-
- Photos from Winter 2015 opening day event and reception.
Category Archives: Opening Day Meeting
Winter 2015 Opening Day for faculty and staff is this Wednesday
Join your colleagues this Wednesday, Jan. 7 for Winter 2015 Opening Day. Continental breakfast and networking will be from 7:30 – 8:30 a.m., followed by a program which will feature management advisor, speaker, and author Joe Pine.
Photos from Opening Day
In his 2013 Opening Day presentation, President Dr. Steven C. Ender paid tribute to departing board of trustee member Terr Handlin, welcomed new member Deborah Bailey, showed off campus-wide renovations and discussed the new Office of Accessibility.
Congratulations to Dawn Cheikh – Excellence in Education Adjunct Faculty Award Winner 2012
Congratulations to Dawn Cheikh, adjunct professor of French and Arabic, who was presented with the Excellence in Teaching by an Adjunct Faculty Award at the Adjunct Appreciation Dinner last night. Dawn, a native of Grand Rapids, earned her B.A. in French and Music from Aquinas College, and her M.A. in French from Middlebury College. She has been at GRCC since 2004.
Congratulations to Mike Kidder – Excellence in Education Staff Award Winner for 2012
Grand Rapids Community College bestowed its Excellence in Education Awards at the college’s opening day ceremonies to kick off the 2012-2013 academic year. This year’s awards were presented to education professor Diane Sparks and Secchia Institute for Culinary Education operations manager Mike Kidder.
The award is the college’s highest recognition, and is given annually to one faculty and one staff member for his or her contributions to the college, higher education and the community. Each recipient receives a $1,000 cash award and a matching award goes to the GRCC Foundation in each recipient’s name.
“This award speaks to the quality of the individuals we have working at GRCC, and I am extremely proud of Diane and Mike,” said GRCC president Steven C. Ender. “The nomination process is a stringent one, and the fact that the nominations came from not just their peers, but from a cross-section of individuals from the GRCC community makes it that much more special.”
Among the award criteria categories outlined are respect for people and environment, responsiveness, integrity and diversity.
Kidder is a GRCC alum and has worked at the Secchia Institute since 1991. His nominators described him as “…simply put – a model for excellence,” while another expressed how “No one gets less than his best; every event – and every individual – receives tremendous respect and effort.”
Congratulations to Diane Sparks – Excellence in Education Faculty Award Winner for 2012
Grand Rapids Community College bestowed its Excellence in Education Awards at the college’s opening day ceremonies to kick off the 2012-2013 academic year. This year’s awards were presented to education professor Diane Sparks and Secchia Institute for Culinary Education operations manager Mike Kidder.
The award is the college’s highest recognition, and is given annually to one faculty and one staff member for his or her contributions to the college, higher education and the community. Each recipient receives a $1,000 cash award and a matching award goes to the GRCC Foundation in each recipient’s name.
“This award speaks to the quality of the individuals we have working at GRCC, and I am extremely proud of Diane and Mike,” said GRCC president Steven C. Ender. “The nomination process is a stringent one, and the fact that the nominations came from not just their peers, but from a cross-section of individuals from the GRCC community makes it that much more special.”
Among the award criteria categories outlined are respect for people and environment, responsiveness, integrity and diversity.
Sparks’ career spans 27 years at GRCC, the last 13 of them as an education professor. She also worked in the college’s preschool program, including six as the school’s lab director. Letters in support of her nomination included comments such as, “She encourages feedback from her students and is always willing to implement a new idea or change the way a concept is presented to help students succeed,” and “She helps future teachers understand the importance of including the community in the development of young children.”
Opening Day Fall 2012 Video
In the event you weren’t able to make it to GRCC’s Opening Day event for the Fall 2012 semester, the Media Technologies Department captured it and it’s now available as streaming video:
Also available is the inspiring video about the work we do at Grand Rapids Community College:
Opening Day – Fall 2012 Semester (Photos)
Dr. Ender surprised the campus by delivering the opening remarks for the semester despite a recent hospitalization. GRCC’s finest were honored with the “Excellence in Education” award: Diane Sparks of the Faculty and Mike Kidder of the Staff (more details and photos tomorrow).
