MOTT COMMUNITY COLLEGE
CONNECTION
APRIL 2008
MCC
FACULTY
& STAFF
NEWSLETTER
WHAT’S
INSIDE
AROUND CAMPUS
BALLENGER
LECTURE SERIES
APRIL 17
ART EXHIBIT
FRIENDS OF MOTT
LIBRARY
CELEBRATE
NATIONAL LIBRARY
WEEK APRIL 13-19
EMPLOYEE OF
THE MONTH
EARTH DAY
LADIES FIRST
CONFERENCE
Q UOTE OF
THE M ONTH
"Our acts make or mar us – we are
the children of our own deeds."
- Victor Hugo.
MCC Wins Third National
Championship
The Mott
Bears have
made basketball
history. On
Saturday, March
22, the Mott
Community
College Men's
Basketball Team
became national
champions for
the third time –
their third
national title in
the past five
years. MCC is the first community college to win three National Junior College Athletic Association
Division II national titles, and the first to win back to back championships since 1993.
The Bears won their third national championship with an impressive 83-73 victory over
Columbus State Community College of Ohio in the NJCAA basketball finals on Saturday in Danville,
Ill., finishing the season with 33 consecutive wins and a 35-2 record. All-American Guard Jeremie
Simmons led MCC with 23 points in that final game. He was joined by Freshman Guard Jacquez
Williams and Freshman Forward DeAndre Nealy, the tournament MVP, in making the 2007-08
NJCAA All-Tournament Team.
The MCC Men's Basketball Team previously won the national championship in March 2007,
with a 75-61 victory over Monroe County Community College of New York, and captured its first
national title in 2003 and 2007. This season marked the Bears' sixth trip to the national tournament.
In addition, Coach Schmidt was named the NJCAA National Coach of the Year. He also had been
named Coach of the Year in 2003 and 2007.
"What our program has accomplished is truly remarkable and unprecedented," Schmidt said.
"What I am most impressed with is how well our players represent Mott Community College, the
City of Flint and the State of Michigan. They're a class act and they are champions."
MCC will honor both the men's and women's basketball teams with a special event this month.
The Lady Bears finished the NJCAA tournament as the #4 ranked team in the nation. A rally to honor
both teams is scheduled for Tuesday, April 22, from 11:30am-1 pm in the Event Center. That day will
also be Spirit Day, where the entire campus community is encouraged to wear school colors and display their school pride. The College is also working on signage that will be displayed throughout the
campus to recognize our national champions.
Employee Appreciation Program
Set for April 16 in New Event Center
Mark your calendars for the Annual Employee Appreciation Program, a carnival-themed reception beginning at 2 pm, Wednesday April 16 in the MCC Event Center, adjacent to the Mott Library.
We will be honoring employees that have retired or plan to retire during the 2007-08 academic year.
Past retirees are welcome to attend. Please plan to attend this celebration.
d
Ca m pus
A hearty MCC welcome
goes to the following new
employees. Ronda
Hitchcock, Supervisor – HR
Services, start Date: Feb.
18; Michael Simon,
Manager – Office of the
President and Board of
Trustees, Start Date: March
3; Karla Ragland, Support
Specialist – Culinary Arts, Start
Date: March 17; Eric Young,
Public Safety Officer, Start Date: Feb.
22; Joann Guigar, Public Safety Officer, Start Date: March 14.
Welcome, all, to the MCC family!
The Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth
(DLEG) recently invited MCC Workforce Development Director
Robert Matthews to serve as a member of the Michigan Adult
Learning Work Group, which is part of the DLEG's Low-Wage
Worker Advancement Strategy Committee for its Council for
Labor & Economic Growth (CLEG). This group will create policy options and proposals to strengthen Michigan's adult learning
systems that will be recommended to the full CLEG body, and
ultimately, to the Governor. Robert is also serving on the state's
No Worker Left Behind Implementation Team.
