Collin College students Mariah Carvalho, Jessica Dam, Fadi Istelinides, and Carly Jenkins have been selected to the prestigious All Texas Academic Team. Each year, about 100 outstanding community college students are selected from the 50 community college districts in Texas to be honored as members of the team. Team members represent the best and brightest students who excel in academic achievement, leadership, and exemplary community service. The Texas Association of Community Colleges and The University of Texas system hosted a medallion ceremony and reception for the recipients at Texas Hall on the University of Texas at Arlington campus, May 3.
Collin College’s Model United Nations Team was recognized as a Distinguished Delegation in March. Students Kaitlyn Wischmann and Mayte Mejia Barrera won the position paper award for the World Health Organization Committee. Students Nicholas Broadaway and Yeongbin Lee won the position paper award for the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Committee.
Collin College Student Government Association won the Texas Junior College Student Government Association Event of the Year 2019 for “Love Does Not Hurt: An Oath Against Domestic Violence” during the SGA state conference on April 13. The same event was award third place during the TJCSGA Region 2 conference in March. After the regional conference the team edited and revised their original submission for the state conference competition.
The Rockwall Police Department recently honored officers Anthony Rizzo and Mathew Joseph, graduates of the Collin College Law Enforcement Academy, with Life Saving Awards for acts performed in the line of duty. In separate incidents, officers Rizzo and Joseph performed CPR which preserved the lives of individuals who had stopped breathing until emergency medical staff arrived. In both cases, the patients survived thanks to the intervention of the officers. Congratulations to these officers on their well-deserved award.
Denison police officer Brittany Hargrove was featured in a news story by KTEN Texoma. Hargrove is a graduate of Collin Law Enforcement Academy’s 106th class. Read the story with this link. http://www.kten.com/story/40248443/denison-officer-follows-in-her-dads-footsteps
Dr. Ann Beheler, Executive Director of Emerging Technology Grants, and Dr. Don Weasenforth, VP/Provost of the Frisco Campus, attended HCL’s inauguration of its Cybersecurity Fusion Center and confirmed a joint hackathon on Oct. 5 with HCL, Collin College, and the University of North Texas.
The National Poetry Month Committee organized and hosted a series of events for National Poetry Month in April, including an evening with Natasha Trethewey, U.S. Poet Laureate for 2012 and 2014, and the recipient of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.
Dr. Aaron West and Brett Adams recently presented “Forgotten Frisco: ZuZu Bollin, Legendary Texas Bluesman” at the Frisco Heritage Museum.
Associate Faculty Dr. Amanda Aland co-presented “Revising Empire: Chimú and Inca Ceramic Morphology” at 84thAnnual Meeting for the Society for American Archaeology in Albuquerque, New Mexico in April.
Professors Suzanne Jones, Catherine Thurman and Jason Smoot were recognized for their work in implementing co-requisite models in Developmental Mathematics by being awarded the inaugural Program of Promise Award from the National Organization for Student Success (formerly NADE).
Drs. Tracey McKenzie, Millie Black, and Michael Latham, and Professor Pam Gaiter presented “Using Learning Communities as a Creative and Collaborative Way to Increase Student Engagement,” at the National Technology and Social Science Conference in April.
Professor Christine Millard presented “Religious Mobilization in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election,” at the Western Social Science Conference in San Diego in April.
Professor Alon Milwicki presented “Phillip E.J. Monson, Kingdom Bible College, and the Evolution of Christian Identity Theology” at the Inaugural Conference on Right-Wing Studies at the University of California-Berkeley in April.
Law Enforcement Academy Director Scott Donaldson contributed an opinion piece titled “Innovations Shaping the Future of Policing to the March 2019 edition of CIO Review.
Dr. Aaron West, Professor of Music, performed at the Denton Arts and Jazz Fest.
Associate Dean Meredith Martin recently presented her research on S.B. Burnett to the Sons of Republic of Texas, T.J. Rusk Chapter.
This year’s Career Exploration Fair at the Frisco Campus on April 25 drew more than 300 students, had two keynote speakers and offered four informational campfire sessions. More than 50 vendors and eight colleges participated in the event and the fair’s organizing committee raised $3,000 for scholarships using the net proceeds from the event. Thank you to Vice President/Provost Dr. Donald Weasenforth, Associate Dean Karen Musa, Administrative Assistant Nancy Huff, and the organizing committee for all of their hard work on this fair.
The Collin College dental hygiene program had a 100% pass rate for its students on their licensure exams. The students can now apply for their Texas license with the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners.
Dr. Levi R. Bryant, Professor of Philosophy, presented talks titled “Thinking the Wilderness” and “Rethinking Nature” at Stanford University, hosted by the Unruly Heritage archaeological project out of Norway and the Stanford Departments of Iberian and Latin American Studies and Anthropology.
Students in Professor Linda Kapocsi’s Integrated Reading and Writing and Dr. Mike McConachie’s Federal Government (Federal Constitution and Topics) courses recently completed “Brochures for Heroes,” a Service Learning project which provides Collin College veteran students with brochures containing necessary information to be distributed by the Collin Veterans Resource Center (VRC) staff. The brochures are based on seven areas of need provided by Ari Gray, Asst. Director Financial Aid/VA, and Veterans Services Adviser Pam Minot of the Plano Campus VRC. The areas of need, based on the most frequently asked student veteran questions, included information about financial assistance for veterans and their families, job opportunities for veterans, veterans’ volunteer organizations, community veterans organizations designed for building camaraderie among veterans, businesses that offer year-round discounts to veterans, legal assistance for veterans, and four-year feeder universities and their veterans services. Students presented their completed trifold brochures to the VRC on May 8.
