{"id":26676,"date":"2023-03-28T13:08:01","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T18:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kwu.edu\/?p=26676"},"modified":"2023-04-04T09:08:33","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T14:08:33","slug":"feature-welch-13-g-14-remembers-mentorship-influence-of-professor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kwu.edu\/about\/news\/feature-welch-13-g-14-remembers-mentorship-influence-of-professor\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: Welch ’13, G ’14 Credits Mentorship, Influence of Professor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It took courage for Jamie Welch ’13, G’14 to come to Kansas Wesleyan University.<\/p>\n

She was in her mid-40s when she started trying to finish her degree in the Business program..<\/p>\n

She had a good-paying job \u2014 for the 2010s, $18 an hour \u2014 at Target that she left to start at about $11 an hour as administrative assistant for the KWU Nursing Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just knew my job at Target wasn\u2019t going to take my anywhere, and I just knew I was never going to amount to anything unless I took that step,\u201d Welch said.<\/p>\n

With the full-time job came free tuition, so it was a \u201cno-brainer,\u201d Welch said, known as Scheck at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I took a huge pay cut, and I struggled,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t eat very often, but I knew a few years of struggling would make a huge difference down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nursing staff took care of her. They would \u201caccidentally\u201d bring too much lunch from home or order too much pizza, and they\u2019d send it home with her.<\/p>\n

It was hard to get study habits back, Welch said. Right out of high school, she enrolled at Washburn University but felt she was wasting money without a clear goal, so she left.<\/p>\n

Her very first class was with Dr. Paul Hedlund, professor of Business and Accounting. She minored in Religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so very nervous that I didn\u2019t hear him (Hedlund) give an assignment, so I didn\u2019t hand it in,\u201d Welch said. \u201cI got my first and only B in that class. I\u2019m like, that will never happen again. I made sure I got everything done correctly and on time.\u201d<\/p>\n

She lived up to that promise to herself. Hedlund became a mentor and a friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is doing us proud,\u201d Hedlund said. \u201cWe certainly gave her a great start.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the May 2013 Commencement, she was awarded the Professor Fran Jabara Leadership Award, which took her totally by surprise, and she sobbed all the way to the stage. A photo in the 2013 yearbook proves it.<\/p>\n

She cried again in 2014 when she went to the stage for her Outstanding MBA Student award.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely loved every minute of my time at Kansas Wesleyan,\u201d Welch said. \u201cI met so many amazing people, the Nursing staff was amazing. I have so many memories of Kansas Wesleyan that changed me as a person and my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Commencement, Welch took a job in Topeka, but it wasn\u2019t a good fit for her or the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time in my life, I was unemployed,\u201d Welch said. \u201cI was in my 40s and unemployed and I didn\u2019t know what to do with myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

She called Hedlund for his wisdom, and he told her to get in touch with Kris Upson, one of her adjunct professors in the MBA program. Upson was looking for a deputy director for the almost-$111 million bond project for the Salina School District.<\/p>\n

She knew nothing about construction, she admitted to Upson.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have the soft skills that I can\u2019t teach other people,\u201d she said Upson told her. \u201cI know how you learn things, I know your personality, I know how driven you are, I know your capacity for learning new information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Construction he could teach her.<\/p>\n

So she took another brave step and moved back to Salina.<\/p>\n

Welch oversaw renovation and construction of the elementary and middle schools, while Upson handled the high schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked with great architects and construction companies, and everyone was willing to help me learn what I needed to learn,\u201d she said. \u201cI found my niche in that world. What I thought my life was going to be like was not what the good Lord had planned for me, but I followed his lead.\u201d<\/p>\n

She thought she would be sitting in a cubicle building spreadsheets and crunching numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever in a million years did I think I\u2019d end up in construction,\u201d Welch said. \u201cI love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As that job ended, a state position for project manager opened, and she now works with the Kansas Army National Guard, as of April 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe manage the contractor,\u201d said Welch of a project manager\u2019s job. \u201cA better way to think of it, I\u2019m the owner\u2019s representative. I am managing the interests of the National Guard.\u201d<\/p>\n

She meets with the architects and the contractors, makes sure the building is designed to specifications and put out to bid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love what I do,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very fulfilling job for me. When you start a project and you see it all the way through to the end, it\u2019s immensely gratifying. I never served in the military, but I like to think I get to serve the military.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her biggest projects have been readiness centers, where National Guard soldiers train once a month and some regular Army staff work all year round. She just finished one, and a barracks in Leavenworth.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s preparing to start a readiness center in Hays.<\/p>\n

Jobs run the gamut from painting and renovation to installing geothermal systems to overseeing the construction of readiness centers, costs ranging from $25,000 to $28 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is rarely a day that goes by that I don\u2019t learn something new about the workings of the Army, about a construction project,\u201d she said. \u201cI always feel like if I don\u2019t learn something new, I\u2019ve wasted my day. Or if I don\u2019t get to teach somebody something new. Kris Upson mentored me and taught me how to do it, so now I get to pass that skill on to others.”<\/p>\n

Story by Jean Kozubowski<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26675,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFeature: Welch '13, G '14 Credits Mentorship, Influence of Professor - Kansas Wesleyan University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kwu.edu\/about\/news\/feature-welch-13-g-14-remembers-mentorship-influence-of-professor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Feature: Welch '13, G '14 Credits Mentorship, Influence of Professor - 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