COMMENTS FROM JOE D. MAY

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1 TO: FROM: DCCCD BOARD MEMBERS JOE D. MAY DATE: JUNE 20, 2014 RE: WEEKEND MEMO #15 COMMENTS FROM JOE D. MAY Hello, everyone! The past two weeks have been filled with efforts focused on building friendships in the community and bolstering partnerships with businesses and other colleges and universities. I would like to share information about those activities with you: Thanks for everything you do to support our students and our mission. Have a great weekend! Joe May (Note: For the best viewing experience, please use the latest version of Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, or Apple Safari.) El Centro College Algonquin Young Readers, which features books for readers ages 7 to 17, has acquired world rights to Samantha Mabry s (Professor Samantha Schulze, English/developmental writing faculty, El Centro College) debut novel, Leaves. The book is a reimagining of Nathaniel Hawthorne s short story, Rappaccini s Daughter. It blends magical realism and mystery to tell the story of a boy who is lured into the world of a girl who is nourished by the poisonous plants that fill her scientist father s home in San Juan, where legends collide with reality, bodies of missing girls are washed ashore, and time is running out for the girl filled with poison. Publication is tentatively scheduled for spring 2016.

2 El Centro College took part in the annual Jack FM s Jack s Throwback music festival at Gexa Energy Pavilion on June 14 as sole sponsor of the VIP tent area, which included a game booth, photo booth, and the El Centro College booth. El Centro was the only institution in the Metroplex that participated in the event. College representatives made a variety of promotional items and informational materials available to attendees and, as the day progressed, El Centro College s branding was visible throughout the venue as there was a continuous flow at the college s booth. The festival had an attendance of more than 7,000, with a high male presence. Sponsorship of this event was part of El Centro College s continuous community relations efforts to expand its presence within the Downtown Dallas community. (See attached photographs.) North Lake College Our Students Officers of the North Lake College Alpha Zeta Eta Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, Diana Moreno, Carlos Valladares, Cindy Villalta, Lina Patel, Jacob Ramirez, and Jenny Maique, volunteered at the 2014 Playtri Festival in Las Colinas on June 1. The students, along with representatives from North Lake College s 2014 Community Partner of the Year, Keep Irving Beautiful, collected recyclables (mostly plastic bottles) during and after the event. They also collected organic material, which was composted rather than sent to the landfill. Our Community On May 30, Arthur James, executive dean of North Lake College North and South campuses, delivered the keynote address at the Premier High School Class of 2014 Commencement Ceremony. Premier High School of Irving South is a part of Responsive Education Solutions, the largest charter school district in the state of Texas. The school is located on the south campus of North Lake College. Our Employees North Lake College Interim President Christa Slejko attended the 36th Annual National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) Conference in Austin, May The 2014 NISOD Excellence Awards recipients from North Lake College are faculty members Gabriel Bach, Marie Kohrmann, Katherine Villarreal, and Jodi Acker. Christa Slejko, North Lake College interim president, recently attended a meeting with representatives from the community of Coppell and Coppell ISD to discuss the upcoming search for the District s new superintendent. Current superintendent, Dr. Jeff Turner, is retiring on August 31. Cedar Valley College Our Faculty Cedar Valley College professors Dr. Diane Minger and Dr. Elsie Burnett will be presenters at the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) 2014 Summer Institute to be held in New Orleans, LA, July Their presentation is titled Guidelines for Designing a Successful QEP. The professors will present two two-hour sessions on July 21, the first full day of the Institute. Our Staff Cedar Valley College staff representatives Dr. Ryan Thornton and Patsy White were selected to attend the National Council on Student Development (NCSD) Leadership Institute, which was held at Richland College, June The NCSD Community College Student Development Leadership Institute was designed to nurture participants for career advancement in higher education student development, using Reclaiming the American Dream: Community Colleges and the Nation s Future as the foundation. The Institute provided exciting opportunities for participants to share ideas, engage in critical discourse and dialogue, and learn from each other while preparing to meet the challenges of the higher education profession. 2

