INA, Ill. (Sep. 29, 2023)—Long-time RLC employee Shari Carpenter appointed Dean of Applied Science and Technology
Featured in photo: Shari Carpenter.
Shari Carpenter was recently appointed the Dean of Applied Science and Technology. She has a long history at Rend Lake College starting in 1995 as an Administrative Assistant for a grant funded department known as Nontraditional Student Support Service. The program served to aid nontraditional students at RLC, including high school students who were on public aid.
Carpenter holds an Associates of Arts and an Associates of Applied Science from RLC; a bachelor’s in science in Workforce Education and Training from SIU Carbondale; and a Master of Science in Humans Resource Education with a concentration in E-Learning from the University of Illinois.
When she was young, she wanted to be a teacher but as she grew up she thought she was too shy to step in front of a classroom and teach to a room full of students, so she shifted more towards working in an office environment as staff or manager. But she always had an interest in learning new things and passing that knowledge on to others. When she was offered a job as Administrative Assistant she thought it to be the perfect job for her. “It was comfortable,” Carpenter said.
The longer she worked at RLC, the more opportunities presented themselves to her. From Nontraditional Student Support Service, she moved to the President’s office where she also worked as an Administrative Assistant. In that position, she experienced working with different divisions and different faculty members all throughout the college. The world at RLC opened up to her as she had the chance to connect with new people every day and continue working with students.
“I had this draw to technology, so I was always trying to figure out how I could make the software work for me,” she said. “And people would begin asking me for help, so I got to teach them hands on how to use these programs. Then I got the opportunity to teach business and industry training in Mt. Vernon.”
Carpenter’s natural gift for being an instructor and her desire to learn more shined through in every role she served at the college. She took advantage of every opportunity that was presented to her and she used that as motivation to learn more and push herself further. That is how she ended up being a teacher at RLC.
She said she didn’t have a target or a goal while earning these degrees. She just knew she wanted to learn more to be able to expand her skill set so she could do more for the college and for herself.
While earning her Bachelor’s and Master’s, she was a working mother with kids at home and a family to take care of. It was difficult, but she accredits that to her ability to connect with students who are also struggling and better encourage them.
She expressed a deep love she has for the RLC and all its faculty, students, and staff. Her time as staff, an instructor, a director, and now a Dean has been good to her and more than anything, she appreciates getting to work with learners. She loves seeing others succeed and being able to assist them in their journey. Carpenter said, “I didn’t get them there, they did the work and got themselves to a point of success. I just helped.”
She said she strives to be a good motivator and mentor to faculty, staff, students, or whoever she happens to meet throughout the day.
When she learned she would be Dean of Applied Science and Technology, she said she was excited, but humbled she recognizes that it’s a lot of responsibility and she wants to lead the division in a positive way. She mentioned that it is like returning home at RLC, as this was the division she started off in as faculty.
As a former faculty member, she believes that will serve to make her a strong leader for the division. She wants to be the connection between administration and faculty to help strengthen the division and college as a whole.
Carpenter said if could speak to her younger self from 1995 when she first started at RLC she would say, “Keep learning and keep working hard.”
