Message from the Chancellor

Season's Greetings! At this time of the year it is with gratitude that I reflect on the many very satisfying collaborative relationships that enhance our ability to serve our students and the community. Here are just a few of the many who contribute to the College.

Jim Click and the Jim Click Automotive Team have made an investment in employee training that begins when students graduate from high school. The Jim Click Automotive Team created a major new scholarship program called Jim Click Automotive Scholars. The group made a $100,000 contribution to the PCC Foundation to underwrite as many as 15 full scholarships, starting in fall 2006.

The scholarships will cover tuition, books and all fees for students enrolling in the basic automotive certificate and the associate's degree program. Click will start students on a career path with his organization by providing full-time jobs to students while they attend school and after graduation.

Carondelet Health Care teamed up with the College to assist first-semester Radiologic Technology student Jason Vincent, who took advantage of PCC's free tuition offer for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. Jason is able to join our program because Carondelet found a clinical placement for him at Holy Cross Hospital in Nogales, and topped off their package by providing housing as well. Jason's parents remain in New Orleans where his father serves on a medical emergency team. An excellent student, Jason was one of 50 students Delgado Community College in New Orleans selected for its fall 2005 Radiology class out of a pool of 800.

As the result of a close working relationship with the University of Arizona, the College is gaining new insights into the academic career path of PCC students who transfer to UA. As both institutions undertake extensive analysis of newly shared data, UA and PCC educators will be able to better plan curriculum and support services to ensure student success. More than 75 percent of PCC transfer students choose UA.

Tucson Electric Power has been a valued community partner for many years.

In fall 2001, TEP initiated a Nursing Scholarship program through the PCC Foundation. The investment has already generated impressive results.

Since fall 2001, 172 scholarships have been awarded to 147 nursing students. All but one of the TEP recipients have graduated or are in the process of completing the program. The success of these students is making a positive impact on Pima County 's nursing shortage.

TEP pledged $150,000 over a multi-year period. This initiative is a model for other companies to follow.

One of those who have chosen nursing as a career path is Laura Pedersen, RN, director of Teen Outreach Pregnancy Services (TOPS) and a 1997 graduate of the PCC nursing program. A longtime volunteer with youth, this mother of four learned first aid, then earned an Emergency Medical Technician certificate from the College. Financial aid and an understanding family enabled her to go through the nursing program fulltime.

As a new graduate, she took the opportunity to work with teen mothers in Labor and Delivery at Tucson Medical Center, and quickly expanded her role to educating this special population about healthy pregnancies. Within a few years, she and another nurse had spun off TOPS, which will serve about 250 people this year, through contracts with the City, schools and hospitals as well as self-referrals. Grants and donations supplement this educational service. This is one inspiring success story, not in terms of money earned, but in terms of the impact one graduate can make on the lives of mothers and babies.

Student Success

Among the many accomplishments of current students are three that show the diversity of Pima students and how they excel.

Student Athlete Achieves Gold

Desert Vista student and U.S. Army veteran Guillermo "Memo" Chacon won four gold medals at the 25th National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Minneapolis. The gold medals were awarded for shot put, discus, javelin, and basketball. In September, Memo traveled to Colorado Springs to attend a training camp for the 2008 U.S. Paralympics team competing in Beijing. Chacon became a paraplegic in August 2002 as a result of an automobile accident.

Math Prizes Multiply

In November, Kiet Hong Nguyen was recognized at the national conference of the American Mathematics Association of Two-Year Colleges for achieving the highest cumulative score in the Southwest Region on the 2004-2005 Student Math League exams. More than 10,000 students from 170 two-year colleges competed nationally last year. Kiet came to the U.S. from Vietnam in 2003 to spend his senior year in an Indiana high school as an exchange student. The following year he came to Tucson to study at PCC, majoring in Computer Engineering. He has won several math competitions and next year will join his brother at the University of Arizona to study computer engineering.

Histotechnology Work Garners Awards

In 2004, in response to needs in Tucson-area medical labs, the College began to offer histotechnology training. Recently, Kayla Chastain, a student in the histotechnician program, won $400 for the slides she entered in competition at the Annual Symposium of the National Society of Histotechnology. She also received the $250 Phyllis Boris Scholarship Award.

Alumni Register to Form Association

Celebrating the success of our students after they leave Pima is one of the goals of the new PCC Alumni Association. Alumni tell us that they are eager to give back to the College. Many say they want to volunteer as program advisors, speakers and mentors. Since May, more than 200 people have registered for the alumni association. The association plans mailing and Internet outreach and an inaugural meeting in the near future. If you'd like to help establish the PCC Alumni Association, or want more information, contact Toppy Burke, director, at 520/206-4581, or email her at alumni@pima.edu. Or, to become a registered alum, visit www.pima.edu/alumni and click on the registration form.

Initiatives

Marana Growth Sparks PCC Outreach

PCC is growing in northwest Pima County. For the first time, the College is offering classes at the Marana Municipal Complex. The classes—nutrition, introduction to western civilization, late gothic through modern art, elementary Spanish I and introduction to psychology—will be taught this spring at the complex and at Marana Parks and Recreation Offices.

