(Photo provided by: Tony Miksa)

Last spring, the JCCC Board of Trustees elected a new college president, Dr. Tony Miksa. This summer, Miksa began his experience as president, and he’s excited for this upcoming era in his life.

Miksa has over 20 years of experience and is eager to bring that to JCCC.

“I’ve worked in community colleges since 1997,” Miksa said. “I started in Illinois. I worked at three different community colleges. I was a faculty member, a dean, a vice president, and then [I thought], it’s time to take the plunge and go for a presidency. I got one down in Tennessee at Walter State Community College and so I was there for nine years. During that time, [my two kids] graduated from high school, one of ’em graduated from college…But, you know, it was time to just kind of look at my career and look at what I was doing, thinking about what we had accomplished at Walter State, and I felt like I kind of had taken the college where I could take it and it was time for somebody else to have a chance at it.”

Although Miksa was more than pleased with his previous positions, he was excited to take on a new position at a campus he was already impressed by.

“Fast forward to now when the position came open, I was like, ‘man, I’ve always known that [JCCC]’s a great place, very well respected across the country’,” Miksa said. “At  the same time, the volleyball team at the college I was at, at Walter State, was playing in the national tournament, the same national tournament as JCCC. I talked to some of the volleyball players, just kind of offhand. They didn’t necessarily know who I was. I also talked to some of the parents and they all said wonderful things about the college, and I knew that Overland Park is an amazing place to live. Even bigger than that, Johnson County is an amazing place to live. And so I took the dive and interviewed, and I’m so glad. I feel incredibly fortunate to be here.”

Even though Miksa had heard great things from students and parents, he was even more impressed by the college when he stepped foot on campus for his interview.

“It’s more than I imagined,” Miksa mentioned. “When I walked outside, and I walked on the campus, I knew the campus was beautiful and the resources were great. I give a shout out to the CoLab all the time because that was one of the places I was in [when I interviewed]. And I just was like, Oh my gosh, this place is a great place for students to get their hands on things [and] for students to interact.”

One of Miksa’s favorite qualities about the college are the resources it offers, and the sense of family that the school provides.

“The resources that the campus has and the investment that the community has made in education is just so refreshing because you don’t get that everywhere across the country, so that’s great,” Miksa said. “I think on the flip side of that, you know, just buildings and investments are one thing, but you know what really brings an institution to life is the people, like I said, to walk down the hall, students shake my hand, say hi to me. All the employees here, they’ve been incredibly friendly…[they’ve] helped me, and so it’s just been wonderful.”

Miksa believes that each of the staff members at JCCC are special.

“I tell all our employees, ‘You were hired to do a job, but you were also hired because there was something special during that interview process that came out. So let’s find what that specialness is and let’s bring that to the college and make it happen’,” Miksa declared.

Miksa is proud of where the college is right now, but he has things he hopes to achieve in his future endeavors as president here.

“This place has already got some great things going on,” Miksa said. “But the three things I focus on are around that idea of the mission statement, which is that idea of inspiring learning. I want students to come here and when they leave, I want them to be like ‘I can do anything’, right? ‘I’m gonna get that degree in nursing and I’m gonna become, I might start as a nurse, but maybe I wanna be the CEO of the hospital.’”

In addition to inspiring students to learn, Miksa wants them to concentrate on becoming the best version of themselves during this period of their life.

“I think also part of that is I wanna help transform students,” Miksa added. “One of the honors students came up to me and he’s like, ‘I heard some of the things you say, that idea about transforming’. And he said, ‘that’s so important to me. I wanna become a different person when I leave. I wanna see life from a different perspective. I wanna grow into who I am.’ And so that’s another place where I want to focus myself. Like that idea of inspiring students to learn, transforming students, making sure when they walk out [of] here, they go, ‘oh my gosh, there’s more to life.’”

Finally, Miksa also hopes the students leave an impact outside of the classroom.

“And then that last idea of strengthening the community,” Miksa said. “After our students are done, I want them to go out in our community and make this place even better than what it already is.”

Overall, Miksa wants to be a president that the students and staff feel compelled to interact with.

“I wanna be the kind of president that is engaged and connected with the students,” Miksa said. “I wanna hear your thoughts. I wanna hear your hopes…I’m not saying we can do everything, but, I can’t even think about doing something if I don’t hear it, or I don’t know [about it]. So I just wanna be engaged with the students as much as I can [and] learn as much as I can about the students. When I was going to community college, the president might walk around a little bit, but there wasn’t necessarily that vehicle to be connected.”

Miksa encourages students to visit and have a conversation with him.

“My door’s open, I wanna hear people’s ideas, thoughts, questions, [and] concerns, ” Miksa said. “One of the reasons why I came here was that idea, that challenge of a larger institution, a little bit more complex or complicated institution. So I have to learn a little bit about how to manage my time in a bigger institution like this, but if I’m here and I’ve got time and somebody wants to talk, my door is open. I’d love to talk to you and hear a little bit about your story, and hear about what’s going on.”

Miksa is passionate about helping the students become successful and hopes to play a small part in their journey toward achieving their goals.

“I want students to know that I’m here for them,” Miksa said. “I want students to know that I can’t wait to shake their hands when they come across that graduation stage and celebrate their journey here and celebrate their successes.”