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| HCConnectiion Online |
Thursday, March 23, 2007
Headline Stories
Congratulations!! All of the 15 submissions we received for the last “Says Who?” contest were correct. Our mystery man was Tom Stewart, HCC’s manager of athletics and recreation. The winning entry, from Mary Shelasky, came to us after we published a photo of a young Tom Stewart milking cows at his boyhood home in Oxford. To this, Shelasky opined thusly: “How can ANYONE not know that the HCC Connection secret identity is Thomas Stewart? I think he got biffed by too many cows when he was young.” Not one to miss a volley, Stewart replied: “I think I taught her that word – ‘biff.’” Mary Shelasky has won an HCC gift pack, which includes an HCC back pack and a glow-in-the-dark pen. You might be our next winner! Just read the interview, below.
This month’s challenge: Says Who?
Are you a faculty, staff, or student? Staff
How long have you been associated with HCC? 4 years, 7 months.
If you were to enroll at HCC tomorrow, what would you major in? Culinary arts. I am so amazed by their presentations, and I always try to go to their lunches.
What is the best thing (book, magazine, fortune cookie, advertising circular, etc.) you’ve ever read? The Thornbirds by Colleen McCoullough. My family ended up eating “Hamburger Helper” for a month when I was reading that.
What is your favorite song? “Cherish”
Favorite movie?“Paint Your Wagon” starring Harve Parnell and Lee Marvin. Lee Marvin sang in it. I actually have the “33” if anyone wants to hear it.
If there was a movie about HCC, who would play your character? Ruth Buzzi
If you were to go on a reality TV show, which one would you choose? Dancing with the Stars. I would dance with Hugh Laurie – the guy who plays “House” on television.
When you were in grade school, what did you tell people you wanted to be when you grew up? A nun. I wasn’t so cute and I made my own clothes, so I figured that was the ticket. My mother wouldn’t let me, though. She said my job was to grow up and have grandchildren.
What is the best advice you ever received? It was from my father. He told me to learn how to type and to take shorthand. It was the best advice I ever got. I’ve used those skills to support myself my whole life.
What is your pet peeve? Tardiness.
What’s something you always say to people? “What do you know?”
At HCC, where are people most likely to run into you? On a warm day: the courtyard, where I like to have lunch.
What is the best thing about HCC? The middle name: community. You only go around once in life, so you might as well have a good community. Send your guess to nmunoz@hcc.mass.edu. The winner will be chosen from among all of the correct entries received on or around April 18. If you have someone whom you would like to nominate as a mystery person, call Natalia Munoz at (413) 552-2183. HCC construction projects outlined The following piece was submitted by HCC Vice President for Administration and Finance Bill Fogarty
Parking Lot
The new lot will be east of the Campus Center Building. It will provide 162 general use spaces, but will be built so that 78 spaces can be reserved for special events when needed. The lot will incorporate planted islands and a drainage system to treat storm water runoff. There will also be new drainage structures installed at the south end parking lots to improve water quality for the Tannery Brook.
Stairway Project
The yellow roping on the main plaza will come down this summer as crews repair the stairs and replace sections of the concrete plaza. Though this appears to be a simple upgrade, crews will have to work around drainage structures, utilities and a snow-melting system. The resulting plaza will hold up better under heavy use.
Photography & Electronic Media Center
Construction of a new Electronic Media Center and classroom space will begin in the summer and should be completed by fall 2008. This project will address a long identified need to upgrade the college’s photography lab. Currently open spaces on the third floor of the Campus Center will provide a better use of space and will meet pressing instructional needs.
What do we know about size-ism?The following piece was written by Student Activities Coordinator Vivian Ostrowski after the March 8 Campus Discussions series that focused on sizeism: the systematic oppression of large people. A previous Campus Discussions event featured a lively discussion on racism. A third discussion, focusing on classism will be held in the cafeteria at 2:30 p.m. on April 12. To find out more about this series, please email Kimberly Boyd at hcccampusconversations@gmail.com.
