Pantaleo top adviser in her field

            Dawn Pantaleo is now the best in the nation at what she does.A computer information system instructor at KVCC full time

since the fall semester of 1997, she was named the faculty adviser of the year for student chapters of the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) at its 13th annual national collegiate conference in Memphis, Tenn.

While this year’s top honor was brought home by the adviser, KVCC students at past national conferences have collected their share of awards for website design, programming, artistic banners, and scores in certification exams in competitions in which most of the entrants are enrolled in four-year colleges and universities.

AITP, which has more 5,000 student members in about 300 college chapters across the country, is dedicated to advancing its members’ professional knowledge and careers in the field of information technology.

“The award is not always given at each annual conference,” says business instructor Rick Kraas, who serves as co-adviser of the KVCC chapter and who attended the Memphis event with 11 students and Dean Deborah Dawson, “because of the tough qualification standards.  This award has not been presented in three years.  One of the criterion is a demonstrated desire to enhance the professional development of the students in his/her charge.”

Pantaleo joined the KVCC information-technology faculty after about 15 years of instructing at Davenport College where she was also active in a AITP student chapter.  She earned a bachelor’s from Western Michigan University in 1979 and added a master’s in career and technical education from there in 1996.  She began teaching part time at KVCC in the 1995-96 academic year.

Some 9,000 systems analysts, programmers, network administrators and other professionals involved in computer occupations belong to the AITP across the nation.  It offers opportunities for information-technology (IT) leadership and education through partnerships with industry, government and academia. AITP provides quality education and information on relevant IT issues and convenes forums for networking with experienced peers and other professionals.

Among the KVCC students who attended the Memphis conference were David Barnes, Eric Vermillion, Val Cesario, Jim Strickland, Greg Ellinger, Gary Smith, Robert Holden, Robin Simpson, David Jones, Jason Kovacs, and Mason Monroe.

To help meet transportation costs, the KVCC chapter stages a raffle of such prizes as a desk-top computer, a lap-top computer, a palm pilot, a printer and a scanner. The chapter annually nets

between $1,200 and $2,200 in the fund-raiser.

      The Memphis conference attracted about 700 students and advisers from 75 colleges and universities.  Joining KVCC in the Michigan delegation were Central Michigan University, Ferris State University, and Michigan Technological University.            While Kraas and Dawson had a heads-up that Pantaleo was destined to receive the heralded award, the announcement caught her totally unaware.            “As the conference’s chairwoman was reading off the list of qualifications and criteria that are involved in making the award,” Kraas said, “Deb and Dawn were at their table.  Dawn made the comment that the award is really hard to receive because of the stringent qualifications.  She had no idea that the woman at the lectern was talking about her.  She was totally surprised when her name was announced, and quickly in tears.”

Sample ‘The Sins of Kalamazoo’ on Sunday

  As with any community of its size, Kalamazoo’s God-fearing

citizens were probably matched by a similar number of folks who didn’t fear hellfire and brimstone all that much, and their activities showed it.

“The Sins of Kalamazoo” is the April 6 subject in the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s “Sunday Series” of presentations about the history of Southwest Michigan.  At the “pulpit” in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater will be Tom Dietz, the museum’s curator.  His 1:30 p.m. program is free.

“Poet Carl Sandburg wrote metaphorically about ‘The Sins of Kalamazoo,’” Dietz said, “but this program examines the reality, the community’s pool halls, bars, gambling houses, and other entertainment outlets in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, and what local ‘reformers’ did to clean up these ‘sinful haunts.’”

In Sandburg’s 1922 poem, Dietz said, he describes the “sins” as “neither scarlet nor crimson.” Rather Sandburg seems “to critique Kalamazoo as a metaphor for the bland uniformity of urban American life.”            The first criminal case in Kalamazoo County in 1833 charged Mrs. Hannah Carpenter with adultery, according to Dietz’s research.  Kalamazoo County’s first murder occurred in Richland in 1837 over a dispute involving a fight between two dogs.

The 1853 “Arcadia War” over the ownership of Eleanor Street, several suspected arson fires in 1858, as well as the better-known series of arson fires that destroyed three downtown churches

in the late 1920s will also be topics in Dietz’s program. He will also discuss the “red light” district along the

Michigan Central Railroad east of downtown, the unsolved 1893 murder of butcher Lewis Schilling in his Portage Street meat market, and the dozens of saloons along Main Street known as “Saloon Row.”

Just as Sandburg saw Kalamazoo as typical of American cities, Dietz will show that Kalamazoo offered the same opportunities for “sinning” as any other city.

Dietz’s “Sunday Series” will wrap up the winter semester of programs with: ● “The Academy of Music” – April 20:  The community’s first “grand” performing-arts center was dedicated on May 6, 1882, and was eventually destroyed in a fire. 

For more information about the presentations, contact Dietz at 373-7990.

April 30 deadline for auto academy II

 The deadline to apply for KVCC’s second

Automotive Academy and its accelerated training model to provide the next generation of technicians for employment in the profession is April 30.            The inaugural 18-member academy, which convened in early September of 2007, is in the middle of its second phase of training and will conclude in August after some “in-the-shop” experience.

Among the selection criteria in the competitive process are the quality of the written applications, a “documented work ethic,” interest in and knowledge of automotive technology, letters of recommendation, and driving records. 

As part of the process, David “Charlie Fuller, KVCC’s director of career academies in advanced technology, and members of the automotive program’s advisory committee will interview each applicant.            The three-phase, 42-week approach to fast-track training has been requested by Southwest Michigan auto dealerships and automotive shops.            The fee for the second academy is $9,000 for more than 1,500 hours of intensive, targeted

professional instruction.  This includes uniforms valued at $300, $700 worth of textbooks, and $7,000 in high-tech tools that automotive technicians need to function.              “The automotive academy is like a job,” Fuller said. “We look for students who can make a full-time commitment, not somebody who will skip a class here and there.”            Beginning on Sept. 2, the enrollees will be in class or in the lab from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, and 8 to 2:30 on Fridays.            “For example,” Fuller said, “our regular introductory course in shop fundamentals spans 15 weeks and meets twice a week.  In the academy, it is done in eight consecutive class days.  In other words, don’t miss a class.”            Fuller said the KVCC academy rates as a bargain because similar programs across the country carry a price tag of $25,000 to $30,000, and many of those don’t include the tools offer. 

In the college’s regular auto-tech curriculum, the cost for a two-year degree is about $6,000, including books.  Students generally provide the basic tools, while more sophisticated equipment is available in the KVCC lab.              The thrust to create an automotive academy came from the advisory committee and the dealerships they represent, Fuller said.  “They wanted a fast-track training program and to offer another avenue for students interested in targeted instructions in this field.  They told us what we needed to teach students and they recommended lots of hands-on learning.”            After two busy phases of five-days-a-week training, the academy’s third stage comes into play, and even more reality enters the picture.            “Over the summer when our auto labs are generally not used,” Fuller said, “we’ll turn them into an authentic repair shop.  Students will learn about and practice customer relations, business skills, the process of ordering parts, communication skills, and preparing accurate estimates.”            In addition to working on the vehicles owned and operated by KVCC, the shop will be open to the public. 

