Campus
Communicator
JANUARY • 2016
WVNCC Celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King
Ann Thomas
long-time Wheeling resident, discuss
her life growing up in the midst of
segregation.
Mrs. Thomas is a retired school
nurse for Ohio County Schools who
continues to work part-time. She attended the segregated Lincoln School
but graduated from Wheeling High
School and was the first African
American to graduate from the nursing program at the Ohio Valley Medical Center School of Nursing. She has
taken college-level courses at West
Liberty University.
Some 25 persons earlier this month
attended a Lunch & Learn held on
the Wheeling campus to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Day and
heard Ann Thomas, a well-known and
The speaker detailed the many challenges segregation caused for her as
she furthered her education. Mrs.
Thomas, who was married to the late
Clyde Thomas, a Wheeling city coun-
Text Initiative
sages per month reminding them of
upcoming deadlines and providing
information about important collegeplaning tasks such as applying for financial aid, registering for orientation
and purchasing text books. Additionally, students can text back anytime
they have questions to receive one-onone help from a college counselor.
WVNCC is one of two community
colleges in the state of West Virginia
partnering with several four-year
institutions in a text messaging initiative aimed at new students. Students
heading to college this fall can receive
deadline reminders and get help
completing college-related tasks — all
through text messaging.
The College Foundation of West
Virginia is offering the service to any
West Virginia student considering
entering a two-year college, four-year
college or career and technical program in the fall of 2016. Participating
students will receive a few text mes-
To sign up, students should visit www.
cfwv.com. There is no cost to join, but
standard text messaging rates apply.
Students can cancel the service at any
time.
CFWV is a college- and career-planning outreach initiative led by the
West Virginia Higher Education Poli-
cilman and member of the Wheeling
Ironmen football team, also discussed
their life together when they faced
inequality.
She has two sons, Shawn and Scott,
and four grandchildren. She is serving
or has served on the Wheeling Area
Habitat for Humanity board of directors, the Regional Economic Development board, as an emeritus board
member at OVMC, West Liberty
University Board
of Governors
and the
Wheeling
Lions Club.
cy Commission and the West Virginia
Community and Technical College
System, the state agencies responsible
for overseeing a public agenda for
higher education in West Virginia and
administering services such as statelevel financial aid. The text messaging
project is funded by a grant from the
Kresge Foundation and supported by
partnerships with eight colleges: Bluefield State College, Concord University, Fairmont State University, Marshall University, Shepherd University,
Southern West Virginia Community
and Technical College, West Virginia
Northern Community College and
West Virginia State University.
Wheeling Ca mpus
Winter Fun
From left, Frankie and Emilia tell Santa
their Christmas wishes.
The Children’s Winter Carnival on the
Wheeling campus took place in midDecember and once again Santa Claus
(thanks to John Mehaffey) made a
visit to listen to what all the good little
boys and girls wanted for Christmas.
Taking advantage of that visit, as well
as all the games available in the Education Center’s multi-purpose room,
are the children of Frank and Maresa
Taylor. She’s the program director/
instructor for Paralegal Studies at
WVNCC. Their children are Emilia,
6, and Frankie, 3.
The gathering will be held on the
morning of Friday, Feb. 26, at the
Ramada Morgantown, W.Va., Hotel &
Conference Center. Company representatives will have the opportunity
to learn about the community college
internship program, meet current students, collect resumes and develop a
list of candidates for future interviews.
Establishing potential internships for
the summer of 2016 is the primary focus of the event. However, according
to Leo Gonot, recruitment coordinator for petroleum programs, “This is a
wonderful opportunity to learn more
about the program without obligation to host an internship. It will also
allow companies to meet and collect
resumes from technically trained,
home-grown talent, ready for fulltime employment following graduation in May of 2017.”
She explained the suggestion boxes
will be installed in the main lobby
of the B&O Building, New Martinsville campus and Weirton campus.
“The boxes provide an opportunity
to anonymously (if desired) submit
suggestions, concerns and comments,”
she added, and “all are encouraged to
submit positive solutions that correspond with a concern or complaint.”
Dr. Riley said all submissions will be
reviewed by the president and chief
human resources officer. The Weirton
and New Martinsville campus dean
will review submissions from these
campuses and provide all submissions
to the chief human resources officer,
who will share with the president. All
submissions will be reviewed, logged,
and acted upon when appropriate,
To register for the event, visit http://
Dr. Riley noted, saying, “The College
pierpont.edu/internship. For more
looks forward to receiving suggestions
information, contact Gonot at 304on how we can continue to improve
214-8824 or Gonot@wvctcs.org. He
our services, our campuses and our
also will have a table set up at the 2016 organization.”
Winter Meeting, Feb 2-3, in Charleston.
Suggestions Please
Emilia takes aim.
Calling All Tech Firms
Energy industry companies in West
Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania
are encouraged to meet Petroleum
Technology, Applied Process Technology and Mechatronics students from
Pierpont and West Virginia Northern community colleges at the CTCS
Energy Programs Summer Internship
Event.
boxes on each campus to be used by
employees, students and visitors.
President Riley has announced to
the College community that, based
on employee recommendations, the
College will be installing suggestion
STEM & WVNCC
West Virginia Northern and Sherrard
Middle School in Marshall County
are exploring potential partnerships
based on the middle school’s plans to
expand and enrich the current STEM
(science, technology, engineering, and
math) programs that are offered at the
school.
