NCC student, Nissa Passmore, finds her way

Nissa Passmore may be one of the happiest students at Normandale. So much so that when she talks openly about her life, she does so with laughter and without regrets. What’s more, Passmore has found her niche in worlds still considered male-dominated.
“I haven’t felt that growing up,” the NCC student said.
Shortly after Passmore was born in Corning, N.Y., her family moved to Minnesota. At the age of four, she started playing hockey when her brothers started playing the game.
Passmore remembers that ice hockey was a man’s game back then.
“Before they had women’s hockey, there was a sport called Ringette; it was a pretty big Canadian and European sport, but on hockey skates,” Passmore said. “You just had a straight stick with no blade and a rubber ring with a hole in the middle instead of a puck; and, you pretty much had the same room.”
“Then, we all got together and voted in the early 90s. However, it was more like, ‘Do you guys (girls) want to start playing hockey?’
When the female players were doing the changeover to hockey, Passmore remembers the transition was difficult.
“The men were so against it that they got mad at us,” Passmore said. “There was constant trouble because they thought that we were taking away from their ice time.”
“They, the Peewee male players who were about 12, used to have the rink all the time. We had to go at the odd hours at early mornings, because they didn’t want their schedules to change. There were negative reactions coming from both the guys and the parents, the Eagan Boosters later ... I think it was pretty much everywhere.
“So we (female players) got the bad hours and heard stuff like, ‘women shouldn’t be playing hockey,’ ‘women shouldn’t be doing this’ or ‘it might hurt the women’s back.’ It just took forever.”
In 1994, Minnesota actually became the first state to approve women's ice hockey as a high school varsity sport, according to Women’s College Hockey in the U.S.A. at http://www.whockey.com/univ/usa/. This happened before women’s hockey became part of the Winter Olympics in 1998 at Nagano, Japan.
“I still think that women should be allowed to ‘check’ but they can’t,” Passmore said. “We still have a ways to go.”
For two years, Passmore, a Minnesota Wild fan, played on the Eagan High School girls’ hockey team until she dropped out of school in the 10th grade and just started working.
Afterward, Passmore got her graduate equivalency diploma and found her way to college.
At first, she thought she wanted to be a nurse. But, when Passmore transferred to and applied at Dakota County Technical College, St. Cloud State University and Inver Hills Community College with a 4.0 grade point average, she just couldn’t get her foot in the door fast enough.
“They kept talking about waiting and that it’d take years to get in,” Passmore said. “And, I think that I was going to be 23-24 and I was kind of in a rush.”
That’s when Passmore moved back to New York to a small town with a school where she knew she could get into nursing.
“But, I went one semester, started working on the farms, stopped going to school and met a boyfriend and fell in love,” Passmore said. “That’s when I lived out there two years and moved back here.”
So, Passmore left the boyfriend in New York?
“I left him in New York. It probably ended up being the best thing that I ever did,” Passmore said. “But, it was a good experience and changed my life.”
While working on the farms, Passmore got an appreciation for being outside and seeing how hard the farmers have to work to maintain their farmland and equipment as well as help their neighbors’ farms.
“It was a lot of hard work up there and especially because it was a poor community,” Passmore said. “And, they had the kind of equipment that you had to fix all the time.”
When Passmore came back to Minnesota, “I had to move back home and it’s been kind of difficult to live at home again. But, I’m glad to be home,” Passmore said. “And, I’ve paid off a lot of my bills and financial aid. I’ll have a big loan when I’m all done. “
When she returned to college, this time it was at Normandale. But, when Passmore started a student worker job on campus with Building Services, that’s when her academic life started to fall in place.
“Before, I transferred schools all the time. But, I think working here really helped me,” Passmore said, “and, getting to know everybody, just feeling comfortable with it.”
“And you really get to know the individual departments (at NCC) and learn how to do pretty much everything; you get what needs to be done. I never know what we have going on usually, because we do so many different things.”
Gaining experience in the department also led Passmore to a big change in her career path to construction management.
“So, like Mike Koreen (physical plant director) and Chris Broin (foreman), they took me to the business meetings, a few of them, when the construction (Activities Building) was going on,” Passmore said. “So, they try to help, kind of show me what my major would be about.”
“And, they’ve been really flexible, so that if you can’t make it, if you have to study, they always say, ‘school is first.’ Right now, I can’t do too much because I can’t miss my classes. They are just a really good group to work with.”
Because she played hockey for 14 years, Passmore doesn’t mind working outdoors on campus either during the cold winters.
“I really like it when I’m working. I do love it, I don’t know why,” she said.
Another thing Passmore really likes about NCC is the teachers here. “I think they’re some of the best I’ve seen ever,” Passmore said.
Does she have a favorite teacher?
“So far, Jim Frankenfeld, have you had him?” Nissa said. “He’s just so ... he deserves recognition. “
“I’ve never had a teacher that cares as much as he does. And, he just brings a class together. And, he answers e-mails right away.
The first day of class, he said it’s his job, ‘E-mail me, I want to be bothered.’ I really respect him. I took his speech class; it just ended yesterday.”
“I had Gordon Graham for interpersonal and he’s another really good (Communication) teacher,” Passmore said.
“I had Rick Dunning in geology. When he talks about his subjects, you can tell he’s enthusiastic and he makes you want to pay attention, ” Passmore said. “It’s an interesting class. You wouldn’t think rocks would be interesting, but it has been.”
Which instructor at NCC has had the biggest impact on Passmore?
“I would say Jim Frankenfeld just because he does cares so much,” Passmore said. “And, that was half my problem growing up when I was young. Teachers just didn’t really seem to care. So, that’s special.”
Regarding Frankenfeld’s “Public Speaking” class on Tuesdays from 6-10 p.m., “I was really scared to take the class but it was fun,” Passmore said. “I hated to see it end in certain ways.”
Did Public speaking help her become a better speaker?
“Actually, I wouldn’t say ‘become,’ but it helped me be aware of the problems that I have giving speeches,” Passmore said, “because you are forced to watch yourself on video.”
“So, that really helped me because I kind of slur my words a lot when I’m nervous, or mumble. And, so, I didn’t realize it until I watched the tape.
“Then, I called my mom up and said, ‘Mom, why didn’t you tell me I have a lisp?’ She said, ‘You don’t have a lisp, you just mumble sometimes.’”
When Passmore graduates with an associate in arts degree in May, the 27-year-old plans to head off to Minnesota State University, Moorhead, to get her bachelor’s degree in construction management.
“A lot of friends in the construction field got me into it,” Passmore said. “When they went on contracting jobs, I used to travel with them and I just found it really interesting.”
Passmore said her mother thinks construction management is a perfect fit because of her type of personality.
“My mom knew someone who was a female who went into the field and she’s doing great,” Passmore said. It’s a good job for women. They need women in the field and I find the craft interesting.”
Has Passmore been happy with her decisions?
“Yeah, I’m really excited,” Passmore said. “So, next (fall) semester, I have to take construction graphics and all the core classes. I’m really excited.”
Looking back, Passmore does not have any regrets that she didn’t pursue nursing.
“I don’t think I would have made a good nurse. I like getting dirty, I like being physical,” Passmore said.