www.cayugacollegian.com Vol. 60 Issue 10 March 5, 2012

Cayuga Community College Auburn & Fulton, New York

Collegian

Since 2007, CCC President Dr. Daniel Larson has been at the forefront of managing the $16 million expansion at the Cayuga C o m m u n i t y College campus in Fulton. The e x p a n s i o n , taking place in a former P & C building, includes an a c a d e m i c r e s o u r c e area in the

center of the building, multiple classrooms, both traditional and “smart” rooms with built in digital projectors, and a few lounge areas.

In a recent interview with Dr. Larson, he showed blueprints and concept art of the expansion from multiple angles, and even had videos on his phone of how the construction is coming along.

“The layout was excellent for putting in new rooms and walls,” Dr. Larson said. “The big box building design was perfect.”

CCC has been active in Fulton for several decades now, primarily because it has no community college of it’s own, and because, as Dr. Larson puts it, “It’s at a sort of population crossroads, with many communities nearby with

Professional Day March 7thOn Wednesday March 7th Cayuga Community College will be having its second annual Professional Day from 10am until 2pm on the Cayuga campus. Professional Day is a time where Criminal Justice majors are able to meet a variety of people such as law officers, detectives, paralegal, and many more to learn and hear first hand experiences about the careers they are interested in. Students will be able to discuss, see demonstrations, and explore all the different areas that criminal justice has to offer with the representatives from the multiple agencies that will be present. Interested? Be sure to check it out along the main halls of the campus to learn more about the field of Criminal Justice!

Auburn Celebrates WinterOn Friday March 2nd Auburn had its very first IGNITE the Winter! festival to celebrate the ending of the winter season. The festival was held all along Genesee Mall and Exchange Street where restaurants, bands, and artist set up to preform and have their very own chili contest. A panel of judges, including Mayor Michael Quill, County Clerk Sue Dwyer, Downtown Auburn Business Improvement District Chair Paul Ringwood, Cayuga County Office of Tourism Vice Chair Steve Lynch and “Captain Jack” Rick Martinez, were chosen to judge and award plaques and prizes to the best dishes there. People were all over tasting unique chilies and chowders from all over while listening to performers on the Showmobile Stage whilst watching an amazing ice sculptor carve a block of ice into a large bird resembling a crow. People were also invited into the Auburn Public Theater for a free photography exhibit thanks to the Auburn photography club and to hear even more music one band having been strictly a surf band. Families were even able to take horse-drawn carriage rides that looped around the Auburn Parking Garage during the festival. The IGNITE the Winter! festival even paired up with Auburn’s First Friday celebration, which includes free events near the downtown area, this one having been the Seward House Museum, which had an Alaska-themed reception in honor of the March 1867 treaty negotiated by the historic home’s namesake owner. Overall a very fun and successful gathering of Auburn to celebrate the end of the winter season too.

THE VOICE OF THE STUDENTS OF CAYUGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS

CAYUGABriefs

EMAIL THE COLLEGIAN AT:cayugacollegian@gmail.com

By Jamie Blumrick, Editor-in-chief

continued page 2

Dr. Daniel Larson

An artists’ rendering of the new CCC Fulton Campus building.

GO TO HELL! Let’s Go to Hell, “Club Hell” that

is! Harlequin Productions of Cayuga Community College is pleased to present the world premier of “Club Hell” by Kerry A. Forrestal and John R. Fracchia. This comic jour-ney to make a deal with the devil will be presented on March 15-17 and 22-24 at 8:00 PM in the Irene A. Bisgrove Community Theatre at the college. Tickets are $1 for stu-dents and $5 for General Admission and will be available at the door.

