MCC's MLK Day of Service embodies our mission to serve (and thank) communities

As volunteers at MCC-Longview gathered in the early morning of last year’s MLK Day of Service, they were asked one question: Who would they thank for making a difference?

Who, to them, made the biggest difference in their life?  It was a simple question that yielded as many different answers as there were people in the room.

It was a chance for the 150 or so gathered that morning to reflect not only on the great accomplishments and service of Martin Luther King Jr., but also that of countless others that had influenced their lives in way both big and small.

At the MCC-Longview MLK Day of service, organizers not only want volunteers to focus on helping their fellow community members, but also want to give them a chance to reflect on how those organizations and institutions are helping them and the greater metropolitan area.

 "It is so important for the students, faculty, staff and administrators to come together to give back to the community,” said Kim Prosak. campus life and leadership coordinator at MCC-Longview. “It not only helps kids, senior citizens and organizations in the MCC- Longview service area, but it also does so much for the MCC-Longview community itself.

This year the scope of that focus is even wider as more volunteers have signed up to once again spend their day off volunteering and working with some of Lee’s Summits most notable charities and not-for-profit organizations.

As last year’s volunteers prepared to work for the day at various locations around the city, they took with them the pink index card where they wrote down who they would thank. Those cards, Prosak said, would be a reminder that someone helped them along when they needed it most and it was time to return the favor.

“It is so rewarding to see everyone work side by side for the greater good," she said.

It is not too late to sign up!

Go to www.mcckc.edu/mlk to sign up for a service project.

Join your fellow faculty, staff and students for this great event

MCC-Blue River - National Day of Service

MCC-Blue River is preparing for it’s second annual Day of Service to commemorate the national Martin Luther King holiday officially observed on Monday, January 17.

This is an amazing opportunity to celebrate the holiday with your heart.

Next Monday, MCC-Blue River Students and employees will volunteer at the following local nonprofit organizations: Hillcrest Transitional Housing, Community Service League and the Rainbow Center.

Other Blue River MLK service opportunities are also available, including making quilts for Children’s Mercy Hospital. To participate in this activity, contact Barbara Shaefer via email Barbara Schaefer or by telephone at 816.604.6568.

If you’re interested in working with the nonprofit organizations listed above, contact Amy Slater in the Arts and Sciences building, room 113: or you may call her directly at 816.604.6635.

MCC-Longview at sea on the USS Missouri

To the untrained eye it might look like just another mess hall on the USS Missouri, an Iowa-class battleship.

But if you look close enough you will see someone from MCC-Longview has a bit of school pride.



From Wikipedia:

The Missouri was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944. In the Pacific Theater of World War II she fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands, and she fought in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. She was decommissioned in 1955 into the United States Navy reserve fleets (the "Mothball Fleet"), but reactivated and modernized in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan, and provided fire support during Operation Desert Storm in January/February 1991.

Missouri received a total of 11 battle stars for service in World War II, Korea, and the Persian Gulf, and was finally decommissioned on 31 March 1992, but remained on the Naval Vessel Register until her name was struck in January 1995. In 1998, she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

It just goes to show that The Lakers are everywhere.

January Board of Trustee meeting

The MCC Board of Trustees are scheduled to meet Thursday, Jan.13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Administrative Center Board room.
For a copy of the agenda, click here.

Employees - Who is my Budget Response Team representative?

The Budget Response Team (BRT) was created during Jackie Snyder’s Chancellorship, as a vehicle for staff, faculty and administrators to have a voice regarding impending budget changes due to the recession and continued state budget cuts.

As concerns and questions arise regarding budgets, employees are encouraged to contact their representative, listed below:

Staff: Beverly Jennings (MW), Sherry Skinner (BTC) and Melissa Marr (AC)
Faculty: Cheryl Winter (BR), Elliott Schimmel (LV), Lynn Canaday (BR) and Craig Bartholomaus (PV)
Administrators: Beth Lindquist (LV), Jon Burke (BR) and Reinhard Weglarz (AC)
Officers: Tuesday Stanley, Merna Saliman and Tom Vansaghi

The Employee of the Month for January is Sarita Smith in Financial Aid. Sarita is always friendly and patient, no matter how busy or stressful things are. She always wears a smile and is a glowing example of customer service.

Sarita is very thorough when explaining things to students. She delivers critical information to a growing number of students seeking financial aid and in a way that educates, informs and calms. She is also a spark of enthusiasm! She was a major part of the Financial Aid Office’s Champion Door Decoration for this year’s Homecoming. She is a great example of the Maple Woods’ reputation of kind, caring employees.