            The only caveat is that the prospective customer is driving “a decent vehicle that has educational value,” Fuller said.             

Fuller said “the shop will be run like a business.  At the end of each day, the students will gather to learn whether they were productive and assess their efficiency.

If some kind of problem crops up, it’s back to the classroom to review procedures, the diagnoses, and what went wrong in the repairs.”

In addition to stressing the eight automotive-knowledge areas that are certified by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence and preparing students to reach those standards, the KVCC academy will explore advanced-technology and hybrid vehicles and alternative fuels because, in many instances, a different branch of knowledge is required. 

Auto-body repairs may also some day come into play, Fuller says.

Financial aid is available, and scholarship funds awardable through the Kalamazoo Promise also qualify for the KVCC Automotive Academy.

While the accelerated-training modules are non-credit entities, those who successfully complete the academy, which will be 100 percent directed toward automotive courses, can be eligible for 33 credits. 

Those can be applied toward a two-year degree (66 credit hours) by completing additional technical courses and passing classes in college and technical writing, technical math, political science, social science, and wellness/physical education.

Fuller can be contacted for more information at extension 4178.

Poet Ted Kooser talks wordsmithing craft

                  “Compared  to the dreary life of any star, flaring up to collapse into nothing, my life is rich with happenings.  For example, a bat like a small black rag has been fluttering back and forth through the yard light all evening, harvesting the stars of tiny moths, catching

one tiny star in its teeth with each pass.  They jerkily fly this way and that, but they can’t escape this hungry littlie piece of darkness.”            One could hardly believe that these thoughts and word pictures are the creation of a fellow who spent much of his career in life insurance.            But that’s part of the background of Ted Kooser, the next presenter in KVCC’s series of “About Writing” who served as the U. S. Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress from 2004 through 2006.

Poet/essayist Kooser, a professor of English at The University of Nebraska who has taught at least one course a year on the Lincoln campus for 38 years, will be on the KVCC campus Monday and Tuesday (April 7-8). 

Kooser will talk about his writing craft at 10 a.m. in the Student Commons Forum on that Monday and Tuesday and do a reading at 2 p.m. on Monday only  at 2 p.m. in the Student Commons Theater.  All three of the presentations are free and open to the public. 

Kooser’s writing is known for its clarity, precision and accessibility. He worked for many years in the life-insurance business, retiring in 1999 as a vice president.  He and his wife, Kathleen Rutledge, editor of The Lincoln Journal Star, live on acreage near the village of Garland, Neb., where Kooser is regarded as one of his state’s literary treasures.

The author of 11 full-length collections of poetry since the late 1960s, Kooser has been published in The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, Poetry, The Hudson Review, The Nation, The American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, and Antioch Review.  Kooser’s poems are included in textbooks and anthologies used in both secondary schools and college classrooms across the country.

Kooser has read his poetry for The Academy of American Poets in New York City as well as for many university audiences including those at the University of California at Berkeley, Cornell University, Case Western Reserve, The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, and Wesleyan University in Connecticut.  He’s also written plays, fiction, personal essays, and literary criticism.

His “The Poetry Home Repair Manual” offers beginning poets tips for their writing.  Currently he is editor and publisher of Windflower Press that specializes in the publication of contemporary poetry.

Born in Ames, Iowa, in 1939, Kooser earned a bachelor of science at Iowa State University in 1962 and a master of arts  at the University of Nebraska in 1968. He is a former vice president of the Lincoln Benefit Life, where he worked as an insurance representative for many years and was a “part-time poet.”

His topics are varied, from Valentine Day’s greetings to

women to two “geezers” playing checkers in a city park to a battered old beer bottle. 

In one of her columns in The Detroit Free Press, Susan Ager, herself an “About Writing” presenter at KVCC a few years back, said Kooser writes of “commonplace things.  Of a new potato.  Of celery hearts, on sale for 98 cents a pound.  Of an old couple splitting a restaurant sandwich.”

“Commonplace” can end up on uncommon ground as Kooser learned when named poet laureate of the United States – “a crown worn by the finest poets of our times,” Ager wrote – including Robert Frost.  In 2005, it merited a Pulitzer Prize.

The organizer of the “About Writing” series is English instructor Rob Haight who can be reached at extension 4452.

 

Let the siege begin!

             Three teams of students will be launching the mechanical sieges they designed and built at a castle in the hallway outside Room 4110 on the Texas Township Campus in the sixth annual “Mechanical Marathon” on Thursday, April 17, at 4:30 p.m.

Students in Mike Tyson’s capstone course combining machine design and computerized programming controls were assigned to build a self-propelled “siege machine” that had the task of assaulting a “castle” wall.            “The winning team’s machine will travel the farthest distance along the floor, stop at a ‘rampart,’ and then knock down at least one portion of the wall,” Tyson said.  “All of this will be done using the energy from a small compressed air tank and be directed by a programmed electronic controller.  Alas, poor Leonardo, if only you’d have had such students.”

With 18 years as an engineer in manufacturing to his credit, the KVCC drafting instructor believes he knows what that sector of industry looks for in its workforce.

That’s why over the last six years, he’s operated an integrated class that brings many of those highly regarded traits into the curriculum – innovative creativity, mechanical skills and talents, and one component that flashes back to the classic bit of dialogue in “Cool Hand Luke” – “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”

 “I wanted a project that would give students the complete manufacturing experience of the workplace,” Tyson said, “from brainstorming to project planning to designing to ordering raw materials to machining/fabricating the parts to final assembly.  And, of course, the ultimate step – whether it works or not.”

When Tyson first conceived the syllabus, he was a lone wolf.  “But it wasn’t too long before, as in real life, I realized I couldn’t do it alone,” said Tyson, who worked part of his private-sector life at Humphrey Products.  “That conclusion was the result of my experiences as an engineer in the field.”

His initial contract – and ultimate partner – was Bill Wangler, an electrical technology instructor who taught a KVCC course on controlling the sequencing and functions in computerized machines and equipment.  Like Tyson, Wangler had experience in the real world of industry and knew the importance of effective communications among those involved in the process.

Joining the team over the last three years has been Steve Walman, whose teaching load on the business faculty includes a course in organizational behavior. 

“Steve was brought into the equation because the students, as happens in the workforce, were being affected by communications issues hampering their progress,” Tyson said.  “They didn’t know how to deal with personalities, how to build teamwork and get the most out of a group.”

