MWCC's weekly e-newsletter

Friday, Nov. 4, 2005

MWCC’S NEW ALUMNI AFFAIRS DIRECTOR AIMS
TO INCREASE ALUMNI INVOLVEMENT

By Kimberly B. Caisse

In the first month of Melanie Patterson’s service as Mount Wachusett Community College’s new director of alumni affairs and annual giving, she has planned a variety of initiatives to get more MWCC alumni involved with their alma mater.

	Melanie Patterson

“In the short time I’ve been here, the alumni who have come forward are looking for ways that they can help, because they love this school,” Patterson said. “They want to give something back to an institution that helped them to recognize their own potential and goals.”

Patterson is one of them. “When I got here, I didn’t know anything about college,” she said. “I was scared to death. And I was able to go on and graduate and transfer to Smith (College).” She received an associate’s degree in liberal studies, with honors, from MWCC in 2001 and a bachelor’s of arts degree in sociology and anthropology from Smith in 2004.

As an active member of the MWCC Alumni Association Board, Patterson was offering ideas for improving alumni services and involvement to Vice President of Community and Foundation Development Sharyn Rice. Faced with deciding between starting graduate school and applying for the director of alumni affairs and annual giving position over the summer, Patterson chose the latter.

“I really started getting excited about it, because there was no program already here,” she explained. “It was something I could take, create it and build it the way that I thought would most benefit the college and alumni.”

One of her first initiatives is working with Transfer Services Assistant Director Nancy Greenlaw to implement alumni transfer mentoring programs with colleges and universities that students often attend after graduating from MWCC.

This would give MWCC alumni who are currently in their second semester at a four-year college or university the opportunity to mentor MWCC students who want to go there the following year. MWCC would provide orientation and training for the mentors and an information session for the “mentees.”

“The mentors are going to show them college life, something more than what people get at orientation,” Patterson explained. “The ‘mentees’ would know someone already going there.”

Patterson and the new Alumni Association president, Melissa Sargent, have created an “alumni liaison” board classification to give board members who can’t be as active as they would like a way to continue to be involved. They also plan to add a student representative, a member of the Student Government Association, to the board.

Patterson also is helping to plan class reunions during 2006 for the Nursing Class of 1981 and the Early Childhood Education program. She would also like to hold employee recognition luncheons for MWCC employees who have graduated or earned a certificate from the college.

Changes Patterson plans to make to the MWCC Alumni Association website will include new ways for alumni to communicate with the association and each other and an online store to purchase MWCC merchandise.

Before becoming MWCC’s director of alumni affairs and annual giving, Patterson worked for Hannah Grimes Marketplace & Development Inc. as an independent consultant and workshop coordinator for the USRDA Rural Development Business Enterprise Grant. She has served as a prevention coordinator at the Monadnock Action Network with Youth, disaster recovery and community relations officer for the Department of Homeland Security FEMA division, sexual assault and domestic violence counselor at New England Learning Center for Women in Transition and, most recently, co-facilitator of a IMPACT Boston 2004: Self-Defense for Women “Empowerment and Personal Safety” course help in Greenfield.

For more information on MWCC's alumni activities, contact Patterson at (978) 630-9594 or mpatterson@mwcc.mass.edu.

THE MWCC COMMUNITY RAISES $700 FOR HATTISBURG, MISS., AND LOCAL FOOD PANTRIES
At left, Healthcare Pathway Assistant Director Alice LeBlanc, MWCC Foundation Executive Director Darlene Morrilly and Healthcare Pathway Director Robin Duncan show that the MWCC community's generousity raised $350 for the Hattisburg, Miss., food bank. At right, Duncan, LeBlanc and Morrilly present Steve Adams, a member of the Orange Food Pantry's executive board, with a check for $120. Proceeds will also be shared with other area food pantries. The Hurricane Katrina Relief Committee raised the money by selling days on a special November calendar. Some members of the MWCC community bought a day while others donated items for the daily give-aways. Winners will be selected throughout November.

Upcoming Campus Events:

• The Student Government Association (SGA) is accepting donations for their Thanksgiving Food Drive. This year, the collection will benefit MWCC students who could use assistance. There are two ways to help: Donate non-perishable food items and make a monetary donation to go toward purchasing Stop & Shop gift certificates. Each student on the list to receive assistance will be receiving a $20 gift certificate along with a box filled with non-perishable food items. The gift certificate is meant to be used towards the purchase of a turkey and other perishable food items. After purchasing the necessary gift certificates, monetary donations may also be used to purchase any additional non-perishable food items still needed to fill the student boxes. Two grocery carts will be located on the first floor to collect the non-perishable food items. After the non-perishable food items have been distributed to the MWCC students, the remainder of the food will be donated to the MassPirg Fill the Chair campaign, which benefits the Gardner Community Action Committee. For more information, contact Student Life Director Greg Clement at (978) 630-9252 or gclement@mwcc.mass.edu.

