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| HCConnectiion Online |
November 30, 2007
HCC’s Multimodal partnership moves forwardIn some ways, Holyoke Community College went back to its roots on November 27 when President Bill Messner joined business and government leaders at 206 Maple Street, Holyoke— the site of the soon-to-be-opened Multimodal Transportation Center. The cavernous former fire station will soon be home to HCC’s newest classrooms, echoing a time 60 years ago when the HCC’s predecessor – the Holyoke Graduate School – began offering college-level classes to city residents downtown.The $7.5 million project will convert the old fire station into a truly modern transportation center that will house Peter Pan Bus Services and the Pioneer Valley Transportation Authority (PVTA). On the second floor of the building, the Springfield-Holyoke-Chicopee Head Start program will provide child care services to the many working families who travel to or from Holyoke each day. On the third and fourth floors will be classroom space for HCC to conduct adult literacy and basic education programs. The November 27 announcement signaled the beginning of work on the Multimodal Transportation Center, which took several years to fully fund. Support for the project has come from a combination of federal funds, a state matching fund, Peter Pan Investments, and Massachusetts Transportation Bond Bill.
HCC accepts Gateway to College grantSpringfield and Holyoke educators convened at HCC’s Kittredge Center on November 30 to announce the replication of a nationally recognized Early College High School Initiative: Gateway to College.
Funded through Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon, the Gateway to College initiative at HCC will address the needs of up to 350 Springfield and Holyoke youth who have dropped out of high school or who are at risk for dropping out. Under its auspices, HCC will receive a three-year, $350,000 grant to help the college work with at-risk youths. HCC is one of five institutions chosen by PCC to replicate the Gateway to College program this year. It is part of a national initiative to establish 250 Early College High Schools by 2010. Among the dignitaries visiting the college to make the announcement were Massachusetts Board of Higher Education Vice Chairman G.L. Peter Alcock, Jr., Springfield School Superintendent Joseph Burke, Holyoke Mayor Michael Sullivan, Holyoke School Superintendent Eduardo Carballo and Gateway to College’s National Network Director Laurel Dukehart.
Ludlow Center gets a boost from Avery Dennison
The holidays came a little early to HCC’s Ludlow Area Adult Learning Center on November 16 when the folks at Avery Dennison in Chicopee made a gift of nearly $1,500 worth of office supplies.
Binders, mailing labels, and report covers were among the goodies that came to the center in a delivery that took nearly a week to unpack. The donation was facilitated by LAALC student Walter Dziedzic, an employee at Avery Dennison. A native of Poland, Dziedzic has been taking English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at the center for about a year.
2008 HCC Visual Arts Calendars now availableThe students enrolled in HCC’s visual and graphic arts programs have produced two beautiful 2008 calendars that are perfect for your time-monitoring and gift-giving needs. The calendars cost $8 each (2/$15) and may be purchased at several locales around campus. They will also be available at Edwards Bookstore in Springfield. For more information or to purchase one, call Beverly Wodicka at (413) 552 –2572 or Deb Golas at (413) 552-2485.
What gives?Editor’s note: This story was produced by HCC student Colleen O’Connor. Thanks Colleen!!
In a season marked by several religious, cultural, and ethnic traditions, one theme is common: giving. At HCC, that theme is evident everywhere. The Students Together Reach Individual Visions of Excellence (STRIVE) Club recently gave four large boxes of donated food to Our Place Shelter. The club also raised $76.53 for the shelter through a bake sale. The Human Services Club raised $300 from the sale of hand-made pins and gave the money Rays of Hope, a charity that is dedicated to defeating breast cancer. From Nov. 1-21, the Black Student Alliance held a clothing drive that collected a dozen boxes of usable clothes and toys for Holyoke’s Broderick House. To find out more about the Black Student Alliance call advisor Gardy Guiteau at (413) 552-2318 As winter break approaches, the Unity Club is taking on a more elaborate project: the club plans to “adopt” two families from Holyoke’s Our Place Shelter. This “adoption” means that the club will purchase new items requested by those two families so that their holiday gifts actually meet expressed needs. They will also be collecting food donations and household items for those families. For more information, contact Wayne Nelson at (413) 552-2196. Raising the funds needed for this level of charity takes some work. That’s where a good old-fashioned bake sale comes in. The Unity Club held its first bake sale and raffle on Halloween. That brought in $355.55. Another bake sale will be held on November 28 outside the CAPS Center, on the second floor of the Donahue Building. The Unity Club will also hold a bake sale and raffle on December 12 to raise funds for a Ralph Johnson scholarship to benefit students with disabilities. So what other opportunities are available for those who want to give this holiday season? There are plenty:
Want to take your charity off campus? Here are some great opportunities:
(413) 731-5668.
An Olympian in our midst?