“Club Hell” opens with two marketers, Terry Fire and Jack Brimstone, preparing an ad cam-paign for the Super Bowl which will sell MegaTar Cigarettes to the unsuspecting public. However as they speed down the NJ Turnpike fate steps in and they crash and

CCC’s Harlequin Productions Parties at Club Hell, March 15-17, 22-25wake up in Hell. Being marketers, they decide to sell the Devil on a new way suffer eternal torment: take a vacation at Club Hell! While they are developing their idea they run into many of the denizens of Hell- Eve, the first woman; an impish demon; Hitler and they even meet God who has a problem with Hell being a vacation destination! But of course not everything is smooth sail-ing, it is Hell after all. Can Jack and Terry overcome these challenges? Just who is that little girl? And finally: did somebody say Limbo?!?

The CCC student cast of “Club Hell” is having a great time pre-paring this comedy for the audi-ence and award winning Director Bob Frame has spent many an hour

CCC President Talks FutureDr. Larson discusses Fulton Expansion and Future PossibilitiesBy Andy Schemerhorn, Staff Writer

people seeking higher education.” This location has clearly served

that role well; the Fulton campus has grown much more rapidly than the Auburn Campus, and is expected to outgrow the “parent” school within five years. With the addition to the 45 adjacent acres purchased for student housing, Fulton’s campus is plainly getting an upgrade.

But the ambitious President’s plans don’t end there. In addition to the current construction at Fulton, plans are being drawn to create an athletics complex at Auburn’s campus, more student housing to fit 300 beds, and an expansion to the Tech building for the Telcom, Nursing, Music, and Art programs.

“These are programs that are getting great recognition, they get good enrollment, and the facili-ties they are using are becoming outdated,” Dr. Larson said. He also stated, regarding athletics and student housing, “We know there are prospective students who come to our campus and won’t choose

us because we don’t have athletic facilities or on-campus housing. Out of all the community colleges in this state, only eight don’t have on-campus housing, and those that don’t are looking into getting it.”

For the athletic facilities, Dr. Larson cited that some CCC sports teams need to travel to Corcoran to host games.

“If we had athletic facilities and improved student housing, we’d attract 100 to 150 more students,” Larson asserted.

When questioned about the possi-bility of CCC expanding to Auburn’s recently closed West Middle School, Dr. Larson could not be as confident.

“I don’t know the answer to that question,” he said, also adding; “It’s not the kind of thing the school district wants to see disappear. We are looking for organizations that may be like-minded, share our interests in the community, value education, and perhaps host programs and other services in addition to classes.”

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Editorial BoardJAMIE BLUMRICK, Editor-in-chiefD.J. DuVALL, Sports EditorMARY G. MERRITT, Advisor

Staff ANGELA WORNICK - FULTON JIM COLLINS - AUBURN KATE MORLEY - AUBURNALEC RIDER - AUBURNDAWN PERRAULT - AUBURNRYAN ELSENBECK - AUBURNCHRISTINA LUPIEN - AUBURNJOE PRUE -AUBURNANDREW SCHEMERHORN - AUBURNMIKE WESTMILLER - AUBURN

The Cayuga Collegian w e l c o m e s l e t t e r s f ro m i t s r e a d e r s . Submiss ions must b e e m a i l e d t o c a y u g a c o l l e g i a n @ g m a i l . c o m . Submissions may be edited for content or length. Submissions must inc lude your name, address and daytime phone number. All letters to the editor are copied exact ly and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the Collegian office, its staff or advisors. All letters are simply the opinions of the writers themselves.

PAGE TWO

Without sports you don’t have rivalry, but some say that without rivalry you have no sport. This is the problem staring college sports straight in the face and the schools that make up the sport either believe they can create new rivalries or refuse to believe that conference realignment is the death knell for the sports as we know it.

The ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12, and the SEC are the biggest conferences in college sports, and they all have been affected by conference realignment for better or for worse.

For this area, the biggest move was Syracuse along with fellow Big East founding member Pittsburgh leaving the Big East for the ACC, home of the likes of Duke and North Carolina. The move makes the ACC far and away the strongest basketball conference in college sports and leaves the Big East on life support in football.

Syracuse Men’s Basketball Coach Jim Boeheim is none too pleased with it either.

“If conference commissioners were the founding fathers of this country, we would have Guatemala, Uruguay, and Argentina in the United States. [This audience] knows why we are doing this. There’s two reasons: money and football.”

