Following the sage words of actor Will Smith; “Your life will become better by making other lives better.” MVCC’s Student Congress took these words to heart in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes in Nepal.

Student Congress rallied the student clubs and organizations to organize a raffle sale over a three-week period. This raffle included items including an Apple iPad Air with case and gift cards to Dunkin Donuts, Marquee Cinemas, Applebee’s, Panera Bread, Outback Steakhouse, Uno’s, Olive Garden, Teddy’s Restaurant, The Savoy, Citgo, Sodexo and more.

In addition to the funds raised through the relief raffle, the following clubs donat-ed their remaining fund balances to sup-port the Nepal Earthquake Relief effort: Future Engineers Club, Hiking Club, Inter-national Club, Paranormal Investigators Club, Photography Club, Program Board, and Rome Student Activities Association.

The final total was $8,485.83. This was the largest amount ever raised by Student Congress in any raffle they have held. All proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross.

“Thank you to everyone who helped with the raffle and also generously do-nated to help the people of Nepal,” said McLane Tyoe, MVCC Student Congress Treasurer.

Week of May 11, 2015

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Students rally to help Nepal

HELPING HANDS ACROSS THE WORLD – MVCC’s Student Congress joined forces with the College’s clubs and organizations to raise money for relief efforts of those affected by the earthquakes in Nepal. The students sold raffle tickets over a three-week period and to raise $8,485.83. The money was turned over to the American Red Cross for the relief efforts. Seen here are Joseph B. DeFina, Board Chair of the Mohawk Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, and McLane Tyoe, Treasurer for MVCC Student Congress.

Raise more than $8,000 for quakerelief efforts

Christina Carambia, a student at the Rome Campus of MVCC, competed in the statewide business plan competition held at SUNY Polytechnic Institute Col-lege of Nanoscale Science and Engineer-ing in Albany on April 24.

Carambia placed third in the Energy/Sustainability track. There were twelve competitors in this track and she bested teams from large schools such as Cornell University, Syracuse University, Roches-ter Institute of Technology and West Point Military Academy.

Carambia’s unique business idea is to grow fresh, organic produce year around in underground facilities. Her business, named Underground Greens, will be

centered in Rome, N.Y., in a 40,000 square foot building with a potential of 45 employees when fully operational. She began her business plan development in a Principles of Entrepreneurship course at MVCC.

This spring, she entered the business plan competition at the regional level at SUNY Poly in Marcy. More than 500 student teams from over 65 colleges and universities throughout the state com-peted in the ten economic development regions in the state. The regional compe-tition was held on April 10, at SUNY Poly. Carambia placed in her track there and earned the right to advance to the state competition.

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for Communitas torhaubert@mvcc.edu

Business student hits top three

“I understand Achieving the Dream’s purpose and principles … but what will it do?”

That statement and question have been heard often in recent months, and the ATD Core and Data Teams are now ready with an answer: ATD’s first year will address students’ capacity to use technology and read effectively.

After months of engaging with data, students, and faculty from across MVCC, the 29 members of the Data and Core teams have identified these topics as the two priority areas for the 2015-16 ATD implementation plan. ATD leadership are currently inviting nominations for implementation teams that will create detailed plans for addressing these topics next year.

Throughout the 2014-15 planning year, the teams reviewed data to find that in “gateway” courses HI101, CJ101, and PY101, low-income students’ success rates are as much as 20 percent lower than non-low-income students’ success rates. Focus groups with low-income students revealed that difficulty with technology and reading were the most significant reasons for this.

The Data Team found that success rate gaps in these courses account for as many as 200 unsuccessful low-income students every year—an important indicator of the overall MVCC gap between low-income and non-low income students. MVCC’s low-income students overall graduate at a 17 percent rate as com-pared to MVCC’s overall graduation rate of 22 percent.

MVCC’s ATD implementation plan calls for addressing tech-nology and reading in the gateway courses first. These inter-ventions are expected to help both low-income and non-low-in-come students in these courses. Longer-term MVCC will bring successful interventions to scale college-wide if they improve student outcomes in the courses where they are piloted.

This summer, two large implementation teams of faculty and staff will design measures to heighten students’ access to and success with technology; and to provide students with tools to

promote comprehension and appropriate use of college-level reading.

The implementation teams are being as-sembled at this time, and will include representa-tive stakeholders from across the college. Their role will be to identify what additional data are needed to design the implementation, narrow down the initiatives into prioritized action steps,

and design assessments to show whether the actions are suc-cessful or not.