There are strategies and ways to design an effective team, and that was the role of Walman’s class – conduct a survey of Tyson’s students that identified personality traits, other behavioral factors, and specific talents.  Based on that data, the instructors forged the manufacturing teams, picking students who would complement each other and move the project forward.            Here’s how the “Mechanical Marathon” works:            “The students are given a mechanical problem or challenge,” Tyson said, “and they are allowed to use certain components, such as compressed-air cylinders and valves.  With those resources, they brainstorm on designing a machine that solves the problem.            “I try to change the challenge each year,” he said.  “The main objective is for the teams of students to come up with a truly innovative design.  I don’t want them to repeat what they’ve seen elsewhere by somebody on TV.  I want them to design something that they have never seen before.  I want them out of their normal boxes of thinking.”            For example, one challenge was to design a machine that could move across the floor.  The caveat?  No wheels allowed.  And not only that, but how far could it travel, using a certain size canister of compressed air.            In all, about 40 students in Walman’s classes conduct the surveys and inventory the personality data.  Fifteen in Wangler’s course in programmable controls meet with the mechanical-design teams to gather particulars on how the machines are supposed to function and what is required to control them, while Tyson assembles three or more teams of four students each to take the project home.

“This is not a scavenger hunt nor is it trial-and-error,” Tyson said. “Every part of the machines, other than threaded fasteners and pneumatic components, must be designed and fabricated by the students.  Many will be made of plastic on the rapid-prototype machine in our design lab.  Some will be made in the machine-tool lab by the students. 

“The students are not allowed to test the machines on the floor until one class before the race,” he said.  “This means that their design must be as complete and viable as they can possibly make it.  There is very little time to react to design errors.            “The students seem to like the experience,” Tyson said.  “They learn a lot, whether the machine works or doesn’t, whether it wins the competition or loses. 

After all, you learn more from a failure than you do a success.”            What many don’t realize is that their soft skills are being tested as much as their mechanical talents.            “It’s all about self-scheduling,” Tyson said.  “They set up their own timetables.  I don’t ride herd over them.  In industry, a team is told when to start a project and when it must be finished.  By doing this at KVCC, it makes the experience painfully realistic, especially if team members put things off and procrastinate. When crunch time arrives, so does stress and pressure, all of which could have been avoided by doing a little bit at a time.”            Another valuable lesson involves communication, or in this instance, miscommunication.

“It’s almost always a problem,” Tyson said.  “Members of some teams don’t always seem to be on the same page.  They don’t check up on each other in class or outside of class when a lot of the work needs to be done.”            The next generation of “Mechanical Marathon” – if Tyson has his way – will be to add accounting students to the mix so that inventory costs and building materials can be factored into the process.“I don’t know if anybody else is using this kind of instruction,” Tyson said.  “At least I haven’t found anything like it on the Internet.  If other schools do something like this, they start with a kit, not from scratch as we do.  I think it’s fairly new.”

   

KVCC’s ‘primary’ pitches are Tuesday

            Eleven former and current communications students at Kalamazoo Valley Community College will hit the campaign stump and give the role of presidential politics a try as part of a speech competition.            Organized by the KVCC communications faculty, the “Who Wants to Be Our Next President?” competition will culminate with public presentations on Tuesday (April 8) from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Student Commons Theater on the Texas Township Campus.  The top three finishers will share $600 in prize money.            Under the theme of “Political Communication,” the participants will identify the candidate of their choice, prepare a three-minute platform statement complete with a PowerPoint presentation, respond to questions from judges, and provide a one-minute closing statement.             The April 8 “nominating speeches” will be open to students, staff and the public.

“Student speakers will play the role of any one they think would make a great president, including themselves, the major-party or obscure-party candidates,” Conroy said.

The judges will be full- and part-time communications instructors. The prize money, including a $300 top award, comes from the student

organization of communications major supervised by instructor Bruce Punches.

The 11 finalists are James Anderson, Jeremy Searls, Crystal Bravo, Geoff Parker, Treasa Davidson, David Mann, Chelsie Fitt, JoVaughan Head, Jerome Hill, Max Koopsen and Sorina Dodu.  Dodu, a foreign-exchange student from the eastern European nation of Moravia, attended Gull Lake High School.

They will be judged on articulation, inflection, speaking rate, phrasing, eye contact, whether memorization is used in the delivery, the use of gestures, movement and posture, appearance, and the quality of the presentation’s content and PowerPoint.

Conroy says the students should be ready to respond to questions from the judges that could focus on:

● the issue of immigration in the United States. ● a manned mission to Mars.● a position of same-sex marriage.● an amendment to the Constitution defining marriage.● whether the U. S. government should establish a cabinet-level

Department of Peace.● the status of public education in the nation.● what the nation’s next step should be in Iraq and Afghanistan.● the state of race relations.● a position on universal health care.● a federal policy on global warming.● what should the nation do to restore the U. S. economy.● how to balance the national budget.● the overcrowding of prisons in the United States.

            Conroy, who will not be serving as one of the judges, has scheduled a trio of sessions in which the presidential presenters can seek advice on their pitches.  He can be contacted for more information at (269) 488-4675 or pconroy@kvcc.edu.

 

They’re coming!

From May 5 through Aug. 22, KVCC will be operating under “summer hours.”

On Monday through Thursday, the work week will be from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with a 30-minute break for lunch. 

And on Fridays during that period, the college will shut down at noon.  Work hours will be from 8 to noon with no lunch break.

Those operations of the colleges with special, evening and weekend hours - - facilities services, information technologies, the M-TEC, some offices, and the museum — will be adjusting their individual schedules to ensure coverage.

The KVCC Office of Human Resources reports that employees will

be paid for 40 hours on the job even though the work week will be reduced to 36 hours during that 16-week period.

The KVCC Cabinet reviews the summer-work schedule annually to determine whether core hours will be adjusted.

Publication schedule for The Digest

  With the arrival of summer hours, The Digest will begin its off-

season.  (No applause, please.)After the May 5 edition, it will no longer be published on a weekly

basis.  The collegewide publication will enter a twice-a-month format

through June and July, and into gear-up time for the fall semester in August.

Send all relevant (and irrelevant, for that matter) information to Tom Thinnes at tthinnes@kvcc.edu or call him at extension 4280.

The Digest editions are distributed on Fridays around noon via the VIP Workplace.

The “news and information” postings on the KVCC website (under “Campus Life and Activities”) will be kept fresh and up to date regarding college events and activities that are open to the public.

An out-of-this-world summer camp

  Youngsters who someday want to trek to the stars and explore “The

Final Frontier” can take part in a double-header summer camp at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum July 16-20.            Targeted for children ages 8 to 12, the “Space Explorers Morning Camp” and the “Junior Astronaut Afternoon Camp” will be hosted by the museum’s Challenger Learning Center.             Enrollment is limited to 30 in each camp.  The former will assemble from 8 a.m. to noon and the latter from 1 to 5 p.m.  The fee is $70 for one of the camps; $120 for both.

The space camps utilize math, science and technology in hands-on activities that emphasize communication and teamwork skills. 

All the activities are geared toward preparing campers for a full “Voyage to Mars” mission in the Challenger Learning Center that will take place on the last day of the weeklong camps.

The participants will be formed into teams devoted to gathering specific information about Mars.  They will research sites on the Internet to learn about features of the Martian environment and landscape, and how space exploration has helped scientists fill in the blanks about what is not

known about the planet. They will keep daily logbooks of each day’s accomplishments.

