Celebrating Students and Alumni

Celebrating Students and Alumni
Evelyn Zavala, a student pursing a degree in building trades technology, was chosen from over 500
applicants as one of six $5000 scholarship winners from Hilmor Tools.
The Gaithersburg Germantown Chamber of Commerce awarded five engineering students scholarships
ranging from $1,200 to $2,500. The recipients are Meheret Solomon Hailu (civil engineering), Adrian
Johnston (chemical engineering), Irina Valeryevna Koltsova (civil engineering), Daniel Kudzo (civil
engineering), and Nika Layton (civil engineering).
Nine Montgomery College students were named to the 2014 Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference
(MD JUCO) All-Conference Teams. For men’s soccer, Jonathan Barron, Fabrice MBah, Brandon McKoy,
and Gabriel N’Diaye were selected. Clair Ramirez-de-Arellano, Ana Cordon, and Katelynn Snyder were
selected for the women’s team. For volleyball, Nicole Couturier and Kapria Redparth were chosen.
Students from the Macklin Business Institute (MBI) programs visited the Rockville offices of Nasdaq and
Aronson in November to learn more about company operations and career opportunities. The 21 students
were joined by Kathy Michaelian, instructional dean; Steve Lang, director of the MBI program; and Lindsey
Hubbard, program assistant. Brian Baick, Linda Youngentob, professors of business and economics, and
Rose Garvin Aquilino, director of corporate and foundation relations, also attended.
Members of the Rockville Art Department’s Student Art League volunteered their time and talent to
spruce up and paint the student food pantry cabinets. Belva Hill, administrative aide, organized the effort.
Art students Victor Merino, Nolen Oliva, , Gene Pasay, Mario Ronci Mydee Talon, and Anderson Toledo
participated.
Music majors Christina Cruz, Wesley Kane, and Aldo Rivera performed with 60 professional musicians for a
concert by the Maryland Band Directors Band at the Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center at the end of
the semester.
Alumnus Dennis Beach currently has a solo exhibition at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art in
Wilmington, Delaware. The exhibition runs through May 15.
Alumna Priscilla Cuellar was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award as outstanding lead actress in a musical
in Spamalot (Toby’s Dinner Theatre). KenYatta Rogers, professor of theatre, and Dr. Jay Crowder,
professor of music, were also nominated for Helen Hayes Awards for their work on Colossal (Olney
Theatre) and Violet (Ford’s Theatre) respectively.
Jonelle Bowen, Emily Christian, Michael Kissiedu, and Bushra Miller have had their conference proposals
accepted for presentation at the Northeast Regional Honors Council conference in Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania. They are members of the student panel on the College’s library ethnographic research
project. The conference will take place in April.
Students of the Hillman Entrepreneurs Program collected 421 canned items—395 pounds of food—in
December. The cans were donated to Manna Food and to the food pantry on the Germantown Campus.
The student chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) partnered with the professional chapter of EWBDC on two projects: the design and construction of cook stoves for a community in El Salvador, and for a
library/computer center/community center in Panama.
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In January, a team of students in the applied technologies program competed in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the
National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) construction management competition in the two-year
college division. Students Julio Cruz, Gabriel Daniel, Sara Elfallah, and Greg Gallishaw worked all semester
on the real-life construction management challenge, getting together between classes, on weekends, and
over the winter break. They completed in seventh place nationally among 20 other community colleges
competing. Mark Corfman and Shorieh Talaat, professors of architecture and construction technology,
advised the team.
Celebrating Faculty, Staff, and Administrators
Conference Presentations/Invitations and Special Speaking Assignments
Jean Freedman, professor of history and women’s studies, joined nationally syndicated columnist Jamie
Stiehm to cohost a workshop at the Georgetown Library in January. The program was titled Louisa May
Alcott and Walt Whitman in Civil War Washington: How Helping Wounded Soldiers Changed Them
Forever.
Tymofey Wowk, professor in the American English Language Program, received an invitation to make a
presentation at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference. He will discuss the
social-emotional development of young Latino English learners.
Amina Rahman, acting director of the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Writing, Reading and Language Center
(WRLC), and Adrienne Betancourt Nicosia and Karen Blinder, instructional associates at the WRLC, gave a
presentation titled Enhanced Academic Support Program for Developmental Writing Students at
the Maryland Association of Faculties for Advancement of Community College Teaching Conference in
January.
The American English Language Program (AELP) redesign team, including professors Ann Sallie, Carrie
Shaw, and Usha Venkatesh, gave a presentation at the Maryland Association of Community Colleges’
Summit on Completion titled Getting There Faster & Cheaper: The Journey through Language Proficiency
Programs to Completion.
Publications
Dr. Lori M. Kelman, professor of biotechnology, co-authored an article in the Annual Review of Genetics
about archaeal DNA replication.
Jill Kronstadt, professor of English, published Very Like a Dog: David Wroblewski and the Story of Edgar
Sawtele for the literary website, Bloom: Late According to Whom?