Congratulations to HCC Health, Fitness and Nutrition professor Nicole Kulikov-Hagobian who, five months after giving birth to her son, Tyler, officially earned an opportunity to try out for the 2008 Olympics, which will be held in Beijing, China. Kulikov-Hagobian won this honor on Nov. 18, when she finished 7th in her division in the Philadelphia Marathon. Her time – 2:45.34 – qualified her for the Olympic trials, which will be held in Boston on April 20, 2008. If she finishes in the top three, she qualifies for the Olympic games.
Southampton resident Maria Merritt has been named to the National Junior College Athletic Association's Division III All-American Soccer eam. A sophomore at HCC, Merritt is the captain of the Lady Cougars Soccer Team and holds the college's record for points scored. The newest honor is not the first for the former Hampshire Regional High School soccer player. Earlier this fall, the NJCAA named Merritt as its co-player of the week for October 17-24. Merritt went on to an impressive season - scoring 14 goals and one assist for a total of 29 points in 13 games. As a freshman Merritt was just as impressive, scoring 22 goals and 12 assists for 56 points. Over the course of her career, she has scored 37 goals and 14 assists for 88 points in 38 games. A sports management major, Merritt hopes to finish her undergraduate studies at a local institution.
HCC Faculty David Champoux takes home first prize The writing and creative talents of HCC English faculty David Champoux were recently recognized by the Daily Hampshire Gazette which tapped Champoux to receive first prize in the paper’s annual fiction contest. His story, Castaway, was published in the Gazette’s Hampshire Life magazine on Nov. 23. Congratulations! Thinking about transferring? HCC has you covered.
Current and prospective HCC students and their families are invited to the Kittredge Center on December 11 and every Tuesday for Transfer Tuesdays a free information and strategy session for associates degree students who want to continue their studies at a four-year institution. The hour-long session will be held at 2:30 p.m. in room 302 of HCC’s Kittredge Center. To reserve a seat at this, or any future Transfer Tuesdays session, call the HCC Office of Admissions at (413) 552-2321 or email admissions@hcc.mass.edu at least one day prior to the event. There will be no Transfer Tuesday sessions on Dec. 25 or Jan. 1. Participants will learn about joint admissions programs, scholarships, the transfer application process, interview strategies, essays, course selection and much more. This is a great event for any HCC student (or prospective HCC student) who is curious about how to pursue a four-year degree. Transfer Tuesdays is part of a series of informational programs provided by HCC for those seeking access to higher education. Other events include Welcome Wednesdays, which introduces participants to HCC’s many educational and support services, and FAFSA Fridays, which helps participants negotiate the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Welcome to HCCPlease welcome Springfield resident Samuel Fagade, Sr. to HCC in the position of senior coordinator for the Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment (ICE) grant which provides duel enrollment opportunities to high school students with disabilities.
The Student Activities Office bids adieu to…the Student Activities Office
On Nov. 16, a group of students, staff, and faculty assembled in the third floor of the G building to pay their respects to a gathering place that has a date with a wrecking ball. The Student Activities Office, the Student Senate Office, the Phoenix Office and the former art gallery are among the G-Building destinations that were vacated to make way for a new media lab that is now under construction. As movers came in to extricate the last Lifesaver from the matted carpets, several students took turns telling stories and singing songs that celebrated the many adventures that had taken place in this unlikely warren of activity. The mourners wore black, but there weren’t too many sad faces in the crowd.Organizers of the tribute said that leaving their digs was hard but that they wanted to treat it like a new adventure, which of course required a party. At one point, the party-goers stuffed themselves into the now vacant (and likely decimated) closet that once held Club Coordinator Liz Golen’s office. After about two minutes, they realized that they weren’t that fond of their colleagues’ choice of perfume, and the crowd happily flowed back into the gallery for one last time.For the time being, the Student Activities Office will be housed in G-221. In January, the office will move to the architectural protrusion called Fronahue that has taken over the cafeteria between Donahue and Frost.NOLA Part II: March 2008
Remember the incredible lessons that HCC learned when it sent a group of students, staff, and faculty to help rehabilitate Katrina-ravaged New Orleans in January 2007? Well, now’s your chance to learn those lessons first-hand. A second contingent of Students who wish to participate should complete an application which is available in G-221 (Student Activities). You may also receive on via email by sending a note to Vivian Ostrowski at vostrowski@hcc.mass.edu or call Vivian at (413) 552-2418. Please encourage students who might be interested to apply. Winter Masquerade Ball on December 7Who says there’s never anything to dress up for?
