“Pratt Junior College was a blessing in my life. I’m convinced if I hadn’t attended Pratt Junior College, I would not have made it at K-State in Engineering and possibly not in my career.”

Richard Kerschen was born and raised on a farm just north of St. Leo, a small community in western Kingman County. Kerschen admits while growing up, he wasn’t the ideal student.

“I didn’t work very hard in high school,” said Kerschen. “Classes were pretty easy for me and I didn’t study much. I wasn’t ready for college.”

“This community college is dear to my heart. If it hadn’t been for Pratt Community College, I would never be where I am at today. If it hadn’t been for a couple of my favorite teachers, I wouldn’t be where I am at today.”

Dwane DeWeese graduated from Cunningham High School in the spring of 1959. The following fall, he along with five other friends, carpooled from Cunningham to Pratt to enroll at what was known as Pratt Junior College at the time.

One hundred dollars – the amount may seem insignificant to some, but to Marvin Proctor, the $100 scholarship he received to attend Pratt Community College in 1957 would be the start to an education that would provide him a lifelong career with the institution, even if he did not know it at the time.

“You either hated Verneene, or you loved her!”

Verneene Forssberg, former instructor at Pratt Community College, recalls what many students and peers thought in her 38 years of teaching and coaching at the institution.

Forssberg began her journey at PCC in 1968. She and her husband moved to Pratt the previous year, as he was teaching at the middle school and she was preparing to have a baby.

Elizabeth Bible began her journey at Pratt Community College as a student in the fall of 1954. She attended PCC until she graduated in 1956 with her Associate’s Degree in Art and Business. At the time, she had no idea she would dedicate the next 50 years as an employee of the college.