How a non-traditional student expanded his career and community roots at NICC

When Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) celebrates a milestone like its 60th anniversary, the true measure of its impact isn’t found in the brick-and-mortar buildings on campus. It’s found in the lives of the people who walked through its doors, redefined their futures and stayed to reinvest in the region.

Corey Tieskoetter is a testament to that legacy. Today, Tieskoetter is a successful business development officer in the crop insurance division at Farm Credit Services of America, where he manages a six-county territory in northeast Iowa. But over a decade ago, he was a nontraditional student stepping far outside his comfort zone.

By 2012, Tieskoetter had spent more than a decade in the workforce. He had good jobs and worked with great people, but he reached a point where he realized he wanted to do something different. Living in Ossian, NICC was the logical place to look.

“It really puts that community perspective in it when you can live in a community, work in a community and still attend classes in a community,” Tieskoetter said.
Initially, he didn’t intend to earn a full degree, starting with just a few certificate courses. Then he crossed paths with Nate Gebel - an NICC instructor at the time who happened to be taking the same class for his continuing education hours.

“If anybody knows Nate, he’s quite a salesman,” Tieskoetter laughs. “We probably were a lot closer in age than I was to a lot of the students at the time. I ended up having a class with him and told him what I wanted to do. He convinced me to get into a full-time student role, which was quite a change after 12 years of being out of school. Definitely out of my comfort zone.”

That push led Tieskoetter to commit completely, graduating in 2014 with an Agriculture Finance certificate followed by an Associate of Applied Science in Agriculture Business. Returning to the classroom after an extended period away presented unique but rewarding dynamics. Tieskoetter found that his time spent in the workforce gave him an edge and a level of focus he didn’t possess as a teenager.

“I applied myself way more than I would have right after high school,” he reflects. “I was a little bit older and more mature and focused.”

To get through the program quickly, Tieskoetter put his nose to the grindstone. He balanced a demanding work schedule with intense course loads - once taking 24 credits in a single semester, and another time balancing 14 credits alongside an internship and his regular job. He credits the sheer flexibility of the College’s online options, along with the deep investment of the faculty, for helping him succeed.

“I just can’t emphasize the people enough,” Tieskoetter says. “That’s probably the biggest part of what really made me successful.”

Tieskoetter focused his education on agriculture because he grew up on a farm and knew there were plenty of career options close to home. When he graduated, the job market validated his decision immediately, bringing several great opportunities his way.

He ultimately landed at Farm Credit Services of America, where he has spent the last seven years working alongside the instructor who originally talked him into returning to school, Nate Gebel.

“A big part of my job is sales and a portion of it is service,” Tieskoetter explains. “A lot of the computer programs I learned when I went back to school, I use daily. Public speaking was very beneficial too.”

Beyond the technical skills, Tieskoetter found immense value in his general education courses. “Psychology is so important. People are the biggest part of every job. If you can understand and work with people, you can succeed in almost anything you want to do.”

Tieskoetter’s ties to NICC didn’t end when he walked across the graduation stage. Over the past decade, he has served on the Agriculture Advisory Committee, spoken at college events and frequently returns to campus alongside Gebel to speak to agriculture classes.

Looking back at his journey in honor of the college’s 60th anniversary, Tieskoetter sums up his experience with a sense of profound gratitude:

“Without NICC, I know I wouldn’t be where I am today. It provided so much opportunity and it helped me grow as a person in a lot of ways. I’m forever grateful.”

For anyone sitting on the fence about returning to school as a nontraditional student, Tieskoetter points back to a favorite phrase from his workplace leadership: “Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

“It is very uncomfortable to come back into a learning environment after 12 years off,” Tieskoetter says. “But if you can go through that  little bit of discomfort, your opportunities are just endless.”

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