Courtyard Chatter

Sharon’s Corner

April 16, 2008

Now that the blooms have faded on the daffodils along Valley View Lane and other spring colors are popping up, you know that we are on the down side of spring and already looking forward to our summer terms. It has been a busy semester with many student and employee successes that will culminate with a Graduation Party on April 23 in the Commons Courtyard and Commencement only three weeks away at Loos Field House.

Since our last meeting at this “corner,” we have enjoyed handbell music over two weekends, hosted a terrific basketball tournament, and had more than 200 visitors and volunteers from around the state at the Ellison Miles Geotechnology Institute. Our students earned many honors, danced at a spring concert, and joined community members at the spring Career Fair. Our Professional Support Staff Association members teamed up for their first “garage-less” sale and planned a colleague appreciation flower sale to benefit student scholarships.

It takes time, talent and dedication to bring together such successful events, so, as you go about your day, remember to take pride in yourself and your colleagues for their hard work and achievements.

I extend my congratulations and thanks to those among us who have worked especially hard to deserve special kudos this month, including the following employees and students.

• Bonnie Riddle, Handbell Ensemble director, for coordinating the two excellent handbell festivals that resulted in visits by hundreds of community members and a generous donation for more handbells from the Greater Dallas Handbell Association;

• Alex Stadthagen, Richard Campbell, DeMoss Collins, Jason Thornton and Karen McCarthy, faculty of the Emergency Medical Services Department of the Health and Human Services Division, worked to earn the college its initial accreditation of the EMS Program from the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs, the largest accreditor in the health sciences field for 19 different health programs. The committee members for EMS and CAAHEP Board of Directors recognized the program’s compliance with the nationally established accreditation standards. Kudos also go to Juanita Zapata Flint, executive dean, for her leadership, and Sharon Burton in new program development, who helped to prepare the materials for the accreditation process.
• Lynne Levesque for coordinating an annual basketball tournament that builds and strengthens the onlookers more than the players; the Division 1 Wheelchair Basketball Tournament brought teams to Brookhaven College from British Columbia, Toronto and Milwaukee, Wis., to play against the Dallas team;
• Phi Theta Kappa Chapter officers, Amber Valentine, treasurer, and Anil Patel, Webmaster, accepted plaques recognizing their induction into the 2007-2008 Phi Theta Kappa District II Hall of Honor for their embodiment and promotion of scholarship, leadership, fellowship and service within the chapter. DeAnna Golsan, chapter president, received the Distinguished Chapter President award, and Aaron Ostrom, received the Distinguished Chapter Advisor award.
• Diane Brownlee and EMGI staff members Stan Pittman, Dennis Maddox and Chuck Schero, played host to the fifth annual Texas Envirothon, a competition conducted by the Texas Association of Environmental Educators that tests students’ knowledge of environmental and natural resources. Nearly 200 visitors from Tyler to Midland and Houston to Dallas were in attendance as competitors learned about the college’s wildlife, soil, forestry and aquatics – yes, we have fish in our nearby creek. Scott Sires and students in his geographic information systems class created special maps for on-campus exercises in the competition and hosted the visiting students, judges and volunteers. Of the 19 five-person teams of 10th- through 12th-graders, the winning team hailed from The Woodlands, Texas, and will go on to the national competition in Flagstaff, Ariz., in May. Envirothon sponsors included Eastman Chemical Corp., provider of the $5,000 first-place award.
• Delryn Fleming, English professor, was invited to be a presenter at the ACCUPLACER National Conference that will be held this June in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Delryn was part of a group that worked on a project to recalibrate the WritePlacer. The College Board is coordinating the event and invited Delryn to present at the conference due to her input on the critical thinking section of the test.
• Professors Anna Marie Ewert-Pittman, Michelle Sherrill, Michael Mayes, Melissa Johnson, Eva O’Brien and Shannon Tate who created choreography for this semester’s dance concert;
• Al Davis and Edeleu Florendo, academic advisors, and Lisa Ann Miller, career development center director, and dozens of faculty members who provided students with career information during the College “Majors” Fair;
• Staff of the Scholarships and Financial Aid Office, Business Services, Advising and Counseling Center, Admissions Office and Multicultural Center, who helped our students “Take Care of Business” and organized the “Pay for College/Financial Aid Fair” in the Student Services Center during our week-long focus on student services and financial aid information about scholarships, grants and loans;
• Professional Support Staff Association members conducted a fund-raiser cleverly named the “garage-less sale.” The PSSA will use the money raised to continue their support of the Employee Emergency Fund, Student/Employee Scholarships, and the Student Emergency Book Fund.
• Professor Gustavo Tolosa, director of the Brookhaven College Arts Academy, was one of the musicians in his family to be featured in an article published by The Abilene Reporter-News, bringing welcome attention of readers in West Texas to our college. Read the full article online at Abilene Families.
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  Faculty members of the Radiologic Technology Program recently traveled to South Padre to attend the Texas Society of Radiologic Technologists (TSRT) Annual Conference. Professor Valerie Martin, clinical coordinator, presented “Review of Radiation Physics” during the conference. Norm Burgess, professor, sat on a panel of professionals for a discussion with the students and presented a résumé and interview workshop for students. Professors Stephanie Wells and Christi Carter presented the student challenge competition. Both Martin and Wells were inducted into the TSRT Professional Technologist Hall of Fame. The hall of fame recognizes individual technologists for their dedication and professional behavior in the clinical setting of hospitals, clinics and radiology programs all over Texas.
• Craig Green, sophomore and Bears Basketball shooting guard, was named by the National Junior College Athletic Association to the All-American Second Team. Craig was ranked First Team All-Region and named Conference Most Valuable Player this season. A note of thanks also goes to Kevin Hurst, for his continuing dedicated to a fine basketball program.
• Larie Engles, student publications manager, returned with 17 awards for students in the Journalism Program from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Convention in College Station earlier this month. Nadia Galindo, managing editor, was one of four Mike Warms Scholarship recipients for two-year community college students. Congratulations to John Neal for his continuing work with high achieving students in journalism;
• Sheri Van Court and Kevin Paris, professors of English for Speakers of Other Languages, who helped students in the International Club to coordinate a successful International Day with costumes and customs of our international students;
• Christi Carter and the Health and Human Services Division’s rad tech faculty hosted members of the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology, the accrediting body for educational programs in radiography and radiation therapy. Results of the campus visit will be announced in October at the committee's board meeting when a favorable outcome is anticipated.
• Becky Knickel and Clarice McCoy’s, dual credit students, Yong Kim and Eduardo Valdes, won first and fifth place respectively, in the individual competition at the District 6-5A accounting competitions of the University Interscholastic League. As a team Yong, Eduardo and Marco Avila took second place in the team competition.