The Challenger Learning Center uses realistic scenarios of simulated adventures in space to demonstrate the practical applications of math and science.  Children can learn teamwork and communication skills as they perform duties aboard a “model” space vehicle and a mock NASA Mission Control installation. 

To register for the summer camps at the museum, call (269) 373-7965 or go to the museum’s website at www.kalamazoomuseum.org.

Arndt plays major role in Drive Safe Kalamazoo

                 What a KVCC instructor envisioned as a class project for his students at Western Michigan University to take a bite out of drunken-driving incidents has evolved into one of the few student-run organizations in Michigan, and been nominated for a 2008 STAR (Sharing Time and Resources) Award.            Communications instructor Jacob Arndt, who co-chaired last week’s Diversity Conference at KVCC, nominated Drive Safe Kalamazoo (DSK) for a STAR group award.  The annual salute to those who serve their communities is co-sponsored by The Kalamazoo Gazette and the Volunteer Center of Greater Kalamazoo.

“Drive Safe Kalamazoo started as a class project in the spring of 2002,” Arndt said.  “The initial idea had been to use taxi-cab services and reimburse them for their time.”

Some research took the student planners to a designated-driver organization based Texas A&M University called CARPOOL. With its guidance, along with suggestions from substance-abuse personnel, a hypothetical organization that five students developed as a class project became the WMU’ very own safe-ride program.

“We are now the only strictly student-run organization in the state of Michigan,” said Arndt, who serves as the DSK adviser, “and one of only 12 in the nation.”

The mission of Drive Safe Kalamazoo is to increase safety in the community by providing a free, nonjudgmental, safe-ride home for WMU students by their peers.

“We take calls every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.,: Arndt said.  “We then dispatch the location and destination of our patrons to our driver/passenger teams, and our teams then take them home. While we do not support the use of alcohol, we acknowledge that it exists in our community and we hope to eliminate any negative consequences that alcohol may generate.”            In the summer 2007, Arndt crafted a proposal that garnered a

$20,000 grant from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation.  The funds were used to bring new technology to DSK.

“We now run a completely paperless system,” Arndt said, “using a new program, designed specially for DSK, that takes the information and sends it directly to our phones. The phones are equipped with GPS navigation to keep our cars from getting lost.

“The apartment that we operate out of is donated rent-free by Westchester Woods apartments,” he said.  “The cars are paid for in part by Enterprise, which gives us 50 percent  off vehicle rental.  The Western Student Association covers the other half of the rental costs.”            Arndt assumed the duties of DSK adviser while a graduate student at WMU.  He was teaching part time at KVCC while finishing his degree at Western.

“I started an international nonprofit when I was in high school so I had a pretty good handle on how to run an organization such as this,” Arndt said.  “It was a good fit from the beginning.”

Scores of individuals and groups have been nominated for 2008 STAR Awards that will be announced at a breakfast ceremony on Thursday, May 1.

   

Employee-wellness assessments to end April 18

Linda Howard of Holtyn and Associates is conducting free wellness screenings and counseling through Friday, April 18, for full-time KVCC employees and their spouses who are both new to the college’s program or continuing participants.

While payoffs in the past have focused on one’s personal and individual health, it is now starting to pay off in the pay checks of employees.

The one-on-one appointments include a glucose analysis, an HDL and cholesterol evaluation, a blood-pressure check, a body-composition reading, an assessment of cardio-respiratory fitness, an overall health survey, an individual fitness assessment, and a personal consultation.

Here’s the remaining schedule for 20-minute appointments for health-risk assessments and wellness counseling slated for Room 6044 in the Student Commons near the entrance to the Wellness and Fitness Center on the Texas Township Campus:

Monday, April 14, and Tuesday, April 15 – both from 9 a.m. to 2:40 p.m.           

With all sessions to be held in Room 128 in Anna Whitten Hall on the Arcadia Commons Campus, appointments are available on:

Wednesday, April 16, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Thursday, April 17, and Friday, April 18 – both from 9 a.m. to 2:40 p.m.

The 20-minute screenings, which are not available during the lunch hour, can be done on work time.  For more information and to schedule an appointment, call Ruth Baker at extension 4492 between 8 a.m. and noon.  The other contact between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday is Blake Glass at extension 4177All full-time staff, faculty and administrators – and their spouses -- are encouraged to sign up for this college-sponsored program, even if previous screenings had not identified any health risks.

Participants should wear comfortable, loosely fitting clothing.  Short-sleeve tops are recommended.  Fasting is not required, but it is advised not to consume caffeinated beverages two hours prior to the assessment and to refrain from smoking.The testing is paid for by the college.

All participants must complete a health survey prior to their screening appointment. This can be done by going the Holtyn website, www.holtynhpc.com and following the step-by-step instructions.

 

Kane’s cleanup crew to be ‘On the Road Again’

            Are you appreciative of those litter-filled plastic bags you see along Michigan’s highways and freeways, and of the folks who give of their time to clean up after some people’s thoughtlessness?

You can turn appreciation into action by joining the KVCC Faculty Association in its participation in the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Adopt-A-Highway program.            Tim Kane, who can be reached at extension 4466, is gathering a cadre of volunteers to clean up a section of state road

on Saturday, April 19.  Instructors Lisa Winch and Jean Snow have signed on so

far.            Faculty, staff and students are invited to gather by 10 a.m. at the intersection of M-43 and M-40 west of Kalamazoo  in the car-pool lot, or to share a cup of joe around 9:30 in the Outpouring Coffee Shop. 

Kane is also organizing repeat missions on Friday, July 18, and Saturday, Sept. 20.             He reports that volunteers only need to bring a pair of gloves.  Trash bags and safety vests will be provided.            The faculty association has received a certificate of appreciation from M-DOT and Gov. Jennifer Granholm for its 2007 willingness to take part in the program whose motto is “Pitchin’ in for Pleasant Peninsulas.”

61st graduation is April 27

            The college’s 61st commencement ceremony is set for Sunday, April 27, in Miller Auditorium on the Western Michigan University campus.

Those who have been assigned specific roles for the event should report to the auditorium by 3 p.m., an hour before the program is to begin.

Among those faculty and staff members involved in the ritual are Carol Orr, Delynne Andres, Jean Snow, Helen Palleschi, Lois Baldwin, Al Moss, Terry Coburn, Pat Pojeta, Rick Garthe and Lisa Winch..

The faculty speaker will be English instructor Gloria Larrieu.

Chad Beimer, an automotive-technology  major from Richland, will speak for the graduates.

The diploma-day celebration will be telecast live by one of the Community Access Center’s five channels in the Charter lineup, and then rebroadcast three more times.   

The dates and times will be announced later. Also scheduled to make remarks is Jeff Patton, chairman

of the KVCC Board of Trustees.Providing the music will be the KVCC Choir, directed by

Michelle Bauman, and the KVCC Campus Band with conductor Chris Garrett.

