MCC-wide gaming competition sponsored by MCC-Blue River Gamerz club

Anyone at Metropolitan Community College from any campus is invited to join the Gamerz club at MCC-Blue River for a friendly competition. The Gamerz are a loose knit organization devoted to creating a fun and inviting gaming environment. Their May 19 tournament will be set up to serve as many players as preregister.

The Gamerz club is offering prizes for first place wins in three games: Call of Duty: Block Ops, Halo: Reach, and Modern Warfare 2, three contagiously popular X-box 360 games at which most gaming aficionados have become expert competitors. All prize qualifying tournament sessions will be played one on one.

Contestants can register right up until 4 p.m. on May 19. The Gamerz club only asks participants to let them know before then to get an accurate head count.

Contact Chad Lebow for more information at S1000535@student.mcckc.edu.

Gamerz Tournament, May 19, 4 p.m., Campus Center, open to anyone at MCC, admission $5

Hometown newspaper features Lakers baseball player Shawn Egge

The Williston Herald caught up with Shawn as he is deep into another successful season with the Lakers. Check out the article as it highlights some of the great accomplishments and record breaking achievements Shawn has been making while played ball at Longview.

Volunteers needed to clean Penn Valley Park

Penn Valley Park Conservancy is dedicated to restoring, preserving and enhancing Penn Valley Park as a vital urban green space. The 176.58 acre park is located just north of the MCC-Penn Valley campus and will be the subject of a community cleanup day of bush honeysuckles, graffiti and general cleaning on Saturday, May 21 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.


Area workers from the community include volunteers from the Metropolitan Community Service Program, Maincor, Greystone Neighbor, Indigo Wild, MCSP and others to complete this cleanup effort. The MCC community has been invited to join.

Volunteers who are interested should meet just before 9 a.m. on the 21st in front of Indigo Wild, located at 3125 Wyandotte Street, Kansas City, Mo. just off of 31st Terrace between Broadway and Main.

Three MCC-Longview students receive major Rockhurst University scholarships

Congratulations to three MCC-Longview students picked to receive 3/4 scholarships from Rockhurst University in Kansas City.

Leandra Stuckey, Jacob Turney and Kristine Vainovska will receive scholarships that will cover three-quarters of their costs at Rockhurst. The three joined hundreds of others from around the Midwest who applied for the only three scholarships given by the university.

Kristine is an international student from Latvia, and this is the second scholarship she has received.

"This is extremely exciting, honoring, and humbling to me. The two and a half years I have spent at Longview have truly paid off, as I have taken the advantage of all the possible opportunities open to me," she said. Kristine said she is looking forward to attending Rockhurst this fall and will major in Organizational leadership studies and minor in business administration.

Jacob tarted Longview in Spring of 2010, and will graduate this month with his AA degree. He will transfer in the fall to pursue his bachelor's degree in pre-medicine, with a major likely in humanities or liberal arts.  


"I am elated to have been awarded the Rockhurst scholarship, and will be very proud to attend should I stay in town," he said.

Leandra Stuckey plans to attend Rockhurst as well in the fall after graduating from MCC-Longview.

Career opportunity

CO# 11-060 AC Senior PeopleSoft Systems/ Database Administrator

• posted May 6
• will be removed from the website on May 22 for the initial screening.
• For more information or to apply: www.mcckcjobs.com/applicants/Central?quickFind=51323

 

Penn Valley Health Science Institute to host Skills USA competition

High school students from across the country will test their expertise this summer at MCC-Penn Valley. The health education skills portion of the National Skills USA competition will be held at the Penn Valley Health Science Institute in June.

Competitions will be held June 22 and 23 in medical assisting/practical nursing, nurse assisting and dental assisting.

Penn Valley fashion instructor to participate in Princess Diana exhibit at Union Station

Penn Valley Apparel and Textiles Instructor Sheryl Farnan (left) shares techniques with student.

With the Royal Wedding still in the air, memories linger about the legacy of Princess Diana. Sheryl Farnan, MCC-Penn Valley Apparel and Textiles program coordinator, will be participating in the DIANA exhibit at Union Station.

On May 24, Farnan will speak on weddings and wedding apparel of the 20th century with specific focus on a gown featured in the exhibit designed in 1933 by American Couturier Hattie Carnegie.

The lecture, part of the Kansas City Museum Community Curator Series, will begin at 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Farnan also serves as curator of the Rebecca Maud Owens Historic Costume Collection House at Penn Valley. The collection is named in honor of Becky Owens, long tenured faculty member and head of the fashion program for many years. Owens collected hundreds of pieces from the late 19th and early 20th centuries as teaching tools to show how a Midwestern man, woman or child would have interpreted the prevailing styles of the day. Many pieces are from local Kansas City department stores and manufacturers. It was her personal collection which she donated to Penn Valley upon her retirement. The collection is used for teaching students about modern costume history and design.

