Professor Ceilidh Charleson-Jennings was named the 2013 Texas Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Collin College is very proud of Professor Charleson-Jennings’ achievement that marks the sixth Carnegie Professor of the Year for Collin College, a feat unmatched by any college or university in the state of Texas.
The Collin Foundation 2013 Lift Up! Employee Giving Campaign set a record for the most funds ever raised during a Collin College employee giving campaign. About $72,348 was given to fund scholarships for students.
For the first time, Collin College held priority advising and registration for veterans for spring 2014 classes. About 120 veterans have already taken advantage of the priority advising and registration at Central Park, Spring Creek and Preston Ridge campuses.
Fine Arts student Andre Costa and Associate Professor Mark Kaufman have won a 2013 Lone Star Emmy Award for their documentary about Lap Ngo, an international painter and Allen resident. Costa wrote, directed, edited and produced the documentary (along with producer Scott Evans) and Professor Kaufman served as Executive Producer. A prestigious regional program under the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Lone Star Emmy Award recognizes excellence through the regional Emmy Awards in Texas. The documentary can be viewed at http://youtu.be/-YtM-PYeHpM.
Mathethmatics Professor Dr. Rosemary Karr is the lead author of a recently published textbook, “Beginning and Intermediate Algebra, a Guided Approach,” by Cengage Learning. Professor Karr, the 2007 U.S. Professor of the Year, has been a professor at Collin College since 1990. During that time, she has written more than 10 solution manuals, presented numerous papers and is an active member of several education associations, including serving as past president of the National Association for Developmental Education.
The new library at the Spring Creek Campus is featured in the November issue of LibraryJournal.
Representatives from 73 universities and colleges visited the Spring Creek Campus last week for the North Texas Drama Auditions.
English Professor R. Scott Yarbrough had three poems published in the October 2013 issue of Verse Wisconsin, “Cabbage Rolls,” “A Necktie and a Hijab,” and “Cancer, A Squirrel, My Niece in Love.” The journal is also reviewing his recent book, A Sort of Adam Infant Dropped: True Myths.
Phi Theta Kappa welcomed 252 new student members at its induction ceremony on Nov.17.
Biology Professors Elaine Fanini and Joseph Dasso presented at the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society Regional Conference. Professor Fanini’s presentation was titled, “Decreasing Student Complaints” and Professor Dasso presented “Applying Human A&P to Daily Life: Teaching Students to Evaluate Claims of Consumer Health, Beauty and Performance Products.”
Associate English Professor Joan Reese had her second book of poetry, Dead Letters, published by Cervena Barva Press. Her poem “The Poem” was published in the art and poetry anthology Drifting Down the Lane, and her creative nonfiction, “Fairfield Hills” was recently published by Prick of the Spindle. Professor Reese was invited to read from her work at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs in Seattle this spring.
On Nov. 8 and 9, Collin College hosted Dance Fusion, a dance event featuring the Collin Dance Ensemble, Big Rig Dance Collective, Karen Stokes Dance and Perpetual Motion Dance.
Collin Serves collected and donated 1,227 pounds of food and personal hygiene items to the Frisco Family Food Services Food Pantry in response to a call from that agency for help in filling its shelves.
The review by English Professor Lisa Roy-Davis of Esmerald Santiago’s 2011 novel Conquistadora is forthcoming in the fall 2013 issue of Reflections: A Journal of Public Rhetoric, Civic Writing, and Service Learning. In the review, she mentions her work leading the oral history project she undertook as the first Royden Lebrecht Endowed Chair at Collin College.
Collin’s Institute of Hospitality and Culinary Education hosted the Multicultural Foodservice and Hospitality Alliance’s “Showcase of the Stars” at the Preston Ridge Conference Center on Nov. 18. About 300 students from Collin College, and Frisco, Lewisville, Hebron and Allen Independent School Districts along with representatives of major industry corporations participated in the event that promotes careers in the food and hospitality industry and communicates the vital message to stay in school, aim high and value diversity.
Collin College represented Canada and placed third in the recent Model United Nations competition in Washington, D.C. The team received an award for Honorable Mention Delegation as well as an Outstanding Delegation in Committee Award (the GA2 committee). The GA2 delegates were students M’Bana Kantako and Chrystina Moore. More than 650 student delegates from all over the world participated in the series on international relations. Collin College was honored with an invitation to represent Afghanistan in the 2014 Model United Nations competition in New York.
More than 260 students attended the Distinguished Speaker Series event “Living On A Dollar A Day” with guest speakers Chris Temple and Zach Ingrasci on Nov. 13 at the Preston Ridge Campus.
Biology Professor Seema Endley was selected to teach a five-week Summer Transitions Workshop at the University of North Texas in Denton. The workshop focused on isolation and identification of bacterial viruses, and was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.