MCC HONORS TEN OUTSTANDING ALUMNI

Photos are unavailable for Suzanna Ledford Dobbins and Jennifer Beck.

Ten outstanding Morgan Community College alumni were celebrated at a recognition ceremony in their honor on April 15. Nominees were chosen on the basis that they had completed a degree or certificate at MCC and are currently working in the field they studied. Selection also included consideration of the nominee’s involvement in the community.

As MCC President Dr. Kerry Hart welcomed the honorees and guests he reiterated the three strong points of the college: affordability/accessibility, top notch faculty and successful graduates. “You are the icing on the cake!” he told them.

Suzanna Ledford Dobbins (A.A.S. 1987) was introduced by faculty member Laurie Morris. The two were actually classmates at MCC, became friends and study partners, and later were colleagues at MCC—Morris as a faculty member and Dobbins as assistant controller. Currently, Dobbins is employed as the Program Accountant with the Colorado Department of Human Services.

According to Dobbins, “MCC really helped jumpstart my career in accounting. I had excellent teachers who kept me interested and motivated and the smaller classroom size made interaction with instructors and students much easier.” She now aims to earn a master’s degree in accounting.

Jan Garcia, Carol Steward, and Cathie Nix collectively have 36 years of service to their alma mater, MCC, where they are all employed. Garcia works in human resources, Steward as a financial aid advisor in student services and Nix in the instructional office. The trio not only earned their associate degrees at MCC but were in the same Regis University cohort while earning their baccalaureate degrees.

Garcia says she loves working at MCC. “It is truly a family atmosphere with people that care and support each other for the same common purpose—to help our students grow and flourish.” She said she and her two colleagues are a true testament to their commitment to life‐long learning. Garcia spends much of her spare time serving the Elks Lodge in Fort Morgan where she holds the office of secretary.

Steward, as a result of her pursuit to elevate her education to a bachelor’s degree, now plays an integral part in recruiting students to MCC and walking them through the financial aid process. She not only promotes MCC, but all community colleges, saying that students will find small class sizes and instructors who are closely involved in the learning process of their students.

Steward takes an active part in promoting Phi Theta Kappa at MCC. She is also: a committed Relay for Life team leader; a Colorado Combined Campaign leader; and, she supports the community recycling project.

Nix earned her associate degree at MCC with an emphasis in business technologies. She completed her degrees as a single parent while holding down a full‐time job. Presently as instructional office coordinator, she has the job of scheduling classrooms and community use rooms for the college plus she inputs the college’s official course information for each semester.

When she is not helping out at the college, Nix volunteers her time for community events including the Morgan County Fair. During the Christmas season she can often be found posing as Mrs. Santa Claus. Nix says she is proud of MCC—it’s a great place to get an education and a great place to work.

Tamora Lee Mayhugh of Brush was introduced by her former instructor and mentor, Don Enninga. Mayhugh not only works for the ambulance service in Morgan County, she is a full‐time employee at Colorado Plains Medical Center as a specially clinic technician. She also serves as an EMT Basic instructor for MCC. Tamora remarks, “EMS has been my life—and continues to be my life.” She continues, “MCC is a great place to go to school—it’s close to home and I was able to accomplish my goal of becoming an EMT and still hold a full-time job. Mayhugh’s son is on a similar path. He took the Spring 2009 semester EMT class.

Christine Randall is a 2005 graduate of the MCC nursing program and is employed at Northern Colorado Medical Center working in the acute inpatient rehabilitation department and as a charge nurse. Randall was nominated by Rachel Meschke for excelling in her profession and her goal of completing a master’s in nursing. Also, Randall is now serving as a preceptor for MCC student nurses completing clinical rotations at the medical center.

Randall expressed her pleasure in being involved with MCC’s nursing program; first as a student herself and now as a mentor to new students. “I hope to continue to share my nursing knowledge with preceptees and new graduates and to learn from them.”
 
