Professor of History Kyle Wilkison was selected as a 2014 Piper Professor by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation. Piper Professors are recognized for superior teaching at a Texas college or university. Dr. Wilkison is one of 10 professors statewide to be honored and one of only two community college professors.
Collin College’s largest participating class of graduates ever walked across the stage during the May 16 commencement held at the Allen Event Center.
Collin College had 20 first-time candidates taking the 2014 National Certification Exam to earn the title of Certified Surgical Technologist (CST). All 20 candidates passed the exam, giving the program a 100 percent pass rate that exceeded last year’s rate of 95 percent.
Faculty and students from Collin’s Institute for Hospitality and Culinary Education participated and represented the college at the City of Plano Learn 2 Live Green event. The college had two booths with 28 student volunteers working and assisting celebrity chefs with their live demonstrations. Professors (Chefs) Tom Nixon and Thomas Severs provided demonstrations as well.
Students Jill Feys, Shannon Harden and Victoria Theobalt were awarded scholarship grants from the Respiratory Care Foundation of Texas. The Foundation commended each student on the quality of the research paper submitted as part of the application process. Scholarships ranging from $500 to $1,000 were awarded to each student at the Texas Society for Respiratory Care Convention in San Antonio.
FotoFest:
Samer Mohdad from Iraq explains his account of being an Arab photographer, working in Arab countries and photographing the culture.
Above: Collin College students and faculty attended FotoFest in Houston. Image was taken at Silver Street Studios.
Thomas R. McFaul, professor of philosophy, co-authored the book “God is Here to Stay: Science, Evolution, and Belief in God” with the physicist Al Brunsting.
Professor of Speech Communication Kim Nyman served as a judge for the semi-final and final rounds at the National Christian Forensics and Communication Association’s speech and debate tournament in Wylie.
Amy Lenhart, counselor at the Central Park Campus, has been elected as president-elect of the American College Counseling Association (ACCA), a national organization that represents counselors in both community and four-year colleges. The ACCA is a division of the American Counseling Association. Lenhart will begin her three-year term in July. She is the first president ever elected from a community college.
Professor of Speech Communication Diana Sage made a presentation with her Leadership Frisco class members to the Frisco Mayor’s Youth Council where she discussed Collin College and Leadership Frisco.
Professor of Philosophy Levi Bryant published his fourth book titled “Onto-Cartography: An Ontology of Machines and Media.”
Lisa Huang, health sciences librarian at the Central Park Campus library, received a professional development award from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine/South Central Region’s Regional Medical Library to attend the American Library Association’s annual conference.
An estimated 275 people attended the Center for Scholarly and Civic Engagement’s service-learning reflection events hosted by faculty at Central Park, Preston Ridge and the Spring Creek campuses in early May.
Kirk Bell, Collin College Foundation Board of Directors member, is the president of the District 5810 Rotary Club. Under his leadership, the group was recently named the Rotary Club of the Year from among the 67 clubs throughout the district. Bell was also named Best President.
Metroplex Technology Business Council held its fourth regional Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Summit at the Spring Creek Campus. The event was hosted by the college’s engineering technology department and focused on new trends as well as increasing STEM majors in higher education. A wide array of school districts and local corporations were represented, along with education representatives from Collin College, Richland College and The University of Texas at Dallas.
Collin College’s women’s tennis team earned the title of Region V champions and finished sixth nationally. Clorinda Wessels was the 2014 singles region champion, and Clorinda Wessels and Amanda Gilson were 2014 doubles region champions.
The men’s tennis team won the region and finished eighth nationally. Christian Coetzee was the 2014 singles region champion, and Christian Coetzee and Graham Shaw were 2014 doubles region champions.
Collin College Commercial Music student (Donald) Cody Tarpley has earned an RIAA Certified Gold Record for sales in excess of 500,000 copies of the single “Ride” by artist SoMo. Cody produced and co-wrote the single “Ride” as well as many of the other songs on the SoMo “Ride” album released on Republic Records.
Kyle Wilkison and Michael Phillips were interviewed on KERA -Krys Boyd’s “Think.”
http://www.kera.org/2014/05/15/talkin-texas-politics/
Student Anthony Garcia was accepted to the IMEX-MPI-MCI Future Leaders Forum for the MPI World Education Congress 2014.