I left today’s Campus Conversation with sadness. I was reminded of my early exposure to race and racism, when I was looking to people of color to be my teachers. I wondered why “they” were so angry, and why my well-intentioned questions made them storm out of the room. Didn’t they know I was a “good” white person? Today’s topic was different, but the dynamic was the same. Many of us learned a lot from the people of size in the room—but I’m not sure we learned anything about sizeism.
There were essentially three threads of discussion. The first: people of size are oppressed in our culture. This thread focused on the concrete facts: people of size earn less money; everyday items are too small for their comfort; people presume that they are lazy and have health problems; they are openly ridiculed (one student told us she had been “mooed” at on her way to the event).
The second thread delved into the notion that size is tantamount to poor health: “Everyone knows that obesity has huge health risks, so big people should find a way to lose weight for their own good, right? Yes, some people may be medically unable to lose weight—but everyone else should try.”
The third thread: confusion. People articulating this sentiment seemed to be saying: “Is sizeism really real? I’m fine with fat people, personally, but being overweight is bad, right?”
Fortunately, the conversation was civil and respectful. Unfortunately, we don’t know much about sizeism—so our well-intentioned efforts caused much pain for some people of size who were present.
Sizeism is the systemic oppression of large people. It is a form of discrimination that makes it socially acceptable for seemingly well-intentioned people to ask: “Why don’t you just lose weight?” While that question can sound solicitous, it can also mask judgment and disgust. Why is a person’s weight and size anyone else’s business? I would be horrified to hear someone described as “too black” or “too gay,” yet I sat quietly as the group considered the question “what is ‘too fat’?”
I’m new to sizeism, but have been interested in different kinds of oppression for a long time. I’m wondering if we can learn something from the disabilities rights movement, which has slowly changed the way we see people with disabilities. Three models characterize that evolution. The medical model for people with disabilities sees the person as their disability. That person is the polio case. That person is the amputee.
The rehabilitation model sees the person as more than a disability, but presumes we need to modify the person to fit our world. If we work hard enough, that person can participate in the world the way “the rest of us” do.
The independent living model sees the person with a disability as a whole person. We need to modify our world to accommodate the person, not vice versa, because the person deserves inclusion and a world that values all our differences is ultimately better for ALL of us.
If we apply this to sizeism, the medical model sees the person as fat; the person is a collection of symptoms and risks associated with obesity. The rehabilitation model likely suggests weight-loss strategies. The independent living model respects the person of size as a whole human being who does not need to change in order to be valued, whose perspectives and gifts enrich us all.
Our Campus Conversation included the last model, but we spent much of our time on the first two. Instead of “how do we make HCC safer for everyone, including people who are “too” anything,” we turned fat into a moral issue. The message seemed to be: “If you are fat, and don’t do something about it, you deserve what you get. No, you shouldn’t be treated poorly—but you deserve what you get.”
“Conversations” are wonderful tools for hearing multiple perspectives, and I’m genuinely glad we tackled sizeism. But I’m sad to have participated in the age-old pattern of looking to the target for the answers. I invite our HCC community to continue to talk and research and read, and do our part to create safety for all. If any faculty member designs a course in sizeism, I’ll sign up.
21 local workers benefit when HCC collaborates with HHC
It’s a Catch 22 that has frustrated many working mothers: to get a better job, you have to have the education, but, to support your family, you’ve got to keep that job.
Somewhere in this impossible equation, ambitions get squeezed.
Not so, for 22 medical assistants at the Holyoke Health Center. Thanks to a partnership with Holyoke Community College, the employees recently completed a customized 9-week preparatory course that allowed 16 of them to pass the national certification exams (the other six will receive further training). Along with their certificates from the American Association of Allied Health Professionals, the assistants will get a nice bump in their pay, and, organizers hope, a bump in their ambitions.
“Not only does this allow them to get certified in their field, but it also gets them comfortable with the idea of college,” says HHC Executive Director Jay Breines. “I’d like our employees to begin their education at a college, because it will encourage them to take the next step and enroll.”
