and Coach Bryce and the work that they do. And then opposite of that, in our career technical area, you talk about just some phenomenal faculty, phenomenal faculty that are plugged into the industry, working very closely to the industry. But again, compared to your transfer route, in the technical route, we have to be plugged in because these are men and women who are leaving those programs to go straight to the marketplace. So it is imperative that A, are we offering the right thing that the marketplace needs? B, making sure that when that student comes out, they have the competency and the skill sets, the attitude, the mindset to be successful. And that's really, really key. And I love the fact that our faculty and our staff do a lot of wraparound services to make sure that our students are successful.. And then on the transfer route, those students that say, look, I don't want to go on the technical path. I don't want to do HVAC or welding or nursing. I just want to come to get the credits that I need to transfer. Again, that's a variant of services that we need to have there. So when you look at all those different buckets, I mean, that's why we're comprehensive. It's a comprehensive approach. So whereas before it might have been just singularly focused on one door, That door is still there, but there are many other doors of service that we provide. Because take myself going through with one of your initial questions, I wasn't ready to go straight to the workforce when I went to college. I was really trying to figure out what is it that I wanted to do. And those 2 years that I had at that college enabled me to figure it out. Okay, I know I want to do— I like business and I like communications and I like broadcast. So it took me from being very broad to narrowing my focus a lot more so that when I went on to my 4-year university— now I'm going to tell you, Chip, that was an experience because growing up in a small town and now I got to go to the big city. I mean, I was terrified at first because I'm like, going to the big city.

Now which big city?

Chicago. Okay. So leaving a little town and going to the big city, I was a commuter student, so I traveled almost an hour and a half So my 2-year college was about 45 minutes from my house. And then my 4-year college, when I went there, that was like an hour and a half from my house. Now let me connect that back to our students. One of the things that our students have is transportation barriers. So we've made sure with PDRTA that that bus route— and so just thank them for this— it connects to all of our regions and comes directly on our campus. Okay. Again, trying to eliminate the gaps that, that are there. And so, but thinking back to my own experience, I mean, an hour and a half one way, taking two trains just to get there, but I had to commit to that until I was able to get my own car. And that was a couple years before— I mean, after I had started. But with that being said, the other thing our students face are some food insecurity. So we really do try to, in conjunction with Tech being comprehensive, connect to all of our social agency partners that are within the region to make sure that when we are bringing on that student and advising that student, that we can connect them back to community resources that are right here at their fingertips, which is really exciting.

Well, and it's interesting you talk about the different kind of tracks or the, I guess, the becoming more broad and comprehensive. Yes, it's interesting to hear you talk about trying to serve because those are definitely distinct, different, at least coming in. Populations in terms of folks, for example, who are— we won't even get into the non-traditional students, folks who are coming back, but even young people coming out of high school, some of whom, I think you're absolutely right, at least for me, I didn't have any, especially my first year, had no idea. And one of the— as somebody who's graduated from a 4-year college, whose kids right now, so far have gone that route. One of the kind of the, the discussion point is you learn so much going through a 4-year. It's interesting to me to hear you talk about utilizing, uh, the, again, technical or community college. I think I'm curious, by the way, I want to, so I don't forget, I want to come back to the distinction and whether or not there's a difference there.

Yeah.

It's an interesting point of view to say, and from your experience even, to say it's not either or. You can come to a technical school or community college, a 2-year, and still get that breadth of experience to see all of these things to then make, you know, to make a a next step. But those are two very different people coming who already know that they want to go into, again, welding. Nursing is a great example. But again, that other person who really just— I mean, I didn't know. I'm 48 years old. Some days I don't know if I know now. What's it like to have to serve kind of both constituents?

Sure, sure.

That's an interesting transition.

It really is, because what it means is you have to be able to speak that language. Because the language that you have to speak to a traditional student, that's your high school student, is very, very different than the language you have to speak to a non-traditional student who may have a couple part-time jobs and 2 children or 3 children or 1 child or as a single parent or married parent. So looking at that dynamic, so one of the things that we have wanted to do is to do really intrusive advising where we are asking really qualitative questions. I'll give you an example. In a non-traditional student who has a couple part-time jobs, a couple of, you know, 2 or 3 children, and now they want to do a full 8 to 2 PM schedule. Well, if they're working from 8 to 12 or they're working from 12 to 2 and then they want to take class, a class schedule that's 8 to 12, something's not going to get— you can't be in 2 places at the same time.

