Kaskaskia College held its fourth annual Pre-engineering Banquet last week to honor the success of the program and this year’s six graduating sophomores, including a couple from Nashville.  The banquet host was Professor Eric Hofelich (Hoff-lick), Coordinator of the Pre-engineering program and Professor of Mathematics at the College.  Guests included the graduating students and their families, and others from KC.  Hofelich said that the Pre-Engineering program is going strong at KC, with six graduating sophomores this spring and twenty more enrolled in the program and expected to finish in 2015.  Dr. Jim Underwood, President of KC, thanked the graduates in choosing Kaskaskia College to begin their academic careers, and praised the faculty for the accomplishments in making Pre-Engineering a great program over the course of six years.  Kyle Mueller, a graduating sophomore and the President of the Kaskaskia Engineering Association, said they prepare the students about different engineering fields with trips of the SIUC and SIUE campuses, the Wood River refinery, and Nascote.  Professor Sandra Cox, longtime Mathematics instructor at KC, recently announced her plan to retire and the banquet spontaneously became, in part, a tribute to her, as both Dr. Underwood and Hofelich praised Cox for her professionalism and attitude of going the extra mile to ensure that her students would succeed.  Local graduating students include Mueller and Jordan Dalaviras of Nashville, Andrew Adams of Carlyle and Christopher Heckman of Salem.