Retired scientist donates life savings to scholarship endowment Dr. Victor Guzman, a retired agricultural research scientist and Belle Glade resident, recently donated a large portion of his life savings to establish the Lake Okeechobee Muck Rat Nation Scholarship Fund for PBCC Belle Glade students.   (more)

Board of Trustees approve new building for B.A.S. degree Construction on the 36,000-square-foot, three-story building at the Lake Worth campus is slated to begin in summer 2010.  (more)

College plans ‘brand refresh’ to go with new name YOU can help to choose the new logo and slogan for Palm Beach State College!   (more)

YOU can help to choose the new logo and slogan for Palm Beach State College!

With the implementation of the new College name coming in January 2010, a College-wide committee is working on a “brand refresh” involving such items as the College logo, slogan and marketing taglines. Their goal is to communicate the expanded educational opportunities, while retaining the College’s strong image as an open-access, affordable and high-quality institution. The new elements will support this communication by providing recurring visual reminders to help audiences to reshape their view of the institution.

“PBCC enjoys virtually 100 percent awareness among adults and high school students in our community, and those perceptions are quite positive,” said Dr. Grace Truman, director of college relations and marketing and committee chair. “We want to communicate that there is more going on here than a simple name change, but also reassure the community that our core mission remains the same.”

Just as with the name change itself, students and the community are invited to provide input into these decisions. An online survey has been posted to give all the opportunity to weigh in on the logo and slogan options. The survey is being conducted through Nov. 30.

To participate in the survey, just click here:

For more information visit the website at: www.pbcc.edu/NameChangeFAQs.xml

The Lake Worth campus hosted two concerts and service recognition ceremonies in honor of Veterans Day on Nov. 10. (Top photo) Armed services veterans (from left) Sy Hanover, Mike Miles, Kerry Weis, Mike Latimer, Van Williams and Tony Acosta were honored during a recognition ceremony held in Pruitt Plaza at the ETA courtyard. The Navy band Pride entertained students, faculty and staff during the two-hour concert. (Bottom photo) The Duncan Theatre was the setting for an evening concert for veterans and members of the local community by the Navy ensemble band Sound of Freedom.

Palm Beach Community College’s Bachelor of Applied Science degree program is getting a new home.

The District Board of Trustees voted at its Nov. 10 meeting to approve funding for a 36,000-square-foot, three-story building on the Lake Worth campus for the bachelor’s degree program. The program began this fall with more than 340 students, triple what College leaders expected for the first year.

The program currently is housed in the Technology Education Center, a 12,146 –square-foot, two-story building that was constructed 50 years ago. John Wasukanis, facilities director, told trustees it would cost too much money, about $4.1 million, to renovate and bring the TE building to today’s construction codes. The TE building also was never designed to sustain wind force, he said.

Richard Becker, vice president of administration and business services, said it has not yet been determined where on campus the building will be constructed, but it will not be at the site of the Technology Education building. The College must keep the TE building open while the new facility, estimated to cost just over $10 million, is constructed. The TE building instead will be demolished after the new B.A.S. building opens.

“We don’t have any place to put the people who are in there now. We would be hard pressed to find classroom and office space,’’ Becker said.

The board authorized the College to use capital improvement fees paid by students as part of their tuition to cover the bulk of the construction costs for the new building. In addition, $935,279 of Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO) funds from the state also will be used.

Design will begin this term or early next year and construction is slated to begin in summer 2010. Constructed is expected to completed sometime in fall 2011, Becker said.

With the higher than anticipated B.A.S. enrollment and PBCC’s plans, if approved by the State Board of Education, to offer a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing and a B.A.S. in information technology, the program will need a designated building to handle the growth.

“It’s really taken off,’’ Becker said of the B.A.S. program, “and with this building we’ll be able to accommodate additional bachelor’s degree programs over the next few years after we receive approval. Clearly that program is going to be growing.”

“Right now, (the TE building) is maxed out as far as office spaces,’’ said Ginger Pedersen, dean of curriculum, assessment and research. “All of these people plus all of the additional people we hire for the new programs will all be in that new building. It brings it all together.” 