Screening center joins forces with Lansing firm

  Boosting the drug-development prospects for

life-science companies by increasing the chemical diversity of the KVCC Michigan High Throughput Screening Center’s library of compounds is the result of a new collaboration.            Under the auspices of the seven-member Core Technology Alliance, AFID Therapeutics in Lansing is partnering with the screening center, based in the Michigan Technical Education Center (M-TEC) of KVCC.  That will provide the center with 3,500 additional novel compounds to expand its chemical inventory.            “Our mission,” said Rob Kilkuskie, senior director of the screening center, “is to provide access to state-of-the-art screening technology and expertise.  The collaboration with AFID allows us to expand the diversity of our compound library.  We believe this will greatly facilitate our clients’ drug-discovery research.”            “This is an important part of our strategy,” said AFID President Rawle Hollingsworth, “to use our chemistry to bring the many technical and intellectual assets of the pharmaceutical sciences we have here in Michigan to bear on the global industry in a way that benefits us all.”            “AFID’s proprietary compounds will add significant value to the center’s screens and thus to the scientific and pharmaceutical communities,” said Dean Wade, the firm’s vice president for business development, “while solidifying AFID as a premier supplier of new, advanced drug candidates and drug intermediates.”            The screening center, which accepts projects on a fee-for-service basis without intellectual-property requirements, expects that the AFID compounds can become novel “hits” in drug screenings, providing additional value to clients.

“We are always looking for ways to expand drug-discovery possibilities for our clients,” said Kathy Johnson, the screening center’s director of business development.  “The AFID compounds will expand our drug-discovery capability by providing advanced chemical entities and drug candidates that are generally not available elsewhere.

“The AFID compounds,” she said, “together

with the center’s existing library, assay development, and screening expertise, will provide substantial drug-discovery advantages without intellectual-property issues.  The collaboration will offer a richer compound library and screening solutions for clients, capabilities that are critical in drug development and research.”            High throughput screening describes the process in which researchers can relatively quickly narrow the field of possibilities in identifying drug compounds that might be likely prospects to fight a disease or cure an illness.  Like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack, this level of screening makes it much easier to find that needle.            KVCC’s screening center has been working with researchers across the United States who are probing for breakthroughs in cancer, malaria, a variety of infectious diseases, diabetes, inflammation, obesity, muscular dystrophy and Alzheimer’s.            The KVCC-AFID collaboration is being funded by a grant from the alliance, which is a network of advanced-technology service facilities located at major research institutions across Michigan. 

These fee-for-service laboratories support public and private biomedical research in genomics, proteomics, structural biology, animal models, bio-informatics, bio-imaging, antibody technology, and high-throughput screening.            In addition to KVCC, Core Technology Alliance members include the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids, Western Michigan University, and Grand Valley State University.            KVCC’s not-for-profit screening center and contract-research laboratory provides its services without licensing fees or royalties.  KVCC is the only community college in the nation providing these kinds of non-profit services, joining the ranks of Harvard University, the University of Wisconsin, Rutgers University, the University of Alabama, Stanford University and the University of Kansas in this category.            AFID Therapeutics defines and delivers

advanced chemical and biochemical technologies for use in the design, discovery, delivery and development of new drugs.The technology base utilizes the structural richness of carbohydrates to allow intervention and therapies across the disease spectrum.

Diseases include bacterial and viral infections, cancer, auto-immune disorders, cardiovascular disorders, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and other neurological maladies.  AFID’s chemistry is being used by more than 70 pharmaceutical and biotech companies around the world, and that list includes those in the top 10, according to Hollingsworth.

 

Foundation aids Success Center celebration

            An end-of-the-semester celebration – in an open-house sort of format -- for enrollees using the services of the Student Success Center to achieve their goals is scheduled for Tuesday, April 15, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.            Slated for the Lycium in the Student Commons, the celebration will honor students who have maintained a 3.0 grade-point average, who have reached their goals, and who have notched other achievements.            Including pizza, prizes and entertainment, the celebration for those involved in the Student Success Center initiative is being co-sponsored by the KVCC Foundation.  Those who want to take part should notify the center by Thursday (April 10) by calling 488-4040 or by e-mail – hcrites5486@kvcc.edu.            The center, which was featured in a March 15 article in The Kalamazoo Gazette and was the topic of a workshop at a national conference in Boston the previous month, operates under this mission:  “To discover the talents, develop the skills and determine the future of KVCC students by providing them the tools, resources and personal guidance necessary for their college and career success.”            Stated center director Laura Cosby:  “Critical to this mission is the reality that the center does not do all of these things for the students, but rather assists them – teaches them – how to gain the skills to better manage their own educational success through a process of discovery, development, guidance, support and accountability.”            The center’s student advocates and career advocates point them toward the services they might need – academic assistance and support, tutoring, job-preparation skills, career assessments, goal-setting, social

skills, wellness and nutrition, why they are at KVCC and what they want to accomplish.                The advocates deliver the message that somebody really cares for the students and wants them to succeed.              The center was launched in the winter semester in January of 2007 with 100 students.  About 16 advocates are now relating to 525 students at both campuses.              The advocates are the keys to a tracking system that monitors students, links them to the spectrum of KVCC resources, and keeps them on point to reach their goals, be it academic success to earn a degree, transfer to a four-year university, or enhance their ability to gain meaningful employment.            Some 203 students signed on with the center as freshman during the fall semester.  Eighty-five percent of those advanced to winter-semester classes, compared to 62 percent of the non-center-affiliated students.  That not only means more students are advancing toward a goal because of center intervention, but also that additional revenues are being generated for the college.

‘What It Takes to Be Successful?’

  The next “What It Takes to Be Successful” workshop will be

held in the Student Commons Theater from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday (April 8).

Among the topics to be covered are the dates and deadlines that are important to students in their pursuit of academic success. 

Also covered will be a review of “best practices” involved with transferring to a four-year school, completing a program of study, and preparing for graduation. 

For more information about this series, contact the Transfer Resource Center in Room 1364 at extension 4779.

The center is bringing Kristi Zimmerman of Davenport University to meet with students in the Texas Township Campus cafeteria about possible transfer on Tuesday (April 8) from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

   

M-TEC lead-safety seminar is this week

 Chinese-made toys have been garnering headlines recently because

of their lead content, but the U. S. construction industry and health officials have been coping with how to safely handle lead-based paint for

almost 30 years.            Funded by a grant from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, the city of Kalamazoo and the Kalamazoo County Department of Health and Community Services are sponsoring a seminar on “Lead-Safe Work Practices” at the M-TEC of KVCC in 2008.            The five-module seminar will be held on three dates: Tuesday (April 8), Sept. 25, and Nov. 18.  Each complete session will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for a fee of $30 that includes materials and food.  Another series is slated for 2009.            The “Lead-Safe Work Practices” seminar is targeted for:

● Building-code and housing inspectors.● Large and small contractors involved in the renovation,

repainting or remodeling of buildings, and who might encounter lead-based paint.