BTC Students get HVAC Lesson Soft-Served

Students in the HVAC program took parts from five discarded ice cream machines to make one.  With the help of donations from McDonald's (cones) and Wendy's (ice cream mix and gaskets), students literally got a taste of accomplishment today and it was flavored vanilla.

MCC-Longview students celebrate Cinco De Mayo with toe-tapping style

MCC-Longview students strapped on their dancing shoes as DJ Victor Mabu took over the Cafe today to teach Salsa dancing.

Mabu not only played the rhythmic dance music, but also get on stage to show Longview how to properly dance to the infectious Salsa music.

 The event was part of the Campus Life & Leadership's planned activities to celebrate Cinco De Mayo.



For more photos from the event, be sure to check out the MCC-Longview photo blog.

Tom Forsythe honored as Penn Valley employee of month!

Tom Forsythe is counting down to retirement and enjoying his honor as Penn Valley employee of the month.

After more than three decades of service, Tom Forsythe is set to retire. But before he walks out the door, his peers decided to honor him by nominating him for employee of the month for May.

"For almost 32 years, Tom has been the heartbeat of the Penn Valley Library," says Scot Phillips, co-worker. "His thorough knowledge of both library and general MCC matters has been of great service to countless students. He is an invaluable resource that will be impossible to replace."

Phillips describes Forsythe as an intelligent and caring. "He makes you feel appreciated, whether it be as a co-worker or a student. He takes a real interest in what is going on in your life and goes out of his way to treat everyone he comes in contact with in the library as a friend."

88 days until tobacco-free MCC

The use of tobacco products will no longer be permitted on MCC grounds beginning August 1, 2011. Areas that are now designated smoking areas will no longer be available and butt receptacles will be removed from each campus and the Administrative Center.

The decision to become tobacco-free was announced last November by Chancellor Mark James. His purpose behind this initiative is to create a healthier campus environment for students, employees and visitors.


The tobacco-free policy is currently being discussed by the Chancellor’s Policy Review Committee. The committee anticipates the policy will be complete sometime in June.

For those wanting to kick the habit altogether, information regarding community cessation programs is available on the MCC tobacco-free webpage. Information about second hand smoke can also be located there.

$6,796.50 raised by MCC-Blue River’s Metroplitan Chorale of Kansas City for Habitat for Humanity

Hardhats for Habitat, the Metropolitan Chorale of Kansas City’s annual benefit concert for Habitat for Humanity, raised an unprecedented amount for the organization this past weekend.

The executive director of Truman Heritage Habitat for Humanity, Pat Turner, said to the MCC-Blue River event organizers and participnts, “Thank you all so much for your wonderful contribution to the Hardhats for Habitat fundraising event held last Saturday. You will be very pleased to know that the concert raised a grand total of  $6,796.50. . . . You have given us a jump start into the next year, thank you, thank you and thank you for all that you are doing and continue to do for this ministry.”

This single event raised enough money to supply nails for thirteen

Penn Valley instructor shares thoughts on Bin Laden

Penn Valley Chemistry Instructor Mike Sweetland (left) and Division Chair Nic LaHue (right) chat about campus activities.

MCC-Penn Valley Instructor Mike Sweetland teaches chemistry as well as serves in the National Guard. Like the rest of the nation, he closely followed media coverage of the death of Osama Bin Laden. He also recently shared his views on the world event with an area media outlet click here for more info.

Goals surpassed for AIDSWalk

More than 100 MCC students, faculty and staff took part in the 23rd annual AIDSWalk Kansas City on Saturday, marking the seventh year Team MCC has participated in the city-wide event.

The team raised $6,560, surpassing their fundraising goal by more than $1,500. Money from AIDSWalk Kansas City supports people living with AIDS in Kansas City. The three-mile walk, held at Theis Park in Kansas City, Mo., raised a total of $209,000. Organizers estimate 3,500 walkers participated.

Nancy Harrington, MCC-Penn Valley biology instructor and Team MCC organizer, welcomes anyone still interested in contributing to do so by visiting the Team MCC fundraising page any time before June 30, 2011.

Video: MCC-Blue River Theatre Troupe presents "Cinema on Stage"

Favorite movie moments will be acted out for one matinee performance by the MCC-Blue River Theatre Troupe. The show will include classics like the Abbott and Costello comedy bit "Who's on First" and the frightening cinematic Sweeney Todd as well as newer film moments, like a scene from Mean Girls.

