It is a long-standing tradition at Collin College to celebrate students for their academic achievement. The global pandemic changed the dynamic this year, but leadership, faculty, staff, and fellow students all did their part to honor the recent Class of 2020 nursing and allied health graduates at the recognition parades held in May.
In 2019, Collin College alumna Sowmya Rajendran, a Makerspace assistant at the college, and coworker Denise Hughes decided to use their skills to create miniature cougars. The pair made 35 cougars to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the college.
This year, with the help of their colleagues at the McKinney, Frisco, and Plano campuses, they took that concept to a new level with a project they named “Cougar Strong.” The team created more than 150 miniature cougar figurines for graduating health science students.
“These figurines show that we are ‘Cougar Strong,’” said Rajendran, who transferred from Collin College and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Arts and Technology from The University of Texas at Dallas. “We wanted to do this to give back to the health science students, to help them transition to what they are going to be doing. We also want to thank our leadership for allowing us to serve the health science graduates.”
Though her job title is Makerspace assistant, Rajendran refers to her counterparts as creative innovators. She explained that she found the design online for a large cougar, modified it, and added a nursing hat. Using readily available materials, the Makerspace team cut up t-shirts to create tiny masks for each cougar figurine.
“We’re in a pandemic, but we want to be victorious in it,” said Faye Davis, McKinney Campus library executive director. “We want people to know that we’ve got this.”
The “Cougar Strong” project was especially meaningful for Hughes, Rajendra’s fellow Makerspace assistant who earned her associate degree from the college in May 2019 and is planning to become an anesthesiologist.
“I wanted to give back and make people smile through this hard time,” said Hughes, who is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Biology at Texas Woman’s University. “These students will be the ones working in the hospitals in the future.”
The following staff members were involved in the project.
McKinney Campus
Faye Davis, McKinney Campus library executive director
Brooke Elshout, student assistant
Sowmya Rajendran, Makerspace assistant
Denise Hughes, Makerspace assistant
Frisco Campus
Vidya Priya Krishnaswamy, Frisco Campus library executive director
Amanda Robles, Makerspace assistant
Plano Campus
Linda A. Kyprios, Plano Campus library executive director
Pierce Hunt, Makerspace assistant