This is when the fun starts

The first week of the spring semester is coming to a close and things are already feeling back to normal around here.
I came back from a lunchtime walk yesterday to find a clutch of Surgical Technology students, decked out in their characteristic bright red scrubs, sitting around a table in the lobby quizzing each other on test questions. Now entering their second semester of the rigorous program, all the nervous jitters of the fall have been replaced by an aura of confidence as well as an impressive body of knowledge, evident as class members snapped off the answers, sometimes before the question was even finished.
For me, too, the idle days of Winter Break are hardly a memory as plans for campus events and recruiting efforts bloom in fast motion. It will be a busier semester than ever as we strive to offer students and community members a good reason to spend time with us on the Havasu campus. After all, we kinda like it here and we think everyone else should, too.

The family that studies together...

One of the unique things about a community college like MCC, with its open enrollment policy and high population of "nontraditional" adult students, is that children and parents often wind up being students together.
I talked to a mother today who was a little late in registering and was searching for an open class she could share with her son and daughter. She said she just did better with her kids as "study buddies."
While her children's section of Beginning Algebra was already full, we did find there was still room in the Introduction to Humanities class the kids were taking, and she was amped at the prospect of sharing the interdisciplinary study of art, history and philosophy with them.
Talk about quality time with your kids.
This is not the only case of multi-generational students I've run across, and both kids and parents invariably display a glimmer of pride in each other when they recount their shared college experience.

Seeing the light

We don't let the grass grow under our feet here at MCC. Something always seems to be afoot (excuse the pun) that's intended to make a process better, faster or cheaper.
This week our campus facilities staff has been climbing up and down ladders installing new, more energy efficient ballasts and light bulbs in our ubiquitous fluorescent lighting fixtures.
At first, the change was met with skepticism as office-bound campus workers, like the ground hog that takes its first reluctant look at the sun on Feb. 2, squinted at the strangely bright light emitted by the new bulbs. Comments like, "We're going to need sunglasses in here" were heard in the hallways.
After about two hours of cohabiting with the new lights, we began to realized what we'd been missing -- the ability to see.
The lights, which lend a cheerfully sunny aspect everywhere they shine, will eventually be installed all over campus and ought to make the labors of learning, teaching and working easier for everyone.
On top of that, the lights are expected to save the college up to 60 percent on lighting costs.
It's a beautiful world!

Here we go again

Classes don't start for more than two weeks, but students are already roaming the halls here saying they can't wait for school to start again. What is this world coming to?!
Seriously, the Winter Break for students -- which extends from Dec. 4 to Jan. 25 -- is a long period of idleness for people who are in a hurry to learn something new and get on with their productive lives.
Monday morning at quarter to 8, students were bunched around the door of Students Services waiting to get in, and business has ranged from brisk to overflowing ever since. Our academic advisers are booked solid almost all the way to the 25th and slots to take the COMPASS assessment are filling quickly.
Yes, it's great when people are clamoring to get the product you have to offer. It's not so great when students are disappointed because the classes or sections they want are full. That's why our mantra at this time of year sounds like something a car salesman would say: Hurry in for the best deals (i.e. classes) while they last!

The miracle of Christmas

With MCC Shines behind us and a two-week Winter Break ahead, this is my Christmas miracle: I don't have to work on the holiday.
As a newspaper reporter, working on holidays was my habit and my choice. The time-and-a-half pay was too good to pass up. But after a couple of years of covering the free Thanksgiving dinner at the Catholic church or trying to find anything at all to write about on Christmas Day, I was ready to make holidays days of rest again.
Now I'm the ecstatic beneficiary of an academic calendar that gives staff a full two weeks off at the holidays. It goes a long way toward making up for the many long, jammed-packed days and occasional weekends I worked this fall.
January 4, we go at it all over again. We have a lot of plans for next semester, that's in addition to academics. We'll be hosting a series of open houses to introduce prospective students to our programs. And we're working on offering students and community members a line-up of cultural events such as the campus hasn't seen in a while.
But in the meantime, if you'll excuse me, I'm just gonna be lazy. Same to you.