Breines and HCC President William F. Messner were both on hand to congratulate the graduates, who celebrated their accomplishment during a lunchtime recognition ceremony at the center on March 8. Instead of robes and mortarboards, the graduates wore hospital scrubs and broad smiles.
“Number one, you all did a terrific job. You should feel really good about sitting here today because you spent time, money, and energy on your education,” said Messner. “You did this while working, and, my hunch is, you had other obligations, like your families. But you didn’t take this for granted.”
For nine weeks, participants in the HCC Medical Assistant Certification Preparation training worked from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the health center before diving into five hours of classroom instruction. Funded through grants from the state Office of Minority Health and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation, the program took root when HCC created curricula designed to meet the unique needs of the center.
“It’s something we do all the time for public and private businesses,” said HCC’s Jeffrey Hayden, who heads up the Kittredge Center for Business and Workforce Development. “We are in the business of designing training programs to meet these needs.”
Instructors from HCC’s Medical Assistant program modified their regular curricula, often combining a semester’s worth of learning into a night of intensive instruction. They taught their classes at the Holyoke Health Center to make the course convenient. That didn’t make it easy.
“Right from the beginning, I studied very hard,” said 52-year-old Gloria Cortez, who has worked at the health center for almost 20 years. “We made study groups, but sometimes I didn’t have time for them. So I carried around flash cards in my smocks.”
All of the participants in the HCC Medical Assistant Certification Preparation program had previously received formal training at private vocational schools, but, bowing to the pressure to work, none of them had gone on to take the certification exams. The farther they got from their classroom training, Breines said, the less confident they felt about taking an exam. The nine-week HCC preparatory class gave them just the right boost.
“I think it adds to their confidence on the job, and, for us, it gives us the confidence that, yes, they are certified,” Breines said. "It was exciting to see them studying during their lunch breaks and quizzing the doctors at the center, too. They really took their lessons into the workplace."
Breines said the connection between the health center and the college is one he’d like to develop further. In the future, he hopes HCC will develop a more flexible scheduling process, so it can more easily enroll unemployed residents into its year-long Medical Assistant Training Certificate program. In addition to its low cost, he said, the HCC program gives local residents a much-needed gateway to higher education.
“I think the Holyoke Community College collaboration has shown us all that we can get together and meet the needs of the community,” he said. “We can give people hope for better things.”
That sounds about right to Gloria Cortez, who is now talking to HCC officials about entering the college’s nursing program. “I had friends who told me ‘Don’t do it. You’ll fail. That test is so hard,’” she said of the Medical Assistant exam that she recently passed. “But I said ‘You know what? I’m just going to do it. And if I fail, I will try again.’”
If you aspire to be a top chef, education is a key ingredient.
That was the message that world-famous Chef Jerry (“J.”) Warren left with HCC culinary arts students on March 22 when he visited the college prior to his stint at the Western Mass Home Show, which runs March 21-25 in West Springfield’s Eastern States Exposition.
Warren urged students to pursue formal education, noting that it would give them a competitive edge in the workplace. Warren, himself, holds two degrees from Cornell University and has studied with many accomplished chefs in the U.S. and Europe.
“Without the education, you’re cannon fodder,” he told students. “Get a certificate, get a degree, and you’ll have control.”
He also urged the students to go easy on the body piercings, dress neatly, and gain knowledge from every job, no matter how menial.
“All work experience is good experience,” he said.
On March 24 Warren will give two HCC culinary arts students, Avi Foint and Matt Paige, some experience that is sure to inspire their careers. The two men, both from Southwick, will assist Warren’s food presentations at the Western Mass Home Show. The pair will join Warren in the Better Living Center at 3 p.m.
Holyoke Community Colleges offers one-year culinary arts certificates as well as food service management and hospitality management associates degrees. The culinary arts certificate program is limited to 32 students per year. There are still openings available for the fall 2007 semester. To find out more, call the HCC Welcome Center at (413) 552-2000. Tech Prep takes over the Bartley Center
From a distance, it looked like a Frisbee on steroids, but, to HCC engineering students Rene Crete and Mark McDonough, it was an elegant embodiment of some heady scientific principles.