● Maintenance and custodial workers.● Building supervisors and landlords.● Staff members of state and local units of government.● Staff members of community and social-service organizations.● Do-it-yourself homeowners.● Students in the construction trades.Each seminar will cover these five topics:  “Why Should I Be

Concerned About Lead Dust?”; “Set Up Your Work Space to Contain Lead Dust”; “Safe Work Practices”; “Clean Up and Checking Your Work”; and “Planning the Job.”

At the end of each training session that will be conducted by Atrium Environmental Health and Safety Services of Reston, Va., attendees may take a 25-question exam to gain a certificate for course completion.

The federal EPA, in conjunction with the National Paint and Coatings Association, launched this initiative because many homes and buildings constructed prior to 1978 featured lead-based paints.

Thus, those involved in the renovation, remodeling and repair of such structures – both externally and internally – should be aware of methods that reduce and control dust and debris generated by their work because even a small amount of dust can pose a health risk.

For more information, visit the M-TEC of KVCC’s website at www.mteckvcc.com and click on “Training.”  Registration can be done online or by calling the M-TEC at (269) 353-1253.

 

Primo percussionist to entertain at museum

 The Kalamazoo Valley Museum's programs of entertainment for pre-

schoolers and families will end its winter-semester series on Saturday (April 5) with percussionist Carolyn Koebel.

She will conduct a hands-on workshop, and demonstrate the values of music education and music therapy in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater on the museum’s first floor.

The 10 a.m. attraction is designed for pre-schoolers while the for-family booking begins at 1 p.m. Both have $3 admission fees.

Koebel, who plays the drums, vibes, dulcimer and other percussion instruments for Blue Dahlia, has been exploring drumming and rhythm for a quarter of a century.

Her passion has taken her to some of the best instructors in the world.  She is skilled in the techniques and style of West African, Afro-Cuban, American jazz, Brazilian, Arabic and classic drumming.

In her performances with Blue Dahlia, Koebel uses a full range of instruments – a drum set, vibraphone, hammered dulcimer, pots, pans, and various hand-drums from across the globe.

She has served as principal percussionist with the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra, including the performance of a percussion concerto. She tours regionally and internationally with Grammy-winning flutist Rhonda Larson, among others.

Koebel was the music director of the Michigan State University Department of Theater’s production of “Waterworks:  Tales of the Hydrasphere.” 

With a keen interest in rhythm-based healing, she works as a music therapist in schools for children with special needs.  The recipient of a master’s degree in music therapy from MSU, she was one of the key presenters at the 2005 Michigan Music Therapists conference.

“These performances are great events to bring a group,” said Annette Hoppenworth, the museum’s coordinator for these kinds of programs.  “An unlimited number of tickets can be purchased in advance.” 

More information about events, attractions and tickets is available by checking the museum’s web site at www.kalamazoomuseum.org or by calling 373-7990.  Seating is limited in the Stryker Theater.

 

‘Enemy’ seeks friendly audience in Lake

 With a cast of – well, maybe not thousands, but still quite a few

folks – instructor Rick Bridges and his acting troupe will be performing an

abridged version of Henrik Ibsen’s “Enemy of the People” on four upcoming dates.

The Rockhill Free Theatre Drama Club’s stagings are slated for the Friday-Saturday dates of April 4 and 5 and April 11 and 12 in the Dale Lake Auditorium. Each is free and open to the public.  The curtain goes up at 7 p.m.

“Our audiences should bear in mind that ‘Enemy of the People’ was written and produced in 1882 in Norway,” the language instructor said, “and thereafter performed in the late-19th and early-20th centuries throughout the rest of the developing world.

“Some 125 years ago,” he said, “it spoke about environmental degradation, insider trading, government cover-ups, media manipulation, influence peddling, fear mongering and mob psychology.”

All that should sound familiar to today’s audiences, and “resonate powerfully,” he said, while trumpeting that “old, dog-eared axiom – those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it.”

Documentarian Ken Burns, who has given TV audiences the grassroots-level stories of the Civil War, World War II, and so many other milestone-events in U. S. history, says it this way:  “History repeats itself because each generation refuses to read the minutes of the last meeting.”

Under the direction of Anna Barnhart, the cast of KVCC and Western Michigan University students includes Benjimin Frank, Judith Stoneburner, Jessica Zwalua, Marshall Burns, Andrew Bryant, Blair Makinney, Jacob Lisak, Michael Grigsby, Garrett Corlett, Jerry Barrett, Bridges and anybody else who wants to take part in a mob/riot scene.

“We may carry it over if we manage to be blessed with an audience,” Bridges said.

 

Major Bosnian city mirrors nation’s ills

            A visiting professor at the University of Michigan will offer her insights about the history of Bosnia through the eyes of one of its major cities as part of a three-segment series on countries of the world.           

Organized by KVCC’s program in international studies, the series opens Wednesday (April 9) at 12:30 p.m. in Room 4380 on the Texas Township Campus with “Fragmented City:  History of Bosnia Through the History of Banjaluka.” 

The presenter will be Nevena Cebic, a professor of architecture and urban studies who is visiting the University of Michigan Russian and East

European Center.            

A day earlier, on Tuesday (April 8), Theo Sypris, who heads the KVCC program, will talk about his impressions of China at 11 a.m. in the same location.  Sypris will offer his perspectives about Russia on Monday, April 14, at 12:30 p.m., also in Room 4380.All three are free and open to the public.           

Banjaluka is Bosnia’s second-largest city in the northwest sector of the nation.  It is among the largest Serbian cities in the world, and, prior to the fighting and incivility, was well-known in the former Yugoslavia for being full of tree-lined avenues, gardens, and parks.

Its history can be traced to a substantial  Roman presence during the first few centuries AD. Slavs settled the area in the 7th century, although the exact nature of their migrations remains something of a mystery. One of the first public structures was a Franciscan monastery built in 1378.

Between 1566 and 1574, one of the founders of the town core launched more than 200 projects ranging from artisan and sales shops to wheat warehouses, baths and mosques.  In the construction of mosques, a plumbing infrastructure was laid that served surrounding residential areas. All this stimulated economic and urban development, making it one of the leading commercial and political centers in Bosnia.

In 1688 the city was set to the torch by an Austrian army, but it quickly recovered. Later periodic intrusions by the Austrian army stimulated military developments that made it into a strategic defense center.  

In the 19th century, other religious ethnic groups migrated to the city, which contributed to the early industrialization of the region through the building of mills, breweries, brick factories, textile factories and other important structures. 

At the turn of 20th century during the Ottoman rule in Bosnia, Banjaluka began to take on its current trappings and appearance as a modern city. The Austrian occupation had brought westernization with railroads, schools, factories, and infrastructure. 

After World War I, it became the capital of a province in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.During World War II, Banjaluka was occupied by a mostly Nazi regime. Most of noble Serbian and Jewish families were deported to nearby concentration death camps. 

A 1969 earthquake devastated the community.  Much of the old city center with  small buildings and shops from Austrian-Hungarian and Ottoman

periods were damaged beyond repair and razed. Serbs in very large numbers moved there  from surrounding counties and villages, taking over everything.

