CommunitasMVCC Faculty/Staff Newsletter Week of June 10, 2013

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MVCC hosted its inaugural Honors Brunch with the College’s best and brightest being honored for their accomplishments this year.

The event was held Friday, May 24, in the Alumni Col-lege Center Commons, and hosted by Phi Theta Kappa. The ceremony opened with Honor Cords being presented by the Academic Deans from each Center – Lew Kahler, Jennifer Boulanger, Terry Schwaner, Seyed Akhavi, and Marianne But-tenschon – followed by the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Stoles from PTK Advisors Steve Frisbee and Liz Doherty. Presenting the CSTEP Graduate Stoles were Kim Overrocker and Christy Stephenson.

“All of us here at the College are so proud of you and our greatest hope for you today is that you take your memories and accomplishments from MVCC to serve as momentum and confidence for you to accomplish even more significant mile-stones and expand your personal and professional networks

exponentially to open large doors of opportunity to carry you even further on your journey of success,” said MVCC President Randall J. VanWagoner, Ph.D.

The event was well supported by faculty and staff as well as well attended by students and their supporters, and with gradu-ation later in the afternoon, made it a special day of recognition for them.

Dr. VanWagoner, Board of Trustee Chair Elaine Falvo and Vice President of Learning and Academic Affairs Maryrose Ean-nace presented the awards to students for the SUNY Chancel-lor’s Award for Student Excellence, SUNY Chancellor’s Schol-ar-Athlete Award, Coca-Cola Gold Scholars, Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship, All-NYS Academic Team, NYSTAA Scholarship, NYSMATYC Award, and Marjorie Thorpe Term Paper Award.

“This event would not have been possible without the assis-tance of Jim Suriano and the Sodexo team, as well as the fi-nancial support of Student Congress and CSTEP,” said Frisbee.

Students recognized at Honors Brunch

With the world becoming more and more technological, there are few things we are able to do in our daily lives without interacting with a computer. Here at MVCC, keeping the systems up and running for decades has been under the watchful eye of Paul Katchmar.

As the College’s Executive Director of Infor-mation Technology, Katchmar was recognized for 25 years of service this spring.

“Given the overall complexity of the opera-tion and how dependent everyone is on the systems Paul and his team oversee, in my opinion he does an outstanding job especially given the diverse group of individuals the team must serve. At times I know there are unre-alistic demands placed on him and his team which they strive to meet,” said Ralph Feola, Vice President Emeritus of Administrative Services.

Katchmar is the College’s representative on SUNY SICAS Center and oversees all aspects and system upgrades for MVCC’s Banner. As the foremost leader of Banner schools in New York State, he leads an elite team of college-wide power users affectionately known as “Banner Grunts,” which are charged with implementing and maintaining Banner. Under Katchmar’s direction the team was able to go live with five Banner modules simul-taneously, a feat unmatched by other institutions. Such performmances have made MVCC a statewide leader in helping other institutions resolve their Banner and I.T. networking challenges.

In addition to Banner, Katchmar has been instrumental in implementing the Nelnet online tuition payment gateways, the Banner self-service (SIRS) online student scheduling solution, the online attendance solution, Degree Works implementation, migration to VOIP phones and the FitTrac Fitness Center computerization. His leadership led to the marrying of Instructional Computing and Administrative Computing, centralizing the IT function; the number of labs has increased from 1 to 30; and the College network has been overhauled. Ongoing priorities include a revamped equipment replacement cycle and changing technological needs.

Katchmar chairs the APROC committee, is a member of the SPC, the SUNY ITEC and also serves as a College Senator. In his spare time he is an avid golfer, runs in the Boilermaker each year and assists the Boston Bruins by diagramming plays on his beloved Whiteboard.

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Honoring Employees for Years of Service

CLEAN AND GREEN – Students from MVCC took part in the Great American Irish Festival’s project to help with the City of Utica’s Clean and Green programs. Students – seen here are Molly Mortelette, Julianne Tirado, and Amra Hajric – volunteered to help clean up trash from the Brewery Street and Varick Street area of the city. This is the fourth year the GAIF has orga-nized cleanups in the city.

Rome Campus spring BBQ

You’ve seen the faces on the walls of the IT Building on the Utica Campus – striking photographs of the people who make up the diverse fabric of the Mohawk Valley, taken by our very

own student and faculty photographers at MVCC.

Now, you can bring the project home. Prepublica-tion copies of “Faces of the Mohawk Valley,” a beautiful, full-color photo book cel-ebrating the diversity of our region is now available in limited quantity at the MVCC Bookstore. Copies are cur-rently available at the Utica Campus Bookstore, and should be available at the Rome store by Tuesday.

The cost of the book is $20. Proceeds will fund an annual scholarship for an MVCC student who has been assisted by the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees.

The official marketing campaign for the book is scheduled to begin in August or September, when distribution will include bookstores, local shops, and Amazon.com. Professor of Art Ronald Labuz worked closely with School and Business Alli-ance intern Brigitta Field to put the book together.

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LETTER OF INTENT – Frank DuRoss, Executive Director of Institutional Ad-vancement, shakes hands with one of the 10 students who were vying for schol-arships during a ceremony at the MVCC Aviation Center on the Griffiss Technol-ogy Park in Rome. While the top five students received a scholarship, all 10 students were presented with letters of intent for job offers from Premier Aviation upon the completion of their training with MVCC and passing of the FAA exami-nation. Looking on is Rick Quest

Scholarships were presented to the top five students out of a field of 10 from the Airframe and Powerplant Technology Pro-gram’s class of August 2013.

These students were presented the scholarships during a ceremony in the MVCC Aviation Training Center, next to the Rome Campus. These students were evaluated on both aca-demic standing and through an interview process with Premier Aviation.

