Nick Kolbasook's summer job has brought him back to a place he's very familiar with, but he's wielding tools instead of textbooks. He's an Onondaga Community College student who is also leading a demolition team for E. Smith Contractors, LLC, which is gutting the first floor of Ferrante Hall on the OCC campus. The work Kolbasook and his team are doing is the beginning of a two-year-long renovation of all of the spaces where students in OCC's health-related programs will prepare for rewarding careers. "It's been going well. It's demolition. It's hard work. You're taking down block walls."
Kolbasook isn't your traditional-aged college student. He's a 31-year-old native of Akwesasne, a Mohawk Nation territory on the St. Lawrence River, which straddles the border of Canada and the United States. He completed his early years of schooling up there, and high school down here at Corcoran in Syracuse. He came to OCC right out of high school, but stopped going to classes after a week.
More than a decade later, he began considering continuing his education after hearing about OCC's Return to Complete program. It gives students the opportunity to return to school while putting past college debt on hold, reduced, or forgiven. In the fall of 2024, Kolbasook took advantage of the opportunity and enrolled at OCC for a second time. "My maturity level, my commitment are so different now. The first time, I didn't think twice about not going to class. This time my grades are really good. I take it very seriously. It's an entirely different experience."
With age has come a strong desire to give back to the community that shaped him, where so many of his immediate and extended family members still live. It's the reason why he chose to pursue a degree in Electromechanical Technology. "I want to go back to Akwesasne and build water turbines on the river. It's a dream of mine to provide us with our own power. Electromechanical Technology seemed the most efficient way to do it."
Kolbasook will complete his degree in 2026, then begin working toward fulfilling his dream.
