eGrossmont

Volume 13, June 2013 - Previous Editions

Governing Board Meeting Highlights

At the June 18 meeting of the GCCCD Governing Board:

• Board members shared their enthusiasm about attending the many graduation ceremonies that mark this season. There were representatives from the board at nearly all of the graduation events held this year.

Other Governing Board highlights will appear in the Courier which is distributed electronically from the District Office.

Our Remarkable Graduates

Many of you know-because you participated in these ceremonies - that we had a remarkable series of graduations from the various programs on campus.

In the main ceremony on June 5th over 450 students donned gowns and mortarboards to celebrate their achievements in earning associates' degrees and certificates. Student Derrick Torrence and keynoter Rev. Eric Smith --both veterans who overcame hardships in their lives - drew coverage from three television stations and three local print media, and were well appreciated by the large audience of friends and family. In all 2,159 degrees and certificates were awarded in academic year 2012/13.

Dean Debbie Yaddow reports: "We graduated 39 CVT students with a dinner at the Bali Hai on May 30th. We graduated 28 respiratory therapy students with a dinner at Griffin Gate on June 6th. The orthopedic technology program will graduate 20 students on August 1st and will be having a dinner for family and friends at the Bali Hai four days later…. OTA students attended commencement but do not have a separate ceremony."

On June 4th, 35 Nursing students were pinned in a traditional ceremony in which either an active or retired nurse does the pinning. Of these graduates, seven were men - representing 20 percent of the class, the highest percentage ever. Student speaker Noelle Sanchez inspired with words about what becoming a nurse means: "In its truest form, to be a nurse is the essence of humility, empathy and compassion. A nurse shows kindness, promotes health and preserves the dignity of the ill…"

On Friday, June 7, Monica Zech, who spent 30 years as a traffic reporter, much of it in a helicopter circling San Diego freeways, chose metaphors of the road in a keynote speech to Grossmont College's 20 Office and Professional Training Graduates. Quoting motivational speaker Michael Josephson, she told the graduates about life after Grossmont College: "You need a road map but be prepared for the unattended detours, confusing signs and closed roads." Angel Pulido, the student speaker, quoted poet laureate Maya Angelou that "we delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes that it has gone through to achieve that beauty." OPT students underwent a metamorphosis as they gained confidence in their ability to become workers in the banking, accounting and insurance professions, Angel said.

On Monday, June 10, it was the time for 36 students in Grossmont's Middle College High School to graduate, and they were very impressive. They earned an aggregate of $287,000 in scholarships, grants and work study awards, while compiling an average of 255 internship hours over their course of study. The average GPA of the class was 3.75, with three students including valedictorian Laila Syeda Hamzai earning perfect 4.0's. The average number of college credits earned by these highly motivated students was a fraction shy of 30, with Sarah Lynee Gehman earning 43. It's just breathtaking how well these high school student do both academically and in the work place.

State Chancellor's Visit

Brice W. Harris, chancellor of the California Community College system, will conduct a news conference on the Grossmont College campus at 10:30 a.m. at the Health & Science Complex to announce and describe the "salary surfer" tool by which students will be able to compute the economic value-in terms of their future earning possibilities-of various training programs offered at community colleges throughout the state. Following the news conference here, Chancellor Harris will discuss the plans with media around the state by telephonic hookup.

Signs, Signs

Our program for better signage on campus to help new students and visitors find their way around is underway, with monuments to be erected around the campus. There will be building top signage for Griffin Gate, a new Grossmont College sign that will come into view for people driving on State Highway 125, and curb signage designating a special area for students to be dropped off. Tim Flood reports the project is on schedule to be completed this summer.

Classified Senate Leadership

Avelina Mitchell, an assistant cashier at Cuyamaca College, has been selected president of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District's Classified Senate. At each campus, a slate of officers has been elected to serve with her. Representatives at Grossmont College are vice president Linda Daley; member at large, Tom Fox; and senators Mary Eden, Patty Sparks, Sharon Farley and Cindy Hall.

Summer Session

We're back in session with 165 classes underway since June 10th.

On the first day, our reported enrollment was 4,146 students, nearly ten times as many as last summer when we were severely constrained by budget cuts. This summer we are offering many core courses in 42 subject areas to help students complete their requirements for the associate degrees. There are also some interesting elective courses, including one nine-day study trip to the Eastern Sierra for geology and geography students led by faculty members Judd Curran and Tim Cliffe.