Coming up for air

To misquote a famous poet, "November is the cruelest month." This one has been from my perspective as a blogger, anyway.
The demands of planning two big campus events have caused my dispatches from paradise to become fewer and farther between. That doesn't mean our Lake Havasu City campus has become any less paradisaical - the opposite, in fact.
The campus is proud to welcome to our gallery the traveling exhibit "Our Fathers, Our Grandfathers, Our Heroes: the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II." We're just the sixth site in the state - and the only in northwestern Arizona - to host this important educational exhibit, which recounts the story of how Navajo Marines used their native language to baffle the Japanese during the Pacific War.
The exhibit's curator, Zonnie Gorman - daughter of an original Code Talker - will kick things off with a lecture Dec. 1 at 3 p.m. in our 600 building. That will be followed by a reception to mark the exhibit's opening from 5-7 p.m. in the gallery. The public will be able to view the show through Dec. 18, when we close for winter break, and from Jan. 4-8.
On Dec. 3 the campus will transform into a holiday paradise as we as we host our annual lighting extravaganza, MCC Shines. The merry open house will happen Dec. 3 from 5-7 p.m. and include music, treats and photos with Santa with the climax of the evening being the moment Santa flips the switch that turns MCC into a twinkling fairy land. OK, maybe I'm overstating things, but it ought to be a lot of fun.
With great events like these going on, I'm counting on December being better.

Planting a seed

I spent this morning with Admissions Counselor Anne Frazier pitching to a future generation of MCC students at a career fair attended by eighth-graders from Lake Havasu City's two middle schools.
Maybe I forgot what middle school was like, but it seems to me these kids get bigger and more grown up every year. The adult is a lot more evident than the child in the faces of these young teenagers, making their college futures seem even closer than they are.
Anne and I heard from a lot of kids who want to be pediatricians, architects and aeronautical engineers. There were also a number who aspired to careers in theater, music and photography.
I don't know the exact value of pressing a CD of our college catalog into the hand of a 14-year-old girl who wants to become a psychologist, but I hope it will be another little shove down the road she has already set for herself.

New tricks

One question I habitually confront during my visits around the community to recruit new students is "how old is too old to continue one's education and pursue a new career?"
All ages march by my table outside the unemployment office, many of whom appear to be well into retirement age. One who stopped to talk to me said he was age 81, felt great, and was looking for a job just to have something to do.
He was lucky enough to be looking out of choice. Too many people over 50 are there because their life-long careers have been pulled out from under them like a trick chair, leaving them in free fall.
"I'm too old to go to school," they tell me, looking over my laminated program fliers longingly, like pastries in a glass case at the bakery.
But how old is too old?
My job, of course, is to get people to come to school at MCC, so I tell them it's never too late, even though I know full well that never is a long time. On the other hand, 55 is pretty young for the world to throw you away because you can't do the same job anymore.
I was reminded of that today, talking to a former truck driver who was intrigued by MCC's Chemical Dependency Studies program. I talked to him about the value of life experience - which he obviously had a lot of - and how he could use it to help people. I wasn't just giving him a soft sell.

Thrilling

Well, I survived Pumpkin Fest.
It was scary, but I guess you could say it was a "good kind of scary" - like falling out of an airplane.
I felt that same combination of helplessness, excitement and terror as hundreds of parents and little kids in costume streamed and then jammed into our student center last Friday night.
And in spite of the fact that we couldn't make popcorn fast enough to keep up with the demand, everyone seemed to have a good time.
Now it's on to the next thing in this event-mad time of year; from Halloween we go hurtling on to the Christmas season and our annual campus lighting event "MCC Shines."
In the meantime, don't we operate an educational institution here? Good question. In fact, Spring registration has started already and it's the perfect time to register. Don't procrastinate or you might find you're one of the "walking dead" on Jan. 25 with that English class you absolutely had to have is full.

OK, let's get serious

Workplace food contests are always fun. One of the most lasting -- and disturbing -- memories I have of my time at a former employer is a hot dog eating contest held to raise money for United Way.
The "yuck" factor wasn't nearly as strong earlier this week when the Havasu campus staff held its annual Chili Cook-Off to collect food for the Community Food Bank. As organizer Sandy Webber explained to the panel of judges, "This is a chili tasting contest, not a chili eating contest." Gorging was expressly discouraged.
True to the spirit of the event, the judges approached the task of evaluating each entry for aroma, taste, texture and spiciness with the delicacy and seriousness of fine-wine connoisseurs. The three staff members who won honors for "best red," "best green," "hottest," "best of show" and "people's choice" claim bragging rights for the entire year.
More importantly, about 20 grocery bags of food were collected for the food bank.

