A newsletter for the students, faculty and staff of the Collin County Community College District. Published monthly. For information or submissions, call 972.599.3142. Cougar News welcomes student and faculty submissions. Next deadline: April 10 All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on the due date. Photos cannot be returned. Text should be e-mailed to mrobinson@ccccd.edu or sent on disk. Please submit copy that is proofed, edited and saved in Word format. Cougar News staff: Lisa Vasquez, director; Mark Robinson, editor; Marcy Cadena-Smith, contributor; Sydney Portilla-Diggs, student correspondent; Stephanie Hall, student correspondent; Lydia Gober, special contributor; Nick Young, photographer.
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College News
The college has been awarded its first ever healthcare workforce grant from North Central Texas Workforce totaling $63,981. The grant will provide soft skills training to 165 employees of Lifecare Hospital in Plano. The customized training curriculum includes Service Plus for Healthcare, Effective Teamwork, Essential Skills for Healthcare Managers, Improving Productivity/Impacting Work Process, Interaction Skills/Communicating with Others, Valuing Diversity, and Microsoft Server and Software training.
Two hundred and fourteen students from four area school districts participated in the Dallas Regional History Day held in February 2006 at the Spring Creek Campus. Students entered in either the Junior Division (grades 6-8) or Senior Division (grades 9-12). Categories included Interpretative Websites, Individual and Group Performances, Individual and Group Documentaries, and Individual and Group Exhibits. The top two entries in each category are eligible to participate in Texas History Day, held in Austin. Top entries from Texas History Day become eligible to participate in National History Day, held in suburban Washington, D.C., in June. Organizers of the Dallas Regional History Day and judges for the various categories are drawn from the faculty and staff of Collin County Community College.
Lighting designer Bobby Harrell partnered with the Quad C Theatre for their production of “The Rocky Horror (Puppet) Show" in March. Harrell has worked in opera, dance and theatre for 20 years including Broadway shows, a number of national tours for Bolshoi Ballet and the Moscow Ballet and corporate productions for Mary Kay Cosmetics and Campbell’s Soup. Harrell is Strand’s lighting system specialist in New York City.
About 400 parents and college-bound students attended the successful Destination: College Parent Workshop, hosted by Recruitment and Programs for News Studentse, Feb. 9. Parents and students from more than 25 schools were present as well as several who home school. The workshop offered speakers with information on planning for college, financial aid, scholarships, financial planning, questions for parents and students to ask when choosing a college and more.
Quad C Theatre’s "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" directed by professor Shannon Kearns-Simmons was included in The Dallas Observer’s list of top theatre productions in the Metroplex for 2005.
Board Chairman Sam Roach and Vice Chairman Dr. J. Robert Collins were quoted in an article in the Feb. 13 issue of Community College Week. The article titled “Not Your Average Volunteers” discusses the issues community college trustees tackle such as declining state funding, rising costs of employee healthcare, the need to preserve and improve the diversity of both faculty and students, and the dilemma of how to keep the doors open to all who qualify by keeping tuition as low as possible.
A total of 206 employees attended nine Professional Development Week workshops offered on the following topics: Odds and Ends of Writing, Managing Conflict, Purchasing/Accounts Payable, Adobe Acrobat Writer, Business Writing, Building an Environment of Trust, Leading Successful Meetings, Rapid Decision Making and Ethics for Decision Making.
The Collin Fire Academy recently hosted the Second annual McKinney CERT Olympics. More than 70 CERT members from area cities competed as teams in learning games at the Collin fire training facilities. The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program is part of a federal government initiative to train small groups of people in neighborhoods to respond and assist at the most basic level in the event of a disaster. CERT members can give critical support to first responders, provide immediate assistance to victims, and organize spontaneous volunteers at a disaster site.
Collin received a $63,981 grant from North Central Texas WorkForce to provide management and technology training to employees of LifeCare Hospitals of Plano/LifeCare Management Services. This grant will provide training for 165 LifeCare employees in management, communications and information technology. The Collin County Healthcare Training Initiative began in late February. “Through our grant-seeking endeavors, Collin has been successful at providing high quality, timely training for local businesses throughout our service area,” said Cary Israel, president of Collin. “The need for healthcare training has never been greater as Baby Boomers mature and as young families continue to choose our community as the place to raise their children. This grant will be a benefit to our vibrant and ever-changing community. Collin continues to lead the way in providing training and education needed to ensure we have a skilled workforce for today and in the future.” With this grant, Collin has now received more than $3.5 million total for all workforce grants from local and state sources to train and assist employees in local companies. The training has benefited more than 3,700 employees at a range of companies from throughout Collin County.
Student News
The Collin Jazz Lab Band has been invited to attend the Centrum/Port Townsend Jazz Festival in Washington. The prestigious festival is headed up by John Clayton of the Hamilton Jazz Orchestra in Los Angeles.
Psi Beta students presented “Scholarship at the Community College Level at the Southwestern Psychological Association meeting in Austin in April.
Faculty and Staff News
Professors Joyce Marie Miller, Barbara Lusk and the Faculty Association developed an Honor Code for students.
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| Psychology professors Valerie T. Smith and Jennifer L. O’Loughlin-Brooks presented a symposium titled “Creating a Successful Psychology Student Philanthropy Course” at the Southwestern Psychological meeting in Austin. | Collin EMS Coordinator James Shiplet has been appointed to the Governor’s EMS and Trauma Advisory Council (GETAC). He will participate in making recommendations to the Governor’s Office, the legislature and the media regarding the education of emergency medical personnel.
The University Business, a magazine for college and university administrators, published an article in its Feb. 27 issue co-authored by Collin chemistry professor Amina El-Ashmawy and Director of Workforce adn Economic Development Pyeper Wilkins. The article titled "Leadership Development Through Group Projects focuses on the project assigned to five of the participants in the inaugural class of Collin's Academy for Collegiate Excellence (ACE) and their charge to increase employee involvement in the college's strategic planning process.
Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives and Assistant to the President Brenda Kihl and College President Cary A. Israel co-authored a chapter titled “Using Strategic Planning to Transform a Budgeting Process” in the newly published book in the New Directions for Community Colleges series from publisher Jossey-Bass. The book, Sustaining Financial Support for Community Colleges, was edited by Stephen G. Katsinas and James C. Palmer.
Collin President Cary A. Israel received the Collin County Children’s Advocacy Center Mentor Award during a Feb. 21 event.
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