Eastern Iowa Community Colleges to be featured on TV show ‘The College Tour’

By Joe McCoy, WQAB – ABC I October 17, 2023

RIVERDALE, Iowa — Eastern Iowa Community Colleges is getting a special opportunity to showcase itself on the world stage. It’s part of the TV show, “The College Tour,” hosted by Alex Boylan, the winner of the Amazing Race Season 2. 

“It’s so important to have community colleges,” Boylan said. “The goal of each episode is to tell the story of that specific institution through the lens of their students and bring that story to life.”

The show’s conception began when Boylan’s niece was touring colleges. She was unable to tour all the colleges she wished to because of financial restrictions.

“I can still hear like it was yesterday. My older sister was like, ‘Izzy, we don’t have money to travel all across the country looking at every school you want to,'” Boylan said. He wanted to bring the college tour experience into the living rooms of prospective students and alleviate the financial burden. 

10 students at Eastern Iowa Community College are being highlighted, including Bradley Thiessen-Cooper.

“I’m a non traditional student,” Thiessen-Cooper said. “So I actually graduated high school in 2007 and I took a little bit of time off, took my own path through life, and then my husband encouraged me to go back to school in 2019.”

Bradley is also the Executive Assistant for Resource Development at EICC, helping other students gain scholarships. He graduates from EICC in December and will attend St. Ambrose University next fall to begin his bachelors degree. 

“It takes community to get the student through school,” Thiessen-Cooper said. “And that working together, building up students, we also build our community up. I hear a lot of people say that the best investment that you can make is in yourself, and it’s totally true.”

The 30 minute episode will air in May on Amazon Video and Tubi.