Onward and online

I spent much of the day at our Bullhead City campus learning about MCC's new online admissions application and how I can use our techonology to keep in touch with prospective students. The online application is part of the college's green initiative to go paperless. But to the average new student, it's really about convenience and doing what already comes naturally to today's "digital natives." No more downloading and printing a paper form that has to be filled out longhand and delivered to the campus in person or by snail mail. Some of the truly techno-saavy have found the form on their own and used it, even though it hasn't been officially released yet. Welcome to now!

Work study students are cool

I went over to the Hodel Library today to interview a couple of work study students for a story I'm writing and came away really impressed. It wasn't just the fact that one of them is only 17 and the other is 18, or that they were both working on their associate's degrees in science to become veterinarians or that they were both really smart. It was all those things. It kind of blew me away watching these students help a patron, another student who was slightly older--shall we say--figure out how to format a graph to best display some complex data she had collected for a paper. The student workers were quick to help and knew exactly what to do. I wonder if I could have been anywhere close to that cool when I was a work study student.

Ready for our close-up

Our front office is back in business this week after a two-month renovation project brought on by some structural issues at the front of the 200 building. Not only is the rehabbed space more energy efficient with the disappearance of all that uninsulated glass (shown covered by verticle blinds in the photo on the right), the updated color scheme finally drags us out of the disco era. (Though there's some debate about whether the new paint is taupe or mauve.) It's also a better use of our scarce square footage. The large, previously fallow space behind the front desk is now occupied by our copy center and soon the faculty and staff mail room will be tucked into its own room to one side. Sometimes newer really is better.

Feeling the love

If pizza and cookies make people feel appreciated (and they usually do), our students were feeling pretty good about themselves today as Student Government treated the campus to a high-cholesterol feast during both lunch and dinner hours in the Library Courtyard. Though cool weather, by our standards, was predicted, mother nature cooperated just enough to make Student Appreciation Day a pleasant repast. Twenty-six pizzas were disseminated at midday with another dozen disappearing pretty quickly just a few minutes ago. (For those of you in northern climates, what you see behind student Malachy Ryan is sunshine and blue skies. Note, also, that he is comfortably dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. Just another not insignificant perk of life on MCC's Havasu campus.)

Please come again

Thanks to everyone who dropped by the campus Friday afternoon to "discover" MCC during our first MCC Discovery night. We got a chance to show off our people and have a lot of substantial conversations with people who want to chart a course for themselves in life. A few visitors, mostly the young ones, were lucky enough to find their way to the Gallery where our Student Art Show is on exhibit and where the students themselves were demonstrating their artfulness. Art is a part of our campus life that brings a lot of value, even though it's often overlooked. Thanks, also, to everyone who stayed late on a Friday night to help out with "Discovery." Everyone had a great attitude, and I think we showed potential students what we already know: that MCC is a friendly and inclusive place where you can also get a terrific education.

Here to stay

While I was sitting here staring at a blank "New Post" box trying to figure out what I was going to blog about today, one of my success stories stuck his head in to say he's on his way. Jeff literally stuck his head in because his great height requires him to duck when entering a standard doorway. He stopped by to let me know he'd scored well enough on his Compass assessment to begin college classes toward his associate's degree in Chemical Dependency Studies. As a disable Vietnam vet, he was looking for a way to move on to a new career with the help of his veteran's benefits. I call Jeff "my success story," but of course the real success is his. He took that first step, contacting us, and has faced each successive little hurdle with calm determination. It looks like this one's going to make a big impression around here, in more ways than one.

OK, this is getting big

It's not exactly the discovery of America, but "MCC Discovery" night, our last big bash of the year, is shaping up to be--dare I say it?--colossal. Guests will be able to take a free, fun, computer-based career assessment and learn about (a.k.a. discover) some of the high-demand career paths they can train for at MCC. There will be demonstrations and tours of our labs, and I just found out our art club will be doing their thing in The Gallery, where a juried show of their artwork will be on display. Believe it or not, art is a potentially lucrative career path, too. How can that be? Come to MCC Discovery night to find out.

Brain trust

Whoever said community colleges aren't about academics obviously never attended an induction ceremony of Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year colleges. Our campus' chapter, Alpha Chi Chi, welcomed its latest crop of eggheads Friday and, as campus documentarian, I was on hand to take photos. I have to admit, it was pretty inspiring seeing our top students lined up in one place. Newly pinned chapter president, Shawn Gall, will be a good role model. He's a straight-A student and by all appearances a straight arrow, too. It's cool to be smart!

Fun, a fair

I'll be taking my show on the road again tomorrow as I set up shop at a "Family Fun Fair," organized by the Auxiliary of the VFW to raise funds to buy a shade cover for the toddlers' play area at Rotary Park. Though I'll have all our most kid-friendly MCC give-away items (temporary tattoos, crayons, coloring books and really pretty bright red pencils), my ulterior motive will be to pitch education to their parents. Look for me in the big white tent.

Hungry, and not just for knowledge

I don't know what JC has whipped up for lunch today, but it has prompted a common refrain from people walking by outside my office: "Smells good!" Ever since JC's Chuckwagon opened in the fall, tantalizing smells wafting down the hallway have made it difficult for those of us who are trying to keep our appetites from running wild. Sometimes it's bacon, sometimes waffles. Today it's sauteing onions. As well as reminding us about our stomachs, the smells coming from JC's kitchen remind us how lucky this campus is to have fresh food service. In fact, I've got to go now. My stomach is growling!