Marla Rock completed certificates in Agriculture and Business Management in 2007. She and her husband own and operate the Box Elder Ranch near Wray. Rock believes that the ABM program is a valuable source of education, information and resources in a convenient, local and comfortable setting. She described her MCC experience as one that met the needs of their business and positioned them for the future as well.

Giving back to the community comes second nature to Rock. She serves on the Wray community District Hospital Foundation and has served as its chair, is a member of the Beecher Island Helping Hand Club, is a member of the Yuma County Cattlewomen and is a board member for PUC Consumers.

Limon is home to Leta Tarver. She serves the MCC Limon Center on their advisory board and is employed with Equitable Savings and Loan as assistant vice president/branch manager. Besides receiving her A.A. from MCC, Tarver has completed several banking courses throughout her career. Reading is her passion as is her time spent with her six grandchildren.

Adrienne Bellendir is a kindergarten teacher at Sherman Early Childhood Center in Fort Morgan. “I am really enjoying the career I chose,” said Bellendir who is now in her eighth year of teaching. After graduating from Brush High School she enrolled at MCC which she said launched a great college experience. Scholarships, grants and her work study job in the admissions office made her first two years of college very affordable. She also saved on expenses by living at home.

Bellendir said, “I was able to keep good grades easily due to small class sizes and more personalized one on one attention along with study groups.” As a result she was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa honor society. Even though MCC is a small school, Bellendir said she still met new people and made new friends including her husband, Tim. “After MCC, it was easy transferring into a university and completing my degree,” she concluded.

Jennifer Beck found educational opportunity at the MCC Burlington Center where she completed her Associate of Arts degree in 2004. Presently she is employed at the Burlington Workforce Center where she is committed to building strong partnerships between the Workforce Center and other service agencies. She has also volunteered her time on the Colorado Preschool Program Advisory committee for the school district and served as chair of the Burlington Economic Development Board.

Beck said family support made all the difference in her success while going to school at MCC. She is especially appreciative of the influence her mother had on her (even though she lives in another state). Beck also credits the staff at the Burlington Center for their efficiency and support from day one through graduation. “It is important to take advantage of local opportunities to better your future,” advises Beck from her own experience. “Do not underestimate what you can accomplish based on demographics, age, or socio-economic status!”

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PPCC INTERIM VP FOR STUDENT SERVICES

WINS ATHENA AWARD


Colette Berge accepts her Athena Award

Colette Berge, interim vice president for Student Services, was named the 2009 Athena Award recipient by the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce at their annual Women in Business conference in April.

This prestigious award honors an exceptional community leader from the Pikes Peak Region who demonstrate excellence, creativity, and initiative in their business or profession, provides valuable service by contributing time and energy to improve the quality of life for others in the community, and actively assists women in realizing their full leadership potential.

Berge is known for actively mentoring and fostering leadership skills in hundreds of students throughout her tenure at PPCC. She has been a role model, advocate, leader, surrogate parent, and guide to countless students, many of whom have gone on to become community leaders in their own right.

The Athena Award is presented annually by chambers of commerce, women’s organizations and universities throughout the United States and internationally. By honoring exceptional leaders, the Athena Award Program seeks to inspire others to achieve excellence in their professional and personal lives.

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Otero Junior College Student and Advisor Win International PTK Awards

Judy Hensley, on left, and Melissa Corsaut, on right, display the international awards they each received at the International Phi Theta Kappa Convention. Hensley was honored with the Distinguished Advisor Award and Corsaut was honored with the Distinguished Member Award.

Melissa Corsaut, an OJC student from La Junta, and Judy Hensley, OJC Phi Theta Kappa Advisor and emeritus faculty member, were recognized with international awards at the 91st International Phi Theta Kappa Convention in Grapevine, Texas in April.

Corsaut was awarded “The Distinguished Member Award” based on her participation and leadership in society programs, which strengthened the local chapter. She competed against 1,250 chapters throughout the United States and internationally. Most impressively is that there are nearly 100,000 Phi Theta Kappa members inducted annually into Phi Theta Kappa. Corsaut competed against 500 entries to be recognized with 25 other members from throughout the world. Earlier this spring Corsaut was named as the Colorado region’s “Most Distinguished Member.”