List of Scenes:

Video: Older police cars train new officers at MCC-Blue River

KMBC Channel 9's Justin Robinson reported this morning on a trade executed by the Public Safety Institute at MCC-Blue River. Four Blue Springs police cars were traded to the PSI in exchange for police training:

<link to video>

Clothesline project honors survivors and remembers those who were killed

The Counseling Department, Campus Life & Leadership Office, and the Re-entry Office are once again co-sponsoring the Clothesline Project this week, May 2–6.

The Clothesline Project is a visual display of shirts with messages and illustrations that have been designed by women survivors of violence or by someone who loves a woman who has been killed. The purpose of the project is to increase awareness of the impact of violence against women, to celebrate a woman's strength to survive, and to provide another avenue for her to courageously break the silence that often surrounds her experience. This is a national project that Longview has participated in for the past six years.

Anyone - employee or student - may make a t-shirt. T-shirts and paint supplies are located in the Re-entry Center (Campus Center 257). The shirts will be hung on the clotheslines located outside between the Campus Center and Science and Technology buildings. Informational tables are also located in the Campus Center, Science and Technology, Business, and Liberal Arts buildings, and the Library.

If you would like additional information about the Clothesline Project please visit the website at: www.clotheslineproject.org.

If you have questions about Longview's Project please e-mail or call the Counseling Department at 604.2255.

MCC-Longview student J.R. Byers receives national scholarship to finish bachelors degree

Photo: Byers receives a standing ovation from friends, family, fellow students and faculty at the annual MCC-Longview Awards Reception where he was named the winner of Jack Kent Cooke scholarship.

MCC-Longview student J.R. Byers was named this week a recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship - a prestigious scholarship that will allow Byers a chance to transfer to the university of his choice to finish his bachelors degree.

The award took Byers by surprise on Sunday at the annual MCC-Longview student and faculty awards ceremony on campus. History instructor Randall Moore announced that J.R. had been named as one of the 50 scholarship recipients throughout the nation.

Surrounded by family and fellow Longview students, Byers said he was elated as he will now be able to work toward a full bachelors degree in Anthropology.

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship makes it possible for the nation’s top community college students to complete their bachelor’s degrees by transferring to a four-year college or university. The Foundation provides up to $30,000 per year to each of approximately 50 deserving students selected annually, making it the largest private scholarship for two-year and community college transfer students in the country.

Each award is intended to cover a significant share of the student’s educational expenses – including tuition, living expenses, books and required fees – for the final two to three years necessary to achieve a bachelor’s degree. Awards vary by individual, based on the cost of tuition as well as other grants or scholarships he or she may receive.

Byers is the third MCC-Longview students to be awarded this scholarship.

Guns & Hoses series drawing to a finale

After several consecutive wins at the annual Guns & Hoses challenge by the fire fighters, doubts that the police could beat them in the multi-sport competition began to circulate. This year, however, the police took an early lead in the volleyball competition and have maintained that lead in the series. The police stand above the firefighters at two to one at the end of three events.

Police struggle against firefighters
a previous dodgeball competition

Today’s Guns & Hoses competition will be a soccer match at the MCC-Blue River soccer field. If the police win again, then the series ends and the guys and gals in blue will retrieve the long-time firefighter held Guns & Hoses trophy. If the firefighters win today’s soccer competition, bringing the series even at 2 to 2, then there will be a final flag football competition to break the tie.

Guns & Hoses soccer, Monday, May 2 at noon, MCC-Blue River soccer field, open to the public, no admission charge

MCC bookstores undergo process review

Last month, Vice Chancellor Tuesday Stanley formed a task force to conduct a process review of the MCC bookstores. The task force, chaired by Patricia Amick, MCC director of management advisory services, and Mindy Johnson, MCC-Penn Valley academic advisor, will gather information on procedures in all five MCC bookstores and conduct a financial analysis.


Specifically, the group is charged with:

• Reporting on the current processes of the bookstores;

• Gathering best practice data on other institutions’ bookstores that are markedly profitable;

• Developing recommendations on process improvements for MCC bookstores that improve the stores’ profitability and retail environment and integrate the bookstores into the student enrollment process; and

• Analyzing the feasibility of outsourcing versus internal management of the bookstores.

To inform their work, the task force will conduct online surveys for both MCC students and MCC employees. The student survey will be posted on the MCC bookstores’ web page today and a team will deploy on the campuses this week to invite students to sit down and provide their feedback. The employee survey will be distributed by email on May 3. Your feedback is valuable; please respond!

The task force, which includes two representatives from the district-wide bookstore staff, will solicit addition input from other bookstore personnel throughout the process. Johnson and Amick will present a plan to Stanley on Sept. 2, 2011.