FLCC Forward – Page 9 – A Strategic Plan for 2018-2023

FLCC initiative part of national pilot to improve rural education, training

Front of Bloomfield Operations Center building — The Bloomfield Operations Center Learning Lab is one of two locations for the national pilot project that begins in January 2022.

Finger Lakes Community College has selected Bloomfield Central School and the Yates County Workforce Development Office as sites for a 16-week community-based training course for people who may lack internet and transportation.

The course is part of a national pilot project to develop best practices for rural education that institutions across the country can adopt.

The Bloomfield Operations Center Learning Lab at 1 Oakmount Avenue and the Yates County Workforce Development Office at 417 Liberty St. in Penn Yan will begin offering classes Jan. 24 to train local residents as certified production technicians (CPT).

CPT is a credential recognized by manufacturers across the country. Graduates of the program will gain skills in workplace safety, quality and measurement, and modern manufacturing processes.

“The CPT credential offers a lot of desirable skills that will serve the candidates well. We do believe the program will provide candidates an advantage in moving into the advanced manufacturing field,” said Jim VanKouwenberg, training coordinator at Optimax in Wayne County. Optimax, maker of optical lenses and coatings, is hiring seven to eight people per month, and offering health and retirement benefits and profit sharing.

Continue reading “FLCC initiative part of national pilot to improve rural education, training”

Board welcomes student trustee for 2021-22

The Finger Lakes Community College Board of Trustees has welcomed a new student trustee, Sophia Parshall, who grew up in Naples and is now studying nursing.

Head and shoulders photo of Sophie Parshall — Sophia “Sophie” Parshall

Parshall, who was homeschooled, began attending FLCC as a high school junior through the Early College Scholars program. Early College Scholars provides a 50 percent tuition discount to youth who have not yet graduated from high school and want to get ahead on college credits. Parshall took advantage of the program to begin pre-requisite courses for nursing.

“I decided to study nursing because I have a passion for helping people and have wanted to be a nurse since I was 7 years old. My mom is a nurse and graduated from FLCC when I was about 5 or 6,” she said.

Parshall is interested in specializing in women’s health. Her current plan is to transfer after graduation in 2023 to the University of Rochester, which has a program enabling registered nurses with an associate degree to get a bachelor’s in 16 months. After that, she may enroll in the nurse midwifery program at Frontier University in Kentucky.

“When I was little, I remember begging my mom to let me do a pretend ultrasound on her belly when she was pregnant with one of my siblings,” she added. “Women’s health has always fascinated me, especially finding ways to make women’s health care more accessible for everyone.”

Parshall will serve on the 10-member Board of Trustees through the 2021-22 academic year and have full voting rights as a trustee. She works on campus as a science tutor, admissions tour guide, and staff for the COVID-19 pooled surveillance testing program.

“I have been taking classes at FLCC since I was 15,” she said. “I love this school and it has become sort of like my home as I spend so much time here.”

FLCC grad’s bird sighting is a first for New York

Snowy plover — Jay McGowan, multimedia collections specialist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, took this photo of the snowy plover on the shore of Lake Ontario after learning of Sarah Forestiere’s sighting.

It’s not a standard job title: piping plover technician.

For nearly a year, Sarah Forestiere, a 2018 graduate of Finger Lakes Community College, has monitored two nesting pairs of the federally endangered shorebird at Sandy Island Beach State Park on Lake Ontario, for the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Only 60 nesting pairs are known to be scattered throughout the Great Lakes.

She has kept records of the birds’ activity, taught park visitors about piping plovers, and set up snow fence around their nests to protect their eggs and the chicks, which she describes as “cotton balls that weigh the same as two pennies.”

All this made Forestiere qualified to recognize that a visitor to Sandy Island on Sept. 13 was a plover, but not a piping plover.

She checked guides and concluded it was a snowy plover, common to the southern and western U.S. and the Caribbean. She confirmed her find with an amateur birdwatcher, Matt Brown, who encouraged her to post it on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird app.

It caused an immediate stir.

“The snowy plover observation was significant for birders and ornithologists as it represented the first record of the species for the state of New York and one of only a few dozen from the northeast and Great Lakes area in general,” said Jay McGowan, multimedia collections specialist at the Cornell Lab.

Continue reading “FLCC grad’s bird sighting is a first for New York”

Alumni Spotlight: The answers within us

Doyle Pruitt ’98 built a career helping people in traumatic circumstances find a way forward.

Woman smiling at her large brown dog — Doyle Pruitt ’98 works in private practice as a clinical social worker in Canandaigua. Her dog, Porter, sometimes helps out by putting clients at ease. Photo by Jan Regan

Right before her senior year in high school, Doyle Pruitt’s family moved to Canandaigua, a tight-knit community where many of the other teens had grown up together.