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TSJC Welding Program:
Not just for boys, cowgirls may apply!

Kassandra Rieke

On top of being kind; purposeful, eager and earnest, TSJC student Kassandra Rieke has a welding rig and is ready to travel.

Rieke, who grew up on a ranch in Meeker, Colo., was just 12 years-old when her uncle first taught her to weld. Home-schooled cowgirls aren’t afraid of a little work, and when she was sixteen, Rieke started running heavy equipment, working for a year in a big gravel pit in Meeker.

This led to a job she liked better, and the beginning of a career. A friend took her to work as a welder’s helper where they “usually worked six twelves,” she said. “That is six days a week/12 hours per day?” she was asked. “Yes, you have to love what you’re doing,” Rieke said. “One night we went out on a rig call and worked 38 hours straight,” she recalled happily.

An outdoor girl, who likes to hunt and fish, Rieke said she loved that job, being in the field, seeing new things, and working in the wilderness. She also rides horses, and “rodeos a little,” and says that working with horses and her hanging tree cow dog have taught her patience, a quality that is useful in welding.

After her family moved to Pueblo, Rieke, who had graduated from an online high school, decided to look for a welding school, “to hone” her skills. One of the schools she toured was Trinidad State Junior College because she had heard good things about its Energy Production Industrial Construction (EPIC) program from friends who are welders and equipment operators.

She met welding instructors, Vern Paulsen and Holt Tuck, and thought they were “real nice people.”

“I wanted to learn the (natural gas) pipe welding aspect (of welding), and I thought TSJC had the most knowledgeable and focused presentation of the skills I wanted to learn,” she said. “The equipment is awesome and the shop is set up really well,” she added.

With spring graduation over, Rieke is ready to go back out in the world and start working again. “I’m really craving it!” She has her own welding rig, a 2004 Dodge one-ton Dually with suspension shocks and helper bags and a custom fabricated bed (that she and a friend built last summer), a Lincoln SA-200 1967 model Red-face pipeliner welder, generator, torch set, and welding gas cylinders.

Rieke says rig welders can earn up to $18,000-$20,000 per month, and she plans to save the money she earns to eventually buy a ranch where she wants to raise bucking bulls. She would also like to make it a refuge for needy kids. “Ranching is something I love, and it’s good for kids,” she said.

Paulsen, who is the director of TSJC’s EPIC welding program, says Rieke is one of the best welding students he has ever had. “There is a huge demand for welders, and it continues to grow. Welding is needed in every industry: mining, energy, automotive, aviation, construction. Kassandra has great skills and work ethic,” he said, “The sky’s the limit for her. She can go anywhere.”

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CNCC Outdoor Recreation Students
Have Remarkable Class Experience on the Yampa River

Josh Allred, river guide, managed to fall out of this raft on the first day
showing everyone on the Yampa River trip "what not to do" while going through the rapids.

The following is a recounting of the adventure by CNCC Spartan Times reporter and Aviation Maintenance student Michelle Snowden

In late April, Colorado Northwestern Community College’s Outdoor Recreation program went on a four day rafting trip down the Yampa River. For an extended weekend, students, faculty and river guides cut themselves off from civilization and lived life the simple way.

The trip started out at CNCC-Rangely at 6 a.m. From there, the group drove about 20 miles to the launch site at Deerlodge Park. Here people chose between going down the river in a raft or a small inflatable canoe called a ducky (for those who wanted more excitement). The rafts held three to four people and a lot of gear. The rafts each had one river guide assigned to them who did all the oaring.

After loading up, everyone was on the water around 10 a.m. This group of 25 people consisted of six experienced river guides, a few locals, teachers and students. Included were people who had spent abundant time on the river and those who had never even been camping before.