Dental Club Advisor and Dental Assisting Instructor Jenette
Schanick provides an activity report on the club's activities. The
Club will be going to the annual session in Grand Rapids April
17-20. Recent activities include participation at a Dental Seminar
at the Holiday Inn Gateway Center; reading to elementary children at Bryant Elementary School in Flint for Black History
month; designing a dental logo; in addition, the Club has created
a website through the college and will be making sweatshirts with
the D.A. logo on it. The Club participated in a dental health fair
for a local dental office where they showed off there project
boards dealing with different dental issues/advancements and
teaching children about good oral health issues. The Club has
also held a dental event on campus March 21 at the Prahl Center.
The students have totaled more than 35 hours of community service since the start of the semester.
Business Division Dean Bob Loth shares news from his
area: Chef William Crawford attended the American Culinary
Federation Regional Convention in Kansas City from Feb. 7-11.
This conference is composed of chefs and educators from 15 central region states with about 500 in attendance. Chef Crawford
was honored as a nominee for Regional Chef Educator of the
Year. During the Conference, Chef Crawford had the opportunity
to attend 10 seminars including Hospitality Law, ACF
Apprenticeship and Accreditation, Leadership Lessons for students and Instructors, Molecular Gastronomy and Global Flavors.
Chef Bill Crawford and Chef Matt Cooper were among the
judges for this year's Southwest Michigan competition at
Frankenmuth. Former MCC student, Chef Phil Fahrenbrush,
took first place in the red meat category. Current students
Marcus Rhoden took a second place in the seafood category, and
Chef Paul Huskey took a third place in the poultry category.
Chef David Miller, Baking and Pastry Arts instructor, was one of
the judges at Michigan State University's 19th Annual Chocolate
Party, a professional and amateur competition of pastry chefs.
The cosmetology program has been very active in this semester. On Feb. 23, several cosmetology instructors participated in
the Mid-Michigan Marketplace at the Perani Arena. The display
included information for the cosmetology, nail technology, and
esthetics programs, clients' services and other programs in the
Arou
n
business division. On Feb. 25, the advance cosmetology lab in
the VADC was host to the Michigan Skills USA Region III
Cosmetology Competition. Fifteen students competed in hair and
nail competition with the winners moving on to the state competition in Lansing this spring. This is our second year hosting this
event.
Over 80 cosmetology, nail technology, and esthetics students
along with 11 instructors attended the American Beauty Show
(formerly Midwest Beauty Show) in Chicago, March 2 – 4. The
students raised some of the money for the trip through the
Cosmetology Student Club selling coupon books for services in
our labs. Twenty cosmetology students provided hairstyles, manicures, eyebrow waxing, and makeup on approximately 25 MOPS
(Mothers of Preschoolers program) at the Trinity Lutheran
Church in Davison for their "Pamper Day" on March 20. This is
an annual event that we have participated in for the past 4 years.
Political Science Prof. Paul Rozycki had two photographs
accepted and awarded honorable mention in the Shiawassee
County Art Museum "1225 Polar Express" Photo Show, which
runs until June 6.
English Prof. and Honors Coordinator Heather Sisto presented "Rethinking the Research Paper" for the Liberal Arts
Network for Development (LAND) conference in East Lansing
on Feb.21. The conference theme was "Creative Thinking:
Process and Product."
MCC student Katie Curnow was honored at the conference as
First Place winner in the student Fiction category for her story
"Le Professeur" written for Prof. Rachel Langille's Creative
Writing class. Heather serves as MCC representative for LAND
and would like to remind all faculty of the upcoming annual
Student Scholars Research Paper competition for community colleges. Details will be coming via email soon. The MCC Honors
Program and MCC Alumni Association co-hosted an Honors
Alumni Dinner on March 28 in the Applewood Cafe. Honors
Program graduates were invited to come to campus to share their
accomplishments and help establish a new scholarship fund.