Funky town

This is a college with serious educational objectives, and you can hardly turn around without bumping into a Ph.D. But we also aren't afraid to get silly.

That was obvious yesterday when I was asked to stop by outside the campus library to take a photo of the cast of "Staying Alive," a mystery dinner event that's being sponsored by our campus Student Government and Phi Beta Kappa.

Several faculty and staff members have agreed to throw all self-respect away and don outlandish clothing and disreputable looking wigs to portray parodies of iconic figures from the 1970s, including Andy Warthog, Bruce Leap and John Revolting.

They also weren't too shy about getting into character for a publicity shot. It was strange enough seeing English faculty Dan Pund (as Andy Warthog) with hair, but I'm still trying to get my mind around the sight of Student Services Director Tim Keith (in back, smiling) striking the famous pose from "Saturday Night Fever."

How soon can I start?

Sometimes the smallest happenings of the day, the ones that don't show up on my weekly task list, leave the biggest impression.
Today I received a phone call from a young woman who stated bluntly "Do I have to make an appointment or can I just come in and see you today?"
By all means, come in and see me.
She said she was a single mother who had recently moved to Havasu and gotten my card from someone with job services. She'd already applied for financial aid and received an award letter. She dressed up to come see me, and she was really, really, really ready to start college.
"I've never been to college and nobody I know has ever been to college," she told me.
She thinks she wants to become a pediatrician.
I spend a lot of my time talking to people about how they can get the fastest possible retraining so they can be employable again right away. (Unfortunately, it rarely works that way.) So it was a pleasure to discuss what MCC can do for an ambitious and determined young person who's plotting a course for a four-year university degree ... and beyond.

A chill in the air

It may sound silly in a place where the average daytime temperature in October is over 90 degrees, but it's really starting to feel like fall here at the Havasu campus.
It's not just the fact that early morning temps in the mid-70s have us pulling on sweaters. The real feeling of the season comes from preparations for our annual Pumpkin Festival. In fact, as event planner for the campus, I've got Halloween on the brain.
Today found me at WalMart purchasing cobwebs and $178 worth of candy (through the generosity of the MCC Foundation). That's only about 2/3 of what we'll have on hand at the event. When we throw a Halloween party at MCC, we want to be sure the little ones come away with enough sugar to rot every tooth in the Western United States. It's job security for the graduates of our dental programs.
(In fairness, our dental students hand our toothbrushes and toothpaste to the trick-or-treaters to promote responsible candy consumption.)
The greatest thing about Pumpkin Fest is that everyone gets in the act. It's really like a big Halloween party our students, faculty and staff throw for the community. So maybe we can be forgiven if it has a goofy, handmade quality. Self-expression rules!
Pumpkin Fest happens Oct. 30 from 4-6 p.m. (also on the Kingman and Bullhead City campuses). Come get a sugar rush.

It keeps me thin

I spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon observing the exertions of the hardest-working woman in Havasu. I can't prove that designation, but watching this woman push queues of shopping carts into one of our local grocery stores - one after another - that was the title that naturally came to mind.
I had set up my little table outside the store to hawk MCC's wares (education) to the people bustling in to pick up a few items on the way home from work or school. It was the first time I'd targeted a grocery store for my outreach efforts, and it was gratifying to reach a new set of prospects - people I hadn't encountered before.
I talked to one young woman about MCC's culinary arts program. She wasn't discouraged by the fact the program classes are conducted at our Bullhead City campus, about an hour's drive away. She wanted to open a restaurant some day.
"I love to cook, so I figure that's what I should do," she said.
Others, like the woman pushing the shopping carts from the parking lot, weren't sure exactly what direction they should go in, they just knew they needed to find a new career. She said she'd worked for several years in a business tied to real estate and was laid off about a year ago. She was "starting over," she said.
I think one thing is certain: When she finally moves into that new career with better pay and less physically demanding work, she can expect to put on a few pounds.

I love this club!

