15. News Photo - Suzanna Powers - Fireworks

Nathan Wilson Editor in Chief

LCC became one of 12founding institutions to the join the Gateways to Comple-tion (G2C) initiative duringfall 2013 in a national eort to boost student success.

According to Martine Rife,faculty process liaison for theG2C project, this national pi-lot initiative is undertaken bythe John N. Gardner Institutefor Excellence in Undergradu-ate Education.

“Through LCC’s participa-tion in the project’s rst co-hort, our college, along withother founding members, willtake dramatic steps to im-

prove our gateway courses,”Rife said.

“Our work on this projectwill focus on ve key courses,courses that are foundational,high-enrollment and highrisk.”

These gateway courses in-clude WRIT 121 CompositionI, ACCG 210, Principles of Ac-counting I, HIST 212, U.S. His-tory: 1877 to Present, MATH112, Intermediate Algebraand BIOL 121.

Through a robust evidence- based analysis, LCC will de-velop and implement actionplans in ve gateway coursesin the following areas: aca-demic success and excellencein learning, improved course

completion, retention andgraduation, upward socialmobility and life satisfaction.

“Our goals are to closelystudy and analyze key cours-es that prevent barriers tostudent success, in order todesign interventions and ac-tion plans, and implementthose action plans with theultimate goal of dramaticallyincreasing student success,”Rife said.

First-year college composi-tion and rst-semester col-lege math have been knownto pose problems for particu-larly populations of students.

“No one has yet guredout exactly why these par-ticular courses are a barrier,”

Rife said. “National and localdata further shows that suchcourses have a disproportion-ately high negative impact onstudents of color.

“Thus, in order to achieveour goal of serving a diversecommunity, and of maintain-ing a diverse student popula-tion, we at Lansing Commu-nity College are going to workwith 11 other colleges at thecuing edge of this nationalstudent success initiative.”

Presently and throughMonday, Dec. 16, the Stu-dent Learning Gain As-sessment Survey is be-ing administered in

thelookoutLansing Community College’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1959

Volume 55, Issue 8

www.lcc.edu/lookout

Dec. 9, 2013 - Jan. 26, 2014

Hockey Clubbreedssuccess

Cagerspile upwins

Ensemblebrings theenergy

Sports >> Page 7Sports >> Page 6 A&E >> Page 8

What are your plans for the holiday break?

“Sleeping and

enjoying not

having to do

schoolwork.”

“I’m going

to my mom’s

condo in

Orlando,

Florida.”

“Festive things:

decorating

cookies and the

Christmas tree,

and sledding if

it snows.”

“Partying,

working,

tanning.”

Jaimie Bozack  Associate Editor

It is almost the end of the 2013fall semester, which means newscholarship opportunities will become available for students.

Keeping up with the amountof scholarships students canapply for can be overwhelm-ing. The application deadline isTuesday, Jan. 21, 2014.

According to Peggy Hellwig,Foundation Scholarship andOperations coordinator, in or-der to be considered for a schol-arship, students must completean online General ScholarshipApplication by the deadline.

“We’re encouraging studentsto apply now because the soon-er, the beer,” Hellwig said.

According to Hellwig, thereare a variety of dierent schol-

arships available for students ofall types, and some are specicto degrees. To apply for a schol-arship, students can go to LCC’sonline homepage and click thescholarship link where it directsvisitors to dierent scholarships.

“For students, it’s easy to do,everything is right online,” saidHellwig. “You just go onlinefrom your phone, tablet or lap-top and have it down within amaer of minutes.”

According to Hellwig, forstudents to qualify for dierentscholarships, they must meetcertain criteria, which is listedon the homepage. Most scholar-ships will require the student’sGPA, extracurricular activitiesand a reference leer.

“GPA is important but it isn’t

Scholarshipsstill available

LCC joins national initiative to foster success

Silver Bells in the City delights

Photo by Suzanna Powers

Photo by Suzanna Powers

Fireworks explode over the State Capitol during the 29th annual Silver Bells in the City in

Downtown Lansing on Nov. 22. See story and photo essay on page 12.

Many faculty members were present for

the G2C webinar, which focused on prep-aration for the spring semester Nov. 26.

See Scholarship, page 2

See G2C, page 2

Brooke Burns, 18, General Education Steven Atkin, 18, EngineeringAmber Boid, 18, MusicBrittany Swejkoski, 18, General Education