The Big East isn’t new to being raided by the ACC. In 2004-2005 the ACC snatched up Miami (FL), Virginia Tech and Boston College from the Big East, which forced the

College Rivalry Realignment

conference’s hand, leading to the raiding of Conference USA by the Big East, turning the conference into a 28 team superconference split mostly between basketball and football.

But this time around, deep seeded rivalries are being affected. With the move to the ACC Syracuse is leaving behind 40 year rivalries with St. John and SU’s ultimate rival Georgetown.

Who will forget when Georgetown came back from a 14 point halftime deficit to end Syracuse’s 57 game home win streak in the last game played at Manley Field House inspiring John Thompson Jr. to utter that famous phrase “Manley Field House is officially closed”. Then there was March 5, 1990 when Coach Thompson was issued three technical fouls in the same play resulting in a 10 point possession with the Orange winning the game by two points.

Maybe the conference most affected by realignment is the Big 12 conference. Losing Colorado and Nebraska were manageable. But then Texas A&M and Missouri left for the SEC. The rivalry between Texas A&M and Baylor was notable enough for women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey to say “My feeling is this, if a man wants to divorce me, and says our relationship has no value to him, and then he asks me if he can sleep with me, the answer is: No!” effectively slamming the door on any possible games between the two in the future.

-Alec RiderCayuga Collegian Staff Writer

GO TO HELL!CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE CCC’s Harlequin Productions Parties at Club Hell, March 15-17, 22-25

talking with the playwrights, fine-tuning the script for what promises to be an enjoyable eve-ning! LaRae Brooks of Syracuse and Joshua Stedge of Waterloo are Fire and Brimstone. The Devil is Cato’s John Murphy while God is Auburn’s own Steven Hodge. Caryl Frame plays Eve, who is haunted by the devilish Imp, Colin Wentworth, both of Skaneateles. Alex Springer, who attends Auburn Jr. High School is the mysterious Ashley. “Club Hell” also features the ensemble talents of Rachel Bodner, Katy Lubaszewski , Zech Nelson and Rhiannon Khoury from Auburn, Maria Coleman from Port Byron, Dylan Thompson from Waterloo, Thomas Costantino, Seneca Falls; and Lizzy Fennessy, Jordan-Elbridge. Stage man-ager David Thieringer, Hannibal keeps things running back stage

and is assisted by Michael Crowe, Waterloo. Kat Jordan, Tully, will be gathering props. Jed Daniels (J-E) and Joe Prue( Auburn) are respon-sible for creating the soundscape. Assisting the Costume Designer will be Nancy Hunt (Weedsport) and Erika Green (Port Byron). Finally Robin Fragoman (J-E) will be assist-ing Frame as he puts it all together.

Professionally the students will be led by Scenic Designer Robert John Andrusko, winner of the TANYS 2011 Best Overall Design for his work on last spring’s “When I Come To My Senses, I’m Alive!” Brad McLean of Boston will be in town to design the lighting and Mathew Ryan Limerick, a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy of NYC is responsible for the costuming of the student cast.

By Jim Collins, Staff Writer

A Tribute to Local VeteransThe local chapter of the Knights

of Columbus is planning to honor World War II and Korean War Veterans with a trip to Washington D.C. on Sept. 14-16, 2012. According to past Grand Knight and one of the organizers of the trip, Joe Lo Piccolo, about $25,000 will be needed to cover expenses. The trip will include visits to all the war monuments as well as a visit to Arlington National

Cemetery for 50 local veterans. The Knights are located at 45 Market St. in Auburn. The trip is called “Operation Endearing Gratitude” and according to Lo Piccolo, we as citizens, “would not be here with-out them.” Donations of any amount are acceptable and can be dropped off at the Market Street location at any time. For further inquiries contact Lo Piccolo at 315-253-5196.

By Andy Schemerhorn, Staff Writer

How the Bookstore Works

Every semester, roughly a dozen classes have issues with getting the books they need, whether it’s a lack of supply, the wrong edition, or confusion over why you can’t sell it back.