To nominate yourself or a colleague to serve on the technol-ogy or reading implementation teams, contact Core Team tri-chair Jill Heintz as soon as possible. Team members will be named the week of May 18. Ten-month employees on the teams will be compensated for ATD work over the summer.

The plans will be com-pleted this summer and will be implemented with the beginning of the Fall 2015 semester.

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More than 800 people have been asked to complete the climate survey for 2015.

Did You Know?

When it comes to keeping students on track for completion of their degrees or certificates, a big believer in students is Dawson McDermott in the Advisement Center as he helps them discover the right path to a successful future.

McDermott was recently honored for his 15 years of ser-vice to the students as the College’s Coordinator of Academic Advisement. His work with students was recognized in 2013 when the team of McDermott, Justin Rahn, Carla Zupancic, and Tracy Coulson were presented the Eye of the Hawk Award. This annual award recognizes outstanding achievement in the area of outcomes assessment on the part of an individual fac-ulty or staff member or group of faculty or staff members.

McDermott is very active outside of his professional duties as he is a College Senator as well as a member of the Financial Appeals Committee, Disciplinary Appeals Committee, College Senate Advisory Board, and SDWT for Degree Works Academ-ic Planner. He also serves on the A-Proc Committee and Middle States Accreditation Work Group for Mission/Integrity.

In the Professional Association (PA), he sits on the commit-tees for Career Appointment for Non-Teaching Professional, PA Grievance Chairperson, PA negotiations team member, and PA Executive Board.

In the past he has been a member of the Promotion Review Task Force for Non-Teaching Professionals, the Dining Servic-es Advisory Board, recorder for Academic Complaints Commit-tee (2007-2009), former Student Nursing Organization advi-sor, Academic Probation Advisor, and Team Host for Holyoke

Honoring Employees for Years of Service

Community College at MVCC for NJCAA National Tournament in 2008.

In the classroom, McDermott is an adjunct teaching psychol-ogy courses both on campus and online, College Seminar, and acts as a liaison for the Center for Arts and Humanities.

ATD Team selects reading, technology as initial projects

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Much of the credit for MVCC being one of the top-ranked community colleges for academics in New York State goes to faculty such as Ronald M. Labuz, Ph.D. Dr. Labuz achieved a major recognition milestone as one of the best this week when the The State University of New York Board of Trustees named him as the 2015 Distinguished Teaching Professor-ship Award recipient.

Dr. Labuz is the first MVCC employee to earn this promotion in faculty rank, which is the highest honor SUNY be-stows on faculty. Labuz is a professor of graphic design whose career has spanned more than three decades of inspired teaching. He is committed to en-gaging students in creative, experiential, project-based learning. A full professor since 1991, Dr. Labuz expertly teaches a myriad of courses, and compassionately mentors former and current students within the Graphic Arts program, which he serves as coordinator.

The Distinguished Teaching Professor-ship recognizes and honors mastery of teaching. For this prestigious tribute to be conferred, candidates must have demon-strated consistently superior mastery of teaching, outstanding service to students, and commitment to their ongoing intel-lectual growth, scholarship and profes-sional growth, and adherence to rigorous

academic standards and requirements. Further, a faculty member must have at-tained and held the rank of full professor for five years, have completed at least three years of full-time teaching on the nominating campus, 10 years of full-time teaching in the SUNY system, and must have regularly carried a full-time teaching load as defined by the campus.

Labuz led the total redesign of the art program and serves as a teaching fellow in MVCC’s New Faculty Institute. He currently serves on 16 separate college-wide committees as well as the Faculty Council of Community Colleges.

He is the recipient of Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Professional Service, Faculty Service, and Scholar-ship and Creative Activities. He has published 15 books, including Faces of the Mohawk Valley which features MVCC students. He has the heart of a teacher, and the testimonials of countless stu-dents and colleagues spanning 34 years who powerfully attest to this.

SUNY Board Chairman H. Carl Mc-Call said, “One of the highest honors we have as a Board of Trustees is to recog-nize SUNY’s leading faculty with one of our distinguished faculty rankings. They are innovators and trailblazers in their chosen field, teaching and mentoring students while advancing groundbreak-

ing research and discovery in New York’s communities as well as world-wide.”

