Academic Year 2018-19
Top achievements throughout the academic divisions.
Arts and Humanities
The College's Art and Literary Magazine, The Synchronicity, received a first place award from the American Scholastic Press Association. The student magazine is advised by Dr. Thomas Powers, Instructor of English, and Tim Connolly, Assistant Professor of English.
Walter Plotnick, Fine Arts Senior Lecturer, received 2nd place in the Lensculture single image category. Walter’s photograph will be on display at the Aperture Gallery in New York City.
Andrew Kosciesza, Associate Professor of Music, was selected to receive the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) Citation of Excellence in Teaching Award for PMEA District 11. The award was presented at the PMEA Awards Breakfast during the 2019 PMEA/NAfME Eastern Division Conference in Pittsburgh.
Business and Entrepreneurial Initiatives
The Culinary Arts Institute (CAI) participated in the 4th Annual Valley Forge Freedom from Hunger Food Drive sponsored by the Valley Forge Tourism and Convention Board. Members of the CAI helped prepared meals for 150 underserved individuals at a community shelter in Norristown, PA.
The College launched a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA) on Seventeen Business and Accounting students completed certification training and are volunteering their time to provide a valuable service to low and moderate income members of the campus community. The College partnered with Campaign for Working Families, who provide technical assistance, certification training and professional quality reviewers to review and finalize all tax filings. VITA tax preparation services will be offered in the Student Success Center on Monday and Tuesday evenings throughout the 2018 tax season. To date, over 40 tax payers have signed up to receive the service with the capacity to file up to 100 returns this season.
Damon Gray, Faculty Diversity Fellow, Finance and Accounting, attended IBM's Build Smart Financial Services Reinvention with Data & Developers event in New York. The event provided insight in to how the role of data, Artificial Intelligence, and developers in financial services.
Health Sciences
Teal Mercer, Assistant Professor of Dental Hygiene, along with several dental hygiene graduates, completed a dental medical mission at an orphanage in Africa.
The Medical Assisting program exceeded the retention, job placement, graduate survey, employer survey, and exam outcome thresholds required by the Medical Assisting Education Review Board (MAERB), a Committee on Accreditation of the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP).
The 15th graduating class of the Radiography program celebrated their achievements with the annual Pinning and Awards ceremony. To date, this was the largest class of Radiography Program graduates with fifteen. The event was held in the Health Sciences Center atrium, and over 100 people attended including community members, clinical affiliate representatives, administrators, faculty and staff.
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)
Associate Engineering Professor William Brownlowe presented at the annual League for Innovation in the Community College Innovations Conference in New York City. Professor Brownlowe's talk described how the MCCC engineering department incorporates research into the broader learning experience. In particular, he discussed how research and production of the INNOVA fuel cell-powered vehicle enhanced student engagement and learning.
The Biotechnology Program hosted a STEM Career Pathways Conference for high school teachers and guidance counselors in Blue Bell. The conference focused on biotechnology and engineering. Participants heard from high-profile keynote speakers from industry and participated in topic-specific round table discussions with local industry experts. Approximately 50 teachers and counselors from local school districts and 20 representatives from local industry attended. MCCC was represented by Associate Professor of Biotechnology, Dr. Maggie Bryans, and Dean of STEM, Dr. Jamie Bretz. The conference was supported by the National Science Foundation funded NBC2 grant which is based at MCCC.
An educational tour was organized by Computer Science Lecturer Sri Sagaram for students of CIS 257 to visit the TierPoint Datacenter in Valley Forge. The tour provided an opportunity for the students to learn about the actual working of a commercial "Multitenant Cloud Computing" implementation. The TierPoint Datacenter team led by Benjamin Mitten, VP, General Manager - Pennsylvania gave an educational tour of the facility explaining how a Cloud Computing and Disaster Recovery facility like Tierpoint helps businesses to establish and manage a computing environment that provides 24/7 uptime, server redundancy, data mirroring and Industry compliance for their business. In this age of computing, cloud computing environments have grown in popularity and learning about these will help our students gain a better opportunity for employment.
Social Sciences
The Criminal Justice department hosted the 17th Annual Criminal Justice and Public Safety Expo in the Parkhouse Hall atrium. Students and community members had the opportunity to meet with recruiters from municipal, state and federal law enforcement and public safety agencies. Private sector employers as well as transfer partners were also present on campus to address current topics, trends and careers in Criminal Justice and Public Safety. Assistant Professors of Criminal Justice, Jayden Sampson and Steve Schmitz facilitated the event.
The Archaeology and Anthropology Club, led by Lynn O'Brien, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, hosted Adam DePaul of the Tribal Council of the Lenape Nation. Mr. DePaul discussed the history and culture of the Native American Lenape in the Delaware Valley.
Sanket Desai, Instructor of History, was selected to participate in the Council of American and Overseas Research Center faculty development seminar in Pakistan. Sanket was selected out of fifty applicants from community colleges in the United States. The highly competitive program provides instructors with curriculum development, and how to navigate the complexities of religious, political, and cultural diversity.
Libraries
The Library Parlor accepted an article written by Amanda Leftwich, Library Faculty Diversity Fellow. The article titled, "Reflective Journaling: A Daily Practice," which will be released on January 30. The Library Parlor is a space for conversing, sharing expertise, and asking questions about the process of developing, pursuing, and publishing library research.