And, for many of the 400 students who attended the 11th annual Tech Prep Fair at Holyoke Community College on March 15, the big, plastic-covered disk was a cool way to get around. With the flip of a switch, a specially designed airbag beneath the wooden disc was inflated, allowing passengers on this “gliding saucer” to move effortlessly across the floor of the David M. Bartley Center.
“It’s cool,” said 18-year-old Ron Nichols, as he sat, cross-legged like a genie, awaiting his ride. “It’s really fun to ride.”
Constructed with plywood, duct tape, and sheet plastic, the gliding saucer was powered by a shop vacuum and steered by a rope that McDonough and Crete took turns holding. Nothing fancy to look at, but a marvel in engineering.
“We use it to introduce the elements of physics,” said Crete, a 21-year-old Hadley resident who plans to pursue a computer systems engineering degree at the University of Massachusetts next fall. “You know: force equals mass times acceleration.”
(Okay. We’ll trust you on that part.)
Like Crete, McDonough plans to pursue a bachelors degree in engineering.
“I’ve always wanted to study electrical engineering,” said the 20-year-old Hadley resident “It’s never monotonous. There’s always challenges. Technology is always changing, so you never know what the next problem will be.”
Comments like that make HCC Dean of Co-op and Career Services Theresa Howard smile.
“We offer this program every year so that high school students from around the region will see what careers are available to them with the proper education and training,” she said. “Some of our best presenters are our own students here at HCC.”
The Tri-county Tech Prep program coordinates high school curriculum to dovetail with college-level or technical training opportunities that students can pursue upon graduation. Organizers hope that participants will follow the pathways they’ve established in high school, so the transition to further training and/or a career will not be too drastic. A consortium of 17 high schools from Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties participate in the program, which annually holds a career fair at Holyoke Community College. In addition to Crete and McDonough’s gliding saucer, this year’s fair also featured a massage therapist, a traffic engineer, and a booth where students could practice surgical technique by suturing together pigs feet. College-for-a-Day launches dreams for a lifetime
More than 100 adult learners from Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties visited HCC on March 15 for the Fourth Annual College-for-a-Day program, organized by the college’s System for Adult Basic Education Support (SABES) program.
Ranging in age from 16 to 55, all of the visitors are in various stages of finishing their graduate equivalency degrees (GEDs). During their half-day visit, they attended a series of mini-classes and learned more about the services available to them at HCC.
“The goal is to introduce you to the college experience,” Michelle Sedor, SABES associate coordinator told the students. “We hope that after today you will be inspired to continue your education, and someday come back to HCC and share with others, as others have shared with you.”
Keynote speaker Kenny Taitt told the audience that his own journey from fast-food worker to catering chef at the University of Massachusetts- Amherst started in 1999, when he attended a College-for-a-Day event. Prior to that, he was at odds with the concept of higher education.
“I never read a book before I came to HCC,” he said. “Growing up, my little sister had to read to me. My siblings all did well in school and the only ‘A’ I received was in attendance. I wondered if I was switched at birth while some smart person was roaming around out there in my place.”
Soon after he visited HCC in 1999, Taitt enrolled in the college’s culinary arts certificate program. From there, his career took off. An internship with the Disney’s Magic Kingdom eventually led to a job with that company. After joining the culinary staff of the University of Massachusetts in 2004, he quickly rose through the ranks to his current position as catering chef. He has since created culinary delights for celebrities like Bill Cosby, Natalie Cole, and the 2004 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox.
"Attending College-for-a-Day was the best thing I ever did for myself,” he said. HCC/HNE collaboration benefits kids
A $2,200 grant from Health New England could make a lifetime of difference to the kids at Holyoke’s Sullivan School.
