MWCC's weekly e-newsletter

Friday, Oct. 14, 2005

MWCC CELEBRATES EXPANDED PRACTICAL NURSING PROGRAM

AT DEVENS CAMPUS OPEN HOUSE

By Kimberly B. Caisse

MWCC celebrated the expansion of its practical nursing program to the Devens campus, 100 Jackson Road, Friday, Oct. 14.

Dean of the School of Health Sciences Deborah Orre encourages students to fulfill their dreams of becoming nurses.

“This is another chapter in our story of working diligently to train more nurses to work for the health care providers in Central Massachusetts,” said MWCC President Daniel M. Asquino.

The expansion to the Devens campus meets the needs of another healthcare service area: the Nashoba Valley. The changes at the Devens campus add 30 more full-time and 30 part-time seats to MWCC’s practical nursing program. Fifty students were admitted to the practical nursing program run in Orange in January 2005.

The first group of students will graduate in July 2006. The part-time students, all employees of nine nursing homes—five homes operated by Life Care of America, three run by Merrimack Health Group and Leo P. LaChance Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Gardner—will graduate in July 2007.

Ted Eliopoulous, director of business development for the Northeast division of Life Care Centers of America, applauded MWCC for expanding the practical nursing program to the Nashoba Valley. “Within the Nashoba Valley community, there is a desperate need for nurses,” he said. Life Care Centers has gone overseas to find them, but now believes “we need to grow our own nurses.”

Dean of the School of Health Sciences Deborah Orre encouraged students to fulfill their dreams of becoming nurses. “To you, our students, we offer this: Take your courage to build yourself into something bigger and better.”

Student Heather Fischer explained, “In the Deven’s full-time practical nursing program, there are 27 students, men and women, coming from over six different countries, speaking a dozen different languages, each with their own personal story.”

The expanded, two-year practical nursing program was designed so the four cycles—two 15-week cycles and two six-week cycles—are offered at different times of the year at the Orange and Devens sites to better accommodate student schedules.

COMPUTER TECH CLASS’ FUND-RAISER TO BENEFIT
CHERNOBYL CHILDREN’S PROJECT USA

By Kimberly B. Caisse

Students in Associate Professor Tina Wilson’s computer technologies class started selling candy bars Friday, Oct. 14 to raise money to bring a child from the radiation-contaminated parts of Ukraine, Belarus or western Russia to the Boston area for respite and medical attention.

The nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine suffered a massive accident in 1986. At least 5 percent of its radioactive reactor core was released into the atmosphere and downwind on a rainy, cloudy and windy day. Large areas of Belarus, Ukraine and western Russia were contaminated in varying degrees.

	A map of the areas contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident.

There are parts of Ukraine and Belarus where people have been evacuated, and the population in the contaminated zones has dropped from 3 million at the time of the accident to 1 million today. The people who live in the area suffer from illnesses related to radiation exposure, but the children bear the brunt of it. Moving isn’t an option for many families, because they can’t afford to move and they would lose their plot of land, which is used to supplement their food supply.

Since 1995, Chernobyl Children’s Project USA has been directed and staffed by volunteers from the greater Boston area who seek to help the people of the Chernobyl area by offering aid, medical assistance, education and caring. An important aspect of CCP’s mission is bringing children from the Chernobyl region to the U.S. for respite and medical evaluation and treatment.

Wilson’s students heard firsthand what life is like in that area from Elena Kusnekova, a teacher from Belarus visiting the United States as part of CCP, on Wednesday, Oct. 12.

“We’re used to living with this fear day by day, and we don’t know about our future,” Kusnekova said. “Of course we take care of our kids as best we can, but really we can’t do anything about the radiation. The problem is we can’t see it, you can’t touch it. So it seems that everything is OK, but it’s not. You also know a lot of people, a lot of friends, who have died. So we don’t know about our future.

	From left, Irina Fedoshenko, Mariya Demenkova and Elena Kusnekova speak to Tina Wilson's computer technologies class about their lives and impressions of the United States.

“We would like our children to survive,” she added. “This chance to let them come to America is great for us. A month of staying here is really helpful to them. My daughter, she’s here right now, when she came over here for the first time in 2002, and after coming back, she was so happy. She had changed a lot. Of course, her health at the time was improved. The bodies of the children who come over clear up (of radiation). That’s a miracle for us that it happens, that our children get to come over.”

Chernobyl Children’s Project USA has brought 1,200 children to Massachusetts. They stay with host families for four to six weeks in the summer. They have fun, eat and drink uncontaminated food and water, and undergo medical, dental and vision evaluations and, if necessary, treatments. The children are treated at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Springfield, the Tufts-New England Medical Center Floating Hospital for Children and other eye and dental care facilities.

Two CCP children also visited the class. Mariya Demenkova, 12, of Belarus, had a pituitary brain tumor removed at the Floating Hospital for Children and Irina Fedoshenko, 14, of Russia, was treated for scoliosis at Shriners.

It costs $1,500 to bring a Chernobyl child to the U.S. That is what Wilson’s class hopes to raise through the candy bar sale.

“It’s one thing to hear about it, but to get a firsthand look at it, I can’t find a word to describe it,” said Brandi Jackson-Crosby, a first-year student from Fitchburg majoring in paralegal studies. “It makes me want to do something. They’re so brave to come out and speak about it.”

Destiny Karull, a returning student currently majoring in automotive technology, said this cause may be something she and her husband donate to when they start an automotive business. She’s thinking ahead about ways to spend excess revenue in a way that helps people and gives them hope, and helping Chernobyl children go to college is an option. “I’m starting a business, so my son will have a better life. What can we do to make their children’s lives better?” she said.