Whatever controversies may surround Columbus Day, I can say that it inconvenienced me some by forcing me to postpone my weekly visit to our local employment services office. (Undeterred, I will be there tomorrow.)
On the other hand, the unexpected extra hours in my office today did allow me to clean up the place - which periodically gets downright cluttered with program fliers, party supplies and to-do lists - before a visit from a prospect this afternoon.
I met Richard on a visit last week to a new job club hosted by Mohave County Library. The organizer was kind enough to put me on the agenda with a employment counselor from the county's "One-Stop" center.
It turned out to be one of the most rewarding recruiting junkets I've undertaken. The people I met there were on a mission to find a job, a new career, more education, all of the above.
Usually I'm the one calling prospects trying to get them to come in a see me. The folks in this group have been calling me for appointments, hungry to know where they can go from here.
Yeah, they make my job easy - and they make me want to work all the harder for them.

Thanks for coming

More than 40 Lake Havasu City community members and MCC students filled out self-assessments and spoke with licensed mental health professionals last night during MCC's first National Depression Screening Day event.
That may not sound like a lot of people, but given the misunderstanding of mental illness still prevalent in our society and the resultant stigma associated with it, the turnout felt like a great success. At one point there were eight or 10 people, both young and old, intently filling out assessment forms, elbow to elbow around the large table in our main lobby.
My primary job was to keep the coffee pot full and the cookie tray neat, but it felt good being associated with an event that clearly made people feel comfortable enough to come forward for help - and it felt good that the place they could do that was MCC.
Now it's on to Pumpkin Fest, sort of from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Fired up

I think I've probably mentioned before that my role coordinating the exhibits in the campus art gallery is one of the best parts of my job. The Gallery adds a dimension to our campus, and our lives, that is rare and beautiful, and I really enjoy being a part of that.

Right now, The Gallery is home to a show of student-created ceramics and pottery. Some of the pieces were crafted by students in Ceramics I and II and reflect the students' imaginative solutions to the artistic "problems" posed in class (see photo). Others are the very skilled creations of members of the campus' Student Art League, and they're as good as anything you'd see at a professional craft show.

What's really great is that all these pieces will be available to purchase Oct. 23 from 1-5 p.m. during our annual Student Art League Pottery Sale. The majority of these beautiful pieces - including gorgeous mugs, cups, bowls and bud vases - are real bargains. So, of course, I'm obliged to point out it's a great opportunity to shop for Christmas gifts.

The most fun you can have while sterile

I've just returned from the Surgical Technology lab, where some first-year students were practicing a few of the procedures that will one day become second nature to them: scrubbing, gowning, gloving, covering their instrument trays.
There's so much to learn and so much to remember - and this is before they ever learn when to pass what instrument in a real-life operating room.
But the students were engaged, constantly asking questions and calling out answers; they were using their newly acquired terminology and getting a lot of the answers right. It made me feel like, if I ever find myself in an operating room with one of them, I'll be in good hands.
I was there to shoot some video, which I'll turn into a mini-documentary. I'll also link to it here, so check for it in a week or two.

Self-reliance

Today I had the chance to talk to one of our success stories, Loretta H., a mother of four who was working as a waitress before earning her nursing degree at MCC. She's now an RN working in the cath lab at our local hospital.
"I look back at 10 years ago and what I was doing and what I’m doing now, and I think ‘What happened?'" Loretta says.
What really struck me about Loretta's story was how getting an education and a better-paying job changed her economic relationship to her family. She decided to go back to school to begin with because of her fear of what would become of her family if something happened to her husband, the main breadwinner in the household.
Now that she's an RN and earning a good salary of her own?
"I’m not so dependent on my husband," Loretta says. "We’re equals now as far as income coming in. If something happened, I know I could take care of my family. It's good to know I can take care of myself."
Loretta's improved economic status has also helped her husband, who recently opened his own business.
"Which he probably wouldn't have been able to do if I hadn't have gone back to school," she says.

Gadget crazy

I have a notoriously short attention span, so I try to keep myself interested by tinkering. The latest object of my fussing around is this blog, to which I have added a nice picture of our marquee (at right) and a slide show (also at right, underneath me).
I've been in my position a couple of months now and taken pictures of just about everything that's happened around here, so I've accumulated some terrific photos - if I say so myself - of our campus life.
I'll continue to add images as the school year progresses, and given how jammed-packed our schedule is, the show should get pretty long.
I was asked to take the photo of the marquee by my boss, Recruitment Manager Jason Hembree, who wanted a distinctly Havasu view for a commercial he was producing. I wound up taking the photo on what had to be the only overcast day we'd seen in months, so the sky behind the marquee came out gray rather than the typical crystalline blue. It almost seems like false advertising.