Who Were You When Kennedy Was Assassinated?, a short story by Joanna Howard, professor of English,
was accepted for publication by the Grace and Gravity anthology series.
Dr. Vincent Intondi, professor of history, was published by Stanford University Press in January. The book
is titled African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom
Movement. An excerpt from the book appeared in the Boston Review.
Dr. Rupa Das, professor of economics, has had a paper accepted for publication in the journal College
Teaching. The paper is titled An Innovation in Experiential Learning.
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Dr. Alycia Palmer, science engineering and math instructor, had a paper published in the journal Dalton's
Transactions. The international journal covers the fields of inorganic, organometallic, and bioinorganic
chemistry.
Dr. George Parris, professor of chemistry, recently had a letter to the editor published in the British
Journal of Cancer.
Awards/Accolades
Dr. Rachel Ndonye, professor of chemistry, was awarded a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship from the
Institute of International Education. Dr. Ndonye will be a fellow at the Technical University of Kenya in the
Department of Chemical Sciences and Technology next July and August.
Chris Cusic, media resources manager, was selected by his peers as the 2014 Office of Information
Technology (OIT) employee of the year. Cusic is a part of the Germantown media resources group that
won the OIT team excellence award. In addition to Chris Cusic, the winning team included multimedia
systems specialists Obi Ekweonu, Charlie Jackson, and Jim Oliver.
Dr. Nevart Tahmazian, professor of chemistry, was nominated by the American Chemical Society for the
local outreach volunteer of the year award.
Art Exhibitions/Performances
Molly Nuzzo, professor of art, is one of 19 artists displaying work in In the Flesh 5 a national juried
exhibition of figurative art at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia.
David Krueger, professor of art, showed his work in Happy Not Sappy, a group exhibition that ran in
December and January at VisArts in Rockville, Maryland.
Maggie Gourlay, professor of art, is displaying her work in two group exhibitions. The first, Instigate.
Activate, New Curators, New Ideas, Homeward (bound) is at the Arlington Arts Center in Arlington,
Virginia. The second, Reference, is at the Workhouse Art Center.
Paul Reuther, professor of art, is a juror for the 2015 All Media Exhibit of The Art League of Alexandria,
Virginia. The exhibition ran January to early February.
John Hoover, instructional lab coordinator, is displaying photos of Montgomery County residents in an
exhibition at the County Delegation’s area of the House Office Building in Annapolis.
Jake Muirhead, professor of art, displayed his work in The Old Print Gallery Winter Contemporary Show in
Georgetown. The work was favorably reviewed in The Washington Post.
The Montgomery College Performing Arts Department presented Alvin F. Trask’s Jazz Ensemble at the
Rockville Theatre Arts Arena in December. The event also featured the American University Jazz
Ensemble, directed by Joshua Bayer.
Special Assignments/Appointments
Joanna Howard, professor of English, was appointed as the president of the DC Area Poets Society.
Dr. Lucy Laufe, professor of anthropology and honors director, was invited by the US Department of State
to serve as a first round reader for the Critical Language Scholarship. She reviewed applications from
students attending community colleges as well as four-year institutions in December.
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Interesting News to Note
Montgomery College’s Sonya Kovalevsky Program held the first of three events on January 24 at the
Rockville Campus thanks to a generous grant by AFCEA Bethesda. Twenty-five middle school girls from
across the county were selected to be members of this year’s cohort. Activities included a meet-andgreet, and exciting STEM-themed, hands-on activities.
The Montgomery College video holiday greeting was viewed by a record 2,647 people on YouTube. Dan
Rankin, MCTV producer and director, shot and edited the video.
Academic News and Notes
The Rockville Campus hosted the 2015 Maryland Science Bowl at the Rockville Campus in January. Twenty
schools and 47 teams were quizzed on their knowledge of biology, chemistry, math, physics, and related
subjects.
The Workforce Development & Continuing Education (WD&CE) pharmacy technician program is piloting a
clinical internship course for students who have finished coursework. Joyce Laing, program manager, is
coordinating the internship programs.
Eleven students and three faculty members attended the Maryland Association of Nursing Students
(MANS) Annual Convention in January. The College received the Membership Award, which honors the
Maryland school with the most students joining the National Student Nursing Association in 2014. Two
Montgomery College students were elected to the Board of MANS: Sheila Pierre-Louis, current president
the campus nursing club, will serve as secretary of the board for 2015. Jacqueline Sergon will serve as
community health chair.
The Montgomery College internship program with the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) is growing. There were nine students last fall. Now there are 16 new interns and seven returning
interns. These students will work with a NIST scientist as their mentor to complete STEM research
projects. Each intern will be paid a $2,500 stipend.
MC in the News
Communication major Jasmine Williams was featured in a December Washington Post article. The article
focuses on Jasmine’s inspiring story and the life-changing efforts of Sasha Bruce Youthwork.