Maple Woods lives the MCC mission through charity and service

Preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities. Those six words comprise MCC’s mission statement as it strives to educate more and more students in the Kansas City Metro area. The holiday season and new year afforded many challenges and opportunities to live MCC’s mission statement, and Maple Woods stepped up to the plate this year, with faculty, staff and students getting involved in the Northland.

Each year, MCC-Maple Woods adopts several students and their families for the holidays, providing food and gift items. This year, the campus was able to provide holiday trimmings for five students and their families, including two bags of groceries, three large boxes of gifts and wrapping supplies, and about $130 in gift cards. Maple Woods employees went above and beyond this year, providing enough gift cards and donations to adopt another 3 families in addition to the others. The number of students the campus has been able to adopt has gone up each of the last three years, even though financial situations have been tough.

MCC-Maple Woods students took the lead in several projects serving the Northland community – from picking up trash to volunteering at neighborhood charity organizations to supporting other students and their families.

Members of the women’s soccer team, along with the Northland Sports Alliance, participated in the BackSnack program just before the holidays as well. The program provides backpacks full of food to students who qualify for the free and reduced lunches offered by the school districts. Soccer team members helped Harvesters pack donated backpacks full of food to distribute to children at risk of going hungry.

Students became involved in community projects even in spite of rough weather conditions: Alice Zvacek, Samantha Nolker, Kayla Fleshman and Steve Barber, all members of the Upsilon Xi chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the national honor society for two-year institutions, braved icy cold weather to clean up trash on Highway 152 near the campus.

Along with the students, MCC-Maple Woods employees are undertaking the challenge to support local organizations. The Maple Woods Fitness Center has held several “boot camp” fundraisers throughout the semester to benefit local organizations such as the Northland Therapeutic Riding Center, Synergy Services, and the United Way. Boot camps were also held to raise cash for causes including breast cancer awareness, child abuse prevention and the Special Olympics.

In addition to campus-wide, group and individual efforts throughout the last semester, MCC-Maple Woods students and employees will once again participate in the MLK Day of Service on Jan. 17, 2011. Maple Woods continues to live MCC’s mission by preparing students, both civically and academically, serving communities through hard work and creating opportunities for Northland families and organizations.

MCC-Longview winter wonderland

It was a wintery scene at MCC-Longview as close to six inches of snow fell on campus this past weekend. Despite the snow day on Monday, campus crews were hard at work clearing the pathways, parking lots and sidewalks as everyone prepares for a new semester.

MCC Campuses are open Tuesday

All MCC campuses, BR, PI, BTC, PV, MW, LV and HSI are open today. This includes the Administrative Center.

Inclement Weather

Severe weather alert. All MCC campuses are closed due to snow. This includes the Administrative Center.

Employees - start your 2011 Points to Blue bank today

Start logging activity and earning points for your 2011 Points to Blue bank!
Employees can still redeem points remaining in your bank from 2010, and can enter any activity for 2010 through March of this year.

Click on the link for a refresher on how to log your points.

MCC Living Well – January webinars for employees

The following webinars are brought to you as part of the MCC Living Well Program. Click on the link and see the upcoming live webinar classes. There are now classes on demand that are pre-recorded and can be watched at your leisure.

Each presentation is aired live and recorded. If you are unable to attend the webinar at the scheduled time, you can still enroll in the presentation and view the recordings later. All series classes are available for one week; one time presentations are available for two weeks after the original presentation.

All classes are free of charge for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City members. Non-members are allowed to participate in the classes, there are non-member fees associated with the series classes. One time presentations are free of charge for everyone. Each class description indicates whether or not there is an additional participant fee for non-members that participate.

Update from MCC Notify Me message

The Pioneer satellite campus for Metropolitan Community College, located at 18th and Prospect, was locked down this morning as a precaution, while police searched for suspects in the area. The campus was not the target of any incident.

MCC’s alert system was activated to notify students and personnel of the situation.

Emergency

MCC Pioneer campus is locked down. Incident is near the Pioneer campus. No one from MCC is involved.

Carter Art Center to explore “Transitional Dimensions”

The Carter Art Center at MCC-Penn Valley will present “Transitional Dimensions,” an exhibit that explores the concept of depth within space that is both real and suggested. The exhibit will open Feb. 4 from 6 to 9 p.m. at 3201 Southwest Trafficway. An artist talk will begin at 6:30 p.m. The show will be sponsored by the Friends of the Carter Art Center.

Through the works of three local artists patrons will see a range of two-dimensional paintings with dramatic architectural space, constructional textual collages, high-relief sculptural paintings, and three-dimensional constructions. The artists, Steve Mayse, Ellen Wilkins Wolf and Sandra Van Tuyl, have a combination of multiple art and educational awards in their professional fields, both nationally and internationally.