For the fourth year, Grossmont College will participate in the eight-week Life Science Summer Institute. This program brings high school students onto Grossmont's campus for 40 hours of intensive training in biotechnology protocols (e.g.,ELISA, PCR). Students are selected via a rigorous application process. Professors Craig Milgrim and Allison Shearer of the Grossmont Biology department will teach the biotech skills course (Bio 113). In addition to the biotechnology skills, students will receive training from outside professionals in the "soft skills" necessary for working in a research team. After their week at Grossmont, the students will spend the next seven weeks of the program interning at such venues as the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Scripps Research Institute. The Life Science Summer Institute is conducted in partnership with the Southern California Biotechnology Center at Miramar College, the San Diego Workforce Partnership, and San Diego State University.

Among the activities we'll be seeing on campus this summer will be a four-day basketball camp Aug. 5-8 for students entering grades 3 through 9 in the fall. Coach Doug Weber says that in the course, costing $75 per student, "we will teach skills needed to play basketball successfully. We emphasize the FUNdamentals in a positive and enthusiastic way. We also teach about teamwork, sportsmanship, communication, goal setting and more."

Personnel News

Our Mathematics Professor Beth Smith will be elevated July 1 to the presidency of the Academic Senate of the 112 California Community Colleges, making her a spokesperson for 50,000 faculty members serving approximately 2.5 million students. We couldn't be more proud of her and we know she will serve the faculty of the state and also the community college system very well.

Pending board members' approval, we have announced the appointment of vice president for academic affairs, Dr. Katarina VanderWoude, currently vice provost at Rochester College in Michigan. The day before our panel interviewed her, she did her own due diligence, spending a day on the campus incognito, talking to students and staff, and learning her way around. Katarina and the Grossmont College community clearly were impressed with each other. She has worked for over 15 years in higher education at large community colleges, small and large universities. She will be arriving from Michigan where she worked at Henry Ford, Schoolcraft and Wayne County Community Colleges. Katarina received her bachelor's degree in Social Science with an emphasis in Social Work/Psychology from Michigan State University, and her master's in Higher Education Leadership with an emphasis in Educational Leadership from Eastern Michigan University. She completed her doctorate in Educational Leadership with an emphasis on Higher Education Administration from Eastern Michigan University. She is very excited to join our team and to listen, learn and apply her strengths wherever they are needed.

Child care development instructor Sheridan DeWolf, former interim dean of career technical education/work force development, has received the Barbara Chernofsky Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Diego County Child Care and Development Planning Council. Sheridan was nominated by the Grossmont Child Care Development Department for her lifetime "leadership, passion and commitment" in the child care community.

Emergency Preparedness

We hope it will never happen, but what should be done if a shooter comes onto our campus? Denise Schulmeyer, our professional development coordinator, reports that five workshops have been scheduled "to assist staff, faculty and administrators increase their ability to identify potential hazardous situations prior to and during an active shooter situation, and protect themselves from the active shooter." She adds the workshops are also designed "to explain what to expect from the police officers, once they have arrived on the scene. In an active shooter situation, your behavior and actions can have a tremendous impact on the outcome of an event."

Here are the dates of the workshops, all on campus:

• Monday, June 17, 2-3:30 p.m., 51-575
• Tuesday, June 25, 9-10:30 a.m., 51-575
• Wednesday, July 10, 10:30 a.m.-Noon, 26-220
• Monday, July 15, 3:30-5 p.m., 26-220
• Thursday, July 25, 1-2:30 p.m., 26-220

Faculty attending a July workshop may claim 1.5 hours of flex credit for Fall 2013.

The Sheriff's Department, in cooperation with other law enforcement agencies, plans a full scale emergency preparedness drill, simulating a shooter and hostage situation, to be conducted on the campus the week of July 16-19.

Fall 2013 Semester Periscope

English Prof. Tate Hurvitz next semester will again lead the campus in an interdisciplinary reading project. This time faculty and students in numerous disciplines will read Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Previously Tate led us in reading Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. This year's selection "gives a very broad perspective on cancer as a disease and its role in our society." The book also will be studied on five university campuses in San Diego County: UCSD, SDSU, Cal State San Marcos, USD and Point Loma Nazarene.

Theatre Arts Prof. Beth Duggan has announced that the line-up of plays and staged readings next season at the Stagehouse Theatre will be "family friendly." Here's the line-up:

• Sept. 6-7 readings of poetry by Edgar Allan Poe
• Oct. 3-12 Pygmalion, directed by Jeannette Thomas
• Nov. 14-23 To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, directed by Beth Duggan
• Dec. 6-7 Follow Me, directed by Jerry Hager
• Feb. 7-8 Inside the Actors' Process, directed by Jerry Hager
• Feb. 21-22 Misbehaving Women, a new play written by Grossmont's Jeannette Thomas
• March 13-22 You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, directed by Susan Jordan DeLeon
• May 8-17 Alice in Wonderland, directed by Jerry Hager.

Alexis Popko reminds us that discounted season packages may be obtained online at www.grossmont.edu/theatrebrochure, or via the box office's 24-hour message line at (619) 644-7234.