3 Our College Sustainability The Cedar Valley College Sustainability Conference, which took place June 13, attracted approximately 300 attendees; nearly 40 percent were community members, 31 percent were DCCCD employees, and 21 percent were DCCCD students. Methodist Charlton Medical Center served as the main sponsor, with additional support provided by the City of Cedar Hill; The Burrell Group; BikeTexas; Crescent Medical Center Lancaster; Shaklee Independent Distributor, Pam & Alan Hoffmann, LLC; Texas Conservation Alliance; Natural Awakenings; Living Earth; Green Mountain Energy; Erecycler; National University - Dallas; Earth Day Texas; and Interface. Our Community Outreach On June 21, Cedar Valley College will host the free Empower Series community workshop, entitled Estate Planning & Basic Wealth, sponsored by Comerica Bank, National Association of Black Accountants, Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, and Cedar Valley College. Judge Melodee Armstrong, who was born and raised in San Antonio, will be one of the guest speakers. Armstrong received her Texas Bar License in For the next 18 years, she practiced law most of the time operating her own firm representing and counseling clients in juvenile, civil, and criminal matters as well as mediating, serving as a Certified Hearing Examiner, and being a judge. In 2003, Armstrong was appointed municipal judge for the City of Dallas and presided over thousands of trials. Also presenting at the workshop will be Judge-elect Ingrid Michelle Warren, a Dallas native who earned her Doctor of Jurisprudence from The University of Texas School of Law, where she learned it is as important to understand the policy reason for the law as it is to know the law. Her professional experience includes serving as a United States Bankruptcy Court law clerk and working as an associate for a large Dallas-based law firm. Mountain View College Taylor Souryachak, recent graduate of Mountain View College, has been awarded a North Texas Community College Scholarship from Southern Methodist University (SMU). Ten of these full-tuition scholarships are awarded annually to students transferring from Collin, Dallas, Grayson, Kaufman, Navarro, or Tarrant County community colleges. The scholarship is renewable for up to five terms if fulltime enrollment and a 3.0 grade point average are maintained. Souryachak was also awarded a scholarship by the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund. Taylor Souryachak is a firstgeneration college student whose family arrived in the United States in 1975 (during the Vietnam War) seeking asylum. She began attending Mountain View College in 2007 as a part-time student. Since then, Souryachak has attended consistently as a part-time student while working full time. Her accomplishments include: nominee for Mountain View College Outstanding Student of the Year, 2013 and 2014; DCCCD Amidon/Beauchamp Student Leader of the Year campus award; and various Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) awards on the local, regional, and international levels. Souryachak is a Mountain View College Honors Scholar and has served as a Student Ambassador for the college, PTK vice president of fellowship, and president of the Mountain View College PTK chapter (for two years). Her college major is psychology; she will specialize in organizational psychology at SMU. Bring the whole family to the Summer Family Magic Shows being presented June 24, 25, and 26 from 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m. at Mountain View College! Performances are free and open to the public. Each presentation includes magic tricks old and new performed by Dr. Geoff Grimes and friends from the Dallas/Fort Worth magic community. Grimes is a Mountain View College faculty member and cosponsor of the Mark Wilson Magic Club at Mountain View College. The shows will have something for just about everyone, and lots of interaction between children and members of the audience. Each show will be presented in the foyer of the Mountain View College Performance Hall (on the east side of the campus near the flag poles). Before the main performance each evening, come enjoy preliminary closeup magic at tables around the foyer. 3

