Summer buzz

This is a time of year when everyone gets a breather. Students get a break from classes and studying, faculty get a chance to pursue their other interests, and staff get the luxury of a slower pace for a few weeks. Everybody's kicking back, except--that is--our facilities staff. When the place empties out and quiets down, they get busy: cleaning carpets, patching and painting walls, and implementing a long list of remodeling and repair projects. At least one of those is really going to be noticed when students return for the summer session. I'll keep you posted.

Long-awaited debut

Kids probably won't be lining up at the multi-plex for this one, but here at last is the video I promised about six ... make that eight months ago. (See "The most fun you can have while sterile" from Oct. 1, 2009.) It offers a glimpse at what first-year students can expect to experience in the Surgical Technology lab, and I think anyone watching this, even the squeamish, will agree this program looks like a lot of fun. By the way, a recent listing of job openings in Lake Havasu City include three for surgical technologists.

Saving energy can be tiring

As the first week of what we like to call our "energy-saving summer schedule" nears its close, I can't help but note how exhausting saving energy is. I'm not complaining about the glorious three-day weekends, but working four 10-hour days in a row every week takes some getting used to. I was talking to a prospective student this morning at a time when I normally would have been pouring a second cup of tea and staring bleary-eyed at the newspaper. (His enthusiasm for coming to school, however, helped wake me up. I don't meet that many prospects who are as amped about studying engineering as he was.)

Awesome sign

Driving onto campus this morning, I saw a cherry picker extended over the front of the 200 building and assumed it had something to do with an air conditioner unit. In this climate, AC repair and replacement is pretty much ongoing. I was completely surprised later in the day when I spotted the beautiful new sign (at left) that now graces the recently remodeled facade of the building. It lights up at night, too -- or so I'm told. Pretty, huh?

Seeing red

If you love the color red or you love someone who graduated at MCC's Commencement ceremonies last Friday, you might want to look at our 2010 Commencement photo album on Facebook. Not only will you see a lot of red graduation robes and mortarboards, you will see a lot of white teeth from people smiling. It was a happy day all the way around, for everyone from GED completers finally getting to don cap and gown to newly minted RNs celebrating years of hard work and sacrifice. This day is what it's all about.

Happy to be happy

It's fun to see happy people and it's especially fun for me to see people who are happy about getting an education. There were a lot of happy faces last night at the pinning of MCC's Nursing students from the three southern campuses. The graduates were happy; their families were happy; the faculty was happy. After it was over, I was happy to get off my feet after a couple of hours of creeping and crawling around the Relics and Rods Hall shooting photographs. There were a lot of good shots to be had, like when graduate Casey Waits, at left, received his pin from his mom. Casey later obliged me by interrupting eating cake with his loved ones to give me a smile and a thumbs up. I wouldn't mind seeing that face looking down at me in a hospital some day.

Our hopes are pinned on them

The next few days are our harvest time. It's the sometimes frantic culmination of a long growing season--the academic year. The pomp and circumstance begins with a full dance card of pinning ceremonies for our various allied health graduates. Newly minted nurses, surgical technologists, physical therapist assistants, dental assistants and dental hygienists all earn their own hardware above and beyond the traditional cap-and-gown affair Friday at 3 p.m. at the Mohave Crossing Event Center in Fort Mohave. Of course, Commencement is the real prize students eyes have been on since they started their particular educational journeys. Graduates who've earned associate's degrees, certificates and even GEDs will tread the boards and shift their tassels from right to left. Be there or be square.

Big things come in small packages

It caused a few moments of comedy Saturday when three of our more "vertically challenged" here at MCC accepted the call to confer stoles, honor cords and tassels on members of our Alpha Chi Chi chapter of Phi Theta Kappa who will be graduating May 14. Diminutive and relentlessly upbeat English faculty Dan Pund declared himself "blessed" to be the tallest among a lineup of honoraries that included Campus Dean Nick Sanchez and PTK advisor Barb Freitas. As such he was tasked with replacing the standard red tassels on the mortar boards of the conferees with PTK-gold tassels. In all seriousness, it was a moving ceremony attended by a impressively diverse group of PTKers and their beaming family and friends. I'll wish them luck, even though they don't need it; with as much as they've accomplished so far, there's no doubt great things lie ahead for them.

Spring cleaning

What kind of stuff clutters the office of a college recruiter? Popcorn boxes (from a recent open house); balloons; college pens, pencils, lip balm, tote bags, etc.; promotional items from other colleges picked up at college fairs; piles of posters, fliers and pamphlets (what we call collateral); and a stack of paper admissions application forms that are destined for the recycling bin because our new online admissions application is up and running (www.mohave.edu/pages/420.asp). It's been embarrassing in here for a while, and I finally got a free moment this morning to clean up so that when a couple of prospective students dropped by this afternoon they could actually sit down. I'm told things will slow down in a couple of weeks, after commencement, when the college goes to a four-day work week. We'll see. I've never known it to be slow around here yet.

Continuous education

This summer semester promises to be bigger than past years with the addition of the year-around Pell grant. President Obama's push to increase the number of college graduates in the country has resulted not only in an increase in the amount students can get through Pell but also an extension of funding into summer. That's great news for the non-traditional students I work with who are in a hurry to get their education and move on to a new career as quickly as possible. It's also a benefit for those younger adults who delayed college to work and have families and now want to "start using (their) brains again," as one 22-year-old returning student told me recently. No need to wait until Fall to get that gray matter going. If you already have a Pell grant, come into Student Services to ask about a summer grant. If you're new to the Pell, the last day to submit your financial aid paperwork in time for summer is May 14. Go to www.fafsa.ed.gov to get started, and see me or a financial aid advisor if you have questions.