Adjunct nursing instructor Ilse Wallace, center, shows how an infant warming station works to a group of students from the medical magnet program at Inlet Grove Community High School during the Day in the Life of a Nurse program on the Lake Worth campus Nov. 13.

Each year, the Nursing Consortium of South Florida, a coalition of hospitals, nursing schools, health care agencies, and foundations, organizes the event in partnership with South Florida public school districts and many private high schools. Students participating in the one-day program take part in various activities including tours of key hospital departments conducted by real nurses. This experience allows students to spend time with the nurse and ask them individual questions about their profession, their challenges and their nursing stories.

Students also typically meet and hear from nurse educators, information systems nurses, nurse researchers, and nurse administrators. In addition to shadowing staff nurses and listening to various presentations, student experiences can include performing simple duties such as taking a person’s blood pressure and pulse, listening to their heart beat through a stethoscope, scrubbing in and dressing out in surgical attire, and touring a surgical room where they may handle high tech equipment. This year marked the first time PBCC hosted the event.   

Since 2003, the PBCC chapter of Florida Association of Community Colleges has awarded 60 scholarships to members, their spouses, children and grandchildren. This year, 10 individuals have been chosen to receive FACC scholarships made possible by on-campus fundraisers. Varied amounts have been available in the past; however, each of these scholarships is worth $500 divided by fall and spring semesters of the 2009/2010 academic year.

PBCC/FACC scholarship history facts:
• A total of $15,230 has been awarded for fiscal years 2003 - 2009.
• Two recipients were doubly awarded, one totaling $1,000 and the other $700.
• One recipient was awarded three times, totaling $1,200.
• One recipient received a total of $950 from four different awards.
• Three recipients from one family received awards for a total of $2,650.

Congratulations to the scholarship award recipients!

Joann McMillion                  Kathryn Aguila                      Sara Caldwell
Marileidy Guzman               Hayden Hampton                  Monique King
Hannah Mkpong                  Jeff Nowak                            Elizabeth Pain
Amy Persenaire   

PBCC recently lost two highly respected and beloved members of its educational programs within days of each other.

Professor Lyndon F. Johnson died Nov. 3 after a long battle with cancer. He was the husband of Robin Johnson, director of recruitment and dual enrollment on the Lake Worth campus.

Johnson began working at PBCC in 2001 as an adjunct professor and became an associate professor of computer science and math at the Belle Glade campus in August of that year. He was the recipient of the Glades Endowed Faculty Chair for 2002-2004, and he served as department chair from 2005-2007. Johnson also was named a Gimelstob Professor of the Year in 2005 and 2008 after receiving glowing nominations by his students and colleagues.

Johnson was a native of Birmingham, Ala., and received his bachelor’s degree in physics from Talladega College and a master’s degree in computer engineering from Florida Atlantic University.

The funeral was held Nov. 11 at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Boynton Beach. Johnson will be interred in Birmingham.



Another good friend and colleague, Jane Hastings, cosmetology program manager at the Lake Worth campus, passed away Nov. 9 at Bethesda Memorial Hospital. She was 62.

A native of Fort Lauderdale, Hastings began working at PBCC as a program specialist in 1993. She has been responsible for various career training programs over the years, and her efforts were greatly appreciated by instructors, students, staff and the local business community.

Hastings was also a PBCC alumna, earning her associate degree from Palm Beach Junior College in 1967 and then a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Florida Atlantic University in 1974. Survivors include her parents, Anna and Anthony Plungis, and two sons, Jason and Erik Sonnenberg. A memorial service was held Nov. 14 at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church of Boca Raton.

Memorial donations may be made in her name to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund: www.ocrf.org . 

Associate Professor Africa Fine will read from and discuss her latest novel, "Save Me", as part of Florida Atlantic University’s inaugural Literary Authors Series, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center in Boca Raton.

The event will be moderated by Wenying Xu, FAU department chair and professor of Asian-American and women’s literature, creative writing and literary theory.

Fine, a FAU alumna, has published four novels and her fifth novel, "Swan", will be published in 2010. She is an associate professor of English and literature on the Boca Raton campus.

