Friday, Feb. 15, 2008

 

MWCC RECEIVES NATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE PROGRAMS

 

By Janice O'Connor

Students in MWCC's Dental Hygiene Program engage in a service learning program that benefits hundreds of Fitchburg children each year.

Mount Wachusett Community College has been named to the 2007 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, with Distinction, a national honor granted to colleges and universities with exemplary community service activities. Of the 528 institutions selected for the Honor Roll, MWCC was one of just 127 named with distinction. The Honor Roll recognition was announced on Monday in San Diego, Calif.

Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service learning and civic engagement. Honorees for the award are selected based on a series of selection factors including scope and innovativeness of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service learning courses. The Honor Roll is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the USA Freedom Corps and the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation.

The service learning projects highlighted in MWCC's recognition were the Dental Hygiene program's "Fitchburg Seal" and other preventive health initiatives for middle school and preschool students; the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, a cooperative effort between the Business Department and the Division of Lifelong Learning and Workforce Development; and the AmeriCorps Scholarships for Service program, initiated by the Center for Democracy and Humanity to benefit children at the House of Peace and Education in Gardner.

"I am extremely proud of our students, who consistently demonstrate a willingness to go above and beyond to serve residents in our community, and I am equally proud of our faculty and staff who have embraced service learning and integrated it into their curriculum and programs," said MWCC President Daniel M. Asquino. "When we launched the Decade of Civic Engagement seven years ago, our goal was to strengthen our local cities and towns through community service, while also providing practical experience for students. The commitment shown by our students, faculty and staff is making a tremendous difference in the lives of so many, and I am glad that their good works have been recognized nationally."

Last year, Dental Hygiene students performed oral health screenings on 200 pre-school children in Fitchburg and, under the direction of instructor Ellen McCracken, provided every seventh grade student at B.F. Brown Middle School in Fitchburg with oral health education. In addition, the MWCC students applied fluoride treatments and 447 dental sealants to dozens of seventh-graders participating in the Fitchburg Seal program, a collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Office of Oral Health. The outreach efforts are again taking place this year.

"The experience our dental hygiene students encounter by going out into the community, particularly reaching out to schoolchildren to provide dental health education, screenings and implement sealant applications, is one that surely impacts them in a very positive way," said Anne Malkasian, director of the Dental Hygiene program. "My hope is that they will continue to serve their communities long after they graduate and throughout their professional careers.”

John Reilly, associate professor of business, joined forces with Jacqueline Feldman, vice president of Lifelong Learning and Workforce Development, to lead student, faculty and community members in providing tax preparation services to area residents as part of the IRS's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.

"I'm certainly glad we were recognized as a school. That makes it even more meaningful," Reilly said. "I can't say enough about the students who participated in the VITA program. They had to teach themselves tax laws by taking an eight-hour course at home with materials provided by the IRS, then they had to pass the course with a minimum score of 80. It requires an awful lot of self-discipline and motivation." The tax assistance service is being offered at the Gardner and Leominster campuses again this year. Reilly said he recently received an email from one outstanding volunteer saying she wouldn't be able to participate again this year because she has been hired by the IRS.

In the service learning project at HOPE House, three AmeriCorps Scholarship for Service students spent 905 hours working with at-risk or disadvantaged youth from the area. The MWCC students provided consistent, daily academic tutoring, homework help, and mentoring to 32 children in grades two through six. In addition, they helped to implement the children's individualized learning plans and were integral to the success of HOPE's group mentoring and Saturday morning PALS program.

“These students truly created lasting and positive change in our community, and I am proud to have had the opportunity to work with and mentor these young women," said Assistant Director of Civic Engagement Fagan Forhan, who led the project. "Their experience at HOPE House was not only beneficial to the youth in HOPE’s programs, but to the professional, emotional and civic development of these students. It was amazing to watch how they grew through their experiences there and how their work at HOPE impacted their perspective on our community.”

Recent studies have underlined the importance of service-learning and volunteering to college students. In 2006, 2.8 million college students gave more than 297 million hours of volunteer service, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service’s Volunteering in America 2007 study. Using Independent Sector’s estimates of the value of volunteer time, college student volunteering was worth more than $5.6 billion last year. The U.S. Department of Education found a growing service-learning trend, with more schools offering service-learning as part of their curriculum. Students who participate in service-learning are more likely to continue service in college. In 2005, the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute reported that two-thirds of entering college students believed it was very important to help others, which is the highest percentage in the last 25 years.

“There is no question that the universities and colleges who have made an effort to participate and win the Honor Roll award are themselves being rewarded,” American Council on Education President David Ward said in a press release issued this week by the Corporation for National and Community Service. “Earning this distinction is not easy.  But now each of these schools will be able to wear this award like a badge of honor,” he stated.

