Category — Awards and Recognition

Thomas Nelson Community College (TNCC) student Jasmine Cordial was awarded a $500 scholarship from the Virginia Association of Educational Opportunity Program Personnel (VAEOPP). The organization was founded in 1975 to help students in TRiO, a federally-funded program that provides academic counseling and more for first-generation college students, students with a disability and those who meet low-income requirements.

Cordial, a TRiO student, is a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, the Student Government Association, the International Club and the Student Virginia Education Association. She also served on the 2009 homecoming committee and traveled to Richmond this year with other TNCC students, faculty and staff to meet Commonwealth legislators. “TNCC has become such a huge part of my life and has helped me with so many opportunities,” Cordial said.

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A Thomas Nelson Community College History professor has been selected to participate in the National Endowment for the Humanities’ (NEH) Landmarks of American History and Culture workshops for community college faculty.

Ronald A. Goldberg, Ph.D., was chosen from a pool of national applicants to attend one of six summer 2009 study opportunities. “I feel honored and grateful that I was selected by the NEH. Last year, I was involved in the Henry Ford seminar sponsored by the NEH, and it was fabulous,” said Goldberg.

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Thomas Nelson Community College’s Director of Distance Learning Ruth Smith was among several Virginia community college instructional designers who earned the first place Technology in Education (TIE) award for the Teaching Online Program (TOP). The first place winner received $1,500.

The annual award recognizes individuals and groups for technological advances that enhance the educational resources offered by the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). Members of the VCCS faculty and staff judged each entry on creativity, potential longevity, usefulness across multiple disciplines and institutions, impact on student success and relevance to the VCCS mission and Dateline 2009.

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When Edwin Slater asked for time off last summer, he told his supervisor he was going to Disney World. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. The 24-year-old Thomas Nelson Community College (TNCC) Information Technology Help Desk Technician was actually heading to George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C. to donate 80 percent of his liver.

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Thomas Nelson Community College (TNCC) is the new hot spot for computer aided drafting instructors in Virginia thanks to Computer Aided Drafting and Design Program Head Tom Pringle. In January, Pringle passed the associate and professional Autodesk Certification exams for AutoCAD 2009 and Inventor 2009, two industry-revered drafting, modeling and digital prototyping software applications. Currently, he is the only instructor in Virginia qualified to teach the certification test prep courses for programs. He hopes to use his certification to help other instructors offer the prep course to their students.

TNCC became an official Autodesk Certified testing center in December.  Pringle works in conjunction with TNCC, the U.S. Department of Education and Ron Williams Ltd., a company that provides educational tools and training for secondary and higher education institutions in the Mid-Atlantic region, to proctor the test in Virginia. Establishing “the testing center, to me, was the smallest part. The bigger part was being able to teach the exam prep course,” Pringle said.

Pringle facilitated his first Autodesk Certification test prep course in January for 13 instructors from high schools, technical centers and community colleges in Virginia. One participant drove an hour from the Richmond area to spend the day at TNCC. Another made a five-hour trip from Blacksburg to take the class and the one-hour, 30-question, multiple choice exam. “The questions are insanely difficult,” Pringle said.

Pringle set aside two hours per week for three months to prepare for the test. He enjoys helping other instructors prepare for the Autodesk Certification exam, but he’s more excited about facilitating the prep course for TNCC students. “It’s still a fairly new test and it’s a really difficult test and if we can start getting the students certified, that’s a really good thing on the resume,” Pringle said.

Although there are several certifications for computer-aided drafting students, Pringle says Autodesk Certification will put students on the radars of job recruiters. “When you receive the certifications, you’re entered into a national database so an employer can search that database for people that are certified in their area,” Pringle said. “The Autodesk test is very respected by industry, so it’s much better for the students.”

Pringle holds an Associate’s Degree in Computer Aided Drafting and Design from ITT Technical Institute and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from American InterContinental University.

Thomas Nelson Community College’s Coordinator of Veterans Affairs Tim Freeman has been selected to serve on the National Association of Veterans Program Administrators (NAVPA) Board of Directors as education committee chair and Region II representative.

Founded in 1975, NAVPA is an organization of program administrators who are employed by colleges, universities, trade schools, and apprenticeship programs across the nation to ensure that student veterans receive the best service and most accurate access to their GI Bill benefits. Additionally NAVPA addresses areas of interest and opportunity for veterans besides education while also focusing on professional development for members.

Having served four years in the U.S. Army before starting his 20-year career in higher education, Freeman knows firsthand many of the concerns service members have. In the two NAVPA posts, he will play a role in ensuring that educational and other services for military veterans meet all necessary regulations, are accessible and are on par with their needs.

“Being honored by my peers makes me feel good. It lets me know that somebody knows what I do and that somebody cares. There may be times when I feel like I don’t want to do this job; but when I see a veteran graduate or when someone says ‘thank you’ it makes me want to work a little bit harder,” said Freeman, who joined the College in 2006.

Also while serving in the appointed positions, Freeman will be among his NAVPA peers in Washington, D.C. March 18-22 meeting with members of Congress and the Senate discussing issues that affect veterans.

Financial Aid Director Kathryn Anderson, Freeman’s supervisor, offered congratulations.

“I think it’s not only a great honor for him it’s a great honor for the College. Given the close association with Washington, D.C. that NAVPA has working on behalf of veterans, this is a wonderful opportunity for bringing new ideas back here and seeing what we can implement,” said Anderson.