FAU’s Literary Author Series is a community outreach program designed to interview authors and engage the audience in a discussion regarding the authors’ works or issues addressed in their books.

The event will take place on the second floor of Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center, 201 Plaza Real in Boca Raton.

John Pierson Job Title:  Learning Specialist Campus:  Belle Glade Hometown: Belle Glade With PBCC since: 1988

The one thing I enjoy most about my job is working with students and sharing in their success.

The best advice I ever received was don't ever grow old.

I’d like to be known for being fair and honest.

I consider my greatest achievement to be a dad!

Mentors who have helped me along the way are Carol Grimm, Robert Flores, and my parents, Tom and Karen.

If I were not working my current job I would probably be working in some other trade or industry that helps people.

The one thing in my life I could not live without is two things, actually; my wife Lisa and my daughter Taylor.

If I had to change one thing about myself it would be that I would have started my academic career at a community college.

When Dr. Victor Guzman arrived at the agricultural research station established by the University of Florida just south of Belle Glade, he was given a simple edict—help solve the problems of the local farmers. He was determined to stay in the area until he believed he had done everything he could to improve the crop production of the local farmers.

That was in 1951.

For more than 60 years, Guzman developed chemicals for weed control as well as virus and root-rot resistant strains of lettuce that thrive in rich, organic soil surrounding Lake Okeechobee. Guzman put down roots of his own in Belle Glade. He raised a family of five children with his wife, Ruth, a teacher and librarian for 25 years at Gove Elementary School. And through the years he put a few dollars away every week into a savings account.

“I’m a spendthrift,” said Guzman, now 95 years old and a professor emeritus. “We lived very frugally, so I was able to save a dollar here, a couple of dollars there. I did it with giving back to the community in mind.”

Last year Guzman read an article in the Palm Beach Post reporting on the plight of young African-American men living in the county’s western communities. The story cited low graduation rates, high incarceration rates, low wages, high health care expenses and few employment prospects in the area for African-American males.

The story moved Guzman to establish the Lake Okeechobee Muck Rat Nation Scholarship Fund. He donated most of his life savings--$100,000—to establish the scholarship fund with the PBCC Foundation.

The “Muck Rat Nation,” Guzman says, refers to all the people who make their living in the rich soil within Everglades Agricultural Area.

“The scholarship is only a drop of water in a vast ocean of need,” said Guzman. “But we have to start somewhere. It is my hope that it will become a vast river of hope.”

Applicants for the scholarship must be accepted at PBCC and enrolled for a minimum of 12 credit hours per term, be a resident of Palm Beach County attending the Belle Glade campus and demonstrate financial need by completing a application for federal student aid. Two $500 scholarships will be available for eligible students per semester.

“Dr. Guzman’s gift to the western communities is truly inspirational,” said Suellen Mann, executive director of the PBCC Foundation. “ He understands the benefits of higher education and demonstrates that each and every one of us can make a difference in the world."

A reception to honor Dr. Guzman’s donation will be held at the Dolly Hand Cultural Arts Center from 5 to 7 p.m. Dec. 1.

For more information on the Lake Okeechobee Muck Rat Nation Scholarship Fund, contact the PBCC Foundation office at (561) 868-3450.

LLRC Director Brian Kelley with an original Kindle, the Kindle 2   and the Kindle DX.

They are lightweight, portable, reader-friendly and have the capacity to hold hundreds of books, blogs, magazines and newspapers.

“They” are the latest generation of electronic book devices—the Kindle, available through Amazon.com; the Nook, sold through Barnes & Noble and Sony’s eBook. While they differ in size and style they all share several common traits, most notably the ability to literally have hundreds of thousands of books at a reader’s disposal.

The Learning Library Resource Center on the Lake Worth campus has Kindles available for use—35 first generation Kindles that debuted in 2007, two of the newer Kindle 2 devices and two Kindle DX, which sports a larger screen and enhanced storage capacity. The library has recently order two Nook readers and two of the Sony devices.