Reminder – Opening Day This Week With an Opportunity to Help Stock the Student Food Pantry
Reminder: Opening Day for the Fall 2012 Semester takes place this Thursday, August 23 in the Ford Fieldhouse. The schedule is as follows:
- Continental Breakfast & Networking – 7:30 a.m. – 8:25 a.m.
- Program starts promptly at 8:30 a.m.
Also, we are in need of your help to stock the GRCC Student Food Pantry for the year! We are asking that you bring an item on the list (but feel free to bring more!) to the Opening Day celebration so that we can reach our goal of collecting 1,000 pounds of food before the first day of the Fall 2012 semester! Since February 2012, we have filled 250 bags with food and served over 72 students and their families. Please help us provide for even more students in 2012-2013!
For full details, see this flyer (.pdf).
Reminder – Opening Day This Week With an Opportunity to Help Stock the Student Food Pantry
Reminder: Opening Day for the Fall 2012 Semester takes place this Thursday, August 23 in the Ford Fieldhouse. The schedule is as follows:
- Continental Breakfast & Networking – 7:30 a.m. – 8:25 a.m.
- Program starts promptly at 8:30 a.m.
Also, we are in need of your help to stock the GRCC Student Food Pantry for the year! We are asking that you bring an item on the list (but feel free to bring more!) to the Opening Day celebration so that we can reach our goal of collecting 1,000 pounds of food before the first day of the Fall 2012 semester! Since February 2012, we have filled 250 bags with food and served over 72 students and their families. Please help us provide for even more students in 2012-2013!
For full details, see this flyer (.pdf).
Student Food Pantry Collection on Opening Day – 8/23/12
We are in need of your help to stock the GRCC Student Food Pantry for the year! We are asking that you bring an item on the list (but feel free to bring more!) to the Opening Day celebration so that we can reach our goal of collecting 1,000 pounds of food before the first day of the Fall 2012 semester! Since February 2012, we have filled 250 bags with food and served over 72 students and their families. Please help us provide for even more students in 2012-2013!
For full details, see this flyer (.pdf).
Opening Day for M-TEC Rootbeer Kegger and Hot Dog Lunch
A shuttle for GRCC employees will run from 11:15am to 1:30pm from the Main Campus to M-TEC on Thursday August 23rd that will pick up/drop off in front of the Ford Fieldhouse on Lyon(near the bus stop) on the Main Campus and pick up/drop off near the front door of the M-TEC.
The shuttle will hold a maximum of 35 people. The shuttle will run on a continuous 20 minute loop between Main and M-TEC. Stop by for a dog and some suds!
Food Donations for Opening Day
As part of the Opening Day activities there will be a food drive for the Student Food Pantry – please see the attached flyer and feel free to bring your contributions with you to the Ford Fieldhouse. This recent article in the Grand Rapids Press highlights the need in our community:
While Michigan’s economy shows signs of life, our poverty level rises
Published: Wednesday, May 16, 2012, 7:25 | Grand Rapids Press | By Rick Haglund
One trend belies the notion that a rising economy lifts all boats: Michigan’s growing poverty rate. Michigan’s economy bottomed out near the end of 2009, and employment and incomes have been creeping upward ever since. (More)
Opening Day Winter 2012 – Photos
GRCC employees returned from a long winter’s nap this week and convened in the Ford Fieldhouse for Opening Day to hear from College President Dr. Steven Ender and Paulette Granberry Russell, Senior Adviser to the President for Diversity and Director of the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives at Michigan State University, about inclusion and diversity in the modern higher education community.
Opening Day Presentation by Scott Lewis – Photos and Resources
At last week’s Opening Day, GRCC faculty had the opportunity to attend a superb presentation by W. Scott Lewis JD, NCHERM, titled “Making A Difference: Managing Difficult Situations and People”
From the description: “More and more, people in services and academic settings find themselves having to manage difficult situations and people. Preventing the disruption before it begins is key, but managing difficult people is a learned not innate skill. Using proven techniques, the presenter will draw on actual cases from his experience managing various environments and his training in diffusing difficult situations to teach participants how to prevent and handle these delicate situations by staying centered. These techniques have been presented to over 1,000 educators, managers and supervisors in the corporate and higher education environment, as well as to front-line staff and law enforcement.”
Faculty interested can download the template syllabus prepared by Professor Lewis here.
The daily employee newsletter of Grand Rapids Community College 