Daily Archives: March 29, 2013

GRCC In the News, 3-29-13

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Inside Track: When it comes to legal battles, this combat vet has an edge

March 28, 2013; Grand Rapids Business Journal

Which was worse: war or law school?

Brent Geers chuckles at the question, then reflects on the four years he spent abroad fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan before returning home to Grand Rapids, attending Thomas Cooley Law School and becoming its first African-American graduate to open his own practice locally.

(GRCC isn’t mentioned in the article, but Brent Geers is a former employee.)

Diversity historian speaking at GRCC

March 28, 2013; WOOD TV

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – This week Grand Rapids Community College has been hosting a Race, Ethnicity and Identity Conference for students, faculty and community members. The week has featured workshops, discussions and speakers addressing environmental responsibility, social justice, and cultural diversity.

G-Sync: Silence’s Puzzling Evidence

March 28, 2013; rapidgrowthmedia.com

Woodrick Diversity Learning Center, organizer of the Diversity Lecture Series, invited LZ Granderson to speak at Fountain Street Church on Feb. 13. Granderson earnestly spoke to the large audience about his life story, which included highlights of his time at ESPN and his newest gig at CNN. He also shared stories of his mother, failed marriage, teenage son, and partner. Granderson even shared his religious convictions, reflecting on the very values many West Michigan dwellers embrace as their own.

… Two Grand Rapids Community College trustees sat in the front row, and their silence on Granderson’s speech would be short-lived.

 

Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing course starts in May 2013

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Industry uses Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing to specify contractual requirements. Unfortunately, many people within industry have a flawed or incomplete understanding of the subject.

The Basic Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing course builds competence to correctly apply and interpret the rules, definitions, principles and symbols per the American National Standard, ASME Y14.5 – 2009, in only two days! This course provides a common language to improve communication, so set-up requirements and tolerance zones are clearly understood by all.

Topics include:

  • the rules, definitions, and symbols of ASME Y14.5-2009.
  • specified feature control frames.
  • specified datum reference frames.
  • the shape, size, and location of tolerance zones.
  • features size requirements given specified tolerances.

The course runs 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 13 and 14, 2013, at Leslie. E Tassell M-TEC. The registration fee is $585. For more information, click here.

GRCC FACULTY RECEIVE NATIONAL AWARDS

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awardphotoEach year, Grand Rapids Community College recognizes outstanding contributions to the College through the Excellence in Education Awards.  For two GRCC faculty members, that recognition has gone national.  Diane Sparks, Professor of Education, and Dawn Cheikh, Adjunct Instructor of French and Arabic, became the inaugural GRCC recipients of the John and Suanne Roueche Excellence Awards at the League for Innovation in the Community College annual conference in Dallas, March 10 – 13.  The Excellence Awards were established in 2012 to recognize outstanding teaching and leadership by faculty at League for Innovation member institutions.

For Sparks, a 28-year veteran of GRCC, the award caps a long career of leadership and teaching excellence that includes time as both an education professor and the Director of the GRCC lab preschool.  According to Sparks, her passion for education began at a young age.

“I have been teaching since I could wrangle my little sister and friends into sitting and watching me use a pointer on the map on the wall in our basement when I was 10-years old,” she said.  “I am constantly challenged by the many learning needs that present themselves each semester, and it is those needs that have helped me grow and change as an educator.”

That focus on the needs of the students is a defining characteristic of Cheikh as well.

“I care about my students first.  The subject matter is secondary,” she said.  “I try to make every moment we spend in class golden.”

Sparks and Cheikh were recognized during a special ceremony at the close of the conference and each received  a certificate and medallion.