But is it right to blame the book-store?

CCC’s Follett Bookstore manager,Barb Hendershot and her assistant manage, Trish Flanagan, both say plenty of thought goes into each semester’s book order.

“We look six semesters back and try to find the average amount of students who enroll, and how many of them will actually buy the book,” says Hendershot. “If there’s a spike in enrollment, a different teacher assigned to the class at the last min-ute, or if students just act differ-ently, then we’ll have a supHender-shot says Follett, an independent company which provides book-store servies to CCC, is a business trying to make a profit, and as a result, they won’t order a surplus in books that won’t sell. Students have voiced concerns over the lack of books but from what Hendershot says, it doesn’t seem like things will change. “We have to order these books for the fall semester, just as an example, in June, because all the other Follett branches are

ordering at the same time, and we want to try and make sure we get them before demand drives the price up,” Hendershot said.

“And even if we could just order off of enrollment, how many stu-dents drop the class or get added in during the first week? At least 3 a class, right?” Flanagan added.

They also explained that a lot of the confusion comes from the pro-fessors.

“Right before we order the books, we send an email to every profes-sor’s faculty email asking, ‘This is what was ordered last time; is this what you want?’ About 20 percent of the professors take the time to reply, and the rest we just have to order and hope they don’t complain once they realize they didn’t update their material,” Hendershot said.

Hendershot says the process of re-selling books is a faces similar issues. If a professor has used the same book for years, then the store can buy it back. But if the instructor is new or they tend to change the book used, the bookstore can’t buy it back.

When asked how much time would be saved if professors checked the Banner emails Follett sent them, Hendershot said “Oh my God; we would save days!”

What has to happen for you to get your books, and what can go wrong in the process

THE VOICE OF THE STUDENTS OF CAYUGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS PAGE THREE

Well in case you’ve been liv-ing under a rock for the last few months, you’re probably almost as sick as I am of hearing about the Indianapolis Colts/Peyton Manning situation. Manning dealt with a neck injury that required surgery, and sidelined him for the first time in his career, and the entire 2011-12 sea-son. Recent developments show that he will more than likely be playing come September. This is great news for an avid football fan like myself, who considers Peyton to be one of, if not the greatest Quarterbacks to ever play the game. Yet the Colts somehow are looking to trade the future hall of fame quarterback, because come April they will use the #1 pick in the 2012 NFL draft on a franchise quarterback for the future. Now just for some back info, let me fill you in on a little secret. Because of Peyton Manning the Colts hadn’t missed the playoffs in ten years. That was until this year when Manning went down with an injury, and the Colts tripped and stumbled their way to a 2-14 embar-rassment of a season, causing their owner Jim Irsay to make a knee jerk

SPARTAN SPORTS

The Spartans have carried their late season heroics into the playoffs after winning both games they earned the right to play right here at Spartan Hall on the CCC Auburn Campus. The Men turned things around mid-season and finished as the regular season champs, earning themselves the #1 seed in the MSAC Tourney, and the rights to host the event. The semi-final game came on Saturday, February 25th, when the Spartans beat TC3 in convincing fashion 91-

Spartans MSAC Tournament Champs!!!By D.J. DuVall, Sports Editor

70. After a 16-0 first half run, CCC headed into the locker room with a 10 point lead, and never looked back, cruising to a 21 point victory over the Panthers. Cayuga was lead by freshman guard Scotty Bynum, who scored a game high 21 points, followed by Dashawn Williamson who had a respectable 17 points.

On Sunday the Spartans faced the Onondaga CC Lazers who they split the two game season series with, dropping the first meeting, and winning the next. They carried

that momentum into Sundays MSAC tournament final, embarrassing the Lazers with a 93-68 beat down. Once again Bynum led the way with twenty points, but the scoring was spread throughout the entire team with six Spartans scoring in double figures. Bynum earned tournament MVP honors with his 41 points in two games, and CCC head coach Tony Borges was named MSAC coach of the year after the dramatic second half turnaround the Spartans endured this season. Cayuga has

now won seven straight games, and 11 of their last 12 bringing their season record to 16-13, including a 10-5 record here at Spartan Hall.