Day One on the Yampa River started out slow and relaxing. Everyone had a chance to get a feel for the water flow and how to oar. Those in the duckies had time to get used to paddling and steering. About five miles down the river, the group had their first swimmers of the trip. Two students flipped in a ducky in a no name rapid.

When going through a rapid in a ducky, you need to hit the waves straight on. The ducky flipped because the students hit a hole (a large dip in the water due to a rock), which made them off center from the next wave.

Soon after this swimming incident, the group came to Tepee Rapid. This was the biggest rapid of the day. Josh Allred, a river guide, also hit a hole and went soaring off his raft. When someone falls out of the boat during a rapid, all he or she can do is ride it out. Wait for the life vest to do its job and bring you to the surface, and stick your feet near the surface of the water and downstream. When falling in, not only do swimmers need to focus on getting back in the raft, but they also need to endure approximately 40-degree water.

Day Two of the trip was one of the greatest. Like the first day, it started out slow and scenic. The river wound back and forth for about five miles. During this part of the trip, the canyon walls were carved down from the river up to 400 feet in some places. In this area is the Tiger Wall. It is a canyon wall with big black streaks running down the side. It is a tradition for people to claim their purity by kissing the wall to “please the river gods.” By doing this, the rest of the trip is supposed to go well.

Pleasing the river gods is apparently something not to mess with. The rapid of that day is called Warm Springs. In this rapid is a huge hole called Maytag. Here, everyone got out of the rafts and duckies and scouted out the rapid. This rapid is a class four and takes skill to maneuver through.

After scouting out Warm Springs, the first raft took the plunge. All in the raft seemed to be having a great time, and then the raft hit Maytag. Thankfully, the guide was skilled enough to make it through Maytag. But after this hole was another one that they did not know about until they were sucked into it, which flipped the raft. Those on the raft had to swim to shore, as the other rafts had not started going through the rapid.

But right after Warm Springs was a corner, and around that corner was another rapid called Surprise Rapid. When the first raft flipped, the other rafts went through the rapid to help them out. Unfortunately, the rescue also flipped. But the second and third rafts made it through just fine and found everyone safe.

The third day of the trip was a mellow day, and there were only a few no name rapids. Near the middle of the day, the river passed through Echo Park. Here, when you yell, the sound is echoed back to you in about three to five seconds, and it sounded as clear as when you yelled it the first time. It sounded like there was someone about a hundred yards away repeating exactly what you just said.

That evening at the campsite, a small group took a short hike to Jones Hole. It is a two-mile hike next to a creek that eventually connects with the Yampa River. At the end of the two miles is a small waterfall about 15 feet high. At the top of the fall, someone can sit in the creek and block the water from flowing down. It is another tradition for someone to stand under the fall and let all the built up water fall on them. This is considered the one shower someone can get while on this four-day trip.

The last day of the trip has the greatest number of rapids. In the last nine miles there are three larger rapids (Moonshine, SOB, and Schoolboy) and a few no name rapids, all located near Split Mountain. These rapids passed very quickly; the nine miles were completed within an hour.

Here, the rafting trip ended. Everyone packed up and headed back to CNCC, greatly satisfied with their adventure.

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Section C – Partnerships and Public Affairs

Lamar Community College Continues to
Facilitate Pierre Auger Observatory

Photo of representatives from the Pierre Auger Collaboration while on the LCC campus last year for an "Auger North" meeting.

In a 2005 declaration made in Paris, France, the Pierre Auger Collaboration announced that Lamar Community College would become the host institute to their North American Cosmic Ray Observatory Northern Site. Pierre Auger’s Northern Site will be constructed to study the universe's highest energy particles, which constantly shower down on Earth in the form of cosmic rays. Ultra high energy cosmic rays are one of the enduring mysteries of science. The origin and nature of these particles is just becoming known fifty years after their discovery. Last year, the Auger Observatory’s Southern Site discovered that these particles are most likely associated with galaxies that have a very active center - probably a huge black hole is causing this activity.