Art Prof. John Dempsey will have work in an exhibition at
Gallery Project, Ann Arbor. The show is titled 'Temporal:
Semiotics of Time and Place" and runs April 2- May 11.
The MCC Human
Resources staff nominated Chief Human
Resources Officer Mark
Kennedy for the
Excellence in Human
Resource Management
Practices Award given
annually by the College
and University
Professional
Association for Human
Resources (CUPA-HR)
-- Midwest Region.
Mark travelled to Chicago to receive the award on March 17.
Among other things, the award recognized the organization's labor
relations environment, the use of the HR Focus Group and the HR
Office's customer-service philosophy and orientation. Although
the award recognized an individual, Mark notes that our
success in human resources is the result of the professionalism,
dedication and hard work of all HR staff, supervisors and
managers and our union leadership. Pictured with Mark
Kennedy are (left) Beth Krueger, Midwest CUPA-HR Past
Chair and Patrick Rhoton, Midwest CUPA-HR Chair.
Ballenger Lecture Featuring
Internationally Renowned
Scientist Jared Diamond Set
for April 17
Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the widely
acclaimed bestseller Guns, Germs & Steel: the Fates of Human
Societies, will be the speaker for the spring installment of the
MCC Ballenger Lecture Series at 7 p.m., April 17 in the Ballenger
Field House on the MCC main campus, located at 1401 E. Court
St. in Flint. This event is free and open to the public.
An American evolutionary biologist, physiologist and biogeographer, Diamond won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for Guns,
Gems and Steel, which was a runaway bestseller, the top-selling
science book on Amazon.com for five years running, and the
inspiration for the PBS documentary of the same name. Guns,
Gems and Steel discusses the downfall of some of history's greatest civilizations. Diamond's latest book, Collapse: How Societies
Choose to Fail or Succeed, a follow-up that has landed on the
major best-sellers list with widespread critical acclaim, explores a
range of past civilizations and societies and examines why these
societies collapsed.
Diamond combines anthropology, molecular biology, genetics,
archeology, linguistics and history to support his scholarly work
and projects. Currently a professor of geography and physiology at
the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), he is the
author of several non-fiction popular science works, including
best-sellers The Third Chimpanzee and Why is Sex Fun?
For more information about the Ballenger Lecture Series, call the
Foundation for Mott Community College at (810) 762-0425.
Art Exhibit to Feature
Book Making
Fine Arts Gallery located in the Visual Arts and Design Center will
present an exhibition of work by New York City artists and book makers
Esther K. Smith and Dikko Faust titled "How to Make Books." Their
work will be in the gallery from Monday, April 7 through Tuesday April
22. This event is made possible in part by the Ballenger Trust. Gallery
hours are 9 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday. The public is always
welcome. For information, call the Art and Design Office at 762-0443.
Ladies First Conference
Sponsored by the Flint Journal for MCC’s Women In Education
Fund, this event will be Friday, April 11 from 11:30 am -1:30 pm at
the Regional Technology Center. Cost is $20. To RSVP and for more
information, call the Foundation for MCC at 762-0425.
Fine Arts Dean Jessie Sirna wants us to know that the Jazz
Concert, originally scheduled for Friday, April 4, has been
changed to Tuesday, April 15, 7 pm in the MMB Auditorium and
will include the MCC Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Combos and the
MCC Steel Drum Ensemble.
Earth Day
A variety of fun-filled, family-friendly activities will be offered at
MCC's Annual Earth Day Celebration, set for 9 am to 3 pm Saturday,
April 19. This event is free and open to the public. Activities will
include the Earth Blessing Ceremony; Recycled art projects; "What's
Growing in the Water?" with MSU Extension's Darren Bagley searching for organisms in nearby Gilkey Creek; Gorman Science Center
Geology Museum open house; live birds of prey and bats; the annual
Earth Egg Hunt; a silent auction for the Honorary Chet Wilson
Environmental Scholarship to help support MCC students, and much
more. Most of the events will be in the Gorman Science Center. For
details, visit www.earthday.mcc.edu.