This is just the response Wilson was hoping for when she organized CCP visit. During the spring 2005 semester, she had students, many of whom didn’t know about the Chernobyl accident, email people living in the Chernobyl area to learn more about their lives. She wasn’t convinced the connection they made was strong enough to make a lasting impression.

“One of the reasons I picked this project was I watched the ‘Chernobyl Heart’ video and realized I had forgotten about it,” Wilson explained. “It’s important to remember there are people who have significant health issues because of this terrible accident.”

For more information, to order candy bars or to make a donation, contact Wilson at (978) 630-9225 or twilson@mwcc.mass.edu.

Selena Johnson, campaign director at the United Way of North Central Massachusetts, at the COMECC Campaign Kickoff Breakfast on Tuesday, Oct. 11.

Upcoming Campus Events:

	The cast of "Clue the Musical"

• The Theatre at the Mount's performace of “Clue the Musical” continues Friday, Oct. 14 and Saturday, Oct. 15 at 8 p.m. Other performances will be held Saturday, Oct. 8, Friday, Oct. 14 and Saturday, Oct. 15 at 8 p.m. The matinee performance will be Sunday, Oct. 16 at 2 p.m. The show stars Carolyn Aliskevicz as The Detective, Joe Andrade as Mr. Green, Rob Houle as Mrs. White, Nicole Kirrane as Miss Scarlet, Barry Lew as Colonel Mustard, Linda Oroszko as Mrs. Peacock, T.J. Sweeney as Mr. Boddy and Jeff Williams as Professor Plum. For tickets and information, call the Theatre at the Mount Box Office at (978) 632-2403 (Box office hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.) Or purchase tickets online at http://theatre.mwcc.edu.

	From left, an Aubuchon representative, Rene LeBlanc, Campus Police Officer Chad Roger, Healthcare Pathway Director Robin Duncan and Healthcare Pathway Assistant Director Alice LeBlanc in front of the Aubuchon trailer that will store supplies for health centers in Mississippi.

• Until Friday, Oct. 21, MWCC is collecting over-the-counter products for its adopted Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative centers. Antibacterial soap, tissues, diapers, Band-Aids and sunscreen are being collected. To view a more extensive supply list, visit http://foundation.mwcc.edu. Items may be donated between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, in collection bins stationed in the front entrance of MWCC’s Gardner campus, the Fitness & Wellness Center and the Leominster campus, 100 Erdman Way. W.E. Aubuchon has donated an 18-wheeler trailer to take the collected supplies to Hattiesburg at the end of October. For more information, contact Robin Duncan at (978) 630-9293.

• The MWCC Concert Band, conducted by Stephen Babineau of Templeton, is playing its premiere concert on Thursday, Oct. 20 beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the MWCC theater. Highlights of this free concert include "Teddy Bears Picnic," "War March of the Priests" and Music from "Ragtime." For more information, contact Babineau at (978) 939-8675.

• Battered Women’s Resources Inc., the Worcester District Attorney’s Office and MWCC’s Paralegal Studies Program will sponsor a mock trial on Monday, Oct. 24 at 1:30 p.m. at the Gardner campus’ north dining area. The dispute will concern domestic violence and the judicial process. For more information, contact Associate Professor Jim Korman at (978) 630-9359 or jkorman@mwcc.mass.edu.

• The annual MWCC Fall Open House will be held in the commons area of the Gardner campus on Thursday, Oct. 27 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. This is an opportunity for prospective students and their families to learn about MWCC’s more than 40 majors and programs; meet with admissions, financial aid and career services counselors; speak one-on-one with program directors and department chairs; and discover how to transfer to four-year colleges and universities through MWCC’s joint admissions and tuition advantage programs. For more information about this free event, contact the Admissions Office at (978) 630-9110 or admissions@mwcc.mass.edu.

• The North Central Massachusetts chapter of the American Red Cross will hold a disaster response training session at the MWCC Gardner campus on Friday, Oct. 28 from 5 to 9 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 29 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information or to register, contact Molly Piscia, the North Central Massachusetts chapter’s disaster services director, at (978) 537-3339 ext. 12 or PisciaM@usa.redcross.org.

• The LIFE program’s third Wachusett Writer’s Conference will be held Friday, Oct. 28 and Saturday, Oct. 29 at the Colonial Hotel in Gardner. Friday night’s reception will include a portrayal of America’s first recorded and published female poets, Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley. The roles will be played by Patricia Cosentino and Nazaleem Smith, and they will appear in period costume. They will read from the early works of these poets. Winners of LIFE’s second annual writing contest will be invited to read their winning pieces at this event. There will be an open mic session, and refreshments will be served. The cost is $10. Saturday’s session will begin with a continental breakfast and registration at 8 a.m. The keynote speaker, Archer Mayor, a mystery writer with the Policeman Joe Gunther series, will address the audience with “A Conversation with Archer Mayor.” Morning workshops will follow with three genres: poetry, mystery and short fiction. A delicious luncheon will precede the afternoon workshops. Attendees may choose one morning and one afternoon workshop. For more information, contact Lorraine Wickman at (978) 630-9176 or lwickman@mwcc.mass.edu.

• Alice LeBlanc, assistant director of the Healthcare Pathway Program, is selling November calendars for a fund-raiser to benefit local food pantries and the Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative. The goal is for the MWCC community to raise $2,000. Four hundred calendars, priced at $5 each, will present 30 chances to win a home-baked item or gift. To buy a calendar, contact LeBlanc at (978) 630-9220.

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