Fall 2014
Learning Can Be Fun!
M
More than 650 students from Kindergarten through 12th grade participated in 59 different classes this summer in BRCC’s flagship summer youth program, Learning Can Be Fun. Learning Can Be Fun offers a hands-on approach to many topics, including art, outdoor adventures, fishing, ecology, theater, creative writing, public speaking, singing performance, veterinary technology, computer programming, digital photography, volleyball, and robotics, just to name a few. Blue Ridge Community College thanks the McDonald’sBoxley Organization, the Shenandoah Valley Kiwanis Club, and the Rudy Tucker family for supporting the Learning Can Be Fun program by providing need-based scholarships to 21 students this summer. Additional support is provided by McKee Foods Corporation and the Blue Ridge Community College Educational Foundation.
BRCC Educational Foundation Board Chair Thomas C. Mendez Vice-Chair Cathleen P. Welsh Secretary John A. Downey Treasurer Robert S. Baldygo
Kelly R.S. Blosser Alphonso P. Boxley III Dennis O. Burnett Debra S. Callison Stephen W. Claffey Denise E. “D.D.” Dawson Lawrence H. Hoover Jr.
Nancy Hulings Elizabeth Jerlinski Camala B. Kite Martha Livick Mary N. Mannix Mary McDermott Beverly B. McGowan
Karen E. Santos Jerry D. Sheets Stacey D. Strawn Steven E. Stroop Alan J. Sweet Travis J. Tysinger Cynthia Weidner
Community Link is an official publication of the Blue Ridge Community College Educational Foundation, Inc. It is distributed to friends in the Shenandoah Valley, as well as BRCC faculty and staff, and is published quarterly by the Development Office, Blue Ridge Community College, Weyers Cave, VA 24486. If you have any questions or comments regarding this publication, please contact Angie Glenn, Development Services Coordinator, at (540) 453-2307 or glenna@brcc.edu. Additional articles can be found at http://community.brcc.edu/link/.
We recently asked BRCC Alumni to tell us how BRCC made a
difference in their life, and we received some wonderful responses! Watch future issues of Community Link for inspiring BRCC alumni success stories that showcase how your investment in BRCC changes lives. For many years I had been overlooked for positions or promotions despite my experience. Since graduating from BRCC I have had a number of offers for positions—some for which I had been previously turned down. I have treasured my BRCC experience and quickly have found the payoff, ending years of frustration. My degree has become a solid bargaining tool in my search for my ideal employer. Albert H. Christy Jr., BRCC ’12
My time at BRCC provided the foundation, consisting of two associate’s degrees, for me to take the next step and attain a bachelor’s degree in the field that is a great fit for my aptitudes and personality. The community college system provides a tremendous value; without it, a bachelor’s degree would’ve been significantly more expensive to obtain, even prohibitively so. Thank you BRCC! Brian A. Massie, BRCC ’10
GEMS2
F
For a week in June, twenty-two middle school girls descended on BRCC’s Advanced Technology Center to learn a variety of mechanical, electrical, and aerodynamic concepts to get them thinking about STEM careers in BRCC’s first-ever Girls Embracing Mechatronics Systems (GEMS2) science camp.
“Girls need to find interests in engineering and sciences at their age especially,” said Lisa Birchler of Fishersville, parent of Ariana, a rising eighth grader. Mechatronics is a fairly new Associate Degree program offered by the College that blends mechanical systems, instrumentation, electronics, robotics, automation, computers, and control systems used in highly automated manufacturing processes. Many local employers have expressed a need for employees with this type of training and education, so the job outlook is bright. Instructors Bob Zickefoose and Matt Goss enjoyed the classroom dynamic created by this age group of students. “The group was very energetic as a whole,” said Goss. “Females bring a different approach to problem solving to the table. I noticed that each idea was discussed until the best plan was revealed.” BRCC and many other colleges are doing more outreach to younger populations of students to spark their interest in higher education. GEMS2 was fully funded by the BRCC Educational Foundation’s Engineering Technologies Fund, making the entire week-long camp free to all participants.
Meet Our New Foundation Board Members You Can Make a Difference BRCC graduates are employed throughout the Shenandoah Valley, taking care of our pets at local clinics, taking care of our families at our local hospitals and retirement communities, and ensuring our local economy thrives by being productive and dynamic employees in local industry. When BRCC graduates were surveyed in 2014, 85% of respondents indicated that the degree and skills they received through BRCC improved their job performance. Additionally, 60% reported that the degree and skills they received through BRCC helped them to get a promotion. With your continued support, many students are able to make their educational dreams come true. If you want to be a part of building the dreams of today’s students while ensuring them one of the finest educations available, then consider making a gift to the Blue Ridge Annual Fund. Gifts to the Annual Fund support innovative teaching, enhanced technology, state of the art equipment, emergency assistance through BRCC’s Student Outreach and Resource Center (SOAR), scholarships to deserving students and much more. Did you know that you can make an investment in BRCC online? It’s as simple as going to the BRCC Educational Foundation’s homepage at www.brcc.edu/edfound, and clicking on the “Online Donations” link!
Kelly Blosser is the CFO at Riddleberger Brothers, Inc. in Mount Crawford, and has served in her role since 2001. She earned her B.S. in Commerce from the University of Virginia and her M.S. in Accounting from James Madison University. Kelly and her husband, Daniel, a BRCC alumnus, reside in Harrisonburg with their three children, Hannah, Hunter, and Ella.
Elizabeth Jerlinski moved to Harrisonburg from New Jersey in 1990 with her husband David. Elizabeth works in the Harrisonburg City Public Schools Human Resources Department. Her daughter, Bianca Rose, is a BRCC alumna, and was recently been accepted into the Virginia Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.
