Dr. Abe Johnson has been appointed to the Commission on Economic and Workforce Development of the American Association of Community Colleges. The AACC, of which Collin College is a member, is the primary advocacy organization for the nation’s community colleges. The association represents nearly 1,200 two-year institutions and more than 12 million students. His commission appointment term runs from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2022. Congratulations to him on this honor.
Collin College’s 2019 Model UN team won the National Model United Nations video contest in May. Collin College was the only U.S. college to be among the four winners (of an estimated 5,000 who participated this year), and Collin ranked first among all participants. The video can be found at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xCmfhHWLXpY. This honor is in addition to being recognized as a Distinguished Delegation in March.
Professors of Child Development Sharon Hirschy and Dr. Elaine Zweig were featured presenters at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Professional Learning Institute in Long Beach, California, on June 5. Hirschy and Dr. Zweig jointly presented “Preparing Teachers to Work with Children Who Have Been Traumatized.”
The English as a Second Language Program hosted its first Celebration of Achievement on May 15 to honor students completing levels of ESL courses or completing the advanced level. In Spring 2019, Collin College opened its new SEVIS-certified ESL, which can admit F-1 Visa students to study ESL. The program serves Visa students as well as Collin County’s large domestic second language learner population. All course are also linked with Continuing Education, allowing students to study language as non-credit students.
Health Professions Dual Credit Clinical Programs nearly tripled in size throughout the county for the 2018-19 school year and now provide Dual Credit Health Science courses in 12 districts, with clinical programs in nine districts. The program’s certification results for this year were phenomenal. Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) students had a 98% pass rate across six districts. Electrocardiography (EKG) Tech students had a 99% pass rate across five districts. Patient Care Technician (PCT) students had a 100% pass rate across four districts. The programs are overseen by Vice President/Provost Jon Hardesty, Dean Michelle Millen, and Health Science Academy Director Juli Westcott and her faculty.
Frisco Lone Star High School Dual Credit EMS student Diya Mistry was awarded first place in Texas for the “Stop The Bleed” competition. You can see her video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HDjLlNB3os.
Mervat Karout, a full-time biology faculty member at the McKinney campus, completed a graduate certificate in Medical Anatomy and Physiology from the University of Florida College of Medicine in May 2019.
EMS student Jonathon Fontenot was recognized for his actions during his clinical rotation at Medical City Plano. After several alarms sounded at the facility, the elevators stopped functioning. Fontenot assisted in getting food to patients on all seven floors of the hospital while the elevators were down. An email detailing his actions was sent to the college by Medical City Plano staff and his instructors recognized him with a “Certificate of Appreciation” during class.
Sergeant Don Mewbourn and Police Officer Scott Knight participated in the final leg of the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics at the Special Olympics Texas Summer Games in San Antonio on May 2-4.
The Respiratory Care program has received notification that it will receive the Distinguished Registered Respiratory Therapist Credentialing Success Award for a seventh consecutive year.
The Collin College Law Enforcement Academy recently hosted new courses and seminars, drawing significant LEO interest. The offerings included a Tactical Mindset – Defense Against Edge Weapons (knife defense) course and a new Tactical Narcotics course that drew people from across the state of Texas, as well as New Mexico State Police and a couple of Colorado Police Departments. The academy also hosted a Phil Chalmers seminar on teen killings which included a videoconferencing Q&A with three convicted serial killers, who provided first-hand information to the audience. The seminar involved representatives from local ISDs, mental health counselors, local police departments, Sherriff’s offices, and other law enforcement.
Collin College’s annual Science Day (including math) was held April 13 at the Plano Campus for three middle schools: Bowman, Wilson, and Otto. The free annual event is designed to get students excited about science and math early in their school careers and encourage them to investigate potential careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. Subjects discussed during the event included anatomy, biology, geology, chemistry, and more. Thank you to administrators Dr. Abe Johnson and Dr. Mary Barnes-Tilley, event founder and organizer Dr. Cathy Donald-Whitney, presenters Mary Weis, Doug Boliver, Roberta Cravo, Robert Brown, Shellene C. Foster, Michael Holtfrerich, David Rice, Neal Alexandrowicz, Stacey Bilch, Cathy Molina, Leff Ludovico, Fred Jury and Sudha Madhugiri, and administrative support including Deborah Cardena, J’Anna Mann, Gary Goldgar, Wilma Eckhoff and many more.