You cannot.

So with that being said, when we're working with that student, we're talking to them about, okay, let's talk about your dynamics. Let's talk about what your dynamics look like. Let's put together a schedule for you. Now, there's something that we have really added at Florence-Darlington Tech, which has been very successful, and that's registered apprenticeships. Well, a lot more registered apprenticeships, because as we're serving a lot more non-traditional students, the registered apprenticeship works in such a way because take that student in Door A that has two part-time jobs, still trying to go to school, still trying to raise their family. Well, with our registered apprenticeships, that is their job, right? They're, they're gainfully employed while they're going to school. So now not having to work 2 and 3 jobs. Now this is your job because you going through this program where you are an employee of that organization. And so that is one of the newer things that we've been doing a lot more in the last couple of years since I've arrived, which I'm really, really excited about because we have to really create more opportunities for our nontraditional students and then for the traditional students. Making sure that we have activity clubs and student life activities and student events. And in fact, well, Monday was our first day back and then we had that little situation with the weather yesterday. And then, so in looking at it, we had everything from pizza to donuts to you name it for our students just to say, hey, welcome back. And we realized that, you know, maybe your first time here or a long day for you, but here's some food for you because for We know food insecurity is a reality, childcare insecurity. So the three are transportation, food, and childcare. So we've really tried to, by partnering with Head Start and other agencies to support our students that have children, transportation, we've checked that box by working with PDRTA. And on the food insecurities, not just having— we have a food bank there that students can come and get food, but obviously also connecting the dots with our partners that would, around the region. So is it a lot of hats we have to have? We do. And that's why we are a comprehensive technical college. Now, what's the difference between a comprehensive community college and a comprehensive technical college? Absolutely nothing. We're just really talking about semantics. When you look at the birthing of the 2-year college in America, post-World War II, vets were coming home. Well, it was twofold. Vets were coming home and needing to be reskilled So they were able to now come to this 2-year experience, get a certification or reskilling and go straight to work. Many of those vets eventually started their own businesses. It was probably one of the greatest booming economies of the American society given that period, because we made everything ourselves back then. The other thing that happened during that birthing of the 2-year experience, and this was all over in Illinois, in the Joliet, Illinois area, you had the president of the University of Chicago and one of the superintendents in Joliet Township, the high school there. Well, what they did, they said, well, we need our students to be better prepared when they come to us. So, so here's that birthing of the comprehensive where we were the 2-year experience historically back in that period, already working with those vets. And now look at the 2-year experience working with that transfer pipeline. So when you look at the comprehensive technical college and a comprehensive community college, there's really no difference. But I will say this, I am very proud to be leading a comprehensive technical college. Why? Because many colleges have around the United States have gone away from the technical name in it. Sure. But I'm proud to say that South Carolina is all about workforce development and economic growth. And that is all— that was our foundation and is still a primary focus. And I appreciate the delegation for supporting us as they have, realizing that You want to, you want to talk about creating a pipeline economy that's gonna stay here. Majority of our students that leave Florence-Darlington Tech, they're not talking about going to Charlotte or Greenville or Charleston or New York. They're talking about staying right here, raising their family, getting a job here. So the, the Florence-Darlington Technical College experience is directly impacting our region. We did an annual report, first one we've done in many, many years, and it demonstrated that we had about $160 million $166 million impact in the region directly tied to student outcomes, our alumni outcomes, and our operational outcomes. So $166 million impacted in the region, and that's for the period of 2021 and 2022. That is only going to go up even higher because our enrollment has continued to go up. So again, you get me to talk about tech and, and what we're doing, it really is exciting.

