Hello to Our Newest Partner
Meet David Pope, lead representative for our newest Convergence Technology Center partner college, Ozarks Technical Community College. David holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Missouri State University. Prior to joining OTC, David worked in hospital information systems for five years, and has worked in collections, legal investigation, and game design.
Currently, David teaches courses in Networking Technology at OTC. Having been with the college since 2000, David had been teaching there for almost 10 years when he first learned of the Convergence College Network. “I’m not sure how I wound up on the mailing list but I received a flyer describing the CCN and its mission and I was immediately interested,” David said. “The notion of gaining professional development training on the most recent IT topics appealed to me.” David then attended his first Working Connections with the CTC in Summer of 2011.
“I was not disappointed. The course track I attended was content-rich to say the least, and was taught by an authority on the topic. Further, my fellow attendees were friendly and open to conversation. So, not only did I learn about storage management (my chosen track), I got to find out what other instructors were teaching and what issues and advantages they had. The fellowship alone would have been worth the trip, but the course content sealed the deal; I was sold, and I wanted my department to be a part of the CCN, David said.
Following his first Working Connections, David applied for membership into the Convergence College Network, and by November 2012, OTC was accepted. Since that time, David has endeavored to support the CTC wherever possible and attended every Working Connections at Collin College in Frisco, TX. David has also had the opportunity to teach at Working Connections and several of his colleagues from OTC have started attending as well. David is committed to ongoing support of the CTC’s growth and quality efforts as well as exploration of new directions in content delivery and student assessment.
In late 2014, the notion of OTC becoming a CTC partner came up in conversation and in Spring 2015, OTC made the transition from CCN member to CTC partner. “It is an honor and privilege for my department,” David said. “My college administration has noted this accomplishment with favor and it is my belief that the best is yet to come.”