The Spartans will now travel to Jefferson Community College as the regions #6 seed, where they will face the #3 seeded Mohawk Valley CC in the NJCAA Region III Tournament on March 2nd. MVCC beat Cayuga 66-63 in an early season nail biter; it was the only time the teams faced met.

RANDOMRANTSSportsDJ

’s

The Peyton Manning Sagareaction at season’s end, and fire numerous coaches and staff mem-bers regardless of their resumes.

Now the man that brought the franchise to the respectable level it stands at today, will more than likely be wearing another uniform next season, while some college kid gets a chance to play with the big boys. Don’t get me wrong Andrew Luck of Stanford (who they will more than likely choose) could be amazing, or he could be the next Ryan Leaf who folded like a cheap umbrella under the pressure of the NFL, and never amounted to anything. They are will-ing to take this chance because in July, Manning signed a five year, $90 million extension, and the Colts owe him a $28 million dollar bonus on March 8th, unless they find a place to send him. That shouldn’t be too hard considering he is one of the best leaders the game has ever seen. Manning is an 11 time Pro Bowler, Pro Bowl MVP, Super Bowl MVP, and 4 time NFL MVP; Peyton’s record sheet is staggering to say the least. I for one think the Colts organiza-tion is putting way too much into an unproven rookie, and watching an all

time great con-tinue his hall of fame career elsewhere. The list of land-ing places has been long from the start of all these rumors, and only contin-ues to grow, not surprising when you see what the 36 year old has done, and I believe he’s got a few great years left in the tank.

The 54th running of the Daytona 500 was one fans won’t forget for years to come, unfortunately because of all the wrong reasons. After being delayed an entire day due to steady showers and thunderstorms in the Daytona Beach, Florida area, the race was then pushed from noon to 7 p.m. Monday night because the rain just would not quit. Finally 36 hours after the original starting time, the race began only to have the first caution come on lap two knocking five time champ Jimmie Johnson out of the race, and putting Rookie Danica Patrick over 30 laps down in her first 500, she finished 38th. The race saw ten cautions, including quite possibly the most memorable in NASCAR history when during a caution with just 40 laps to go, Juan Pablo Montoya lost control of his car and smashed into the back of a jet dryer used to clean, and dry the track. His car burst into flames,

“Great American Race” Doomed From the StartBy D.J. DuVall, Sports Editor

and soon the track did as well when 200 gallons of jet fuel began pouring out of the gaping hole in the dryer. Crews spent the next two hours putting out the fire, cleaning the track with speedy dry, followed by TIDE laundry soap, followed by water, then had to check it over to make sure it was capable of handling cars at 200 miles per hour.

Finally the race resumed, and saw another caution in the closing laps before Matt Kenseth took the checkered flag for his second career Daytona 500 victory. Fan favorite Dale Earnhardt finished second, passing Greg Biffle in turn four on the final lap, the same spot that took his Father’s life eleven years ago. The race ended around 1 a.m. Tuesday morning, almost six hours after it began. Next week NASCAR heads to Phoenix, Arizona and hopes the desert will be a little less “eventful.”

THE VOICE OF THE STUDENTS OF CAYUGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS

with Jim Collins

COS MO’S C O R N E R

This week’s review is on Pavlo’s Restaurant located at 6 York St. in Auburn. Established in 1980 by the owner, Pavlo, from Greece, this is a humble little restaurant that has been churning out breakfast and lunch daily for local residents. I recently had breakfast there and ordered the daily special which is 2 eggs, home fries, toast and coffee for $3.75. When I came in and sat at the counter, the waitress asked me if I wanted coffee and served me immediately. After getting my menu, she promptly took my order. It was a busy Sunday morning and the place holds about 70 people. I think I had my order in less than 10 minutes which is pretty quick. Everything was hot and well cooked. My only gripe with the food was there was a ton of butter on the toast. In my opinion a little goes

a long way. One thing that did bother me about my experience here is that one of the waitresses was complaining about being sick and anyone at the counter could hear her. Sorry, not cool, especially in the food service business. If you’re sick do everyone a favor and stay home. Other than that, no complaints. Mr. Pavlo was walking around the place saying high and chatting which is always nice to see. For a quick breakfast or lunch, Pavlo’s gets my vote and their hours are 7 am to 2 pm, daily. I give them 3 Cosmo’s out of 4. Comments or gripes? My email is colljimbo@yahoo.com Cheers!

