MWCC's weekly e-newsletter

Friday, March 24, 2006

STATE REP. GOBI VISITS ECONOMICS CLASS

By Kimberly B. Caisse

A group of business students moved their service-learning project another step forward this week when they presented a draft of their “Stop the Fine Print” bill to State Rep. Ann Gobi, D-Spencer.

	From left, student Jack Wilson, Rep. Ann Gobi, Associate Professor Michael Greenwood, student Anthony Archambault and student Shayne Regan.

Gobi, whose district includes Barre, Brookfield, Hardwick, New Braintree, North Brookfield, Petersham, Phillipston, part of Ware, West Brookfield, part of Spencer and Templeton, visited Associate Professor Michael Greenwood’s economics class on Monday, March 20. She spoke to the class about the economics of legislation and listened to a presentation about the Stop the Fine Print proposal.

“What we always talk about in class is how to make the textbook come alive,” Greenwood said. “Economics of legislation is a topic that keeps coming up in class.”

Gobi, who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, told the class how she became involved in politics, and then turned her focus toward explaining how budgetary decisions are made on Beacon Hill. “There’s no question that one way you can help other people is through economics,” she said. “It’s all about balancing.”

Gobi also told the students they’re very important to the future of the state. Research has shown, she said, that 25- to 34-year-olds who attend state and community colleges are more likely to remain in Massachusetts. “You’re extremely, extremely important to the economics of Massachusetts,” she added.

In regards to the Stop the Fine Print proposed bill, Gobi asked the project group to research whether similar legislation is already in place and what fine-print legislation other states may have on the books. Gobi pledged to contact the Attorney General’s office to find out if another law about fine-print is in progress.

For more information, visit www.mwcc.edu/fineprint.

MOUNT HOLYOKE PROFESSOR SHARES STORY OF THE ‘MERCURY 13’

By Kimberly B. Caisse

While the “remarkable story of 13 American women who were pioneers in the field of aviation and space” doesn’t have a happy ending, the author of a 2003 book about them told about 100 students, faculty and staff Thursday, March 23 that she hoped they would find it “inspiring in terms of what they wanted to contribute.”

	Dr. Martha Ackmann

Dr. Martha Ackmann, a professor at Mount Holyoke College and author of “The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight,” was brought to the college by the Division of Mathematics, Science and Technology in recognition of National Women’s History Month.

During two one-hour sessions, Ackmann described the events that led to the selection of these 13 women to be tested for their ability to endure space travel in the early 1960s. They were Geraldyn “Jerrie” Cobb, Bernice “Bea” Steadman, Janey Hart, Geraldine “Jerri” Sloan Truhill, Rhea Allison Woltman, Sarah Lee Gorelick Ratley, sisters Jan and Marion Dietrich, Myrtle Cagle, Irene Leverton, Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen, Jean Hixson and Wally Funk.

These women, Ackmann said, underwent nearly 75 medical exams—the same kind as the male military test pilots—and performed well. While the men saw the tests and doctors who performed them as obstacles, the women saw the testing “as an opportunity,” she added.

Despite having the backing of two military doctors involved in testing pilots for space travel, the Woman in Space Program didn’t have the support of NASA—and ultimately of enough congressmen or President Lyndon B. Johnson—to make it into space.

Women won that necessary support in 1974, when women could become military test pilots and began to be admitted into the astronaut training program. According to Ackmann, “Eileen Collins (who in 1999 was the first woman Space Shuttle commander) put it this way, ‘Imagine if those women had failed the tests. It would have reinforced stereotypes and set the Women in Space Program back another generation.’ ”

The Mercury 13 played a very important role in changing society’s views of women, according to Ackmann. “I think the tests proved that women were not fragile or weak or vulnerable or scared. Medical historians remind us that the Lovelace Tests were one of the first ones on healthy women. And the results proved that the women had no inherent biological or physical limitation that would prevent them from functioning as well as men,” she said. “And although the test scores did not immediately turn around society’s deeply intractable myth about women’s physical inferiority, they served as an early challenge to the wisdom of the scientific community that saw women as a lesser form of man.”

“The Mercury 13 women proved that women, that men, that all of us want to be useful, to live our lives for a purpose and to explore,” Ackmann added. “I think the Mercury 13 story reminds us that our dreams should never be limited by sex or race or by economic privilege.”

To learn more about the Mercury 13, visit www.mercury13.com.

MWCC FOUNDATION CAPITAL CAMPAIGN WINS TOP

Mount Wachusett Community College Foundation Inc.’s capital campaign this week earned a Gold Paragon Award for its superior promotional materials at the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations National Conference in Austin, Texas.

“I’m very proud that our capital campaign literature received this recognition by our fellow marketing and public relations experts,” said MWCC Foundation Executive Director Darlene Morrilly. “It’s a great tribute to a campaign that has been amazingly supported by our community members, faculty and staff.”

The foundation’s “Where Learning Never Ends” Capital Campaign” was the first capital campaign for Mount Wachusett Community College in its 41-year history. The campaign has raised nearly $4 million in generous contributions from donors throughout North Central Massachusetts and the college faculty and staff.

“To promote the campaign, we had to develop a whole series of communications with a unified look and consistent messaging,” Morrilly explained. “The campaign literature served as a tool for campaign volunteers from the board and the community to educate prospective donors. We knew that our volunteers needed a piece that would make a great first impression, was recognizable as MWCC, easy to read and compelling.”

“The campaign brochure was the centerpiece for all solicitations and the response was overwhelming,” she added. “In an attempt to keep the reader’s interest, what with so much information to convey, the brochure was broken into four segments: MWCC History—Forty Years of Service to the Community, The Need, Responding to the Need and Fulfilling the Need.”

