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HCC community remembers Sept. 11 terrorist attacks

Jen Dolan

On Sept. 11, students, faculty, and staff gathered in the campus courtyard to honor, reflect, and support each other as they remembered the terrorist attacks that rocked this nation five years ago.

Dean of Social Services Kathrine Douglas moderated the hour-long event, which also included thoughts from HCC President William F. Messner, Coordinator of Service Learning Jen Dolan, Special Assistant to the President Orlando Isaza, and student Paul Condecurri.

“I remember walking into the student center where people were oddly very quiet,” said Messner, who was, at the time, chancellor for the University of Wisconsin Colleges. “A staff person told me ‘your daughter [who works in Manhatten] is fine.’ I didn’t know what she meant, but then I looked at the big screen TV and I saw the twin towers coming down. It took me five minutes at least to comprehend what was going on… The challenge [today] is not whether we remember the events of September 11. The challenge of September 11 is to make sense out of it. It’s five years later and my sense is I can make even less sense out of it today than I did five years ago.”

Jen Dolan asked the crowd to help her process the pain and honor the memory of her cousin, Commander Robert Edward Dolan, who was killed by terrorists who hijacked a plane and flew into the Pentagon.

“This is a very painful space for me and it is not easy to be here remembering,” she said. “But I hope by bearing witness to the loss of my cousin, I am not only honoring Bobby, but also helping others through the sorrow and pain.”

Dolan said that, for a while after the attacks, she stopped wearing a prized gold pendant that she had purchased in Yemen years before because she associated it with the terrorists who killed her brother.

That pendant was back on Dolan’s neck on Sept. 11, 2006.

“He [Bobby] would never come from that place,” she said. “He had integrity. He would never judge a group by the actions of a few people.”

Orlando Isaza said that his son lived just a few blocks from the World Trade Towers.

“My son survived 9/11, but I lived though the most horrific hours in my life awaiting news that he was alive,” he said. “But immediately after I was struck with the awful pain and anguish felt by those who received a phone call informing them of the loss of a loved one.

HCC and GCC featured in the Sunday Republican

HCC President William F. Messner and GCC President Robert Pura weighed in on the issue of college affordability with a guest editorial that appeared in the September 17 edition of The Republican. If you missed that editorial, you can check it out by downloading Republian article.

HCC student wins prestigious NASA fellowship

Chak Shut Chan

When he graduates from HCC in the spring 2007, Chak Shut Chan will have more than an associates degree in engineering on his resume. The 33-year-old Fuzhou, China native will also have his name on some graduate level research in carbon nanotubing technology.

Chan is one of nine researchers who presented their findings at the annual meeting of the Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing, held at the University of Massachusetts on September 19. Their poster entitled “Application of Metallic Carbon Nanotubes as Detectors for Microwaves and Terahertz Radiation” was one of just three presented in the area of electron computer engineering. Chan’s participation in the research was funded by the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium of the NASA program, which awarded him a $4,000 to work at the University of Massachusetts’s Terahertz lab this past summer.

Chan is the first community college student to receive the grant, but he quickly deflects any fanfare from the honor.

“ I just try to read and survive, read and survive,” says the ever-smiling HCC Green Key Honor Society student. “If you ask anyone [in the engineering department] about me, they won’t say I am the best student. I just do my best.”

This may be one area where Chan’s grasp of the facts is a little weak. Mention Chan to his HCC mentors and the reaction is anything but luke-warm.

“ This is a person who will go above and beyond on all accounts, to assist his fellow students, to help new faculty that he happens to have for class,” says Idelia Smith, HCC director of academic administration. “He’s just remarkable. And the fact that he’s the only community college student to receive this NASA fellowship, it’s not surprising. He’s the ultimate success story of an immigrant coming to this country and taking advantage of what we have to offer…he gets all my gold stars, an A+. I have nothing but praise for him.”

HCC adjunct faculty member Fernando Rodriguez-Morales echoes Smith’s remarks. A doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts, Rodriguez-Morales mentored Chan while the two worked at the Terahertz labs this summer.