ATTENTION: TRANSFERRING GRADS

By Jamie Blumrick, Editor-in-chief

Downtown Goes BlueWhen heading downtown you

may notice a change from the reg-ular organge glow of the street lights have turned blue! Well that’s because of March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness month. The Cancer Services Program is involved in a statewide campaign called “Main Streets Go Blue” to start the awareness of Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. So why blue? Blue is the universally recog-nized color for colon cancer which is also known to be the second high-est cause of cancer-related death in the United States. You my also notice surrounding local businesses wearing the color blue and colon caner awareness shirts to help sup-port and encourage people to do the same and spread the message of the importance of having regu-lar screenings. The local businesses were also asked to use blue lights, balloons, anything blue in their windows to help spread the word

to fight cancer. According to the Cancer Services Program of Cayuga County they recommend that all men and women age 50 or above to talk to their health care provider about being screened for colorectal cancer especially those with a per-sonal or family history of colorectal cancer or colorectal polyps. Men and women are also encouraged to speak with their doctors about when they should begin screening and how often they should be screened. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the U.S. after lung cancer estimating that at least one in every 20 people will develop colorectal cancer during their lifetime. Each year in New York state, more than 10,400 people develop cancer of the colon and rectum, and nearly 3,600 New Yorkers die from this disease. So be sure to talk to your doctor and go blue for the month of March!

Recently a two-time CCC graduate visited Auburn’s Downtown Books and Coffee to do a book signing. Matthew R. Kelley, 30, just spent ten years writing his first novel, The Last Good Story. Kelley says that “The overall writing process took close to ten years. It evolved through many different drafts in that time and was put aside while I worked on different manuscripts. Some of the plot points have changed but the main themes stayed consistent from the begin-ning - broken hearts, failed dreams, frus-tration with the lack of depth in modern society, the beauty of blues music.” His first draft was even started right here at CCC, in the library during a break between classes “sometime in 2000.”

Kelley graduated from Weedsport High School in 1999, and from CCC in 2001 with his first associates degree, in Liberal Arts. He later returned to CCC to obtain a second degree, this time an associates in Business Administration. He graduated the second time in January of 2009.

Kelley’s biggest challenge was getting The Last Good Story published the way he wanted it done. “I was pretty confident in my ability to get it published eventually. What I wasn’t so confident about was my ability to have control over the creative direction and process of my manuscript. Just talking with a few literary agents made me highly concerned with how little way I would have in the finished product, things that are very rookie breaking into the business. You have to bow to their decisions. I’m not OK with that. I would rather try on my own creative merit and succeed or fail based on how I envi-sioned the book to be. So, I took a huge leap of faith and decided to start my own publishing press.” And that he did.

Kelley used his experience his second time around at CCC and got Disasterpiece Press up and off the ground. He says that he did it with “a lot of sleepless nights. I moved back into my parents’ home to save money while I attended CCC to learn business, something that was completely outside my realm as an artist. However, I managed to learn a great deal from my time there (CCC).” He said that all of his professors were helpful with any questions that he had. “The more I put into my education, the more I got out of it. I worked two jobs and sacrificed a semblance of a personal life, especially during the final eight or nine months before the book launch.” The Last Good Story was released June 13, 2011.

Kelley said that at times he felt as if he was “in charge of thirty different jobs. However, I have a great family and group

CCC Alum Publishes BookBy Christina Lupien, Staff Writer

of friends to take the pressure off, and without their help I would have never made it this far.” There were a lot of things that he needed to do to get Disasterpiece Press up off the ground, filing for LLC status, trademarks, copyrights, website design, P.O. boxes, advertising material, layout for the novel, just to name a few.