4 Brookhaven College Community Engagement Participants in the City of Farmers Branch Recreation Center Teen Leader-in- Training program visited Brookhaven College on June 13. Outreach and Recruitment Coordinator Suzette Vaquera-Constantine facilitated the visit, arranging for a student panel including current Brookhaven College students Andrew Royalty and Grady Thomas. The 36 middle school students from Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD attended a College 101 presentation focusing on dual credit. They also took a tour of the college, during which they met with Chong Chu, Brookhaven College art professor and alumnus, who spoke with them about the college s Fine Arts Department. Employee Success Jason Cates, mathematics professor at Brookhaven College, has been selected as a Faculty Fellow for the DCCCD STEM Institute for And returning to the Faculty Fellows program this year is Michael Bailey, also a mathematics professor at Brookhaven College. The program selects professors from the seven colleges of the DCCCD in the science, technology, engineering, or mathematics fields to mentor STEM Scholars. Faculty Fellows create a personalized plan for the STEM Scholars they mentor and meet with the students regularly through workshops, seminars, and individual meetings. Eastfield College Advance Student Success Eastfield College music student Kwinton Gray, a jazz pianist, has been invited to perform at the 20th Annual Essence Festival, which will be held in New Orleans, LA. Gray will play keyboard with American R&B group Day26, which was handpicked by Sean Diddy Combs during the fourth season of the MTV show, Making the Band. The 2014 Essence Festival will run from July 3-6. Meet Community Educational Needs On June 17, Eastfield College Criminal Justice Programs partnered with the Florida Regional Community Policing Institute (at St. Petersburg College) and the North Texas Crime Commission to host the class, Law Enforcement Suicide Prevention: Train the Trainer. A group of 30 field training officers, supervisors, and academy personnel representing 18 different agencies participated in the training. Topics that were covered included signs of stress, possible suicide tendencies exhibited by officers, and crisis techniques. In 2012, 120 officers were killed in the line of duty; another 126 officers committed suicide. Class attendees will return to their departments and conduct in-service training for fellow officers. Eastfield College hosted an art and drama camp, Rockin the Arts, for children ages 7-12 from June Campers concluded the week with an art gallery showing and a 15-minute performance featuring the sounds of Elvis Presley, Queen, and the Beatles. The college also held two interior faux painting classes for children of all ages on June 7 and 14, as well as an advanced acting camp for teenagers ages 14-18, June Foster Employee Success Dr. Oscar Passley, Eastfield College music faculty, was invited to present research at the 39th Annual International Trumpet Guild (ITG) Conference, which was held in King of Prussia, PA, May Passley also served as a judge in the jazz division of the ITG Scholarship Competition. Richland College Sustainable Community Building Richland College partnered with Girls Inc. of Metropolitan Dallas and The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) to provide 20 Dallas-area middle school girls entering eighth grade a unique opportunity to explore science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics concepts and a pathway to higher education, during a two-week learning experience, June In the first week of the Girls Inc. SMART Camp (at Richland College), the girls participated in a Learning Community, focusing on the theme, Water: Ubiquitous and Unique, with a series of experiential activities 4