The College has completed a milestone in the Marana High School Bridge Project which is designed to increase the number of students who enter and are successful in community college. This fall, a team of Northwest Campus administrators, staff and students visited 450 students in 22 freshman classrooms. The effort will continue with follow-up visits in spring 2006.

PCC Foundation Matches Community Organizations' Gifts

The PCC Foundation (PCCF) has a way to leverage scholarship dollars raised by other community organizations. During 2005-2006, PCCF will match scholarships provided by the Boys & Girls Clubs ($10,000), Youth on Their Own ($7,000), and the Tucson Pima Arts Council ($2,000). In addition, the PCCF board approved a match for the Educational Enrichment Foundation ($5,000), which will be awarded to graduating seniors in 2006 for the 2006-2007 academic year.

For many years, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson have offered PCC scholarships to the boys and girls who won the Youth of the Year award at each of their five clubhouses. PCCF matches those scholarships, allowing students to attend the College for two years. Because this partnership was so well-received by the community, the PCCF board last year adopted a policy governing the awarding of matching scholarship funds. To be eligible, an organization must offer scholarships to PCC, must have a mission consistent with PCCF, and must provide at least a 1:1 match. The PCCF Board will review proposals annually.

Requests for matching funds will be reviewed as they are received, and each organization must submit a new request each year. Each partner organization is responsible for selecting its own recipients. That means TUSD students interested in an EEF scholarship would contact EEF directly, for example. If your organization is interested in offering PCC scholarships, call PCC Foundation Executive Director Cheryl House at 520/206-4646.

Performance and Quality

Sabbatical Research Brings Technology Assistance to Students

Faculty member Eric Morrison moderated a panel of entrepreneurs and researchers developing new products at the National Technology Innovators Conference this fall. His sabbatical research and collaborations with the National Center on Technology Innovation/American Institutes for Research have established him as an expert in the educational and assistive technologies that many students must have in order to learn. He is publishing a series of innovator profiles on the development of these technologies, including those based on ergonomics, human factor design, artificial intelligence, direct brain interface and neural plasticity, and other design principles on the NCTI website.  NCTI uses his research data in their own reporting and analysis efforts on the state of the field of AT development, and have cited this data as providing the most intimate views they have on the design process for persons with special needs.

Instructor Publishes Text on Egypt
	History instructor Michael D. Berdine, Ph.D., has published a textbook, "The Accidental Tourist, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and the British Invasion of Egypt in 1882." The book is part of a Routledge Press series on Middle East Studies/History, Politics and Law.  Dr. Berdine has taught history and civilization courses at PCC for more than 10 years. He is an expert in Middle Eastern and Islamic history.

University of Arizona Honors Campus President

The University of Arizona Alumni Association recently recognized Dr. Johnson Bia with its Professional Achievement Award, given to alumni who have attained prominence in their field. The association cited Dr. Bia's role as president of PCC Downtown Campus, plus more than 20 years of educational administration.  He is active locally, regionally, and nationally in areas related to workforce development, Native American education, and international development projects. 

Student Publication Earns National Award for Excellence

The Community College Humanities Association gave the 2005 edition of SandScript, the student literary/art magazine, both the Southwest Division Award and the National Award for overall excellence. More than 150 community colleges competed for the national award. The magazine has won first prize in the Southwest Division for three years. Tom Speer, faculty advisor, SandScript, and Susan Collinet, student editor, spoke at a workshop for literary magazine advisors at the annual conference in November, when they accepted the award.

Grants and Partnerships

State Funds Accelerated Nursing Instruction

The Arizona Department of Commerce awarded PCC a Community College Grant for Nursing Programs (a by-product of recently passed SB 1517) totaling $385,734 for three years.  The grant will implement two cycles of a campus-based 18-month accelerated nursing program that will operate on a year-round schedule including summer instruction.  The grant will increase the College's faculty and student capacity in its nursing program.  Two additional nursing faculty members and adjunct faculty will be hired to conduct evening classes. The grant enables 60 additional nurses to move into the job market, and to do so through a compressed timetable with no loss of quality.

U.S. Dept. of Education Funds AIMS Preparation

Three other significant grants this fall will make a difference over the coming years in several important areas. A six-year $1.14 million GEAR-UP grant from the U.S. Dept. of Education will provide summer and AIMS preparation programs for middle and high school students.

Student-Parents Receive Grant for Child Care

A four-year $296,800 Dept. of Education grant, entitled "Childcare means Parents in School: CCAMPIS=Strong Families with Bright Future," will allow low-to-moderate income PCC students to continue their studies by providing needed child-care dollars.

Federal Grant Helps PCC Teach Skills to Benefit Neighborhoods

A three-year $577,561 Hispanic Serving Institutions Assisting Communities grant, "Education for Economic Empowerment" from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development will assist lower income single parents from the Flowing Wells Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area and Empowerment Community neighborhoods in the city of Tucson. PCC's Progress! program will provide educational workshops and services leading to the acquisition of financial empowerment and career skills, and skills that lead to home and neighborhood improvement.

These highlights from the fall grants cycle total more than $2.4 million to directly assist students.

In this season of giving, sharing and receiving, Pima Community College can be thankful for much that has benefited our students. May your heart be joyous as the new year begins.

Comments, suggestions or to subscribe or unsubscribe: chancellor@pima.edu

Pima Community College, 4905 East Broadway Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85709