• Phi Theta Kappa and MassPirg’s Winter Clothing Drive will run from Tuesday, Nov. 1 and Friday, Nov. 11. Collection boxes will be located on the first floor of the Gardner campus. Gently worn coats, jackets, sweaters, sweatshirts, pants, scarves, hats and other clothing items are appreciated. The clothing will be donated to Our Father’s House in Fitchburg. Our Father's House is a private, non-sectarian agency providing shelter and related services to homeless men and women. For more information about the drive, contact Professor Sheila Murphy at (978) 630-9331 or smurphy@mwcc.mass.edu.

• In observance of National Family Literacy Month, Pathways to Family Success, a MWCC program, and its partners are teaming up to bring a variety of literacy activities to Leominster families throughout November. On Tuesday, Nov. 8 from 9:30 to about 10:30 or 11 a.m. and from 1:30 to about 2:30 or 3 p.m., MOC Child Care & Head Start Services, one of Pathways’ partners, will host a family literacy program. The Leominster Public Library children’s librarian will read to the children. While children participate in this activity, parents will be taught by Pamela Bannister, coordinator for Pathways to Family Success, about the importance of early literacy, reading with your children, what to expect developmentally from children and more. Informational material and age-appropriate books will be given away. Family Fun Night, sponsored by Project Apples – Community Partnerships for Children, another Pathways’ partner, and Leominster Public Library, will be held at Priest Street School on Thursday, Nov. 10, from 6 to 6:45 p.m. For more information, contact Pamela Banister at (978) 534-0964.

• MWCC’s Health Sciences department is sponsoring a lecture for area senior citizens on the Medicare D Benefit, which will begin on Jan. 1, 2006, Monday, Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. in the Murphy Room at the Gardner campus. The presenter will be Hamid Mohaghegh, RPh, MS, MHA, pharmacist and owner of Family Pharmacy in Gardner, Ashburnham Family Pharmacy and Family Home Medical Equipment Supply in Gardner. The presentation will give a general overview and opportunity for to ask questions about the Medicare Part D Benefit, a prescription drug benefit offered through Medicare. Registration is limited to the first 30 people who register with Gayle Jaillet at (978) 630-9265 or gjaillet@mwcc.mass.edu.

• MWCC’s Transfer Services Office is hosting the annual Transfer Fair on Monday, Nov. 14 in the Gardner campus’ South Cafeteria from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Over 40 four-year college transfer representatives plan to attend. With a “Ticket to Transfer Fair,” MWCC students can enter a drawing, being held in conjunction with the fair, to win a $100 gift certificate to a Barnes & Noble bookstore. For a full list of the colleges that will be at the fair, visit http://www.mwcc.edu/services/transfer/fair.html on the MWCC Transfer Services webpage. For more information, contact Nancy Greenlaw at (978) 630-9321.

• Help create the MWCC Library of the future. MWCC Library, located at the Gardner campus, is looking for 10 to 12 individuals per focus group who would like to contribute their ideas to the library renovation project. Pre-registration is required to participate. Refreshments will be provided. All groups will meet in the faculty/staff lounge (adjacent to the cafeteria). Each student participant will receive a free $5 copy card. The day-student focus group will meet Tuesday, Nov. 15 from 1 to 2:30 p.m.; the evening-student group on Thursday, Nov. 17 from 4 to 5:30 p.m.; the college-staff-group on Tuesday, Nov. 15 from 3 to 4:30 p.m.; the faculty group on Thursday, Nov. 17 from 10 to 11:30 a.m.; and the Gardner community on Tuesday, Nov. 15 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. For more information, or to pre-register, contact Assistant Dean of Library and Information Services Linda Oldach at (978) 630-9126 or loldach@mwcc.mass.edu.

• The Entrepreneurial Resource Center at MWCC will present “Marketing Your Small Business” Thursday, Nov. 17, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in room 127 at the Gardner campus. This free seminar will assist small business owners and those planning to start a small business to turn their idea/product into a moneymaker by marketing more effectively. Discover what to say and how to say it to sell your product. The expert presenters will answer questions, and attendees are urged to come prepared with questions regarding their present or proposed business. 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.

• Photographs by Ellie Moore and MWCC Professor Joyce Miller of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work “The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979-2005” are on display in the East Wing Gallery through Friday, Nov. 18. “The Gates,” free-hanging, saffron- colored fabric panels suspended from gate structures, were installed around New York City’s Central Park in February 2005. For more information, contact Professor Joyce Miller at (978) 630-9221 or jmiller@mwcc.mass.edu.

	"Inscriptions" by Christopher Willingham

• Artist Christopher Willingham work is on display in the East Wing Gallery of MWCC’s Raymond M. LaFontaine Fine Arts Center through Friday, Nov. 18. An artist reception will be held Wednesday, Nov. 17 from 7 to 9 p.m. For more information, contact Professor Joyce Miller at (978) 630-9221 or jmiller@mwcc.mass.edu.

• MWCC will host an American Red Cross Blood Drive Monday, Nov. 21 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the commons area of the college’s Gardner campus. To register, contact Marianne Stoy at (978) 630-9136. Walk-ins are welcome.

• The MWCC Library will be open for extended hours during the fall semester’s final exam period: Friday, Dec. 9, open until 7 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 10, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 11, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Saturday, Dec. 17, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, call the Library’s main desk at (978) 630-9125.

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