Well, it is, uh, again, it's definitely also, I would say, in vogue. I think that you've seen a big shift, at least locally, or at least from a lot of folks that, that I talk to who have really embraced the technical college in a new and different way. Again, we'll call it over the last 10 years, and the calling for more skilled labor. You know, the fact that I have a good friend who runs a transmission shop consistently talking about the inability to get enough, you know, to keep enough people. And so I think that it's— I found it interesting, one of the things that you said earlier was the facilitation of the mindset of— I would have to think it's different Taking somebody who, again, at 18 years old, 17 years— I graduated high school at 17 years old— and thinking that by 19 you have to have them ready to show up to work every day and have a level of responsibility that, uh, yeah, that has to be nurtured, right, and developed. How is— how has that come about? Because I think that's It's different than, again, more of a broad liberal arts or getting into the SIMT and really getting the hands-on. That's a different skill set or a different, um, yeah, sure, sure, capability.

Sure, sure. I'll approach it since we've been talking about the comprehensive technical college a lot. I'll approach it from that vein. From the comprehensive technical college vein, let me start first with the workforce side. On the technical workforce side, one of the things that's key is we're joined at the hip with our employer partners. I'll give you an example. We're doing a youth apprenticeship right now with McLeod and MUSC and Carolina Pines. Just so that means that in all 3 of our counties, we've checked that box in all 3 of the counties and connecting those opportunities directly back to our high school market. Now, that's not just us going into the high school to talk about, hey, you're not interested in going, in your traditional path of education. You want to go straight to work. Well, it is imperative that we bring that employer on the front end of that conversation. So it's not just us having the conversation. They're seeing this twin approach of the employer partner and the educational provider Florence-Darlington Tech joined at the hip. So that employer says, look, here is the career opportunity that you can have with us, and all you need is this certification, or all you need is that technical diploma, all you need is that associate's degree. Now that student, what it does is it opens up their mind, that conceptual view to see, whoa, you mean to tell me that all I have to do is go down this path and these are the group of employers? So we use a model called a consortium model. If there's a cluster of industry partners that have the exact same need, well, there's no silver bullet to this. We're partnering in with all of them to make sure that we can pipeline in the workforce that they need. And we really do have our finger on the pulse in every major industry sector to know, okay, we gotta be able to produce 200 of this, or we gotta produce 50 of that. Now, we're still working on that. I mean, that is a big nut to crack. But connecting that message of the employer partner back with the educational partner with that non-traditional, traditional student is key. Now let me go to the transfer side. What's key in that is, just like we partner with our 4-year I mean, with our workforce partners, we do the same thing with our 4-year partners. We partnered in closely with Francis Marion University. We partnered in closely with Coker University because, again, this is the service region that we are in. Knowing that transportation is a barrier, well, guess what? We have a regional partner right down the road. So leaving us with that 2-year experience, you can transfer all of your credits directly to that partner. So what that means is instead of you starting as a freshman or instead of you starting as a sophomore, you're starting as a junior, not having to repeat all those courses that you just took. Why? Because once we know that you're on a transfer path, we're working with you to identify these are the courses that you need to have because they all transfer to that regional partner. And we have real conversations with our students to say, hey, okay, you want to go out of state to this school? Well, they're not going to take this, this, this, and this. That means you're going to retake it. They may or may not. It just depends on the institution. Sure. But we know here within our South Carolina region, 100% of those courses are going to transfer. That's a win-win. And when you talk about the cost of education, you just eliminated 2 years of debt and now you only have about 2 years left to your educational experience at the 4-year route. I mean, that's, that's a win-win combination. So the same formula that we're using on the workforce side, working with our industry partners, is the same formula that we're using on the transfer side, working with our 4-year regionals so that we know a student A is interested in this particular program, and we know university down the road has XYZ. We're talking to them very early about that experience. And then as they then transfer to that 4-year university, well, if there's a course— they're home for the summer and they need to take a course, well, go ahead and take that course. That's going to then transfer right back to that university. So again, it's all about win-win-win solutions. So those winning solutions is a mindset upon my start that I really wanted to drill in. I said, no, I don't just want to be known as a vocational school. No, this is a college. But coming to a college, it's a comprehensive technical college because you can choose either path. A large majority of our students, almost 60%, are going in that workforce path, a large majority. But here's the conversation that we're having with them, even as they're matriculating through our experience to the workforce. There's no silver bullet to education. It's lifelong learning. Yes, you're coming out at the level 1. You might be making $30,000 or $40,000. You might even make $50,000 at that level 1. On. But what happens on the day that you want to move up? You're going to have to need some additional certifications or additional education. Now, that might be a certification that you can get through Florence-Darlington Tech. If you got a certification or technical diploma, you might want to come back and get that associate's degree in management just to complete that. But at some point, you may need an advanced degree beyond that. Well, guess what? That's where our 4-year regional partners come into play. Go to them, going to get that bachelor's degree. We are a proponent to make sure we talk about the well-rounded experience of education and not the silver bullet to educate. Because there is no— I mean, I'm almost 50. I'm constantly still learning, picking up a book, getting a certification just to advance myself so that I can know what's going on around our world.

