I am Black Hawk

There were a lot of reasons that BHC nursing instructor Kim Hurley could have given up or headed down the wrong path as she was growing up. - She had cancer when she was 4 years old and underwent chemo for two years. - She gave birth to a baby boy when she was 15. [...]

The National Western Stock Show, known as the “Super Bowl of Cattle Shows,” is a Denver tradition. Every year in January, the world’s largest stock show comes together. In 2012, Mark Gordon – a 1983 graduate of Black Hawk College East Campus – and the Rockin G Land and Cattle farm exhibited four Breed Division [...]

For 18 years, Dr. Bettie Truitt taught mathematics in Building 3 at the Quad-Cities Campus. She worked with a wide range of students, from those just getting started with developmental classes to those taking 200-level courses. “I have a true love for mathematics and teaching. I never ‘went to work.’ I taught classes and enjoyed [...]

Morgan Nelson has been attending Black Hawk College East Campus since her senior year at Galva High School. She started her freshman year at Black Hawk College with 27 college credits already completed as a dual-enrollment student. An active student and a positive role model throughout campus, she is a member of Phi Theta Kappa [...]

Sara Limon is a full-time nursing student and mom to Jenica, 8, and Alicia, 6. Students from all walks of life attend Black Hawk College each semester, but class schedules and majors are not the only things students must worry about. Sara Limon, a full-time student and mother of two young girls, is in the [...]

BHC East Campus international students Javed Williams, Gilbert Gyamfi and Aaron Branch visited Irving Elementary School in Kewanee and talked about their home countries. Three Black Hawk College East Campus students not only needed to pack their suitcases to go away to college, they also needed to pack their passports. Basketball players Javed Williams of [...]

Sometimes in the horse arena of life, you come full circle. In elementary school, Nikki Klein visited Kewanee to attend horse camp and take riding lessons from Donna Irvin, equine professor at Black Hawk College East Campus. Growing up, she explored different aspects of the horse industry. When she decided to pursue horse judging and [...]

A beat-up, 1960s-era tractor from an Illinois cornfield may help a village in West Africa harvest pineapples, mangoes and papayas. Ten Black Hawk College East Campus students spent four hours a week for eight months rebuilding a yellow International Harvester 350 utility tractor that had been languishing in a farm field. “It was a major teardown [...]

A trumpeter and an environmentalist. First-year Black Hawk College student Anna Pienta is an award-winning musician and an award-winning environmentalist. And she’s only 18. The 2011 Rock Island High School grad loves the outdoors and is passionate about the environment. She is pursuing an associate in science degree and eventually wants to work in environmental [...]

As a high school student, Isaac Drew was fascinated by bridges and highways. He soon realized he wanted to be an engineer. “I knew I liked engineering, and I wanted to do something in construction,” he says. His dad, Gary, taught business management/marketing at Black Hawk College so Isaac was familiar with the Quad-Cities Campus [...]

Meet Stephanie at a Smart Start Orientation at the Quad-Cities Campus. By the age of 21, Stephanie Allers had 21 different jobs on her resume – costumed character, video store cashier, casino dealer, specialty flooring installer, pet sitter. “I didn’t know what I wanted to be,” she says. Stephanie graduated from Moline High School in [...]

Watch Kristi perform with the BHC jazz band. A talented clarinetist. A hard worker. A gem. These words all describe Kristi Hanno, a 2009 Davenport West High School who spent the past two years honing her skills and exploring her musical limits at Black Hawk College. In high school, she was in the All-State Band [...]

Listen to Jennifer Lincoln interviewed on the WRMJ radio show. In the “World Series of College Agriculture,” one Black Hawk College student stands out. Jennifer Lincoln, an agriculture transfer student from Illinois City, came to Black Hawk College in August 2009. She quickly found herself in the soil pits, joining the Crops & Soils Judging [...]

Few races have the prestige of the Boston Marathon. And in 115 years of the race, no other marathon has had a faster finish than the 2011 Boston Marathon as Geoffrey Mutai blazed to the finish line in 2:03:02. Black Hawk College media production specialist Mike Winter, who has been running for almost 30 years, [...]

Mariana Cueto, Black Hawk College student Mariana Cueto was born and raised in La Paz, Bolivia. Coming from a country often hit by social and economic conflicts, she grew to understand that good opportunities are anywhere if one is determined to look for them. She remembers her mother’s words – “You will get the best from a bad situation [...]