Cosmic ray observatories rely on multiple detector tanks placed 5,000 to 7,800 feet apart from one another. Each detector tank is between four and five feet in height and 12 feet in diameter, and filled with what is described as ultra-pure water that interacts with cosmic rays that, in turn, are read by sophisticated electronic equipment. In 2005, it was announced that the project was set to encompass three southeastern Colorado counties and estimated to cost $50 million.

The tanks have their own batteries and solar chargers on board and are fitted with self-contained radio communication equipment to allow them to be operated from a remote location.

Educational benefits for LCC that are being derived from the project include the creation of a “world-class” physics laboratory in Southeast Colorado; increased collaboration with Colorado State University and other key players in the project; exposure to or training in high-tech scientific research; workshops for students and teachers provided by the Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP), through a $1.34 million grant from the National Science Foundation Teacher Enhancement Program; and frequent courses for local students and teachers by project Auger scientists.

Recently, Pierre Auger Education Outreach Coordinator Brad Thompson gave the following update on the project:
The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory completed its southern hemisphere detector array in Argentina in late 2008.  It is now proceeding with its proposed plans for the northern hemisphere detector array in SE Colorado.  Currently, a design report for Auger North is being completed, and the project is going through several scientific review panels to help determine its position for funding.  The design report is slated to be submitted to the US Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation later this year.  Other international collaborators will be doing similar submissions to their governments.   Federal monies to fund research and development for Auger north design changes are expected to be released this year and some test equipment will then be placed in Prowers County.  Education and outreach is continuing in SE Colorado where the northern array is proposed to be placed.

After initial data from the southern hemisphere detector was analyzed, Auger scientists realized that ultra-high energy cosmic rays were even rarer than originally thought.  The data has also provided intriguing results as to possible sources of these very energetic particles.  Because of this analysis, the proposed Auger north array has been increased in size to now cover 8,000 square miles.  This would include land in Baca, Bent, Prowers, Kiowa, Cheyenne and Lincoln counties.  With northern array cost estimates of approximately $120 million, the surface detector stations will be placed farther apart in Colorado than in Argentina (spaced 1.5 miles apart instead of 1 mile) to reduce costs.

One of the Observatory's foremost priorities is to communicate with local landowners.  The Auger Project will request permission to place equipment on their land and negotiate access rights.  The Observatory greatly hopes that the majority of SE Colorado landowners will learn about the project and choose to be participants. Since the proposed area has increased in size from the original design, greater outreach efforts and more communication are needed in the area.  The project holds tremendous promise for answering one of the current mysteries of the universe and also carries potential sizeable economic, educational and social benefits for Colorado.

For more information about the Auger Observatory, please visit  www.auger.org or www.augernorth.org.

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RRCC "Gets on the Bus" with
MICROSOFT ROAD TRIP VISIT

In May, Microsoft’s Career Express Bus completed an 11-day learning odyssey across the United States, from Atlanta to Los Angeles, that included a stop at Red Rocks Community College. While at RCCC the Career Express Bus learning team promoted new resources to help IT techs, developers, and database administrators get—and keep—a job in technology.  The ultimate destination of the bus was to get to Microsoft’s 2009 Tech Ed Conference in Los Angeles.

When the bus arrived, RRCC and the Microsoft Career Express Learning Team hosted a three-hour Microsoft study break at the college, including a continental breakfast, games, and prizes.  Presentations by Microsoft experts featured tips and tricks for Developer, DBA, and Server 2008 certification tracks.  Microsoft learning product experts also shared their insights and knowledge of the hottest topics in these programs.
Since 2000, RRCC has been a Microsoft IT Academy, offering certifications and AAS degree programs for Microsoft system administrators and engineers, Microsoft Visual Studio developers, and Microsoft SQL Server database administrators and developers. 

While at RRCC the Career Express Learning Team recorded a video interview with Red Rocks Computer Technology Faculty Member Christie Burton who had hosted their appearance at the college. Burton shared her thoughts on the benefit of IT certifications and what RRCC is doing to connect students with the IT industry.  See the interview by clicking it below.

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