“He’s very hard-working and very dedicated – always interested in learning things outside the classroom,” says Rodriguez-Morales. “I have had one or two students [while teaching at HCC] who have his motivation and interest in the subject…[At Terahertz], if he didn’t know something – because he has not yet taken the classes – he still showed energy and enthusiasm to learn it.”

Chan says he looks forward to finishing his undergraduate studies at the University of Massachusetts. After that, he’ll pursue a master’s degree.

“ But I can’t get a PhD.,” he said. “Because I have to get a job to support my family.”

Family, for Chan, includes his nine-year-old son Michael, as well as his parents, who emigrated from Hong Kong 16 years ago.

“ We applied for permission [to leave China] for many years before we got approved,” he said. “I came here when I was 17.”

Though his parents revere education, Chak is the only one in his immediate family who has been able to pursue a college degree. There is a lot of pressure in that singular position, but Chak is quick to see the humor in it.

“ Sometimes, my parents think I spend too much on books,” he says. “They want me to make some money. They want to know when I will get a real job.”

The desire for education seems to have haunted Chan for most of his adult life. Soon after his family landed in New York City, Chan enrolled in computer science courses at Queens College. His zeal got high marks, even if his schoolwork didn’t.

“ The professor for my computer programming course asked me to drop the class because here I was studying computers when I never used a computer, didn’t have one, and I didn’t know anything about them,” he said, laughing.

“ But I knew that computers are very important in different fields, that they can apply to many disciplines. I thought I could manipulate it into something else…I didn’t do well [in the course], but I survived, I passed.”

Chan joined the U.S. Army Reserves in 1994, in part to gain new skills.

“ I figured I wasn’t born and raised in this country, so how could I prove my loyalty?” he said. “The army was a good choice.”

During his 10 years with the army, Chan traveled extensively. He learned to build furniture, and was trained as a mechanic and as a computer specialist. He graduated from Fort Gordon’s computer training program one point shy of honors level. He was preparing for deployment to Iraq in 2004 when army officials discovered that he was a single parent, a factor that disqualified him for that mission. He was honorably discharged.

The Veteran’s Administration told Chan he had two options: to go to school or to work. It didn’t take him long to choose.

When he enrolled at HCC in the fall of 2004, Chan had a whole new set of challenges before him. He had to tackle many of the basic math, English, and science courses that he’d never taken before. Those new obstacles seem only to have stimulated his ambitions. Now, instead of sticking with the computer program track he began in the army, Chan decided to study engineering because “it was the same or better challenge, and I wanted the challenge.”

There are many HCC faculty and staff who have mentored and supported Chan over the last two years. He is quick to praise them and insists to anyone listening that they deserve much of the credit.

“ You should talk to [anatomy and physiology professor] Sona Dolan, to Idelia Smith, to Fernando…”
While Chan’s gratitude rings true, his attitude rings louder.

“ At first, I was able to try because I believed in myself,” he said. “And because I believed in myself, I was able to see it in my faculty. They showed me the way, and they helped me get here.”

This year, HCC students will have another option for getting help on their school work: they can log onto the Internet and get tutored online, thanks to a new service, etutoring.org, which is offered through the HCC CAPS center.

As always, students will still have the option of speaking with a live tutor at the Center for Academic Program Support (CAPS) in Donahue 240. The new service will make it easier for HCC to accommodate students whose learning styles or schedules do not allow them visit the CAPS center.

Students can access the online tutoring services by logging on to www.etutoring.org, where they will have two choices. First, they can sign up for a real-time tutoring session with a live tutor at an appointed time. This option allows students to receive tutoring in an instant-message format. Students can also email their questions or writing assignments to etutoring.org, and receive answers or suggestions via email from a professional tutor within 24 to 48 hours.

The team of professional eTutors can provide help in math, writing, accounting, statistics, life sciences, and radiology.

This program is easy to use. Simply go to www.etutoring.org or follow the link on the HCC webpage www.hcc.edu. You will be asked to “name your institution” and you will be prompted to create a login name and password. This takes just a minute, and, then you have access to tutoring services any time, on any computer. If you have questions, please contact Learning Resource Coordinator Gardy Guiteau at (413) 552-2318.