Friends of Mott Library
Celebrate National
Library Week
Friends of the Mott Library invite you to join them in celebrating
the 50th Anniversary of National Library Week, April 13 to 19. The
Mott Library is a treasure trove of resources for faculty, staff, students
and the community, notes Manosha Joseph, Friends of Mott Library
President.
The Friends invite you to a "Books Are Fun" book fair, scheduled for 10 am to 6 pm Monday, April 14 at the Prahl Center. Major
credit cards, cash and checks post-dated to May 5, 2008 will be
accepted. A gift of $50 or more entitles you to one year's membership
with the Friends of Mott Library, and a Membership/Discount Card, a
Friends note pad, a gorgeous bookmark, plus the overwhelming satisfaction of donating to this worthy organization. Basic membership is
$10. Call Manosha at 232-6921 or Kathleen Goodrow at 762-0408 for
more information.
Employee of
the Month
Sherry Bradish,
Coordinator of Faculty
Professional Development
and Tech Prep, was chosen
as the Outstanding
Employee of the Month for
February 2008. Sherry, an
employee for more than 11
years, received a framed
certificate of appreciation, a
$50 Visa Gift card and a
balloon bouquet.
Congratulations, Sherry!
John Olsen, Interim Dean of Techno;ogy,
presents Sherry with her certificate.
Full-time Faculty Job
Opportunities
The Office of Human Resources will be posting several fulltime faculty positions within the near future. Once the postings are
open, faculty and staff will be notified via the campus-wide email
system. In addition, the official announcements will be posted on
the Employment Opportunities webpage at www.mott.jobs.
APRIL 2008
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday Thursday
1
8
7
Greater Flint Hall of
Fame Meeting
5:15-6:15 pm
Ballenger Field House
14
Criminal Justice Fair
4:00-6:30 pm
Ballenger Field House
15
2
3
9
10
Sierra Club Meeting
5:30-9:30 pm
Genesee Room
University Center
Open House
5:00-6:30 pm • MMB
16
Foster Parent Training
6:00-9:00 pm
RTC 1109
17
Friends of Mott Library
Book Sale
10:00am-6:00pm
Prahl College Center
Jazz Ensemble Concert
MMB Auditorium
Concert at 7-9 p.m.
Employee Appreciation
2:00-5:00 p.m.
Library Event Center
Ballenger Lecture Series
Jared Diamond
7:00 p.m.
Ballenger Field House
21
22
23
24
Genesee County Pride
Training
6:00-9:00pm
RTC 2123
29
Saturday
4
Ladies First
11:30am-1:30 pm
RTC 1005
Lifelong Learning
for Seniors
9:30am - Noon
Mott Library
11
18
Flint River Watershed
Coalition Meeting
8:30-11am
Genesee Room
25
Student Honors Recital
7:30-9:00pm
MMB 1130
MCC Basketball Rally
11:30am-1:00p.m.
Library Event Center
28
Friday
Sunday
5
AAU Volleyball
7am-6p.m.
Ballenger
12
AAU Volleyball
7am-6p.m.
Ballenger
6
AAU Volleyball
7am-6p.m.
Ballenger
Phi Theta Kappa
Orientation
2-4 pm • MMB
AAU Volleyball
7am-6p.m.
Ballenger
20
19
AAU Volleyball
7am-6p.m. • Ballenger
Earth Day Celebration
9 a.m.-3 p.m.
Gorman Science Center
26
AAU Volleyball
7am-6p.m.
Ballenger
13
AAU Volleyball
7am-6p.m.
Ballenger
AAU Volleyball
7am-6p.m.
Ballenger
27
Band/Choir/Chamber
Singers Concert
Concert Begins at 3 p.m.
MMB Auditorium
30
Board of Trustees Meeting
7 pm • ML 302
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