Well, there's the old, it's not how you start, it's how you finish.

Yeah.

And I think that, again, you're a good example of that, even for the young people, of starting at the 2-year college and deciding, however you did that, There was a next step, and then after that, a next step. Yes. And again, I think it's kind of just doing the next right thing, and I think there's a lot to be said for, again, having somebody in that role. Yes. Who's an example. You mentioned, and I want to make sure because I want to be respectful of your time, but I also— the registered apprenticeship. What, um, what areas do you all offer that in? Because that's That's something I remember going through maybe Leadership South Carolina many, many— this was 2008-ish, 8 or 10, and it was— but one of the areas where we went was to one of the community colleges, and they talked about the fact that we don't have— one of the benefits of the 2-year college was the fact that we didn't have apprenticeships the way we used to. What areas do you guys have those in? Sure. And how does that work?

Sure. So the registered apprenticeship, how it works is there must be an employer at the table on the front end. The— all apprenticeships come through Apprenticeship Carolina. That's tied directly to our South Carolina Technical College System. So our technical college system oversees the apprenticeships for the entire state. And the technical colleges that within the state work with our system office and work with Apprenticeship Carolina.. So there must be an employer on the front end of that conversation because to be a registered apprenticeship, that employer would have needed to hire that employee. And then there needs to be a path that demonstrates that there's an increase in wage as they complete those modules or those steps. Sure. So the areas that we really started this journey with, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, industrial, you know, we, So from— I'll give you an example. We partnered in with Honda. So we're working with Honda right now. It's a welding program. We're talking about a 2-3 week program jump starting. Now a student in a 2-3 week time can learn what they need to learn to then go get a job at Honda. There's a young man right now, and if you look at YouTube, you'll see this video. There's a young man right now who was going through his GED process and he was trying to think about, okay, what does life look like Next, I'm an adult. I need a job, but I also need an education. And we're not talking about sacrificing either or. We're talking about you can couple both at the same time and be successful. Well, he heard about the Honda program. He said, wait a minute, I could be a welder for Honda, you know, welding their units. Well, guess what? He went through our program, 2, 2 and a half weeks, almost 3 weeks. Now he's at Honda, gainfully employed, successfully gone through the program. But again, There's no silver bullet to education. So is a 3-week process going to be enough? Of course not. But that's the start. So he started and he's at Honda and he is being successful in that journey. There's a young man I've been talking to at our local restaurant that's here. Every time I see him, I say, hey, remember, you don't have to give up your whole life to go to school. We got this program because he wanted to be a welder as well. We have this program tied to Honda You can come in in a short period of time. I've said 2 or 3 weeks of a sacrifice and you have a job at Honda and you're able to grow because that, I mean, they're growing their production. That's like a win-win-win-win-win. So that's, that's on that side. Then if you look at what we're doing in the healthcare side, as I mentioned with McLeod and Carolina Pines and MUSC, it has been very, very, very successful to be able to do those youth apprenticeships and bring them into the local high school. School. So we really are wanting to be relevant. We want to also partner. Here's what I'm looking for right now. I'm looking for HVAC companies right now, machine tool companies that are interested in doing registered apprenticeships, that we can do youth apprenticeships so that we can tie that back in to our high school market. I will tell you what McLeod told us for the healthcare market for youth. They said, look, we will take as many as you send us through this program. We're talking about a young person making upwards of $15 an hour. A young person, $15 an hour going through this process and they have a job at McLeod in the story that we were talking about earlier about how you got here. Well, now gainfully employed at McLeod with that credential, post your high school experience, they will cover your tuition, whether it's your associate's degree or your bachelor's degree or a master's degree. That's a win-win, and all you have to do is, you know, commit a period of time to them. So those are the things that really, you know, excite me and get me up early in the morning. And, um, but again, our region is so unique in South Carolina. I just see so much opportunity for explosive growth.