The city underwent considerable changes during the Yugoslav wars. Upon the declaration of Bosnian-Herzegovinian independence, Banjaluka became the de-facto center of the entity's politics, and in 2003 it officially became the capital of the Republic of  Srpska.

Under auspices of Republika Srpska authorities, some of whom were compared to the Nazi occupationists during World War II, the non-Serb population was ethnically cleansed from the city.  Croats and Bosniaks were taken to nearby concentration camps  Serbs destroyed mosques and Roman Catholic churches.

Although Banjaluka never was involved in direct war, people who had other names than Serbian were killed, according to news reports, or fled to safe havens.            

Today’s population is estimated about 300,000 in the metropolitan area, and there is little doubt that Serbs make up an overwhelming majority in the city, as much as 96 percent.

 

Two college tours remain

              Faculty are asked to advise their students about the opportunity to visit the campuses of four-year universities around Michigan to gauge whether they intend to continue their students there.            Those interested in transferring should contact KVCC’s Transfer Resource Center in Room 1364 on the Texas Township Campus and register to take part in any of the tours.              Prospective tourists can also call the center at extension 4779 to determine whether they can meet the criteria to participate, to meet admissions representatives, visit dorms and other campus facilities, and to learn about financial-aid opportunities.   

● Columbia College in Chicago – Wednesday (April 9)● Eastern Michigan University – Friday (April 11)         Students must register for the trips because certain criteria must

be met.

Student art show opens April 14

KVCC students will be showcasing their best efforts in

calligraphy, drawing, oil and acrylic paintings, watercolors, mixed media, ceramics, sculpture, in black-and-white, color and alternative-process photography, and digital graphics at the college’s annual juried art show on the Texas Township Campus this month.

The 2008 Student Art Show will open for public viewing in the Student Commons Forum on Monday, April 14, and conclude the following Friday. 

An opening reception to meet the artists is slated for that Monday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Artists can invited friends and family to the event. Awards will be announced at 7 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

The deadline to enter is Wednesday (April 9).  Students should drop off their entries in the Forum between the hours of 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. that day.  To be eligible, a KVCC student must have been enrolled in courses from August of 2006 through April of 2008.

They will be vying for $1,200 in prizes for best-of-show, and for first-place, second-place and honorable-mention selections in each category.  Faculty will also be choosing recipients of merit awards for students who have demonstrated growth in ceramics, photography and two-dimensional art.

Serving as the show’s juror will be Michael Northrop, who specializes in painting techniques of the Baroque masters, but also does printmaking, mosaics, egg tempera, frescos and stained glass.  He has studied lithographic techniques at the University of New Mexico and painting conservation/restoration in Florence, Italy.

Northrop earned a degree in vocal and instrumental music from Olivet College and a master’s in fine art from Western Michigan University.  He is currently a full-time instructor of art and humanities at Glen Oaks Community College.  Another of his specialties as a former minister is the creation of paintings, sculptures, and stained glass with theological and religious themes.

Guideline sheets for entries can be picked up from any art or Center for New Media instructor.  Each piece to be entered must have its own entry form.  A student is limited to two entries for the 2008 show.

Viewing hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, and 10 a.m. to noon on Friday, the final day.

For more information, contact Francis Granzotto at extension 4373 or at fgranzotto@kvcc.edu.

Beautiful sounds from the 88s

             A recital by Western Michigan University pianists will be hosted by KVCC on Wednesday (April 9).            Arranged by Chris Garrett and the KVCC Music Department, the students of WMU professor Silvia Roederer will perform at 7 p.m.

in Dale Lake Auditorium.The performance is free and open to the public. 

Curb spending, avoid debt, parenting next workshops

 There is more to success at the college level than what happens in the classroom and how well a student does.

Other factors can play a role in whether college ends up as a satisfactory experience.  With that in mind, the Student Success Center is presenting a series of workshops during the winter semester to focus on the barriers to success and what resources are available to help students make their way.

The free sessions are being held in the Student Commons. All students are welcome.

Refreshments are part of the attraction to learn about life resources and how to avoid the every-day barriers that can negatively impact on academic success.

Here’s the schedule:

“Psychology of Buying” on Tuesday (April 8) at 1 p.m.  Chris Palmer of GreenPath Debt Solutions will explore the psychology of spending, which, when fully understood, will be valuable in overcoming the urge to splurge.

“Parenting 101” on Wednesday (April 9) at noon.  KVCC counselor Chris Stroven will talk about the role of discipline, rode modeling and nurturing relationships in the raising of children.  This session is booked for Room 4370 on the Texas Township Campus.

“Yes! Your Life (Estate) Matters” on Monday, April 21, at 12:30 p.m.  Kalamazoo attorney Danielle Redmond Street, whose commentaries are featured each week on WKZO radio during the Lori Moore Show, will talk about the importance for families to have wills, trusts and power of attorney.  This presentation is set for the Student Commons Theater.

For more information, call Pamela Siegfried at extension 4825 or Diane Vandenberg at extension 4755.

On a mission for a G. I. Joe

                  The Kalamazoo Valley Museum is still in the market for “contemporary” artifacts to use in exhibits that demonstrate what life in Southwest Michigan was like in the 1960s and into the 1990s.            Two recent hunts have ended in “trophies” – a used cell phone in good condition and a 1960s-vintage “Princess” telephone.

Still out there to be located is a G. I. Joe from the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Paula Metzner at the museum can be contacted at extension 7958 or at pmetzner@kvcc.edu.  You can also ask her about other “needs.”

China: Where it is, where it’s headed

            A KVCC faculty member who spent more than four weeks in China in the summer of 2005 will offer perspectives on his experiences on Tuesday (April 8) on the Texas Township Campus.

As part of the annual series of presentations by the KVCC International Studies Program, instructor Theo Sypris, who heads the KVCC International Education Program while teaching courses in economics and political science, will share his observations from 11 a.m. to noon in Room 4380. 

A visiting professor at the University of Michigan will offer her insights about the history of Bosnia through the eyes of one of its major cities as part of the three-segment series on countries of the world.  That session is set for Wednesday (April 9) at 12:30 p.m. -- also in Room 4380 on the Texas Township Campus -- with “Fragmented City:  History of Bosnia Through the History of Banjaluka.” 

The presenter will be Nevena Cebic, a professor of architecture and urban studies who is visiting the University of Michigan Russian and East European Center.            

To wrap up the winter-semester series, Sypris will offer his perspectives about Russia on Monday, April 14, at 12:30 p.m., also in Room 4380.

All three are free and open to the public.

Sypris and art instructor Arleigh Smyrnios were part of a 22-person

contingent that was able to experience China through the U.S. Department of Education’s Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad initiative. The 30-day trip featured lectures and workshops, as well as visits to universities, colleges, businesses, government agencies, archeological and geographical sites, temples and cities/villages.

The itinerary included Beijing, Tianjin, Xian, Kunming, Guilin, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Suzhou.  

Among the topics that were covered in the dialogues were education reform, the community movement in China, religions in China and their traditions, Sino-American relations, East-West connections, the silk industry and its history,  China’s approaches to economic development, the Chinese-Moslem connection, minorities in Chinese culture and history, Sino teaching and learning strategies, education collaborations between China and the United States, and Chinese vocational schools and how they compare to America’s community colleges.           