PBCC is the first community college in the state to purchase e-book devices for its library. The library staff made use of a grant offered by the Title III office in August of 2008 to purchase four of the first-generation Kindles.

All of the readers have an “electronic ink” screen, giving it the look of print on paper and can be easily read even in direct sunlight. Each has the capacity to hold hundreds of books; users can browse online and download a sample chapter of a book before deciding to purchase it. And then there’s the cost—most e-books are available for purchase for less than ten dollars, compared to $25 to $40 for a print version. Once a purchase is made, the book downloads in less than a minute through its own wireless delivery system—no computer hookups needed.

“We’re seeing this as an exploration process,” said Brian Kelley, the LLRC director. “It’s a new technological delivery system and [the library] is trying different models to maximize it to fully benefit the students.”

Students and staff can check out a Kindle on a first-come, first serve basis. Check out times can vary from three hours to an entire semester. Users can request to have a book downloaded to the device for reading. Kelley said nearly everyone who has used one of the Kindles has had a positive experience with it.

“In the past, if we didn’t have a book here at the library someone wanted to check out, we would have to do an interlibrary loan,” said Kelley. “Now if we don’t have it, we find it’s more cost-effective to just purchase it electronically. It saves us time, paperwork and manpower.”

To learn more about e-book devices at the Lake Worth LLRC visit its Kindle section.

Holiday open house
The PBCC administrative team invites all College faculty and staff to stop in and say hello during their annual holiday open house on Dec. 2 from 2 to 4 p.m. on the second floor of the Administration building on the Lake Worth campus. Come by, enjoy some refreshments, stay a little while, and then let others in to also enjoy the festivities.

FACC chapter hosts holiday raffle
The PBCC chapter of FACC will hold the 2009 holiday drawing Dec. 4 at the Boca Raton campus holiday party. Prizes include holiday baskets, a Cuisinart food processor, a 19’’ Phillips flat screen TV, and more! Prizes won will be delivered to your campus if you are not present.

Full-time faculty and staff will receive 10 tickets through campus mail. Complete and return them with cash or check (made payable to PBCC/FACC) to:

Lake Worth: Joe Millas – MS #33 or Betty Dente – MS #51
Palm Beach Gardens – Florence Williams – MS #45
Boca Raton – Lourdes Rey – MS #44
Belle Glade: Sharon Glenn – MS #43

Tickets are $1 each. Additional tickets for purchase can be requested through Betty Dente at denteb@pbcc.edu  or 868-3892. This drawing is open to all employees, their family and friends.

Come join us and enjoy the holiday cheer while benefiting the chapter and employee/family scholarship fund!

Comings and Goings

Comings

Barbara Ceusters, administrative assistant II, Lake Worth

Mareta Iosia-Sizemore, student life manager, Lake Worth

Brenda Lesser, administrative assistant II, Palm Beach Gardens

Cindy Randolph, student services & financial aid representative I, Lake Worth

Debra-Anne Singleton, workforce assessment advisor, Lake Worth


Goings

Monique Anders, job coach developer, Lake Worth

Adriana Chow-Ellison, human resources representative II, Lake Worth

Monica Delgado, Global Education Center director, Lake Worth

Ian Faubert, information security manager, Lake Worth

Amy Filewicz, Wellness Center specialist, Palm Beach Gardens


Transfers/Promotions

Teresa Breland, financial aid advisor, Lake Worth

Lauren Ellis, administrative assistant II, Lake Worth

Melba Pena, administrative assistant II, Lake Worth

Maharani Tilokani, administrative assistant II, Boca Raton


Drop Retirement

Roberta Marsh, Crossroads program coordinator, Lake Worth


Retirements

Martin Pawlicki, associate professor, Boca Raton

Deep condolences are extended to Dr. Grace Truman, director of college relations and marketing, whose father, Raymond A. Hanley, Jr., 82, passed away Nov. 2 in Pittsburgh.

Sympathy also is extended to Sarah Warren upon the death of her stepfather, John F. Alexander, Jr., who died Nov. 6 in Gainesville. Sarah is an early childhood education program assistant at the Boca Raton campus.

Please remember your colleagues in your thoughts and prayers.