Paducah, KY (June 27, 2016) – Mayfield native Janett Blythe has written a new book documenting West Kentucky Community and Technical College’s extraordinary transformation over the past 16 years.The public is invited to attend the book signing with Blythe, WKCTC’s marketing and public relations director, Thursday, July 7 from 4 – 6 p.m. at Paducah School of Art and Design’s (PSAD) 2D and Graphic Design Building, located at 905 Harrison Street.
During the book signing to be held in PSAD’s Ford Art Gallery, the public is also invited to meet WKCTC’s interim president, Dr. Charles Chrestman.
West Kentucky Community and Technical College: Formative Years (2000 - 2016), Blythe’s third book, details the college’s process of redesigning, reinventing and resetting itself. Fifteen years later, and for a third time, WKCTC was named by the prestigious Aspen Institute as one of the top community colleges in the nation.
This book is a pictorial history that provides a riveting glimpse of the college’s remarkable journey from newly consolidated college to one of the best community colleges in the nation. The limited-edition book features more than 200 photographs celebrating the college’s upward strides, as well as its continuing transformation.
Her first book, My West Kentucky: A History of West Kentucky Technical College, 1909 – 1999, was published in June 2000 and helped raised more than $4,000 for a scholarship fund at the college in memory of her brothers, Donald, a WKCTC surgical technology graduate, and Kevin. A second book, Upward Stride: A Pictorial History of West Kentucky Community and Technical College, released in 2008 described the history of both West Kentucky Technical College and Paducah Community College and the beginnings of the consolidated West Kentucky Community and Technical College.
"After I wrote Upward Stride, I really didn't think we would write another history about the college, but as I looked back at what has been accomplished at this college in such a short amount of time, it became obvious to me how important it was to share this story,” said Blythe.
The college’s leadership, faculty, staff and students can be so proud of what has been accomplished at West Kentucky but so can this entire community, Blythe added.
“It really has been an inspirational journey for West Kentucky. I hope this book inspires others as much as this journey has inspired me. This is not just a story about a college's success. It's about a community's success.”
Blythe graduated from George C. Marshall High School in Ankara, Turkey, before gaining a bachelor's degree from Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va. in 1983. She earned her master's degree in journalism and communication from the University of Florida in 1985. Blythe was an education reporter and columnist for the Paducah Sun before accepting her current position at WKCTC in 1993.