Dr. Michael Phillips, Professor of History, has been named one of the first official recipients of a Mellon-ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowship. This is the first year of this program, which supports research projects from humanities and social science faculty who teach at two-year colleges. The fellowships, which are made possible by a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, support 26 scholars as they conduct research on a wide range of topics, and bring their findings back to their classrooms and communities. Dr. Phillips’ project is titled “The Strange Career of Eugenics in Texas.” Fellows receive a $40,000 stipend over 18 months and will participate in a convening to meet, share their work, and discuss broader issues in the humanities in the community college sector. Dr. Phillips also presented an invited lecture, “Slouching Towards Armageddon: American End Times Religion and Middle East Politics,” and made an invited presentation, “Whitewash: Political Propaganda and Confederate Monuments,” at Jacksonville University’s Philosophy Slam, at Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Florida, on April 10-11.
Ketia Bradley, Medical Assistant Program Manager, became a Certified Program Planner through the Learning Education Resource Network (LERN). LERN is the world’s largest association in continuing education and lifelong learning. Bradley is the Medical Assistant Program Manager in the Health Sciences Department.
Collin College Police Chief Bill Taylor was presented with the Chairman’s Recognition Award at the annual conference of the Association of University Chief Security Officers (AUCSO) in Birmingham, England, April 2-4.
Officer Warren McNurlen attended the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) Course at the Southern Police Institute at the University of Kentucky, April 1-4. Collin College’s police department now has two officers that have completed this course.
Fire Science and EMS Director Pat McAuliff now serves on the Advisory Committee for a new program offered by West Texas A&M at the RELLIS campus located in College Station. This new BAAS degree in Emergency Services Administration is tailored to provide a pathway for firefighters, EMTs and police officers with an AAS degree to move towards a BAAS degree directly related to their profession. RELLIS is a collaborative campus focused on engaging students in courses from all 11 universities within the Texas A&M University system.
The Fire Science program recently accepted delivery of a driving simulator donated from the Richardson Fire Department. Fire Academy staff will be working this summer to learn proper operation of the software and establish CE course outlines for offering this training to area fire departments. The unit is valued at over $400,000.
Dr. Amina El-Ashmawy, Professor of Chemistry, served as chair of the Collin Outstanding Professor Selection Committee, 2018-19, as well as serving on COE as secretary. She is also an appointed member of the national American Chemical Society (ACS) Committee on Public Relations and Communications (CPRC) for 2019-2021, and is the chair of the ACS CPRC Outreach and Advocacy Subcommittee for 2019.
The 10th Annual University Interdisciplinary Student Research Conference (UISRC) was held at the Plano Campus on April 25. An annual conference that showcases original research from exceptional undergraduates at Collin, University of North Texas, Southern Methodist University, The University of Texas, The University of Texas at Dallas, The University of Texas at Arlington, Texas Woman’s University, Texas State, Texas A&M-Commerce, Dallas Baptist University, Brookhaven College, University of Maryland, University of Kansas, New York University, Columbia University, and others. This year’s keynote speaker was former Collin student Julia Jalowiec. She is a multidisciplinary artist based out of Dallas. She currently works at SMU in the Division of Art. Julia began her education at Collin, and later earned her BFA from SMU where she graduated with honors. Speech Professor Jenny Warren is the faculty lead for this conference.
Communications Professor Ceilidh Charleson-Jennings’s latest book, “Where the Lost Dogs Go: A Story of Love, Search, and the Power of Reunion” has received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and a strong review from Kirkus. Both are difficult to earn.
English Associate Professor Dr. Meghan Johnson completed her doctorate and defended her dissertation successfully in May.
Raj Aryal, an English associate faculty member, is a finalist for the Richland College Excellence in Teaching Award.
Dr. Sam Tullock, History Professor, appeared in an article in the April/May 2019 edition of Wylie Connections with a former student, Dr. Joseph Minich.
Dr. Chad Pearson, History Professor, spoke at the City University of New York on April 8 on a plenary called, “The History of Right to Work from the First Gilded Age to Janus.”
Dr. Keith Volanto, History Professor, presented a paper, “The Life and Work of Beadie Connor: An African American Physician in Jim Crow Texas,” at the Central Texas Historical Association Meeting in Temple on April 27.
Sociology Professor Pam Gaiter presented at the National Social Science Association Conference in Las Vegas on learning communities. She was accepted to the Voices Oral History Summer Institute at the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism and helped organize the Fulbright Associate Dallas Chapter Symposium, where she moderated a panel.
Dr. Rachel Gunter, History Professor, had a biographical sketch of militant suffragist Cora Weeks published in Online Biographical Dictionary. Dr. Gunter is also the Texas Coordinator for this project, which will add Texas suffragists in the next wave of entries released. You may read the paper at https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1008342604. Professor Gunter also published a book review of “Her Own Hero” by Wendy Rouse on Nursing Clio – https://nursingclio.org/2019/04/04/her-own-hero-how-self-defense-became-acceptable-for-american-women/
Drs. Donna Cain and Rebecca Orr, Biology Professors, co-presented Team Based Learning Workshop at University of Texas at Dallas.
Professor of Art Chris Gray was published on April 15 in the May/June edition of Pottery Making Illustrated. The article, “In the Potter’s Kitchen: Flameware: The Heirloom Clay,” can also be found online.