GRCC In the News, 4-24-18

GRCC Will Be Offering Two Drone Courses

April 21, 2018; Deep Aero Drones

Farmers, construction industry, inspection, survey, search and rescue are some of the areas where drones are majorly being used. Colleges are also showing an interest in the drone technology, and Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) will be offering two drone courses that will increase peoples skill set and offer more economic opportunities.

Grand Rapids Community College offers free laptop vending machine (M Live)

April 23, 2018; avnetwork.com

Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) is among higher education institutions providing free laptop vending machines to give students greater access to technology and more flexibility.

Low-income Grand Rapids preschoolers are catching up. Will Lansing notice?

April 24, 2018; Bridge Magazine

GRAND RAPIDS — In some of the poorest neighborhoods in Grand Rapids, in places inured to academic failure, children are grasping at a chance to defy the odds.

… “This makes a tremendous impact,” said Dr. Nkechy Ezeh, founder and CEO of ELNC said of the program. “We know that the brain is ready to learn, really from 0 to 5. We have to strike while the iron is hot.”

(This article doesn’t mention it, but Nkechy Ezeh is a GRCC alumna.)

All Employee Appreciation to be held in the Raider Grille — this Friday

Please join us in the Raider Grille for this year’s All Employee Appreciation celebration this Friday, April 27th. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Weight Watchers at Work — new series!

GRCC would like to continue offering Weight Watchers at Work and are looking for 15 or more employees to join in our success in order to continue the program. Our current members have collectively lost over 365 pounds in just 12 weeks!

Enjoy a 15% discount if you register by April 26th! Cost for the program is $132.60 for 12 weeks of on-campus meetings (on Thursdays) beginning June 7th and online e-tool access. After April 26th, the cost for the program will be $156. Did you also know that if you take advantage of the Flex Spending Account, the cost of the program could be covered with a medical necessity doctor’s note? For more information, please contact the Benefits Office.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Nicole Dekker (x3848, nicoledekker2@grcc.edu) and join us at a meeting on Thursday, April 19th or April 26th, at 12:30pm in the Far Side Room (1st Floor Student Center). Please note that should you choose to register for the program, payment is due at this session. Members can pay with cash, check, or a credit or debit card. You can also take advantage of a three-check split payment method.

GRCC’s Phi Theta Kappa chapter earns recognition at national conference

This past week, the GRCC Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa (Alpha Upsilon Kappa) attended our national conference called Catalyst in Kansas City, Missouri.  The conference is an opportunity to attend educational forums which focused on leadership, service, career development and more.  They participate in fellowship opportunities and at the gala on the last day find out if they won any national awards for their “college project” and “honors in action” projects.

The GRCC Chapter was for the third year in a row recognized as a 5 star chapter.  This requires that they complete a college project, honors in action project, service projects, fellowship activities, attend regional and national conferences, collaborate with other chapters and more each year to achieve this rating.  This year our chapter officer team (Morgan Brown, Ernie Farias, Eli Paparella, Marcus Barissi and Drewyn Talley) went above and beyond and were recognized at Catlayst for all of their accomplishments.

Attached are some photos and below is a summary of the awards and scholarships the team (and individual members) received.

• Morgan Brown ran for International President this year with 13 other candidates. She was GRCC’s first ever national candidate.  She ran an amazing campaign, but didn’t make it to the finals. But Morgan won the Orlowski award (this is an award voted on by all candidates and awarded to the one who best reflects the values of PTK) and comes with a $1500 scholarship.
• Marcus Barissi and Morgan Brown won 3rd place in the country for the video contest.  This came with $100 scholarships.
• Marcus Barissi won a $5000 Pearson scholarship.  Marcus is the first ever winner for Michigan for this scholarship.
• Morgan Brown won outstanding regional officer award.  Morgan serves as the Regional President for the 2017-2018 academic year.
• Our chapter officer team (names listed above) won outstanding chapter officer team (15 teams were recognized out of over 1000 teams).
• Lynnae Selberg won outstanding chapter advisor (15 advisors were recognized out of 1000 advisors).
• Our chapter won a “theme award” for their honors in action research project and is awarded to those projects which best encompass one of the 8 themes. (18 were recognized out of hundreds of entries).
• Our chapter won outstanding honors in action project (18 chapters were recognized out of hundreds of entries). This is based on the research, the writing, the actual project, the leadership of the members who participated and more.
• Our chapter was recognized as a top 100 chapter based on our combined score from our college project and honors in action project.
• Our chapter was recognized as a distinguished chapter. There were 32 chapters who received this honor.  This was the first time GRCC has ever received this honor.
• Shannon Gamel was one of 12 alumni to be recognized for the outstanding alumni award.  She was the Chapter President for the GRCC chapter for 2 years back when GRCC was re-activating our chapter. Without all of her efforts, we would not be where we are today.  Shannon is currently a student in the PharmD program at Ferris State University.

We are so proud of our students and all they have accomplished this year.  They represented GRCC with pride, worked hard and had a great time during the conference.

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Please share your opinions and ideas on SSPD

The Support Staff Professional Development (SSPD) Grant Program encourages support staff to improve their professional skills related to their GRCC assignments by providing funding for learning opportunities. To ensure the program is meeting the needs of the college community, we are asking for your participation in a brief survey. The information that we gather will help us to make informed decisions about how the program could be improved.

 

Drewyn Talley wins Outstanding Adult Learner Award

GRCC is one of the 12 participating schools in the Grand Rapids Area Higher Education Network.  Last week, GRAHEN held its annual Outstanding Adult Learner (OAL) awards ceremony.  GRCC student and employee Drewyn Talley won this year’s OAL award.  Drewyn could not attend the event, but our colleague and his nominator, Myriah Williams (Business Department) accepted the award on his behalf.

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Students honored at Board of Trustees meeting

Four students were honored at the recent Board of Trustees meeting:

• Marcus Barissi, who studied biological and biomedical sciences,  represented GRCC on the Michigan Community College Association’s All-Michigan Academic Team.  He plans to transfer to the University of Michigan and become an anesthesiologist.
• Micah Rupert, who is studying computers and information sciences, was also on the All-Michigan Academic Team. After graduating from GRCC in 2019, he plans to transfer to Grand Valley State University for a bachelor’s degree in computers and information sciences.
• Eli Paparella was honored for being a member of the All-Michigan Academic Team and for being a semifinalist for the Jack Kent Cooke Transfer Scholarship. He will receive an Associate of Arts degree with a focus on engineering and plans to transfer to the University of Michigan for a bachelor’s degree in computers and information sciences.
• Kelly Burrows was also a semifinalist for the Jack Kent Cooke Transfer Scholarship. She plans to transfer to GVSU, work in hospice care and write children’s books.

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