T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — From left to right, Marshalltown High School Principal Justin Boliver, Marshalltown Community College Dean of Students and Learning Services Nate Chua, new Marshalltown Education Partnership (MEP) Program Coordinator Mia Barajas, new MEP Board Co-Chair and former Program Coordinator Karina Hernandez, outgoing MEP Board Chairman Terry Buzbee and fellow incoming MEP Board Co-Chair Michelle Burgess pose for a photo at MHS on Thursday afternoon.

(Editor’s note: This is the fourth in an occasional series of stories commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Marshalltown Education Partnership, a program led by local businesses and nonprofit organizations to provide scholarships to first generation college students from MHS who attend MCC.)

As the individuals and organizations who have made the Marshalltown Education Partnership (MEP) such a successful endeavor celebrate its 20-year anniversary in 2025, it is also a time of great transition with the hiring of new Program Coordinator Mia Barajas and the passing of the torch from longtime MEP Board Chairman Terry Buzbee to a pair of successors, co-chairs Michelle Burgess and Karina Hernandez, who held the program coordinator position before Barajas and now serves as the school and partnership manager for 3DE.

Barajas moved to Marshalltown in seventh grade and graduated from MHS, and while she herself was not a first-generation college student, her father David Barajas, who once served on the MEP board himself, was. Mia said she learned of the opportunity through Hernandez, a close friend, and decided she wanted to shift her career focus toward working with high school and college students after previously serving as a behavior counselor at Heart and Solutions in Grundy Center. She’s been on the job for about six weeks now.

“Karina has taught me a lot. I’m at the high school three days a week, so I can kind of bother her whenever I like to if she’s not busy. I think our goals are to keep getting more students (and) giving out more scholarships, but also really focusing on the students we have already,” Barajas said. “We have almost 400 students (enrolled in MEP), so getting to talk to them at least once a month is my goal.”

Hernandez was effusive in praising her replacement, citing her skillset, background and understanding of the struggles first-generation college students so often face. Barajas finished an AA degree at MCC while still in high school before moving on to Iowa State University (ISU), and she recalled the stories her father had told her during her adolescent years.

“He didn’t know about these scholarships, and he didn’t even know how to turn in his college application. Obviously, times are different now, so I think just growing up, he really instilled in me how important education is and how important going to college is or even a trade school,” Barajas said.

Hernandez, who led the program for about three years, is excited to step into a new leadership role leading the MEP board of directors alongside Burgess, a training and development manager in the Human Resources department at Emerson. Buzbee, a former Fisher/Emerson executive himself, helped to spearhead the creation of MEP back in 2005 as he noticed the community’s shifting demographics and a need to ensure that students had opportunities to further their education locally while positioning themselves for jobs with some of Marshalltown’s largest employers.

“I think one of the neatest things is to see (Buzbee’s) leadership and, when he was (at Emerson), getting us focused on the community and giving back to the community and understanding the value of that. And this program is so great for that,” Burgess said. “Keeping (students) rooted here in the community is what is so important to us.”

As an example, Buzbee noted that with Emerson looking to hire machinists at the Governor Road facility, MCC students will be touring next week and connecting with job opportunities.

“To me, one of the big powers is getting leadership from MHS and MCC together with business leaders, and good things happen,” he said.

With an increasing general shift toward the promotion of careers in the trades and certificates or two-year degrees, the MEP has also shifted its focus to accommodate those students, not just those who obtain an AA at MCC and then move on to a four-year university.

“Any time we can continue to remove barriers for students, especially first-gen students, we do still have students that they have no idea how to access college,” MHS Principal Justin Boliver said. “So this opportunity that was created 20-some years ago has really opened the door for education of more students and, again, removed barriers that were once there… Anything that we can do to help students (and) show them ‘Hey, there’s an education out there,’ whether it’s four years of college, two years of college or the trades, there’s something out there for everybody, and let us help you find that pathway and get there.”

Nate Chua, the dean of students and learning services at MCC, touted the fact that MEP is particularly unique because of its focus on keeping graduates within the Marshalltown community and connecting them with employment opportunities as adults. Currently, the skilled trade programs at MCC are at full enrollment capacity.

“Our goal is for them to achieve academically and to build their careers, but part of what we love to see, the thing that would thrill us most is for those former MEP students to eventually take our seats because then that means they’re part of this community. They’ve built a foundation for themselves in local businesses, organizations, whatever it is, to be able to be like ‘You know what? MEP gave me my start,’ and hopefully we can cycle them back around to being part of this leadership,” he said.

In conjunction with the anniversary, several other businesses beyond Emerson, such as MARSHALLTOWN Company and Mechdyne, have become contributing partners to the MEP, and Buzbee sees that partnership as crucial to filling the growing employment needs within the community.

“That’s a powerful story to be able to say ‘Hey, we have plants here,’ but you don’t always have skills and resources locally,” he said. “You’ve got an opportunity within a Marshalltown plant that’s been here for 100 years. That’s a neat story.”

And with new leadership taking the reins, Buzbee is confident that the MEP will keep thriving as he noted that the program has already been through six coordinators and three generations of Emerson, MCC and MHS leadership on the board.

“What’s great about MEP? It’s been around 20 years,” he said. “We spend $100,000 a year, and so it takes funds to do that, to carry on for 20 years. But now, we’re spending at a higher rate. We’re in a good position, but we’re always gonna need to prove the return of this program so we can go to our sponsors next time and say ‘Will you up again?'”

The most rewarding aspect of his involvement, according to Buzbee, is the chance to ask the scholars themselves “What has MEP done for you?” Graduates of the program are frequently asked to return and speak to students, and one of the featured alums this year is none other than Ward 1 City Councilor-elect Marco Yepez-Gomez, who obtained a degree in software engineering from ISU, eventually returned for a job at MARSHALLTOWN Company and is now taking on a new role as one of the youngest councilors in the city’s history.

“We’ve met the mission. What makes your heart feel good is we set that kind of vision out 20 years ago, and it’s being executed,” Buzbee said.