"BLANK SLATE/CLEAN SLATE" EXHIBIT OPENS IN EAST WING GALLERY

Sculptor Tim de Christopher has created a two-dimensional slate schematic for the first time during his MWCC exhibit. It will be used in planning a monument cathedral in Turners Falls, Mass.

“Blank Slate/Clean Slate,” an exhibition of work by Massachusetts sculptor Tim de Christopher, is on display through March 20 at the East Wing Gallery in the Raymond M. LaFontaine Fine Arts Center. An opening reception will take place Friday, Feb. 22 from 6 to 9 p.m.

Tim de Christopher’s limestone sculptures have been on display at galleries throughout Massachusetts, including the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. Two of his carvings, large gargoyle figures, grace the new wing of The Jewish Museum, a landmark building in New York designed by Cass Gilbert. The carvings created by de Christopher were designed to complement similar carvings on the original 1909 Gothic mansion, located on Fifth Avenue.

“Blank Slate/Clean Slate is about old doings and new beginnings, forks in the road and second chances. It is about rethinking what we have done and choosing to do it another way. Or, in fact, doing something else entirely,” de Christopher said. “The root of this show is about change, and as with most of what I do, it is very personal.”

The exhibit is comprised of older and more recent sculptures, drawings and a new work in slate being created at the college for the first time. Among the collection is a series of figures named Shorty the Elder, Shorty, Jr. and Tango Man, which represent loss, the transitional phase coming out of grief, and moving forward in renewed hope.

Shorty, Jr.

“When you work, everything gets a nickname, and sometimes they stick,” he explained. “Shorty started a new track in my work – he just has a different presence than a lot of the older works. He was about loss and hope.”

Born in California, de Christopher received his undergraduate degree from The Cooper Union, School of Art, in New York and worked and studied for a year in Italy, in Florence and Pietrasanta. He attended the Columbia University School of Architecture for a year, before leaving to work as an architect, designer and carver for Cathedral Stoneworks at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.

His numerous solo and group exhibitions include “Falling Apart/Falling Away,” in 2007 and “The Cathedral Project: In Praise of Turners Falls” in 2006, both at the Oxbow Gallery in Northampton; “The Stone Show: Stone Sculptors of New England,” in 2005 in Hardwick; “Years of Work: A Thirty Year Retrospective,” at the Amy H. Carberry Gallery in Springfield in 2004;  “New Digs for the Dog,” at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge in 2002; and “The Teapot Transformed” and “Inaugural Exhibit,” both in 2002 at the Ferrin Gallery in Lenox. His works also have been displayed at the New England Spring Flower Show in Boston, in 2001 and 2005.

Private commissions over the past decade include “Downtown Atlantis,” a 10-ton fountain installation comprised of more than 150 individual blocks of stone in Lloyd Harbor, N.Y., and “Life’s Little Mysteries,” a whimsical, one-ton, six-foot birdbath adorned with elephants and other carvings around the theme of nature, family and the passage of time, in Dover, Mass.,

His current work, Cathedral Project, is an artist-initiated monumental sculpture in Turners Falls. Using the cathedral both as model and metaphor, the project will broadly express the human condition in man’s struggle to make sense of, and celebrate, life and aspiration.

The exhibit can be viewed during regular gallery hours, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

More MWCC News:

• The Biology Department, with the support of the LaChance Library staff, hosted a party commemorating the 199th birthday of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin. With "Darwin" is student Brad Swanson, one of many who stopped by for an autographed copy of The Origin of Species and to discuss evolutionism vs. creationism.

  The Spring Film Series series kicks off on Wednesday, Feb. 20 with The U.S. vs. John Lennon, which offers a compelling look at the United States government’s attempt to silence one of rock & roll's most outspoken critics of the Vietnam War. The documentary details the struggle between the Richard Nixon administration and the iconic peace activist and former Beatle. The 96-minute film will be shown at 11:30 a.m. in the North Cafeteria and is free and open to the public. For more information about the film, go to www.theusversusjohnlennon.com The film series will continue on March 5 with "Murder on a Sunday Morning," and on April 16 with "Supersize Me."

• Mardi Gras Carnaval will take place Thursday, Feb. 21 in South Café. The event, sponsored by Campus Activities Team for Students (CATS) and the Student Life office, will feature karaoke from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., followed by video dance from 8:30 to 10 p.m. Cash prizes will be awarded for best costumes and a $100 door prize will be given out every hour. The event is free for MWCC students, faculty and staff.

• In recognition of Spay Day USA, a community service initiative of the Humane Society of the United States, animal welfare volunteers will be on campus on Tuesday, Feb. 26 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. to raise awareness about pet health. Events coordinated by campus volunteers Heidi McCann, Gayle Jaillet and Raeann LeBlanc include presentations, an information table and a raffle of two baskets filled with dog and cat goodies. Jan Beckwith, president of the Second Chance Fund for Animal Welfare, will speak about the importance of spaying and neutering pets as an essential component of good pet health care. LeBlanc, a volunteer with Ahimsa Haven Animal Rescue, will present a talk about the national No-Kill Movement, which promotes adoption guarantees for animals in shelters that are tame, healthy, manageable and able to be rehabilitated. Ahimsa Haven President Marjorie Twirga and Vice President Nancy Regan also will participate. The book "Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No-Kill Revolution in America” by Nathan Winograd will be available for sale.