There's more than one way to get healthy

The HCC Wellness Action Team has launched a 14-week lecture series that has a surprisingly simple message: wellness takes more than a good exercise routine.

Every Monday at 2:30 p.m., a different HCC health expert will come to G 221 to give a brief talk or demonstration, designed to ramp up our understanding of healthy living. Topics include the secrets of weight loss, sexual health, Reiki, cooking for the holidays, and stress reduction.

“In the past, we’ve mostly done physical activities,” says Mary Farrell, dean of Allied Health Education and Human Services. “We want people to take a broader view of wellness, to look at all of the things they can do to improve their health.”

To view all of the lecture topics, scroll through the calendar listings found on HCC’s website: HCC's Weekly Events at a Glance.

Are we here yet?

"La Via Stranezza" (the strange way) wood stain and colored pencil by Larry Slezak

Are we here yet? is a collection of works on paper by Springfield artist Larry Slezak. It will be on display in the Taber Gallery from October 9 to November 2.

“I try to be in the ‘here and now’, but I’m not (t)here yet,” writes Slezak, who teaches art at Springfield Technical Community College. “Making the things that I do gets me a little closer.”

Located next to the HCC library on the second floor of the Donahue building, the Taber Gallery is open Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The public is invited to visit the gallery. The artist will be available to discuss his work during an opening, Wednesday, October 11, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Slezak will give a talk at noon.

HCC wins six awards for public relations efforts

The National Council for Marketing and Public Relations has informed HCC that the college earned six 2006 Medallion awards for its public relations efforts. HCC was recognized in the categories of outdoor advertising, radio/PSAs, media successes, feature articles, one-time special events, and wildcard.

The college can anticipate receiving a gold, silver, or bronze award in each of these categories on November 6, when NCMPR holds its 2006 Medallion Awards banquet in Lancaster, PA.

The college entered multiple projects in some of these categories, so we do not yet know all of the entries that were recognized. We do know that our Spanish language radio ad, our fall 2006 registration promotion, and our efforts to promote the grand opening of the Kittredge Center were recognized.

Notices

Application deadline for Hurricane Katrina volunteers

On January 6-13, 2007, HCC will send a contingent of 20 students and 20 faculty/staff to New Orleans to help Habitat for Humanity rebuild the decimated upper 9th ward of that city. Due to the overwhelming response to this opportunity, the college will ask students to apply for one of the 20 open slots. Students who wish to volunteer for this trip have until Sept. 27 to fill out and return an application to Vivian Ostrowski, coordinator of student activities.

Applications are available in the Office of Student Activities, G-307.
Successful applicants will be notified on or around October 6.

Organizers will do some serious fund raising to defray the cost to student volunteers, who will be asked to contribute $125 toward the $400 cost of the trip. HCC staff will be asked to pay the entire $400. Both students and staff will be asked to make a down payment ($50 for students, $100 for staff) by October 13. The rest is due November 1.

Faculty, staff, and students who are selected for this trip will be asked to participate in a retreat on October 24 from 5 to 9 p.m.

National Coming Out Day to organize

The Student Activities Office and the Queer/Straight Alliance is inviting all members of the HCC community to participate in National Coming Out Day on Wednesday, October 11 in the campus courtyard.

Founded in the late 1980s, National Coming Out Day is an ongoing campaign to empower lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender persons.

Tentative plans for the October 11 event include the formation of a rainbow-striped human flag. Organizers will ask members of the campus community to don the six colors of the rainbow to show solidarity and support for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. The colorfully dressed supporters will be arranged into a Rainbow Flag, a traditional symbol for the gay lesbian movement. The group will also recruit speakers and urge all members of the campus community to sign a tolerance pledge.

The group will hold its next planning meeting on Tuesday, September 26 at 10 a.m. in G 306 All are welcome, regardless of gender affiliation or sexual orientation.

Let's talk about it

Students are invited to attend an open monthly forum to ask questions and discuss concerns about campus life with Lisa Wyatt Ganson, vice president of academic affairs and Doreen Larson, vice president of student enrollment.