The exhibit will run until March 4 Tuesdays-Fridays 1 to 5 p.m. and Saturdays Noon-3 p.m.

About the artists
Steve Mayse
An alumnus of the University of Central Missouri where he graduated in art education and design, and the University of Kansas where he earned an M.F.A. with honors in design, Steve Mayse brings over 35 years of practical experience to his teaching at the Kansas City Art Institute. His corporate client list included among others Sports Illustrated, Arthur Anderson, Chevron, McDonald’s, American Airlines, Cessna, Sprint, Cerner and many others. His editorial clients included The Los Angeles Times, magazines: Cable in the Classroom, Physician, Ingram’s, Vision, Emerge and others.
His work has received numerous awards for excellence from the 3-Dimensional Art Directors and Illustration Awards Show in New York, the Society of Illustrators in New York and Los Angeles, the Kansas City Art Director’s Award Show and the Addy Awards.

He has served as a visiting artist at the State University of New York, the University of Kansas, University of Central Missouri, Northwest Missouri State University, Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and at the International School in Prague, the Czech Republic. His work has been included many times in juried fine art exhibitions and solo exhibitions nationally and regionally.

Sandra Van Tuyl
A professional artist for the past 14 years, and a Kansas City native, uses structures and deserted urban spaces to create emotional language. These dreamlike paintings have been accepted to regional exhibitions throughout the Midwest - from the Williams Wood University in Fulton, Missouri to the Salina Art Center and the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Her paintings have also been in individual and group shows, including the Late Show, Leedy-Voulkos, and the Kansas City Artist Coalition, as well as many corporate headquarters. She has paintings purchased by Sprint and other corporations and individuals from Palm Springs to Chicago.

Sandra has also had public art installed in Blue Springs and Jefferson City, Missouri. She is the recipient of an ArtKC Fund Inspiration Grant for her public work.

Ellen W. Wolf
Award winning 2D and 3D artist Ellen W. Wolf retired from Northern Arizona University as a tenured Associate Professor of Art and relocated to Kansas City to be closer to family. She exhibited extensively in the Southwest and was honored with a cultural exchange traveling exhibit to Mexico. Her gallery representation included The Elaine Horwitch Gallery in Sedona, AZ, Old Town Gallery in Flagstaff, AZ and The Edith Lambert Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. During her teaching career she received numerous honors and awards, including Outstanding Educator Awards in both Kansas and Arizona. Recently, she has taught art history and studio courses at MCC-Penn Valley, hosted a monthly artists’ group in her studio, given artist talks to local organizations, taught workshops on mixed media and collage and shown her work in numerous juried, solo and group exhibitions. This past summer she was honored with a solo exhibition in the Regional Gallery of the George A. Spiva Center for the Arts. A charter member of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, she served as a Board Member of the local chapter from 2003 to 2009.

For more information on “Transitional Dimensions” exhibit, go to www.mcckc.edu/pvart or call 816.604.4ART (4278).

Penn Valley welcomes KCMSD students interested in health care careers

MCC-Penn Valley, PREP-KC, and the Kansas City, Missouri School District recently launched the Health Sciences Accelerated Academy (HSAA). The program supports high school sophomores to not only complete high school, but also (during those three years) to complete college classes which prepare them for entry-level careers in health care, including Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) training.

A reception to welcome HSAA students and their families was held last month in the atrium of MCC-Penn Valley’s Health Science Institute.

The HSAA is a new and unique collaboration designed to prepare urban students for success in post-secondary education and in the workforce. “The HSAA is an exciting new pathway for urban high school students who are interested in a career in health care. It also eliminates the need for these students to take remedial classes when they enter community college since their class work and testing during the HSAA will provide them with the supports necessary to be well-prepared,” says Susan Wally, president of PREP-KC. “From the early stages of designing this initiative it has been a priority for the PREP-KC team because this program, and others we’re piloting, can improve college success and meet workforce needs in Kansas City.”

HSAA students will gain hands-on experience within the MCC-Penn Valley Health Science Institute which includes a 10,000 sq. ft. virtual hospital that contains a fully functioning operating room, an emergency room, a neonatal intensive care unit, and patient rooms.

“The Kansas City, Missouri School District (KCMSD) is pleased to be part of a collaborative effort that will provide our students with college experiences and preparation for career opportunities,” said John Covington, KCMSD superintendent. “The HSAA program will give KCMSD students a significant competitive edge when applying for future positions in the health care industry.”

“We are very excited about working with PREP-KC and the Kansas City, Missouri School District to prepare urban high school students for careers in health care,” says Sandy McIlnay, director of MCC-Penn Valley Health Science Institute. “Our state-of-the-art health science institute is all about hands-on learning and real-life training to prepare students so they can hit the ground running when they start working at area hospitals and medical facilities.”