The initiative with Sherrard is being
coordinated by Dr. Carry DeAtley,
vice president of academic affairs. Dr.
Pam Sharma, physics/mathematics
professor, presented a workshop at the
school as one of the first steps in the
process.
Sherrard personnel explained it is
their goal to offer an education to its
Continued next page...
Faculty and administrators attended
the three-hour interactive workshop
and participated in completing the
activities followed by group discussions. The learning activities were well
received and the faculty members said
they had a better understanding of
STEM curriculum integration.
Faculty and administrators at Sherrard
Middle School in Marshall County participate in a workshop on STEM programs
presented by Dr. Pam Sharma, WVNCC
professor.
current student body that will better
prepare them for tomorrow’s workforce, economy, and political/environmental changes. Part of the school’s
strategic plan is to offer more STEM
courses, enriched and authentic
STEM instruction, and opportunities
to see and participate in STEM professions.
Shortly after the beginning of the fall
semester, Drs. DeAtley and Sharma
met with the Sherrard principal, the
project director, and the STEM faculty
to discuss how WVNCC can help.
During the discussion, it was decided
that Dr. Sharma would present an
overview of the STEM requirements,
strategies to implement the curriculum, and address faculty questions.
Sherrard had a planned in-service day
in October. Dr. Sharma, based on her
research and teaching experience in
STEM courses, created a presentation
that addressed the middle school’s
needs. She also designed four learning activities that can be easily integrated into the existing curriculum.
Sherrard Middle School has been
designated by the Education Alliance as one of eight STEM Network
Schools in West Virginia. STEM
Network Schools are unique in that
they will follow key design principles
including: inquiry based science and
math education; integrated curriculum; project-based group learning;
and career awareness. Plans call for
enhancing the school’s current STEM
efforts by enriching STEM curriculum
and instruction, strengthening STEM
business partnerships, and identifying resources to build capacity for the
future.
Higher Ed. Day at
the Legislature
as is traditional, public and private
four-year and two-year institutions of
higher learning participated. Thanks
to Chef Marian Grubor and the Culinary Arts department, WVNCC’s display table featured chocolate truffles
along with much information about
Northern. Overseeing the table at the
Capitol building in Charleston were
President Vicki L. Riley, Janet Fike,
vice president of student services,
and Recruiter Dawn Barcus. Dr. Riley
indicated she was able to meet with
fellow presidents along with greeting
state employees and legislators who
stopped by the table.
New Martinsville
Read all About it...
in Math Class
Recently, the Wheeling newspapers
organization began a new program
in which free copies of the Sunday
News-Register are delivered on Mondays to select recipients. Because of
this program, Jennifer Lantz, developmental math instructor, will incorporate the use of the paper into her Math
86 Developmental Arithmetic Skills
and MATH 109 Math of Business and
Finance.
In MATH 86 course, she will have the
students find ways in which math was
used in a manner that is relevant to
them. They then will discuss these to
show the relationship to their assignments in the text. In MATH 109, she
will use the stock exchange to help
the students recognize the impact to
the company and its investors as the
From left, Dr. Riley, Janet Fike and Dawn market changes. Both of these tasks
Barcus take a moment to pose by the will bring “real-life” experience to the
Northern table.
students as they learn about the variHigher Education Day at the Legislaous math processes.
ture occurred this year on Jan. 19 and,
NM Math Lab
Thanks to the help from Northern’s IT
Department and a local community
member, Bill Stokes, (yes, Charleen’s
husband,) the developmental math lab
now is more functional as a classroom
and a lab.
115 was designed with this in mind.
Four “pods” of six computer stations
were placed in the room providing 24
workstations for students. However,
because these were set up using the
campus’ wireless network, the students and faculty began experiencing
connectivity issues because too many
students were trying to connect to the
same network at the same time.
After some discussions with IT staff
and Mr. Stokes, it was decided to hard
wire each of these 24 computers. Bill
agreed to help as an independent consultant on the project so the lab could
be quickly converted for the Spring
semester start of classes.
Bill soon began running wires in the
ceiling from the server room to each
of the computers. Once this process
was completed, he wanted the new
mass of wires dropping from the ceiling to these “pods” to have a professional appearance without adding sigBill Stokes and the newly wired comput- nificant cost to the project. He came
ers.
up with a lower cost version of the
traditional cable management poles.
The developmental math courses
He installed sections of conventional
require the students to access their
downspout in the center of each “pod”
assignments and tests using software
hiding all of those messy cables. The
that is accessed by using the Collab looks great; and even better, the
lege’s network. So, the lab in room
students can all be working on their
math assignments at the same time
with no loss of connection.
Another suggestion was made by Jennifer Lantz to use the remaining portion of the room as a classroom with
traditional desks and chairs. With
Dean Tackett’s approval, she worked
with Jack Midcap, maintenance, to
move the tables and chairs in to make
a classroom. Now, the students, faculty and lab assistants have a wonderful new space to work on their math
skills. Thank you to everyone involved
in making this project a reality.
Snow Daze
Of all three campuses, New Martinsville was hit the hardest from the
passing snow storm. Dean Tackett
jumped right in to help keep the winter weather from hindering students.
Dean Tackett using Debbie’s snow blower
on the sidewalk and parking lot.
Students makling use of the math lab.