To these and other hard-working colleagues, “well done!”

Be sure to read in this and future editions of the Courtyard Chatter the notes from the college’s vice presidents as we continue work on improved communication of news and information. Along those lines, formation of the college’s Action Plan is taking shape with the responses provided from your input and will be shared with you after I incorporate your feedback into the plan.

I was pleased to represent Brookhaven College recently at the annual conference of the American Association of Community Colleges in Philadelphia, Pa., where our focus was on the conference’s theme “Make It Happen. ” This year, AACC partnered with Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society for the 2008 convention where national and international chapters met and enjoyed fellowship. Of special note was the speech delivered by Amy Tan, the acclaimed best-selling author of The Joy Luck Club. Born in the U.S. to immigrant parents from China, Amy Tan rejected her mother's expectations that she become a doctor and concert pianist. She chose to write fiction instead. An alumna of San José City College, Tan was named as a 2008 AACC Outstanding Alumni Award recipient. Also at the conference, I was pleased to receive recognition for my work on College Board’s National Commission on Community Colleges, an undertaking of the College Board’s Center for Innovative Thought. AACC commended the commissions report, “Winning the Skills Race and Strengthening America's Middle Class: An Action Agenda for Community Colleges.” The report provides further compelling evidence of the central role that community colleges must play to ensure America's well-being in an increasingly competitive world economy and an increasingly diverse and changing society.

Click here to read AACC's statement regarding the College Board report.

Be sure to invite a student to this year’s Commencement ceremonies to sit in the reserved seating area for students who are “Glad 2 B a Grad 2 B.” Even if you are marching or otherwise participating in the program, those you invite may sit in a reserved area as your guest and take in the traditions of graduation. Turn the name of your guest(s) in to Nita Drescher.

One last note of thanks to Brenda Dalton, chair, and the committee members for their work on the search for our new vice president for enrollment management and student success. With the candidate visits ongoing this week, the committee members report that they expect to make a recommendation to me for a possible further recommendation to the June meeting of the DCCCD Board of Trustees.

Summer schedules are on campus, the fall line up is in the process of being compiled as we continue to build enrollment in this base-year for state funding. You may have noticed that our Weekend College offerings are “on the grow” along with increased distance learning courses. Thanks to our deans and faculty for their special concentration on these areas of new offerings for our very busy students.

Keep up the fantastic work. I appreciate you.