Featured Stories

Naomi Nichols’ educational journey didn’t start at COTC. She originally enrolled in a four-year university majoring in psychology, but she didn’t feel like she was getting the one-on-one attention necessary to be successful. That’s when she found her way to COTC.

“COTC happened to not only be close to home, so I would actually be able to be close to my family and friends, but also my mom, sister and grandpa had gone to COTC and had all spoken so highly of it,” Nichols says.

Associate Professor Cindy Washington is a teacher, a nurse and an author. She has been a faculty member at COTC since 2007, where she currently teaches the advanced adult health nursing course at the Newark campus. In 2022, Washington was one of the contributing authors in the Columbus Black Nurses Association’s (CBNA) first book: “The Voices of Black Nurses Our Challenges and Triumphs During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Book sales support scholarships for CBNA nursing students.

The fall after she graduated from Chillicothe High School, Kristen Eblin started a radiologic sciences degree at a four-year university. About halfway through, she realized that she was in the wrong major at the wrong school. Fortunately, she discovered a new passion, and today she’s found her match with the diagnostic medical sonography technology (DMS) program at Central Ohio Technical College (COTC).

After being diagnosed with the autoimmune disorder alopecia universalis in 2016 and losing her hair to it, Central Ohio Technical College (COTC) student Katherine McCoy thought she had lost herself.

“Initially it was devastating for me. I felt as if I had lost my identity. Throughout the years, I have grown to accept and embrace my hair loss,” she said.

McCoy realized that a career helping others through their own difficulties would be the perfect way to redefine the possibilities of her life.

In recognition of Medical Ultrasound Awareness Month this October, COTC celebrates the impact that the many alumni, current students and faculty of its diagnostic medical sonography technology program have on the lives of their patients.

Instructor Beth Eyster started teaching at COTC in 2011 as part of the diagnostic medical sonography technology (DMS) program. She teaches many course topics including basic sonography scan skills, human anatomy, echocardiography, abdominal sonography and sonographic physics. She also serves as the clinical coordinator for the DMS program. 

Associate Professor Kim Gates is not only a registered nurse, but earned a Master of Science in Nursing and specialized professional certifications in the field (CNOR – specialty professional nursing certification for patient care before during and after surgery and C.S.T. – certified surgical technologist). That translates to classroom expertise and being able to offer COTC surgical technology students exactly what they need to know to get a job and continue to succeed in their career. 

Professor Bonnie Buchanan has been teaching at Central Ohio Technical College for more than 17 years. She teaches at the Newark campus and online in a wide range of business topics from introductory courses to software application to team building. Over her years at the college, she has designed and implemented many courses and served as a faculty mentor. Buchanan is also a U.S. Navy Veteran and COTC alumna. 

Julie Newhouse has been a part-time faculty member at Central Ohio Technical college since 2006. She teaches speech courses, including Small Group Communications, Public Speaking and Fundamentals of Communication. She also works as a lecturer and adjunct faculty at three other universities in central Ohio, volunteers at the Licking County Library and is a homeschool group elementary art teacher.