You are invited to put on your most tempting taffeta, your chic-est chiffon, your silkiest slacks for the Winter
Masquerade Ball, a semi-formal that will be held Friday, December 7, 8-11 p.m. in the HCC cafeteria. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased in the Student Activities Office, G-221. There will be dancing, photos, a raffle and snacks. This event is sponsored by a number of student clubs, including the QSA, the RPG, the Anime Club, and the Student Senate. Contra viento y marea
Monica Torregrosa invokes a saying from her native Chile when describing the conversational Spanish class she teaches each Tuesday at 4 p.m. “’Contra viento y marea,’” she says with a laugh. “It means, literally, ‘against the wind and the tide’ and I think it describes them (the students) because they have so much else going on and they work so hard.” The students, in this case, are 12-14 HCC faculty and staff who, for the last few months, have donned headsets, logged onto the Internet, and slogged through virtual lessons in basic Spanish conversation. Special audio equipment allows them to speak with each other from home computers, but make no mistake about it: this is primarily an online endeavor. Each week they get together for one face-to-face class—a laughter-filled affair that Torregrosa happily manages in her native Spanish.
“I found online learning very easy,” says Grant Development Specialist Amy Dopp. “I could go home, feed the baby and put him to bed and hop online to do my Spanish homework.” Dopp’s experience is not universal. “I had not used WebCT before, and I was surprised by how intimidating I found the technology,” says Director of Alumni Relations Joanna Brown. “Just buying the headphones, I had to figure out: do I get the ones with the prongs or the ones with the USB ports?” Several of Brown’s classmates nod in agreement. Most of them are Baby Boomers, a generation that was not weaned on wireless. They have stumbled and fallen several times on the road to technological literacy, a basic requirement of the course. About half of the original class dropped out when initial problems with connectivity and audio quality seemed insurmountable. The ones that remained behind are a hearty group. “Well, I should really call this class ‘Survivor’ (after the popular television show that makes a game out of eliminating weak links),” says Torregrosa. “But the other ones, I believe, may come back sometime. And we would love to have them. We have so much fun.” Three months into their studies, these “survivors” have come to terms with their technological shortcomings and have gained a certain perverse pride in their rocky journey. What unites them now is an unmistakable desire to learn Spanish. Their motives are all over the map. “I took Spanish in college, but I didn’t understand it (the language) when people were speaking it,” said Dean of Co-op and Career Services Terry Howard. “I have three work-studys (students) who are Latinas, and I would like to be able to understand them in their own language.” “We work and we live in Holyoke, and (I) don’t speak Spanish,” says Financial Aid Counselor Robin Rondeau. “I want to do something about that.” Rondeau says she is also motivated by the memory of a college roommate who came from Puerto Rico. “I wish I had known Spanish then,” she says. “She knew very little English.” Dean of Resource Development Marvin Weaver does not mince words. “Piero hablar con mis compañeros,” he says, gesturing to his classmates. Everyone laughs. Later he adds what might be a more abiding reason: “Encanto las películas de Pedro Almodovar.” Beyond the obvious language skills, the students have learned some valuable lessons about themselves. “I thought that taking an online class would be great…(but) I learned that I learn much better when I am face to face, looking into someone else’s eyes,” says STRIVE Counselor Erica Carlson. “This class feels like a safe place to learn Spanish, too. I am among my colleagues…so I feel okay about making mistakes because we are all in the same boat.” Says Psychology Faculty Tricia Kiefer: “I teach an online class, and this class has definitely changed my online instruction. I used to be so deadline-oriented because I felt that it was hard to enforce continuity without it…and I still think that’s important, but, now, I have longer deadlines because I’m recognizing myself, that life gets in the way sometimes.” Biology Faculty Yan Dong, a native of China, says the online format has been a great way for her to learn her third language. “I’ve had conversations with Monica (Torregrosa) online, and I find that I don’t speak less than in a classroom. Also, as a bi-product of this class, if a student asks me about online learning, I can tell them about it.” ESL Chairperson Pamela Kennedy agrees, adding: “Being a student again forces you to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. I am more in touch with how students feel…when it’s time for a test, I get really nervous.”
Messner appointed to Mass Colleges Online committee chairmanship
HCC President William F. Messner has been appointed chairman of the executive committee of Massachusetts Colleges Online (MCO), a consortium of the 24 state and community colleges in Massachusetts which deliver online education. As chair, Messner will play a leadership role in expanding MCO. “MCO provides a means for Massachusetts community colleges and state colleges to collaborate with each other in the provision of online courses and support services to students,” said Messner of his appointment. “My goal is to provide some leadership in this effort, and to enhance efforts at broadening collaboration particularly in regard to key support services such as professional development opportunities for faculty interested in online teaching.” HCC Connection is published every other Wednesday (or thereabouts) and is distributed to the campus community, and friends of the college, and local media. Natalia Munoz
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HCC volunteers will be going to New Orleans over spring break (March 15-22) to do relief work with ACORN (www.acorn.org). The cost will not exceed $200 for HCC students and $500 for HCC faculty/staff.