A critical shortage of well-prepared nurses and allied health workers is creating challenges for local hospitals and health care facilities. HSAA is one of several programs designed to meet this health care worker shortage.

Reminder of email account usage for employees

MCC employees are classified as public employees, and are prohibited from using MCC’s resources (including email accounts) for lobbying or political purposes. While we appreciate your involvement in these activities on MCC’s behalf, I wanted to remind everyone to use personal email accounts on your own time for those types of activities.

Thanks for all you do to create opportunities through MCC!

Tom Vansaghi
Associate Vice Chancellor of College and Community Relations
Metropolitan Community College-Kansas City

Death Takes a Holiday auditions at MCC-Longview

Calling all actors and actresses: The MCC-Longview Dinner Theater is once again looking for players to act in its spring performance of Death Takes a Holiday.

The play follows Death himself as he decided to take a small vacation from his usual deathly duties. Finding a Italian Duke who will let him pretend to be a human for a few days, Death discovers there is much more to life.

The 1928 play has inspired several movie versions including a 1934 remake staring Fredric March. The movie also inspired the 1998 Brad Pitt movie Meet Joe Black.

Auditions will be held at MCC-Longview.  Director Joyce Kuhn is looking for seven males and six females. The play itself will open April 8.

Death Takes a Holiday auditions

6-8 p.m. Jan. 24 and 25

MCC-Longview Liberal Arts Building room 102

816.604.2299 or email joyce.kuhn@mcckc.edu

Production Dates: April 8, 9, 15 and 16.

2nd Annual Lee's Summit Fine Arts Challenge looking for budding artists

Do you know a Lee's Summit high school artist looking to make their mark on the world? Then the 2nd Annual MCC-Longview Fine Arts Challenge is the place for them.

The MCC-Longview Cultural Arts Center is proud to present its second annual Lee’s Summit Fine Arts Challenge, a high school fine arts competition and exhibit featuring the works of high school students from the three Lee’s Summit High Schools.

“This is a great opportunity for high school students to interact with fellow art students and professional artists here at MCC-Longview,” said Daniel Reneau, MCC-Longview Cultural Arts Center gallery manager.

This year, officials have invited David Harrison, a painting instructor at the Kansas City Art Institute, to judge the competition and selected the top high school artists in Lee’s Summit.

The presentation and awards ceremony will begin at 5 p.m. on Jan. 21 in the MCC-Longview Cultural Arts Center.

Exhibition Dates:

Jan. 21- Feb. 26

The Gallery is open Noon-4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Art works should be dropped off at the Cultural Arts Center Jan. 8 from Noon to 4 p.m.

The selection and judging will take place the following week.

It stands for Fabrication, although it is Fabulous!

MCC-Business & Technology is in the process of creating an environment where students, community members, and participating local companies can conceptualize, design, develop, fabricate and test a variety of products and ideas.

This environment is called FabLab. It will be housed in the campus’ former Making It In KC lab and equipped entirely with machinery and tools not in use in other campus labs.

Based on similar projects at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio, the BTC FabLab will provide students, community and industry members two main benefits.

First, they will have access to our state-of-the-art fabrication equipment from computer software to prototype printers and precision machining equipment. Second, they will have the opportunity to consult with our knowledgeable BTC faculty and staff about projects, ideas and concepts.

"The FabLab will allow creative, talented individuals to formulate their ideas and concepts into actual physical reality,” said Edgar Jimenez, FabLab advisory board member and a retired Honeywell welding engineer. “I can see the potential this facility will have encouraging the advancement of manufacturing technology in the Kansas City area."

After hearing about the concept at the first advisory board meeting, Mr. Jimenez showed his appreciation and enthusiasm for the FabLab project with a $1,000 donation.

The official launch of the BTC FabLab will be announced soon. Limited membership of current students will begin at the start of spring 2011 semester and will open to the public later in the year. Campus personnel have been meeting with members of Hallmark’s creative team to investigate ways for that company to use the lab. Dimensional Innovations, another manufacturer of creative concepts, has invited BTC representatives to tour its facility, discuss lab integration and outline opportunities for student internships.

FabLab incorporates skills and knowledge from several disciplines including: Computer Aided Drafting and Design, Engineering, Welding, Precision Machining, and Electronics.

For more information about the FabLab contact project coordinator, Steve Dowell - 604.5290 or fablab@mcckc.edu.

President Barack Obama recently visited Lorain County Community College FabLab. Read more here.

Additional information about FabLab can be found at Lorain County Community College FabLab page or the MIT FabLab page.

Click below for FabLab video from Lorain County Community College.