His book signing on February 18, 2012 had a great turnout, “especially for the month of February in Central New York. I am extremely thankful to Downtown Books and Coffee for allowing me the opportunity and for being so helpful in the process. I’m also very happy and thankful for everyone that turned out to lend support to a young business.” Kelley’s book is available on Amazon.com and at Downtown Books and Coffee.

Kelley is looking forward to the online release of his second book, Chalk Outlines. Kelley says that his second book is an experiment of sorts. It is a collection of retail experiences on “Black Friday” and throughout the holiday season. The stories are all told from the perspective of different employees in retail jobs. “The stories are first-hand tellings from war journalists who have become a bit shell-shocked by what they are witnessing.” It will be available as a digital download around May of this year from Disasterpiecepress.com for a low price and the proceeds from the online download will be put toward a limited hard copy run of the book that Kelley would like to see on bookshelves in November. “So, in a more direct way, the fans would be supporting the creation of a book they can hold in their hands and read, by downloading and spreading the word on the digital copy.”

Kelley attributes his interest in the world of literature to his grandmother and his father. “I had strong influences when it came to reading as a young child. I couldn’t get enough of it whether it be a Stephen King novel that was way above my current maturity level, or a stack of comic books that I would read over and over again. I loved how reading would take my imagination to different places.” He said that he had known immediately that he wanted to “tell stories that captivated others too. I was lucky to discover this at an early age and able to stick to the part of becoming a writer throughout the years.”

And to all of the inspiring writers out there, “You will make mistakes and suffer setbacks. It is your ability to adapt to the unexpected that will help you learn and grow as an artist, or a business person, if you choose to self-publish. Most impor-tantly, always continue to work hard even when it doesn’t appear to be paying off.”

The following commencement awards have an approaching applica-tion deadline. To be considered, stu-dents can obtain applications from the Financial Aid office in Auburn and Fulton, the Cayuga County Community College Foundation office in Auburn, or from the College website:

ACC/CCC ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Award: $500Awarded to a graduate who will be transferring to a four-year institution, having completed at least 62 credit hours while maintaining a 3.0 average at Cayuga. Applicants must meet eligibility criteria as per the application form. Application deadline is March 31 of the year in which the student plans to graduate. http://www.cayuga-cc.edu/pdf/commencement_awards/graduate_student.pdf

RUTH EDWARDS CARPENTER MEMORIAL Award: $8,000Awarded to a graduate who intends to continue his/her education at Syracuse University in the field of medicine or health related areas of study and who has demon-

strated academic excellence in his/her field. Application deadline is April 15 of the year in which a student plans to graduate. http://www.cayuga-cc.edu/pdf/commence-ment_awards/carpenter.pdf

MR. AND MRS. JOSEPH P. GANEY BUSINESS Award: $310Awarded to a graduating Cayuga County resident who has completed all requirements for a degree in Business Administration or Accounting, has been accepted at a four-year college or university, and has given evidence of participation in community service and/or work. Applica-tion deadline is May 1 of the year in which a student plans to graduate. http://www.cayuga-cc.edu/pdf/commence-ment_awards/ganey_business_award.pdf

THOMAS F. STEENBURGH MEMORIAL Award: $1,146Awarded to a graduate transferring to a four-year institution who demonstrates strong academic potential and who possesses and best exemplifies those special qualities that made Professor Steenburgh a charismatic teacher and individual, i.e., sense of humor, personal integrity, strong work ethic, and exuberance for life. Application deadline is April 15 of the year in which a student plans to graduate. http://www.cayuga-cc.edu/pdf/commencement_awards/steenburgh.pdf

Front: Matthew R. Kelley, Christina Hopkins (cover designer)Back: Kelley’s father, Robert Kelley, sister, Megan Kelley, and mother, Nancy KelleyPhoto taken by Lauren Pruitt