Freeman’s NAVPA appointments join his extensive list of professional affiliations, honors and recognition including service as president of the Virginia Association of Financial Aid Administrators; Southern Association of Financial Aid Administrators membership; certification by the Virginia Department of Veterans Services and Person of the Year distinction by TNCC Classified Support Staff Association (2008), among others.

Networking with other TNCC divisions and his peers from across the country at such institutions a University of California, Berkley, he currently has a number of projects in the works to bolster TNCC’s service to veterans, active duty personnel and military family members alike. Top among those is establishing a Veterans Club on TNCC campuses for students.

A Chesapeake resident, Freeman and his wife, are the parents of three children and grandparents of five.

Michael Uenking, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology at Thomas Nelson Community College (TNCC), may have the antidote for students bored with traditional lectures. With a $2,925 Professional Development Grant from the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), Uenking is developing the Statics, Strength of Materials, and Dynamics Online Tutorial (STAMINA), an interactive online program for students in three TNCC Mechanical Engineering Technology classes: Statics, Strength of Materials, and Dynamics.

The online supplement is inundated with course content, video, audio, animation and more, and will feature components of Adobe Captivate 3, Flash and other programs.

Uenking will test the program this spring with 10 students enrolled in Mechanics I – Statics for Engineering Technology.  He will use a pretest and posttest coupled with a student survey to measure the effectiveness of the program. “All three courses are not necessarily easy courses. They are the heart and meat of the mechanical engineering technology program, so it’s really essential that they grasp the material,” Uenking said.

Uenking aims to achieve a 60 percent learning gain among the students, with a significant number of students finishing the course with a final grade of 78 percent or better.

Urging from a VCCS grant representative at the New Teacher Academy last fall got Uenking motivated about creating the program. “The generations that are coming out are gamers,” Uenking said. “Their learning styles have changed.”

That means instructors may have to compliment traditional lectures with technology and interactive lessons. “We really need to grab their interest and keep their interest by exploiting or taking advantage of some of their innate skills.”

Online education is the way of the future, he added.

Uenking worked for NASA for 17 years as a Human Factors Researcher in the Aviation Safety Program and taught Advanced Placement Physics at Bayside High School in Virginia Beach for three years before joining the Thomas Nelson faculty in 2008. He holds an Associate Degree in Engineering from Tidewater Community College, a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Engineering Mechanics, both from Old Dominion University, an MBA in Technology Management from the University of Phoenix and a Master’s in Secondary Education from Grand Canyon University.

He is currently working on a Doctoral Degree in General Psychology with an emphasis in Educational Psychology through an online program with Capella University.

On Thursday, Feb. 5, at 9 a.m., 31 U.S. Navy Sailors will graduate from the Medical Laboratory Technology (MLT) Program at Thomas Nelson Community College during a ceremony in the Dr. Mary T. Christian Auditorium, Templin Hall. Capt. Susan E. Herron, NC, USN, Commanding Officer of Portsmouth, Virginia-based Naval School of Health Sciences and Alvin J. Schexnider Ph.D., TNCC’s Interim President will address the graduating class.  Force Master Chief Laura A. Martinez, Hospital Corps director, is also scheduled to address the graduating class as guest speaker.

This is the nineteenth and last class to graduate from Thomas Nelson Community College since the U.S. Navy awarded the contract in 1998. The graduating students will receive the TNCC Medical Laboratory Technician Certificate and will be awarded the Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) HM 8506.

In addition to the HM 8506 NEC, seven of the graduating students have also completed the requirements in Associate of Applied Science Degree (AAS) and will be receiving degrees in Medical Laboratory Technology.  Furthermore, the students have the opportunity to complete their educational goals by utilizing the Navy Tuition Assistance Program.

Tuition Assistance (TA) is the Navy’s educational financial assistance program. It provides active duty personnel funding for 100 percent tuition costs for courses taken in an off-duty status at a college, university or vocational/technical institution, whose regional or national accreditation is recognized by the Department of Education.  Navy TA pays for both classroom and independent study/distance learning courses, regardless of course length. Courses must be offered in semester hours, quarter hours, or clock hours. The credits earned must show on the institution’s transcript.

Seventeen of the graduating students are re-enlisting in the U.S. Navy for a minimum of three years to maximum of six years.  These students will be receiving selective re-enlistment bonuses for obligating additional service to the U.S. Navy.  The total monetary amount to be paid to these sailors exceeds $500,000.

The program calls for an accelerated 60-credit hour MLT certificate to be completed in 54 weeks. TNCC is the only community college in the nation to train U.S. Navy personnel as medical lab technicians. Students complete seven months of their training at Thomas Nelson and five months of clinical medical laboratory internship at the Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth. Graduating students apply the training received at U.S. Navy facilities around the world.   Navy administrators stated:  “This relationship over the past 10 years has been nothing more than remarkable.”

Thomas Nelson Community College has trained 607 Navy Sailors to date and of that figure 239 were awarded Associates of Applied Sciences Degree by the College.

Further, during this longstanding association 450 Medical Laboratory Technicians have received their American Society of College Pathologist certifications upon graduation. The skills and knowledge acquired over these past 10 years has been utilized by these sailors throughout the military in brining quality care and treatment to Navy Medicine and the patients and family they serve around the world.