The capital campaign will support the following college initiatives: Building a new childcare center, increasing civic participation through the establishment of the Center for Democracy and Humanity, renovating the MWCC Library and student scholarships.

Also at the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations National Conference, the college’s annual Molly Bish Kid Expo event won a Bronze Paragon Award for special event.

For more information on the campaign, contact Morrilly at (978) 630-9276 or dmorrilly@mwcc.mass.edu.

Other MWCC News:

• Area residents, including MWCC students and alumni, interested in a career in health care are invited to the second annual Health Care Job Fair at MWCC Monday, March 27 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the college’s Gardner campus. Attendees are strongly encouraged to bring copies of their resumes. For more information, contact MWCC’s Healthcare Pathways Program Director Robin Duncan at rduncan@mwcc.mass.edu or (978) 840-3221, ext. 199.

• MWCC’s Criminal Justice Department will host a panel presentation on careers in this field on Monday, March 27 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the north dining area. Representatives from various segments of the criminal justice system will talk about their particular career field: law enforcement, crime scene investigation, corrections, probation and victims’ services. A question-and-answer period will follow the presentations and light refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Elena Natalizia, chair of the Criminal Justice Department, at (978) 630-9196 or enatalizia@mwcc.mass.edu.

• MWCC students and alumni are also invited to the 2006 Job Fair Wednesday, March 29 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. sponsored by the college’s Career Placement Office. Attendees are strongly encouraged to bring copies of their resumes. For more information, contact Career Development Counselor Patricia Brewerton at (978) 630-9254 or pbrewerton@mwcc.mass.edu.

• MWCC’s What’s Next Speaker Series continues Friday, March 31 with the free appearance of two advocates for an Office of the National Nurse. Starting at 10 a.m. in the college’s auditorium, nurses Teri Mills and Alisa Schneider will make their case for the creation of this new position in the federal government. The free event is co-sponsored by MWCC, the Molly Bish Institute for Child Health and Safety and the Deans of Health Programs in Massachusetts Community Colleges. For more information, or to register, contact Gayle Jaillet at (978) 630-9265 or gjaillet@mwcc.mass.edu.

• Community Builders’ Project Volunteer continues its first Volunteer Management Training Series on Thursday, April 6 from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Longview Corporate Center, 80 Erdman Way, Leominster. This is the second session in a six-part series designed to build your nonprofit organization’s volunteer base. Learn from a nationally accredited Points of Light Foundation trainer to build and effectively maintain an efficient, energetic volunteer program. This series is designed for nonprofit executives or board members, program staff and others in the organization responsible for the recruitment, retention and supervision of volunteers. This series also applies to those in human resources interested in volunteer programs in the infrastructure of a business. The cost is only $25 per session. The other session dates are Thursdays April 20, May 4, May 18 and June 1. For more information, or to register, contact Karin Oliveira at koliveira@mwcc.mass.edu. Community Builders is a partnership between MWCC and the United Way of North Central Massachusetts.

• MWCC will host a free lecture by historian James Loewen entitled “Lies My Teacher Told Me about the Turn of the Century” on Tuesday, April 11 at 7 p.m. in the college auditorium. Loewen’s appearance is part of the Teaching American History program sponsored by MWCC, Fitchburg Public Schools and Fitchburg State College. Following his lecture, Loewen will be signing copies of his book, “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong.” His book is the result of two years at the Smithsonian Institute surveying 12 leading high school textbooks of American history. He found an embarrassing blend of optimism, blind nationalism and misinformation. For more information, contact Dr. Frank DeSorbo at (978) 630-9130.

• The First Connections Mothers Group’s weekly meetings are held Fridays in the Children’s Room at Levi Heywood Memorial Library from 10:30 a.m. to noon. All mothers and their babies are invited. At the gatherings, attendees discuss topics such as feeding, sibling rivalry, temper tantrums, appropriate toys, traveling with children and how to choose a daycare provider. For more information, contact MWCC Professor Nancy Duphily, the meeting facilitator, at nduphily@mwcc.mass.edu or (978) 630-9233. Duphily will be assisted by MWCC nursing students as part of their service-learning project.

• Alice LeBlanc, assistant director of the Healthcare Pathway Program, is selling calendars, priced at $5 each, with 30 chances to win a donated home-baked or other gift item. All proceeds will go toward the Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative, a network of health clinics recovering from Hurricane Katrina. For more information, contact LeBlanc at (978) 630-9220 or aleblanc@mwcc.mass.edu.

• The Entrepreneurial Resource Center at MWCC will present a free seminar “Am I An Entrepreneur?” Thursday, April 6 from 6:30 to 9 pm in room 127 at the Gardner campus. Participants will learn what got these experts started as an entrepreneur, what is the down side of starting a business, the advice they would give you starting out and more. This seminar is free, but pre-registration is requested. To pre-register, contact MWCC Enrollment Services at (978) 630-9123. For more information, contact Denise Whitney at (978) 630-9124.

• The Institute for Nonprofit Development at MWCC announces that applications for its second round of capacity building mini-grants are due Friday, April 28. The mini-grants aim to support activities that will lead to long-term organizational health by improving an organization’s effectiveness. Only INPD members that hold 501(c)(3) status are eligible for the awards. Up to seven grants—each between $1,000 and $3,000—will be awarded. Details and application guidelines are available at http://inpd.mwcc.edu. For more informatiaon, contact Andrea Hart at (978) 840-3221, ext. 197 or ahart@mwcc.mass.edu.

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