Public Relations

Local Business Owner Excited About New NWACC Alumni Association

A new NWACC Alumni Association will celebrate its start at an Alumni Welcome Back to NWACC Picnic on Saturday, August 23rd, from noon till 2:00 on the lawn north of the student center. Food and drinks will be provided. Bring your lawn chair or blanket and come out and enjoy live entertainment by the Kory Montgomery Band.

ROGERS (Wednesday, August 20, 2008) – Rick McLeod, an agent with Farmers Insurance in Rogers, is very excited about the growth at NorthWest Arkansas Community College (NWACC) and believes that an alumni association is a great idea.

At age 28 McLeod had a great job as a team leader at a local manufacturing company but he had advanced as far as he could without a college degree. It was then, in 1998, that McLeod decided to attend classes at NWACC. He called it one of the best decisions he ever made.

McLeod completed two classes per semester for the next two years. In 2000, McLeod was recruited by Farmers Insurance where he worked part-time while still working full time at the factory and attending classes at NWACC.

“I’m really not sure why, I think maybe it had something to do with me taking classes at NWACC, but I just started receiving recruitment letters from Farmers,” McLeod said.

During this time, McLeod still had no intention of leaving the factory until an offer came from Farmers that was just too good to pass up. The change to Farmers came in 2001 when he left the factory. Opening a new business also proved difficult to continue classes so after finishing the spring 2001 semester he stopped out of NWACC.

Things were going well and business was good until McLeod was hit with two big eye-openers. The first came when a wealthy client took his business and a $10,000 commission to another business because he wouldn’t do business with someone who did not have a college degree.

The second came when his children reached college age and argued that they shouldn’t have to go to college because he was doing great and he didn’t have a college degree.

McLeod returned to NWACC in the fall of 2005 and graduated in the fall of 2007 with an Associate of Science-General Business Degree. McLeod wanted to take it further so he began classes at the University of Phoenix in 2006. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Business Management Degree in August of this year.

He will go on to begin classes at John Brown University in October of this year working toward an MBA.

On top of his full-time job operating his own business, attending college, and spending time with his wife Naomi, and five children, Cosmo and wife Patty, Nathan, Kelsea, Echo, and Eric, McLeod is very involved in the community.

He is President of the Rogers Noon Rotary, President of Rebuilding Together in NWA, a member of the Drug Free Rogers/Lowell Coalition, serves on the Small Business Council with the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce, is a member of the Lowell Recreation Association, served on the Board of Directors for NWA Chapter of the American Red Cross, served on the Board for the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce, and is an active member of the First Baptist Church of Lowell.

McLeod believes that, “Community service is the way to give back to a community that gives you so much; if you can be effectively engaged, the community is a better place for everyone.”

McLeod loved his NWACC experience and said that his NWACC education equipped him with many of the tools he needed to operate his successful business.

McLeod was so pleased with his NWACC experience that his daughter, Echo, is a current student at NWACC.
“Education allows you to open your eyes and understand that there is so much more out there,” he said of his undergraduate experiences.

McLeod likes the idea of an alumni association at NWACC.

“NWACC has been around since 1989, it’s about time for an alumni association,” he said, adding that he will be involved and believes it is a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends, meet people, and reconnect to the college.

“I am very excited about what is happening at NWACC,” he said. “They do a great job for our community; I never thought the college would be what it is now.”

PHOTO CAPTION: Rick McLeod

For more information about the NWACC Alumni Association contact Becky Hudson, Alumni Relations Coordinator, at 479-619-3103 or visit our website at www.nwacc.edu/alumni.

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