I think it's interesting, uh, again, to view the technical college as a jump start to the training program because I think about what it would take for Honda to, uh, to put itself in a position. And of course, all these big companies, it's not that they don't have training programs, but they don't have the ability, I don't think, in as short a period of time and intense training to go from zero to job job ready in 3 weeks. I think it's a great, again, just an interesting capability for somebody like that to partner with you guys and say, you know, hey, listen, this is what— and you say, hey, we've got skilled educators, we've got the equipment to teach them on. I think that's a really, again, it's a cool capability to have, and I commend you for thinking outside the box. I mean, there's has obviously been a lot of that. Dr. Ford, if you, you could tell somebody one thing that you would want them to know about Florence-Darlington Tech we haven't talked about, sure, it would be, if not now, when?

There is no better time than right now to think about how do you want the next 10, 15 to 20 years of your life to look, but it begins with the decision that you make today. If you're in high school and you listen to my voice, or you're a parent and you have a student that's in high school, well, we have a program called Early College Academy where your high school student, by the time that they graduate, could have their high school diploma and their associate's degree. So now at 18 years old, instead of them going off as a freshman, they can go as a junior, eliminating those 2 years. So that's one thing that I'll say. If you're a non-traditional student, you're trying to figure out what the next what this part of your life is going to look like. Let us work with you. Once you're part of Florence-Darlington Tech's family, you are always a part of our family. And Chip, as I say this in closing, it has been such an honor to serve our institution and serve our community. I tell you, you want to just crank me up, get me to start talking about Florence-Darlington Tech and the things that we're doing. And I would be remiss if I didn't say to the faculty and the staff that are at Florence-Darlington Tech, I tell you, it brings me so much joy to see our team members excited and happy and vibrant and full of life. But we're just looking forward to serve our community.

Yeah. Well, last question, and I should have prefaced this. I should have given you a heads up off air. But if you could pick a fictional character, it could be a book, movie, whomever, that you feel like best represents Dr. Ford, who would it be and why?

Oh my goodness, wow.

My wife's in the media, by the way. She gave me that question.

That's a great question. Man, that's a great question to make me think because when I think about servant leadership, I think about Martin Luther King, I think about Gandhi, I think about Nelson Mandela, and obviously I would never classify myself in any of those categories. But my faith, my faith is a huge part of who I am, believing on serving, believing on giving back. Opposite of my faith, my family. So when you think about characters that, whether it's a teacher or someone that we know of notable esteem, but I will also say this, the greatest, the greatest one that I have seen would have to be my mama. My mother, who, when I got my doctorate, I went back home and I said, "Ma, this doctorate belongs to you. There's no way on God's green earth with your prayers and your support through the years— I wasn't the best high school student, but you believed in me. This doctorate is yours because you earned it. You got me through." I don't even have a copy of my own doctorate. So I would actually have to say my mother, but notable figures that others would know I just love how, you know, whether I say Martin Luther King or Gandhi or Nelson Mandela, all about service and all about making their areas better.

Well, that's awesome. And there's, you know, special place in heaven for mamas. I'm telling you, I will never forget my mom is very similar in that, you know, always held me to account when I was a freshman in college, I went away. I thought I was going to be a football player. I remember calling her from a pay phone, back when they had pay phones, raining. I mean, it's like a movie story. I'm like, Mom, I'm miserable. And she says, son— and I could hear it in her voice, and now I understand as a parent— she says, son, you can't come home. And, uh, yeah, of course my dad said, you can come home if you want to. There's going to be a mill application on there, you know. But again, now as a parent, you get it. And so there is a lot to a mama or a dad's love. So, Dr. Ford, thanks for spending time with me.

Thank you, Chip.

I appreciate it.

Appreciate you.

Thank you. Absolutely.

Absolutely.