The instructors visited Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Yangtze River, the Great Wall, the Ming Tomb, the Museum of Terra Cotta Warriors, the Provincial Historical Museum, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the Jade Buddhist Temple, the Great Mosque of Xian, horticultural gardens, the Stone Forest, the Reed Flute Cave, the People’s Square, the Shanghai Museum, Elephant Trunk Hills, the tombs of Sun Yat-Sen and the Ming Dynasty, the Shanghai Stock Exchange and a tour of China’s largest city, the Yu Garden, Shanghai’s major economic-development zone, and 5,000-year-old remnants of one of the earliest civilized places on the planet. 

 The project was organized by the KVCC-based Midwest Institute for International/Intercultural Education, which received the $62,000 federal grant. It supported the instructors in their research to develop curriculum and course content related to China for their classes. 

Cumulatively, 16 participating colleges contributed $25,000 for their instructors to gain a better awareness of the largest nation on Earth.

Sypris has headed KVCC’s International Studies Program since 1990 and spearheaded the development of the Midwest Institute, which seeks to infuse components of international education into courses in all fields and disciplines.  More than 50 community colleges in the Midwest are involved.  He guided a similar Fulbright-Hays excursion to Vietnam in the summer of 2002. 

Frank Lloyd Wright is documentary topic

 The showing of Ken Burns’ documentary about the life and times of architect Frank Lloyd Wright is complementing the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s current nationally touring exhibition about the wonders and miracles of building complicated edifices.

The Sunday documentary series in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater is profiling some of the planet’s most amazing engineering and architectural projects.

Set for April 13 is “Frank Lloyd Wright,” part one of the film produced by Burns and spouse Lynn Novick  The second half is set for April 27.

The episodes will be shown at 1:30 p.m. in the Stryker Theater.

The last documentary on May 11 is  “Echoes from the White House:  Celebrating the Bicentennial of America’s Mansion.”           

The showings are free, as is admittance to the museum to see “Raise the Roof” that is on display through June 1 in the Havirmill Special Exhibition Gallery on the museum’s third floor.           

Wright, who died in 1959 at the age of 92, was primarily based in the Chicago area during his architectural career.  Designated in 1991 as “the greatest American architect of all time,” Wright and his creative designs have a place in the Kalamazoo area’s history as well.  Several residences and commercial structures have his touch.

“Raise the Roof” probes the secrets, surprises, science and extraordinary engineering feats that have produced amazing buildings around the world. Visitors can travel to great heights and distant ages to investigate the foundations of architecture and engineering.

They can step over the threshold of an authentic Mongolian house,  climb to the top of a skyscraper under construction, learn building secrets from a 9,000-year-old city, watch mighty buildings crumble, and raise the roof of a dome.

They can enter a full-scale “ger” (pronounced “care”), a circular tent of lattice, poles, fabric and rawhide invented by nomadic Mongolians. The ger is known in this country by the name of its Turkish relative,

the yurt. 

Elegant and energy-efficient, one can be erected in one day, but cooperation is needed. These days, the ancient structures are gaining popularity as homes, cabins, and offices.

Near the ger in the exhibition, visitors can explore the secrets of the mud-brick ruins of Çatalhöyük (pronounced Chat-tahl-hu-yook), believed to be the world's oldest city.

Excavations at the 9,000-year-old site located near Ankara, Turkey, began in the 1960s but were stopped because of the technical inability at that time to adequately preserve the findings.

The dig was restarted in 1993 with a plan to continue for 25 years.Archaeologists believe the ancient city covered an area the size of 50 soccer fields.  They are studying the site to learn more about the Neolithic Period, or new Stone Age, when people began abandoning hunter-gatherer lifestyles to settle in communities, grow crops, and raise animals.

For thousands of years, people have pretty much agreed that a building with a dome, such as the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome or the U. S. Capitol, marks an important structure. A dome creates a soaring space on the inside, and an impressive sight on the outside.

In the “Collapsible Dome” section of “Raise the Roof,” visitors can turn a flat roof into a dome right over their heads, and find out how domes have been engineered through time.

Lots of engineering know-how goes into making a building reach for the sky.  The 3-D "View From the Top” lets people look down the side of a skyscraper from 40 stories up. In the skyscraper section of the exhibition, visitors can build block towers, make trusses to withstand the forces of tension and compression, and test the response of different buildings to various earthquake frequencies. 

Another demonstration shows how tall buildings are kept from swaying too much in strong winds. “Raise the Roof’s” Demolition Theater showcases the explosive work of the famous Loizeaux family that own and operate Controlled Demolition Inc., the world's largest organization of demolition experts.

Dangerous conditions that can lead to carbon-monoxide poisoning in homes are explored in the "Downdraft House," a doll-house-sized model outfitted with airflow indicators, a working furnace, and

operating doors and vents.

"Meet the Mites" shows how infinitesimal numbers of creatures live in all homes and buildings all of the time.Several “story corners” tell the tales of some very unusual buildings.

One is the Winchester House in San Jose, Calif., that was built by the heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune.In response to a psychic’s warning that the ghosts of those killed by the famous rifles would haunt her unless she built day and night, Sarah Winchester constructed a six-acre house filled with twisting stairways and blocked passages to confuse angry spirits.

The coolest hotel in the world is the Ice Hotel built every year in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden. Rooms, chandeliers, and even glasses in the bar are made entirely of ice. The building’s temperature is a chilly 35 degrees from November until April, when the whole thing melts.

Other highlights include "Timber!" where visitors can  assemble ingenious wooden joints held together without nails, and "Listening to the Walls," an activity drawn from interviews with blind and visually impaired people who navigate through buildings using their sense of sound.

   

Hoops on wheels at KVCC April 19

 Basketball on wheels will be the attraction at the KVCC gymnasium on Saturday, April 19, at 2 p.m.

The two-hour game between the Kentwood Rollers and the Fort Wayne Bandits will be free and open to the public, as will the halftime entertainment – a wheelchair game between co-ed teams of KVCC and Western Michigan University athletes.  The co-captains of the Cougars on wheels will be Tim Hiller and Brendon Birchmeier.

Donations to support the Disability Network of Southwest Michigan are welcome, while local businesses are helping to support the event.

For more information, call (269) 345-1516 or visit this website:  www.drccil.org.  Another contact is Samantha Neesley at

Samantha.r.neesley@wmich.edu.

The Rollers and the Bandits are Division III teams in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association.

And finally. . .

 Only in America -- do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in America -- do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and    a diet coke.Only in America -- do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to  the counters.

Only in America -- do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

Only in America -- do we buy hot dogs in packages of 10 and buns in packages of eight.

Only in America -- do we use the word “politics” to describe the process so well: “Poli” in Latin meaning “many” and “tics” meaning “blood-sucking creatures.”

Only in America -- do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

Why is it that doctors call what they do “practice?”

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?  

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?

If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

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