• The Sankofa Slavery Museum “The Price of Freedom Tour,” a motivational, empowering and thought-provoking multi-media exhibit documenting the brutality and inhumanity of the slave trade and slavery, comes to MWCC on Wednesday, Feb. 27. The traveling exhibit, the latest presentation by the New York-based Black Inventions Exhibit, will be on display in the Commons area from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The private collection of historic and rare artifacts includes leg irons and shackles, documents of enslavement, first-edition 18th and 19th century pro-slavery and anti-slavery books and pamphlets, and other documents. The collection, originally founded in western Massachusetts, has been presented nationally at numerous museums and educational institutions around the country, including the Discovery Museum in Connecticut, the Mariner's Museum in Virginia, and the Schomburg Center in New York City. The exhibit has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and on cable and news shows around the country. The public education program is being sponsored by the office of Student Life in recognition of Black History Month.

• Friday, March 7 is MWCC night at the Worcester Sharks at 7 p.m. at the DCU Center in Worcester. The Alumni Association is sponsoring a Chuck-a-Puck contest with a portion of the proceeds to benefit the Alumni Scholarship Fund. Special pricing and seating for students, alumni, faculty, staff, family and friends will be available at $9, nearly half off the regular ticket price.To order tickets, contact Carol Cullins, Director of Alumni Relations, at (978) 630-9594 or ccullins@mwcc.mass.edu

• Free 2007 income tax preparation services will be offered to eligible area residents at MWCC's Gardner and Leominster campuses. The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program is being offered on Thursdays through April 10 at the Gardner campus and on Fridays through April 11 at the Leominster campus. Appointments can be made by contacting Denise Whitney at (978) 630-9124 or dwhitney@mwcc.mass.edu. The VITA program, an initiative of the IRS, is a service-learning project for MWCC business students coordinated by the Division of Lifelong Learning and Workforce Development and the Business Department.

• Theatre at the Mount opens its 2008 season with a production of Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, with performances on February 22, 23, 29, March 1 at 8 p.m., and on March 2 at 2 p.m. This rock ’n’ roll musical extravaganza has received worldwide praise and numerous prestigious awards and nominations, including two Laurence Olivier Awards (one for Best Musical), a Tony Award, and two Outer Circle Awards. Buddy is the story of rock and roll legend Buddy Holly and his meteoric climb to the top of the charts to become the biggest selling recording artist worldwide before his tragic death in a plane crash at the age of 22. The production features more than 20 Buddy Holly hit songs, including Peggy Sue, That’ll Be The Day, Oh Boy, Rave On, Heartbeat, and Raining in My Heart, all performed live on stage. Tickets are $20 for evening performances and $15 for matinees and may be purchased at the TAM box office at 978 632-2403. Tickets may also be purchased online at http://theatre.mwcc.edu

• Volunteer musicians and singers are needed to perform in educational recording sessions during an advanced audio production course at MWCC. Students enrolled in the college’s Broadcasting and Telecommunications degree program will record the performers on Wednesday evenings between 5 to 8 p.m. throughout the spring semester as part of the academic program. Choirs, quartets, soloists and other singing groups are needed, as well as woodwind, brass, percussion and string musicians, a brass quartet and a big band jazz band. Rock bands are not being recorded as part of this course. The volunteer performers will get an opportunity to learn more about the recording process as it pertains to their specialty. Some performances may be aired on cable access stations. For more information, or to reserve a recording space, contact adjunct instructor John Little at jlittle@mwcc.mass.edu.

• The enrollment center is offering Information Sessions on a number of academic programs. Upcoming sessions will take place on the following dates: Clinical Laboratory Science: Feb. 13 and March 12 from 3 to 4:30 p.m., Heywood Hospital, Dining Room B; Biotechnology/Biomanufacturing: Feb. 21 from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Gardner Campus, room 341 and March 25 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Leominster Campus, 100 Erdman Way; A.S. Nursing: Feb. 12 and March 11 from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Gardner campus, Wetmore Wing, room 12; Practical Nursing Certificate program: Feb. 21 and March 20 from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Gardner campus, Wetmore Wing, room 12; Complementary Health Care: Feb. 25 and March 24 from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Gardner campus, Wetmore Wing, room 12; Dental Hygiene: March 5 from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Gardner campus, Wetmore Wing, Room 12. Prospective students interested in attending an information session are asked to call the enrollment center at (978) 630-9110 (TTY (978) 632-4916), or send an email to admissions@mwcc.mass.edu