The funds have allowed a team of HCC health and fitness science majors to create a before-school fitness program that they hope will spawn a lifetime of healthy habits for the children. Supervised by HCC Professors Nicole Kulikov-Hagobian and Patti Mantia, the crew of HCC students have been visiting the neighborhood school for over a month now, introducing the kids to things like musical dots (a more physically demanding version of musical chairs), parachute waving, and simple stretches. When in doubt, there’s always a basketball net…
“The biggest thing we find is, the kids don’t want to look like they don’t know what to do,” says HCC fitness student Tyrone V. Buckner. “So we try to make it all fun, easy to get involved.”
On a recent visit to Sullivan School, it was clear that everyone had gotten over their initial shyness. In fact, the good news seems to be spreading:
“I’ve gotten calls from two other schools that want to do this, too,” said Mantia. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to set something together, with internships.” CampusBriefs HCC wins first place in marketing competition The announcement was made during the organization's 2007 national convention, held in San Diego, California. HCC was recognized in the category of Fund Raising/Annual Campaign for its superior marketing and promotional efforts, all of which resulted in one of the most successful community college fund raising efforts in Massachusetts history. Luminus: coming to a computer near you
The portal is primarily a communications tool, with a bulletin board for posting information, calendars specific to events on campus, targeted and general announcements and for the first time all community members will be on the same email system.
In the My Course section, faculty and students will be able to actively interact with course content. Faculty can access student records, enter grades, view class rosters, and email students. A number of active calendars will be available for community members to manage their day and determine what events to attend. For additional information contact Mike Kowalewski at (413) 552-2748.
Glengarry Glen Ross comes to HCC April 19-22
The HCC Players will perform “Glengarry Glen Ross” a Pulitzer prize-winning play by David Mamet on April 19-22 in the Leslie Phillips Forum. Tickets are $7 for the general public, $5 for students, and free for the HCC community. Curtain times are 8 p.m. on April 19-21 and 2:30 p.m. on April 22.
This play follows two Chicago real estate salesmen, Ricky Roma and Shelly Levene, who are told they must sell worthless property to unsuspecting buyers. Their motivation? A sales contest in which the top seller gets a Cadillac, the second place seller gets a set of steak knives, and the losers get pink slips. Egged on by their young colleague, the two men become involved in a frantic battle of betrayal that reveals a lot about the shifting values of American society.
“The use of modern language throughout this play shows the genius of Mamet,” says Tim Cochran, the HCC theatre instructor who is directing the play. “Mamet creatively depicts how the powerful exert themselves over the powerless.”
Faculty and administrators who will require academic regalia for HCC’s June 2 graduation ceremony should come down to the bookstore March 19 –April 27 to reserve their caps and gowns. Rental fees must be paid in advance, and they are as follows:
Please provide the following information and remember to return your rentals at the conclusion of the graduation ceremonies:
To register, call Adrienne Morris at (413) 552-2586 or amorris@hcc.mass.edu.
This free workshop will be facilitated by Margery Freeman and Kate Hymes, trainers for the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond (www.pisab.org)
In this workshop, participants will engage with the following questions:
To help with planning, the Alumni Association has asked that anyone interested in participating in this trip contact Alumni Director Joanna Brown at jbrown@hcc.mass.edu by March 31. In the “subject” line of your email, please write “Foxwoods—your name, extension, number of people.” (For example: “Foxwoods—Joanna Brown x2253—3”) The HCC Service Learning program recently recognized the following faculty as Service Learning Scholars: Jim Dutcher, John Cipora, Kate Maiolatesi , Xian Liu, Nicole Hendricks, Sara Jonsberg, and Maura Henry. The Service Learning Scholars program provides faculty with support and resources to design a course that incorporates community-based learning. These faculty will begin their work this semester. If you are interested in being a future Service Learning Scholar, please contact Jen Dolan at (413) 552-2714 or Lisa Mahon at (413) 552-2369.
In addition, Lisa Mahon has been selected to participate in the Massachusetts Campus Compact Faculty Leadership Program in Service Learning. She will work with faculty from across the state on ways to develop Service Learning programs at the college and university levels. She begins her work with the Campus Compact this semester, continuing through next year.
HCC Connection is published every other Tuesday (or
thereabouts) and is distributed to the campus community, and friends
of the college, and local media. Natalia Munoz |
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