5 providing integrated learning in the sciences as well as 3-D art, thinking strategies, college readiness, and public communication skills. The Learning Community was led by Richland College professors Becki Williams (chemistry), Libiya Shah (biology), Melinda Andrews (Learning Frameworks), Jennifer Rose (art), and Doreen Stewart (mathematics). A special feature of the SMART Camp focused on the development of a personalized eportfolio for each girl to preserve learning artifacts. Dr. Sherry Dean, Richland College speech communication professor and Girls Inc. Dallas trustee, facilitated this portion of the Camp. The second week will be a residential experience at UTD where the girls will be immersed in campus life and learning activities in bioengineering, nanotechnology, forensic science, robotics, and space science. Student Success Sana Hussein and Bhagawat Khatiwada, Richland College Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF) scholars, were selected to participate in the annual APIASF Higher Education Summit held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC, June On June 16, there were pre-summit activities facilitated for the student scholars while college and university administrators participated in an AANAPISI Technical Assistance workshop. On the 17th, the Summit offered a series of presentations, panels, and breakout sessions centered around the theme, Creating Meaningful Change for AAPI Students, highlighting how the acceleration of student success, mobilization of communities and resources, and advancement of institutional capacity contribute to broad scale change for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students. Accompanying the students were Richland College s Dr. Zarina Blankenbaker, vice president for teaching and learning, and Bao Huynh, director of institutional effectiveness. Summit participation expenses for the college were funded collectively by the APIASF, an AANAPISI grant, and the College Board. Employee Success LiAnne Brown, Richland College Pharmacy Technician and Health Information Technology programs administrator, has been appointed as one of nine national members of the Pharmacy Technician Accreditation Commission (PTAC), to serve a three-year term. Brown has served as an accreditation surveyor with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), is an active member of ASHP and its state and local affiliate chapters, and brings more than 20 years of industry experience in both pharmacy practice and pharmacy technician education to the PTAC. Institutional Effectiveness Each academic year, each Richland College Administrative Support and Student Services area participates in Program Review. To close out and launch the Review, the Office of Planning, Research, Effectiveness, and Development led workshops on June 4-5 for new and continuing Administrative Support and Student Services team leaders. LeCroy Center Serving our District On June 18-19, the LeCroy Center hosted The Compression Planning Advantage: A Blueprint for Resolving Complex Issues workshop in the Conference Center. More than 75 employees from across the District participated in Compression Planning training, a seven-step visual planning process designed to ignite an organization s energy and thinking to rapidly resolve a specific issue. Compression Planning enables individuals to leverage their collaborative time and make better decisions faster, and provides a way for organizations to get their people heading in the same direction in a short amount of time. By decreasing the time it takes to plan for major projects and solve complex issues, key leaders can move faster to implement fresh solutions. Jenny Jopling of 2J elearning presented a workshop for academic advisors and the enrollment staff of Dallas Colleges Online at the LeCroy Center on June 16. Jopling is president of 2J elearning, a consulting firm specializing in planning and organizing operations for distance learning. She has more than 20 years of experience in higher education and consulting, with early beginnings as a designer and producer of computer-based instruction. The staff participated in a reviewing process and customer service 5

6 training. Jopling currently serves as president of the United States Distance Learning Association ( ). District Service Center District Service Center employees rolled up their sleeves and broke another giving record, donating 16 units of blood and plasma during the Carter BloodCare Blood Drive event held June 10. District Service Center Blood Drive Committee members Randy Pearce and Sue Johnson volunteer their time and effort to make this a successful event that supports our community. District Office The Office of Educational Affairs hosted a professional development Integrated Reading and Writing workshop at Eastfield College on June 13. Dr. Quentin Wright, executive dean of communications and social sciences at Mountain View College, set the tone for the day with a conference overview. Workshop presenter, Dr. Eric Paulson of Texas State University in San Marcos, provided participants with resources to better understand how integrated reading and writing in the classroom enhance students literacy skills. He included applications that would allow students to practice literacy and encourage engagement of material on a personal level. He also provided reading and writing tasks that have a contextualized relationship to the world outside the classroom. During an afternoon session, faculty members, Rebekah Rios-Harris (Cedar Valley College) and Ivan Dole (North Lake College), provided classroom strategies to help in continuing the implementation of the Texas Statewide Developmental Education Plan. Comments from participants included: very engaging and entertaining; facilitator was extremely knowledgeable of subject matter; appreciated the real-life examples; and great resources! District Office Outreach staff members collaborated with Dallas ISD s Career and College Readiness Department to organize and present Major Mania 2014, an event for recent Dallas ISD graduates who may not have acted on college plans. More than a hundred students and parents participated in the one-stop-shop event held at El Centro College West Campus on June 17. All seven DCCCD colleges staffed information tables, and career programs had interactive displays set up. DCCCD staff provided online assistance for participants, so they could complete the admission, financial aid, and Rising Star processes as well as select a major. Dallas ISD representatives printed official final high school transcripts on location. Attendees left with free DCCCD bags for their participation in the productive event. 6

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