Surgical Technology Director Jeanne Glapion has been appointed to an International Association of Healthcare Central Service Materiel Management National Chapter Committee Task Force.
Dr. Tamara Basham, environmental sciences professor, represented Collin College as an exhibitor at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Earth Day Event on April 19. More than 600 students from DFW area schools attended.
Collin College student Elizabeth Hampton presented “Annotation of Phage McGalleon from Subcluster EA1 in Microbacterium foliorum” at the 2019 SEA-PHAGES Symposium earlier this month. This is a tremendous honor for the student and a testament to hard work of the annotation team, which included students Danielle J. Davis, Elizabeth S. Hampton, Thanh-Huy Nguyen, Kirk S. Niekamp, and Kaitlyn M. Riley, and faculty Bridgette L. Kirkpatrick, Jonathan N. Lawson, and Carole M. Twichell.
Associate Professor Jarred Stewart presented “The Mascots and Batboys of Early Baseball” at the Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference, April 26-27, at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Associate Professor Dr. Mutryce Williams gave a keynote address at the Caribbean Student Organization Midwestern State University 2019 Graduation and Awards Ceremony.
Professor Kimberly O’Neil presented “Shifting Beyond Theory: Using Your Real-World Experience in the Classroom,” at the 2019 NISOD International Conference.
Peyton Carrington-Crosswhite presented original research, “The Road to Women’s Liberation: Escape from Racism, Ignorance and Belittlement” at the 2019 Western Social Science Association Annual Conference in San Diego, April 24-27.
Professors Bill Kukla, Robert McLeroy, and Sammy Bickham recently completed the requirements for becoming Certified Real Estate Instructors (CREI).
Professors Rhonda Lewis, Serena Richards, Barbara Hanson, Brittany Moore, Leanne Lentschke, and Lubna Javeed organized and hosted the Cultivating Scholars Event at the Frisco Campus, with over 200 people in attendance.
Cybersecurity student Daniel Sanchez won Frisco Library’s 2019 hackathon by creating a virtual tour app for the Frisco Heritage Museum.
Society of Women Engineers president and Engineering Field of Study student Alisha Downs was awarded a summer internship with Raytheon Corporation in Richardson.
Dr. Ann Beheler’s BILT (Business and Industry Leadership Team) model of engaging business and industry partners to co-lead program curricula won the Program of the Year award through HI-TECH (High Impact Technology Exchange), a National Sciences Foundation Advanced Technological Education community. Dr. Beheler will receive the award at the HI-TEC conference in July.
Inspector Jimmy Drummond from Texas State Child Care Licensing visited the Collin Child Development Lab School on May 16 for its annual inspection. The inspector praised the college’s teacher-child interactions, lesson plans, and complimented the facility for its organization, content, and professional appearance.
Men’s and Women’s Tennis wrapped up their seasons in May. Collin College’s Women’s Tennis won the Region V Championship and finished ninth in the nation with a strong performance at the National Junior College Athletic Association DI Championship, May 5-9 in Tyler. The Men’s Team finished the season ranked No. 11 in the nation.
Several Collin College basketball players were awarded scholarships and have signed letters of intent to play for four-year universities next year. They include: Jordynn Hernandez, the University of Texas in Arlington; Jazmine Jackson, St. Edwards University (Austin); Jalah Walton, Prairie View A&M; Briana Marshall, University of Texas Permian Basin (Odessa); Tazhmel Sherman, West Virginia University (Morgantown, Virginia); Ryan Flores, Incarnate Word University (San Antonio); and Lamont Simmons, Texas Wesleyan University.
Collin College’s Book-In-Common Committee has named “The Leavers” by Lisa Ko as its 2019-2020 selection. The book tells the story of a Chinese immigrant mother and son in New York, forcibly separated and struggling with the realities of immigrant life. The book was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction and named in multiple “Best Book” lists for that year. The Book-In-Common program selects one book each year for the college’s students to read as a common goal, with professors integrating the subject matter into their classrooms where appropriate.