The scholarships, which will fund students’ participation in Boeing 767-specific familiarization training, were presented by the Frank DuRoss through the MVCC Foundation. These training courses are self-paced and conducted online. They normally cost a student approximately $700, but they are worth the equivalent of one year’s experience on the particular aircraft which will boost chances of immediate employment in the avia-tion maintenance industry.

Larry Atkinson, General manager of Premier Aviation, and Erin Zuck, Human Resource Manager at Premier Aviation, came to the award ceremony not only to congratulate the students who were awarded scholarships, but also present all 10 candidates job offer letters to work at Premier Aviation as Aircraft Technicians as soon as they finish their training and testing at MVCC.

The students who received the awards were Steven Abbe, Christopher Jagiello, Chase Tompkins, David Springer, and Brian Whittredge.

Aviation students receive scholarships, job offers

Faces of the Mohawk Valley now available in bookstore

Each semester the Administrative Assistant students take a field trip. This semester they went to PAR Technology Corpora-tion in New Hartford.

Pat Jones, Executive Assistant to the Vice President spoke to the students. She told the class what her duties are at the company. She is working with numbers all the time, creating spreadsheets for the company. She said the customer is always right.

Jean O’Connor, Human Resource Analyst also spoke to the students on how the best way to get into a company is network-

ing. Don’t be discouraged, be persistent, follow through, send a note, and call periodically. Students can start as a temp for six months and then be hired.

Lisa Dillon, Human Resources Manager also spoke on impor-tance of a professional resume with no misspellings, proper use of fonts and avoiding typos. She handed out: How to Prepare Yourself for a Job Interview.

Mary Lou Roberts, Administrative Assistant in the Engineer-ing Department spoke to the class too. She graduated from MVCC in 1989 with a degree in Legal Office Administration.

Administrative Assistant students visit PAR TechnologyJOB MARKET TOUR - Administrative Assistant students visited PAR Technol-ogy in New Hartford and learned what it takes to land a job with the company.

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Members of MVCC’s Phi Beta Lambda Society took part in a trip to New York City this spring to tour Wall Street and the inner workings of how business is run.

The group visited the Federal Reserve Bank where they were shown the main building including the vault with the gold bars. The vault is five stories below Manhattan and deeper than the subway system.

The group next went to the Downtown Association, where the Holborn Corporation treated the students to lunch. Frank Harrison of the Holborn Corporation and Dane Austin spoke to the students at lunch. Austin is an MVCC alum who began with Utica National Insurance but has since started his own busi-ness in Manhattan and Poughkeepsie. Holborn is a reinsurance company, meaning it buys insurance for insurance companies.

The students were also treated to a tour of the Downtown As-sociation where the highlight was to see the gaming room, with a host of stuffed animals intermingled with pool tables.

The finale was a lecture and tour of the New York Stock Exchange that included visiting the trading floor. The students had an opportunity to talk to some of the brokers and saw the CNBC set on the floor.

MVCC student Joshua Pawlikowski was awarded the NYS Community College Grand Prize for this years David A. Garfin-kel essay contest, which is hosted by the The Historical Soci-ety of the New York Courts. Aside from statewide recognition, Pawlikowski received a $1,500 prize at the annual Law Day luncheon at the New York State Court of Appeals in Albany, NY.

With the generous support of Gloria and Barry Garfinkel, the Society has offered annually since 2008 The David A. Garfinkel Essay Contest established in memory of the Garfinkel’s son David. This contest targets students from community colleges across New York State, offering them the opportunity to submit essays on topics of New York legal history. The competition seeks to draw students with a wide range of interests in law, history, social science and general research writing. The grand prize is $1,500, and the CUNY & SUNY Community College Prizes are $1,000 each.

This year’s topic, “Cyberspace and the Law: What Are Our Rights and Responsibilities?” drummed up 77 competitors from over 35 SUNY and CUNY community colleges. With the guid-ance of Prof. David Katz, Pawlikowski’s essay entitled, “A Slow Eclipse: The Fourth Amendment in the Age of Counter-Terror-ism” brought home the top statewide honor.

Pawlikowski, a native of Blossvale, NY, is currently studying International Studies at MVCC and expects to graduate after the Fall semester. “I decided to participate in the contest be-cause I’ve had an interest in cybersecurity for some time now, specifically how bills like CISPA and SOPRE are affecting our society.” Pawlikowski says, “A prime example being their impact on our 1st and 4th Amendment rights.”

Pawlikowski hopes to make a career out of creating a public platform for discussion concerning social and political issues through his writing.

George J. Searles, Ph.D., has been a very busy and success-ful individual this spring as he has presented at several lectures

and seminars on poetry. On April 6 in Sugar Loaf, N.Y., Dr. Searles

was the featured reader in the “Poetry on the Loose Reading/Performance Series” at the Seligmann Homestead Arts Center. A few weeks later on April 19, he attended the “New Kinds of Attention: Teaching Writing in a Digital Age,” a conference at Bard College in Annandale N.Y.

Dr. Searles is a Professor of English and Latin in the Center for Arts and Humanities at

MVCC. Earlier this spring, he published new poems in four lit-erary magazines: The Concho River Review (Angelo State University, Texas); Glimpse (Canada); Muse (Riverside City College, California); and Trajectory (Kentucky).

Phi Beta Lambda Society visits Wall Street, NYSE

Student wins grand prize for Garfinkel Essay Contest

MUDDY RUN – Pam Fess, Associate Dean of Nursing and Allied Health, took part in the Mighty Run at the Masonic Care Community on Saturday, May 4, along with MVCC President Randall VanWagoner, Ph.D. While competitors aim for their best time, the real competition is to finish this challenging obstacle course.

Searles

Searles enjoys busy schedule