December Faculty Spotlight

 

Orletta Caldwell is a full-time professor in the Business Department. She teaches the Office Administration curriculum, which includes 11 rigorous courses. In addition, she develops the Office Administration Capstone, Project Management, Office, and Business in Technology courses.

Professional development opportunities

• Perhaps you have heard the phrase “doing business at the speed of trust.” What exactly does that mean? Practical communication will be outlined to help facilitate difficult conversations and overcome differences to obtain shared goals. If you would like to learn more, please join us for a Building Trust within Your Team workshop on Friday, December 11, 2015 from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

• Everything you need to know about making good choices while dining out! Learn about hidden calories, sneaky ingredients, and what is really on your plate through our Sensible Tips for Eating Out workshop. Dawn Davies, Public Health Nutrition & Wellness Educator from the Kent County Health Department, will be introducing us to beneficial strategies for healthy eating while dining out. Join us Friday, December 11, 2015 from 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Please register at http://www.grcc.edu/humanresources/staffdevelopment/learningopportunitiesregistration

Exam Cram for Fall 2015 Semester

Yes, it’s time for Exam Cram! What is Exam Cram? Think extended quiet study hours in the library, smiling tutors and librarians, along with beverages and snacks to keep study strength up and stress levels down!

* Faculty and staff, please share this news with students.

Fall 2015 Exam Cram will be held:

• Saturday, Dec. 12 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
• Sunday, Dec. 13 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM

Exam Cram is co-sponsored by Academic Support, Library & Learning Commons and Student Alliance. There will be librarians and tutors in multiple subject areas available during Exam Cram hours. Parking in the Bostwick (Main) parking lot is recommended. Tutoring subjects may be limited.

GRCC in the News, 12/9/15

Latino Youth Conference recibirá hasta el 15 de diciembre solicitudes para becas

12/9/15 La Prensa Online

Grand Rapids Community College extiende el periodo de recepción de solicitudes para becas hasta el 15 de diciembre, la fecha límite era el 15 de noviembre [de 2015]. Las becas por un monto de $1000 dólares por persona, serán entregadas en la 17ª Conferencia Anual de la Juventud Latina (Latino Youth Conference) titulada “El Poder de los Sueños” o “El Poder de Soñar”, que se realizará el próximo 8 de marzo del 2016.

Holiday gift idea

Running out of shopping time? Can’t think of what to get your boss or co-workers for the holidays? Make it easy and MEANINGFUL by making a donation to the GRCC Foundation in their name. You can do this online or with a check. You can also select any one of our scholarship funds to donate to. Give the gift that truly keeps on giving!

Mathematics Seminar set for December 10

The Grand Rapids Community College Mathematics Department is pleased to announce that it will host its next Mathematics Seminar on Thursday, December 10, 3:00-4:15 PM in 103 Cook. Our speaker, GRCC student Grant Jenkins, will discuss applications of Graph Theory. The title and abstract of his talk are below.

Grant’s seminar should be of interest to a wide cross-section of the college community. There will be cool mathematics with applications to romance and personal choice – what a combination! Very little background in mathematics is required, and everyone is welcome to attend.

Pop and cookies will be served at 2:45 PM.

The Stable Marriage Problem: An Intersection of Social Choice and Mathematics

The problem: Imagine that we are playing matchmaker. We have 10 male clients and 10 female clients who wish to be matched with someone of the opposite sex. Each of the 20 clients gives us a list of rankings of who they wish to be matched with. How do we use these lists to arrange 10 happy marriages?

This talk will rely on a field of mathematics called graph theory to match together people based upon a list of preferences.   We aim to create a “stable marriage” in order to cater to as many individuals’ preferences as possible. This is accomplished with the Gale-Shapely Algorithm, which allows us to identify a definitive set of matchings. In reality, peoples’ rankings of each other – preferences – are not always strict and sometimes include indifferences. In this case, we can extend Gale-Shapely to find matchings. This introduces many new classifications of stability and gives us a glimpse into interactions between social choice and mathematics.