Since the program’s inception in 1963, SUNY has appointed 1,023 faculty to the distinguished ranks.

“The SUNY distinguished faculty bring students the best of SUNY – qual-ity teaching and instruction, innovative research opportunities, and engaging community service,” said SUNY Chancel-lor Nancy L. Zimpher.

Labuz awarded Distinguished Teaching Professorship

MVCC hosted the “iam idecide” Con-vention in the Schafer Theater on Friday, May, 1, on the Utica Campus. With the theater at near-full capacity, and speak-ing to an audience of over 300 people, the program delivered a powerful mes-sage about informed decision making as the bedrock of personal power.

Students, faculty, and community mem-bers enjoyed videotaped segments of very personal stories told by students at the college. In these segments, students explained how their understanding of the tenets of the iam idecide philoso-phy - which include managing negative self-talk and understanding motivation - has impacted them and how that under-standing has helped to support both their academic and personal success.

With a focus on meeting the needs of local residents, the convention also served as a collection site for canned and non-per-ishable food for two local food programs. More than 12 boxes of food were collected and delivered to the Utica Rescue Mission and Rome’s Loaves and Fishes programs to help feed those in need.

Students learn the value of their decisions

MAKING PEOPLE REALIZE THE IMPACT OF THEIR DECISIONS – Nivia Cavic, Ph.D., organized and hosted the inaugural “iam idecide” Convention in the Schafer Theater on the Utica Campus. Dr. Cavic, who is an instructor of psychology at the College, presented video-taped testimonials on the impact and consequences MVCC students have experienced in their lives. These include returning adults, ath-letes, dorm residents, and students of different ethnic backgrounds.

Lana Nitti represented MVCC and the CSTEP program in style at the NYS CSTEP Conference April 17-19, at the Sagamore Resort in Lake George. Nitti received first place in the Hu-man Service/Social Sciences division for her oral pre-sentation based on her research titled “Lead in Our Communities: A Deeper Distillation of Chemistry and Community.”

Nitti’s research is an extension of her research she began last year, and examined the lead levels of soil samples taken from public parks. The sites were chosen based on GIS mapping pertaining to the instances of lead poisoning re-ported to the OC Health Department. Her research concluded that there needs to be continued exami-nation of sites and more public health education provided to uncover all existing pathways to lead exposure in Utica and to ultimately lower instances of childhood lead poisoning.

Timothy Thomas was the faculty mentor assisting Nitti with her research. Nitti will graduate in May and hopes to continue her research on the dangers of lead exposure.

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Ms. Quyen Luong is nearing the end of her nine-week visit to MVCC from Kien Giang Community College in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. Thus far she has visited classes in business, geography, Spanish, Japanese, English, ESL, and cultural anthropology with a number of other visits and presentations re-maining. With Dennis Gibbons and Roman Santos, she has also given a presentation on Vietnam to a packed IT225, participated in the International festival and has been busy making new friends, including Mo and the skeleton (whose name may be Fred or Bob depending on whom you ask) in the C-STEP conference room.

She has also had her first American pizza and hamburger, she is getting used to traveling by car instead of motorbike, and she is very likely the only person campus who wants more snow. She is particularly interested in learning how to improve her teaching of ESL writing, and she observes much of what she sees in classes at MV through her M.A. thesis that had to do with student-teacher interaction within the classroom.

For the East Meets West Potluck on May 4, Quyen made sour soup, a tangy soup featuring tamarind, mackerel, shrimp, and okra. A non-fish vegetarian version was also available.

Visiting Vietnamese professor experiences best of the west

Lana Nitti wins at CSTEP conference

From Dr. Shahida DarWomen In Science and Engineering (WISE) and

the Future Engineers Club offered an outreach pro-gram at Boys and Girls Club on May 5.

Future Engineers Club students Devin Sonne, Tamer Elsioufi, Othmane Brika, and Dominic Mesa-gna visited the Boys and Girls Club at Parkway Cen-ter to celebrate National Engineers Week. Shahida Dar, Ph.D., was also present as club advisor and representing WISE.

The outreach activity was to spread awareness about STEM in general and engineering in particu-lar. Present were about 40 students from grades 1-6. MVCC students and Dar presented sev-eral demonstrations and talked to the elementary schoolers about importance of careers in STEM. The outreach was very successful.

Here is a link to pictures of the event:www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.888249277

899623.1073741830.231090026948888&type=1

Engineering club visits boys/girls club