Jerry Sheets, a Staunton native, is a retired Client Executive of BB&T Insurance Services. He is graduate of JMU, with a B.S. degree in Marketing and Management. He later graduated from the Certified Employee Benefits Program, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He resides with his wife Lindy, a 2005 BRCC Nursing graduate, in Weyers Cave. They have three grown children, two of whom also attended BRCC.
ratios, geometry, trigonometry, print reading, and welding symbols. A pre-assessment was given to all workers in early January, and those results influenced the creation of the training modules for each topic. Scores on those pre-assessment tests showed that a majority of Shickel employees had a good understanding of basic math but needed to brush up on the advanced math concepts. The results also revealed a need to boost knowledge of welding symbols among employees.
A Fabricator and Community College Partnership By Jeff Stapel and Matt Goss
The full text of this article originally appeared in The FABRICATOR, August 2014, p. 82, http://www.thefabricator.com/article/shopmanagement/a-fabricator-and-communitycollege-partnership; shared with permission.
W
When metal fabricator Shickel Corp. sought to boost the overall skill level of its employee base in the face of a more competitive business environment, it went back to school. More specifically, it sought the local community college to help craft a curriculum and implement a class structure to deliver the improved math and shop skills it desired. Anniversaries are good reminders for looking back, but they are also a reminder to look ahead.
In 2014 Shickel Corp. celebrated its 75th anniversary. It began as Shickel Machine Shop in 1938 and was purchased by Carlton and Helen Shickel in 1952. Today the company, which became Shickel Corp. in 1995, is involved in the production of a variety of metal fabrications, from presentation displays for museums to stainless steel processing lines for food manufacturers to decorative staircases for commercial buildings. After looking back at 75 years in business, the company became more determined to not just survive, but to thrive for another 75 years. The best way to accomplish this was to invest in its employees. Of course, the metal fabricating business is not the same as it was even five years ago, much less several decades ago. The competition is incredibly fierce and the margins are smaller than they have ever been. Companies like Shickel simply can’t afford to create simple in-house fabrication drawings; they must rely on supplied prints from the customer or other parties. As a result, fabricators on the shop floor and in the field have to be able to interpret many types of prints and spot the missing details from the supplied information; time lost to chasing down and consulting with engineers to help to fill in missing details can’t be recovered. To help broaden the skill sets of Shickel employees, the company reached out to Blue Ridge Community College. Back to School Shickel has worked with the college’s Technology Intensive Manufacturing Service Center in the past, so it was comfortable in reaching out to the school’s corporate training coordinator to begin the talks to set up an intensive training effort for the fabricator’s employees. After initial meetings, Shickel management decided to focus training in six areas: basic math,
What was taught? Math concepts covered not only the basics, but also order of operations, rounding, fractions, and decimals. The ratio/proportion/percent portion of the math tutorials taught the employees how to determine pulley, teeth, and compression ratios; rise/run (slope); percentages of the whole; and decimal conversions. The geometry curriculum, designed to help with print reading, covered parallel lines, transverse lines, angles, the Pythagorean theorem, and triangles. Trigonometry presented a challenge to many, but a majority pushed through to achieve proficiency in this area. In addition to math concepts, the curriculum stressed welding symbols and print reading concepts. The American Welding Society Welding Symbols chart was the source for all symbol instruction and discussion. Meanwhile, print reading concepts focused on 2-D representations of 3-D objects, six principal views, reading dimensions, and finding sizes for undimensioned features. Reviewing the Results Results indicated that the courses resulted in huge improvements in basic math scores, in which more than 90 percent that participated achieved the desired level of competency. Even in more traditional production-oriented coursework—welding symbols and print reading—employees demonstrated great improvement from the original assessment to the follow-up testing, with approximately 75 percent achieving high levels of success. In the end, Shickel determined that benefits of the training far outweighed any cost. The fabricator saw camaraderie building among the learning groups, and the training helped to break down barriers between peers and management, allowing a person to admit he might not know something and seek out a co-worker for help. It also energized the company as a whole as everyone re-engaged with a formal learning process, something that can be very intimidating for a person who has not stepped into a classroom for several years. The company believes that it could not have made any type of capital investment that would have had the same impact on its future profitability and morale. Planned Giving Corner Have you recently reviewed your Last Will & Testament? During your lifetime, changes will happen – marriages take place, children are born or adopted, and deaths occur. A change in any of these circumstances often triggers the need to change your will. No estate is too small for a proper will, and if you want your legacy to go where you desire, you must have a will. Reviewing your will provides you the opportunity to make sure the people closest to you and the charitable organizations most important to your heart are remembered. If you would like to learn more ways to make a legacy gift to Blue Ridge Community College, please contact the Foundation Office at (540) 453-2203.
Address Service Requested
20th Annual Spring Fling Auction April 17, 2015, 6:00 p.m., Robert E. Plecker Workforce Center
2014 Virginia Hunger Symposium October 21-24, 2014, multiple events, BRCC Weyers Cave Campus
Community Breakfast Series October 8, 2014, 7:30 a.m., Spotswood Country Club October 10, 2014, 7:30 a.m., Stonewall Jackson Hotel October 17, 2014, 7:30 a.m., Waynesboro Country Club
Save the Date
Blue Ridge Community College Educational Foundation, Inc. P. O. Box 80 Weyers Cave, VA 24486 (540) 453-2211 www.brcc.edu/EdFound
Non Profit Org. U. S. Postage and Fees Paid BRCC