The first session will be held on Monday, September 25 at 11 a.m. in Frost 309. All students are welcome to these one-hour sessions, which will allow students to meet and interact with administration in an informal atmosphere. Subsequent sessions will be held October 16 at 3 p.m., November 14 at 9 a.m., and December 12 at 1:30 p.m.

“Hopefully, the students will see our visibility as a positive way to be connected and assure them that students do have a voice at HCC and that the college administration is willing and available to listen,” said Larson.

Workshop series to focus on student success

The STRIVE program invites all students to join them for four, free, one-hour workshops, designed to maximize your success in the classroom. All workshops will take place on Wednesdays, during the campus activity period in Donahue 252. There will be free refreshments. Contact Wayne Nelson (413) 552-2196 for more information. A full list of the workshops can be found in the “HCC's Weekly Events at a Glance” section of the HCC website.

The first workshop will focus on identifying your learning style. It will be held Wednesday, September 27, 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., in Donahue 252

How do you learn best? Are you an auditory, iconic, kinesthetic, and/or visual learner? In this workshop, students will complete several well-known learning style inventories. We will then discuss how you might use your preferred learning style to improve your college performance.

Evac-u-trac training is open to all

On September 27 and 28, faculty, staff and interested students are invited to attend an evac-u-trac training where they will learn how to evacuate non-ambulatory individuals in the event of an emergency. The September 27 training will be held at 11 a.m. in the Kittredge Center, fourth floor, and the September 28 training will be held at 1:30 p.m. outside of Frost 389.

Those with health issues that prevent active participation in this training can talk someone else through the procedure or help out in some other way. For more information on how you might participate, please call Maureen Conroy at (413) 552-2582/TTY 2417.

This training is particularly helpful to individuals with disabilities but is not limited to those who have registered with the college’s disabilities services office.

Ask HCC...and then you'll know

The HCC webpage (www.hcc.edu) now has a new resource for students, staff, and faculty with basic questions. The “Ask HCC” button, located on the left-hand side of the HCC homepage can answer general questions about registration, course requirements, and campus life.

Coordinated by Hobson’s EMT, an international student recruitment company, the new link allows questioners to type in their queries and get a response based on information contained in the college catalogue and other publications. If Hobson’s is unable to come up with an answer, the questioner will receive a response indicating that no answer was available. At that point, says Director of Admissions Marcia Rosbury-Henne, the person should visit or call an HCC staff person.

“ This service is to enhance what is available through the college,” says Rosbury-Henne. “It’s not intended to answer all questions.”

The program has been on the HCC website for just three weeks, but already, the response has been “tremendous” says Rosbury-Henn.

“ We’ve had deans and vice presidents and other people come in and tell us that they were able to get their basic questions answered,” she said. “We’ve also been able to iron out some of the kinks, where Hobson’s was not able to answer a question…We were able to put information in the system so [Hobson’s] would be able to answer it the next time.”

Rosbury-Henne said that the Hobson’s system is answering basic questions, so that HCC staff are able to spend more time on the more complex queries that typically come into the admissions office.

HCC Connection is published every other Tuesday (or thereabouts) and is distributed to the campus community, and friends of the college, and local media.

To be added to our email distribution list, please email: Kimberly Wilson, kwilson@hcc.mass.edu
To submit campus event information for inclusion in HCC Connection, email Natalia Munoz, nmunoz@hcc.mass.eduwith details including date, time, location, cost if any, open to public or not, web links (if appropriate) and contact information (name, phone number, and email). Deadline: end of day Friday before publication.

Natalia Munoz
Assistant Director of Marketing and Public Relations
Holyoke Community College
Phone: (413) 552-2183 Fax: (413) 552-2479
cell: (413) 348-8515 (emergency)
nmunoz@hcc.mass.edunmunoz@hcc.mass.edu
Holyoke Community College is the Commonwealth’s oldest community college, serving almost 9,000 students annually in 82 associate degree options and 42 certificate programs, and over 4,000 in noncredit and workforce development courses. The college has the highest transfer rate of any community college statewide, holding articulation agreements with 27 colleges and universities. Recognized for its Honors Program, distance learning curriculum, learning communities, and service to students, HCC anticipates opening its state of-the-art Kittredge Business Center in Spring 2006.