Baakari Wilder, a professor of dance and Broadway veteran, was featured in an article by the Gazette.
Montgomery College students were featured in a story in the online magazine EcoWatch.
A December visit to the Germantown Campus from US Secretary of Labor, Thomas E. Perez, and US
Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker, served to highlight the recent Trade Adjustment Assistance
Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant and was featured in the Department of
Labor newsletter and in an article in the Gazette.
Community College Daily and Business Monthly each ran an article about the TAACCCT grant for
Maryland’s community colleges in January. The grant was also the subject of a story in Capital Gazette.
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Wilfred Brunner, professor of art, was interviewed in January, for a Washington Post article about the art
collection from the now defunct Corcoran Gallery.
The Sentinel ran a feature piece in December, on Montgomery College basketball player Tony Remmel
and his experiences as a player in Thailand.
The first ever cyber forensics competition hosted in partnership with both Montgomery County Public
Schools and New York University’s Polytechnic School of Engineering was featured in a story in the
Gazette.
The Gazette also covered the Maryland Science Bowl, held on the Rockville Campus in January.
The Global Humanities Institute was featured in an article on the Association of American Colleges and
Universities website in December.
Student board member Carlos Mejia-Ramos was interviewed by Al-Jazeera in December.
An article and photo tour highlighting the Holy Cross Germantown Hospital was featured in Healthcare
Design magazine.
The Montgomery College campuses, were prominently featured in videos produced the US State
Department about international education. Three Montgomery College students were interviewed for
the series including: Rueben Aubee from The Republic of Gambia; Shantell Huysamen from South Africa;
and Ana Lopez from Honduras.
The Voice of America visited a self-defense class in December for a television report.
Aru Pande, the Voice of America White House correspondent, visited the College in January for a story
based on President’s Obama’s recent free community college proposal. Dr. Pollard’s op-ed on the subject
was published in the Baltimore Sun. Montgomery College was featured in numerous national and local
reports on the subject, including NBC Nightly News; CBS News; Grade Point, a higher education blog
in The Washington Post; WUSA9; ABC7; WMAL Radio; GW Hatchett ; The Sentinel; The Chronicle of
Higher Education. Dr. Pollard was also a guest on Inside Story with Ray Suarez on Al Jazeera America; and
student Ben Holmes was also interviewed by Al Jazeera.
Latest from Student Services
The Montgomery College Educational Opportunity Center partnered with the College Community
Engagement Centers to present two financial literacy workshops, one at the East County Regional Center
on December 6 and the other at the Gaithersburg Library on December 13. The Educational Opportunity
Center is a federal TRIO-funded program that helps low-income individuals prepare for college admission
and financial aid planning.
The Student Life offices sponsored a Spirit of Service Day throughout Montgomery County on January 17.
Student volunteers worked outside of Giant supermarkets to collect food for Manna Food Centers.
Ten students from Hillman Entrepreneurs joined other Montgomery College volunteers and staff in
celebrating and honoring the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service. They decorated quilts and pillows for
young patients at Children’s Hospital. Accenture and George Mason University also participated.
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Twelve students participated in an Alternative Winter Break at the Steinbruck Center for Urban Studies in
Washington, DC. They prepared meals and participated in activities to learn more about poverty and
homelessness in the area.
The most recent evaluation response center call volume shows an average of 8,855 calls per month.
Four students with preschool age children received Early Learning Center scholarships to cover tuition
costs at the College’s child care center. The scholarships were made possible by a $10,000 grant from the
E.C. Wareheim Foundation.
Tech Talk
A Faculty Technology Showcase on locating, adopting, creating, and sharing Open Educational Resources
(OERs) was held in December to help instructors provide affordable resources to students.
The newly implemented PHYS 233-234 Physics for Life Sciences course sequence is using OERs (open
educational resources) instead of textbooks.
Patrick Feehan, director of IT policy and cybersecurity compliance in the Office of Information Technology,
is serving as a member of the 2014—2015 EDUCAUSE IT Issues Panel. EDUCAUSE is nonprofit association
whose mission is to advance higher education through the use of information technology.
Speakers and Events
A forum titled People of Color and the Criminal Justice System was held on the Rockville Campus in
December. Dr. Alonzo Smith, professor of history, moderated the forum. Panelists included Thomas
Manger, Montgomery County chief of police; David Smith, chair, Rockville Human Rights Commission; W.
Greg Wims, president of the Victims Rights Foundation and Montgomery College Foundation board
member; and Laura White, organizational development specialist in the College’s Office of Human
Resources and Strategic Talent Management.
Five Palestinian journalists and educators visited the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus in January. The
delegation met with Rita Kranidis director of the Global Humanities Institute, Mimi Mann, professor of
English and journalism, and, Kim McGettigan, administrative manager. The visitors learned about
journalism curriculum development and began planning webinars for Montgomery College journalism
students and students at Al-Najah and Hebron Universities.
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