After a lifetime on campus, Mitchell Tech's Carmen Neugebauer retires from key financial aid role
Jun. 17—MITCHELL — Carmen Neugebauer has just about seen it all at Mitchell Technical College.
That stands to reason, as she has spent the last 42 years of her professional career working as an assistant financial aid director for the school, helping countless students and parents navigate the technical ins and outs of scholarships, grants and other aspects of funding their education.
It's been a long road, but Neugebauer finally came to the end of the line earlier this week when she officially retired after four decades on the job.
"You think back, and boy, all the changes," Neugebauer said. "It's wild."
Her retirement officially closes the book on her time as the longest-tenured employee at Mitchell Technical College. And while that's impressive enough, she was also once the school's youngest employee. As a 1981 graduate of the Mitchell Technical College steno accounting program, the Corsica native was offered a job right as she was completing graduation.
She has been there ever since, and has become an fixture in the finance office, able to recall dozens of students, administrators, coworkers, parents and colleagues. Her experience has seen changes of office, a campus move to the Interstate 90 corridor, a couple of title changes of her own and many changes in school procedure and policy.
She first set foot on campus after graduating from Corsica High School in 1979, when it was still called Mitchell Area Vocational Technical School.
"I knew that I didn't want to go too far from home, because I loved my home area in Corsica. Mitchell was a big town compared to Corsica," Neugebauer said. "But I had checked it out and I just fell in love with the school and knew that's what I wanted to do."
Back then, the school didn't award degrees, it awarded diplomas. She initially signed up for a one-year diploma program, but was enjoying herself so much she decided to stay on for further education.
Toward the end of her school days at Mitchell Technical College, she took on a work study program with the financial aid office, where she did inventory for the school district. Even in her first official working capacity for the school, she was becoming intimately familiar with the campus.
"I went through every nook and cranny the district had and put stickers on everything. I helped unload semi loads of paper. I did whatever I was told," Neugebauer said.
When her work study program was finished, her supervisor at the time, Grant Uecker, offered her a full-time job in the finance office. She had worked part-time jobs like babysitting and at the local cafe when she was a high school and technical student, but this was a full-time offer, something she was keen to pursue.
Not entirely sure of her career path at the time, Neugebauer couldn't believe her good luck.
"It was right after I graduated, and (Uecker) asked me if I would like a job working in financial aid. And I almost cried," Neugebauer said.
It was a fortunate break, but it was intimidating. Although trained in accounting, school finance can be a complicated discipline, filled with procedure, forms, red tape and balancing accounts down to the penny.
"I was scared of financial aid. I would go home and think I couldn't do it, (but I thought) I have to give it time. Put your all into it and it will be what it is," Neugebauer said. "I did. I gave it a year. Then I decided to give it five years. Then 15 years."
That 15 years turned into a great career of 42 years. And she has seen a lot of changes in those 42 years.
The passage of time has seen many changes in every aspect of life since 1981. That certainly holds true for Neugebauer and her time at Mitchell Tech.
During her tenure at the school, the technical college has undergone four name changes, multiple office relocations as well as the campus moving from what is now the Mitchell Career and Technical Education Academy on Capital Street to the current campus along Interstate 90.
"I've seen a lot of letterhead," Neugebauer laughs when asked about the name changes.
She spent her first 28 years with the school at the Capital Street location, which is now scheduled to become part of the new Mitchell High School building that is currently under construction.
Advances in technology alone make her job in 2023 look almost entirely different back in 1981.
"Back in the old days, we did everything by hand. We had
a mimeograph machine.
We didn't have computers, we had typewriters. We certified loans by hand. In my first years I'd count trays of money from the lines, balancing it to the penny," Neugebauer said.
The process of student financing changed over the years as well. What was once a process facilitated through lenders and guarantee agencies — essentially a combination insurance company, loan servicer and debt collector — is now done through state government. When that happened, the whole structure of the student finance changed.
"It was hard, just the progression of how it used to be done, and how much financial aid has changed," Neugebauer said.
Of course, after 42 years on the job, the faces she sees every day change. She has seen countless students pass through her office door and talked to many over the phone, helping them through their student loan processes and payments. Every few years, she has seen a whole new crop of them fill the school campus to further their education before they once again soldier off into their new careers.
It may be difficult for her to remember everybody she has helped or worked with, but that doesn't mean many of them don't remember her. Just recently, Neugebauer was helping a student's mother with registration when she mentioned that she had helped her other daughter with financing, as well.
And then she mentioned that she herself had been helped by Neugebauer when she attended school there.
"So your second daughter is coming through and I also helped you?" Neugebauer recalled. "I definitely remember some, and I stay in touch with some. There are some very good friendships with students and parents with bonds to this day. That's a good feeling, just to get a thank you for helping. It makes a world of difference."
The faces of her colleagues have changed as well. Dennis Petersen was the district superintendent, Alan Christenson was business manager and Roy Ziegler was head of the technical school when she was hired, and she has seen several come and go since then. Many became friends, and it was those with whom she worked in the trenches that made it special coming into work every day.
"The friendships. Whether they were coworkers, parents, students. Friendships that lasted through the years. They always made us feel like we're all a family there, and it is a family environment," Neugebauer said. "I love it, and I'm really going to miss it, but it came to be time."
As much as she enjoys her work, her coworkers and the school, it is time to start the next chapter in her life.
Now living in Dimock with her husband Bryan, who is also semi-retired, the decades of driving to work and a rigid schedule have added up over the years. She is hoping to spend more time with her husband in the later years of her life and make more time for herself.
Morgan Huber, the current director of financial aid at Mitchell Technical College, was born just a few days before Neugebauer started work at Mitchell Tech back in 1981. She also said Neugebauer has been invaluable to her and her office staff as a source of legacy information.
That extended to both coworkers and student families, she said.
"For Carmen, financial aid wasn't just about the business of paying for college — it was also about relationships, and the students and their families seemed to appreciate the care that she showed," Huber said. "I have always loved to hear families who stop in to get questions answered and realize Carmen was able to help one of both of their parents. The parents love to see and visit with her."
The staff held an ice cream social in honor of Neugebauer earlier this week, and while she technically has a few days left on her contract, she is officially on vacation and unofficially retired. The time for her to start focusing on time for herself and her husband has arrived.
But she doesn't want to just relax. She wants to make a habit of taking morning walks and has her eye set on volunteering in some capacity, perhaps a nursing home. An engaging conversationalist after decades of working with parents and coworkers, she sees volunteering at a nursing home as a possibility.
"I'm not going to rush into things. I'm going to start going through the cupboards and cabinets. And I've always wanted to go for walks. I'll probably go quilting with the church ladies. And I really want to volunteer with a hospital or nursing home," Neugebauer said. "That's something I've wanted to do. Some (nursing home residents) never get visitors, and that breaks my heart. I've never taken time to volunteer, but it's needed."