She felt like an outsider but only until she started classes at FLCC in fall 1996.

“I felt like here I did fit in,” she said. “The professors saw beyond what clique you belonged to. It allowed me to explore who I was and what I wanted without having to explain myself.”

At FLCC, Doyle began her deliberate pursuit of a career in clinical social work, starting with her associate degree in human services in 1998, followed by a bachelor’s in social work and psychology from Nazareth, then a master’s in social work at Syracuse University. She earned a Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo in 2013.

Now a licensed clinical social worker with a private practice in Canandaigua, she specializes in the assessment and treatment of trauma and sexually harmful behaviors in children. Her decision to devote her life to such weighty matters began in her teens.

“My whole career has focused on trauma, and it came from in high school, having friends disclose to me they had been sexually abused,” Doyle explained, noting two of those three friends were young men. “I couldn’t do much to help my friends. I didn’t want other kids to go through what they went through.” Continue reading “Alumni Spotlight: The answers within us”

What are mycelia and why is FLCC growing them?

The College is helping a company determine if there is a faster way to grow the nutrient-dense root-like parts of mushrooms.

Woman in science lab, inspecting vial — Demetrice Garcia ’21, who earned an A.S. in biotechnology, works as a research assistant on a project to determine the best conditions for growing mushroom mycelia in a liquid solution. FLCC is collaborating with a local company that would like to commercialize the process for the food and dietary supplement markets. Photo by Rikki Van Camp

Demetrice Garcia carefully positions a large flask of orange liquid in an autoclave, an oven-like device, to sterilize it for growing another batch of mushroom fibers.

Demetrice, or “Demi,” and her fellow research assistants, Philip Simmons and Matthew Brooks, are culturing mycelia, the white root-like filaments that, in the wild, extend from mushroom caps into rotting logs.

They work in the lab at Finger Lakes Community College, trying to answer questions that could lead to a number of commercial products: What conditions promote the fastest growth of mycelia and the bioactive compounds these fibers produce?

Their work is supported by the National Science Foundation, which funds a variety of programs to promote science education and opportunities for students to pursue careers in science. The exciting part is that this is not a lab exercise. Continue reading “What are mycelia and why is FLCC growing them?”

A graduate’s story: ‘I cannot just give up’

Ivan Castillo-Serrano ’20 defied the odds and the doubters to become an FLCC graduate and emergency room nurse.

Nurse standing outside hospital emergency entrance — Ivan Castillo-Serrano ’20, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Mexico, stopped working while attending FLCC’s nursing program to improve his English and learn course materials at the same time.

After high school, Ivan Castillo-Serrano planned to pay his way through a veterinarian program. He did not want to burden his dad, who already worked long hours.

Since good jobs were hard to find in his hometown in the Mexican state of Puebla, the solution seemed simple: Go to the U.S., work for a year, and bank some cash.

“My mom was heartbroken,” he said. “My dad said, ‘OK, if you want to go, I support you, but it’s hard, it’s dangerous.’”

A year became two, then four, then six, and instead of going back, he met his wife, Erin, became a U.S. citizen and graduated from FLCC’s registered nursing program. Now an emergency room nurse at Newark-Wayne Community Hospital, he can tell you his plan turned out to be anything but simple.

Ivan remembers the day and time, Jan. 7, 2006, 8 p.m., when he arrived in Nogales, Mexico, hiding in a dump truck with nine others, his heart beating so fast he could barely breathe. Someone gave the signal and, “We jumped the wall and we ran,” he said. Ivan rode in cars, lying flat on the floor, until meeting up in Mesa, Ariz., with his uncle, who got him a construction job. Continue reading “A graduate’s story: ‘I cannot just give up’”

FLCC graduates largest high school equivalency class

Grad fist bumps president — Latoya Spears of Rochester was among 133 students who completed requirements for a high school equivalency diploma over the last year at FLCC. Photo by Rikki Van Camp

Finger Lakes Community College celebrated 133 high school equivalency graduates recently, the largest class ever, in part due to the addition of distance learning during the pandemic.

About two dozen opted to participate in a ceremony in late August, held outdoors to reduce the risk of exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19.

Kathleen Guy, director of adult basic education for the college, said the state Education Department’s decision to add distance learning and to accept previous Regents credit made it possible for more people to complete the program.

College president in regalia at podium — FLCC President Robert Nye encouraged graduates to tell their stories of how they went back to school and succeeded. Photo by Rikki Van Camp

FLCC’s program allows people to work at their own pace with an instructor to prepare for the five exams necessary to earn a high school equivalency diploma.

FLCC President Robert Nye asked graduates to encourage others to enter the program.

“You should share your stories of where you come from and how you did it,” he said.

Continue reading “FLCC graduates largest high school equivalency class”

FLCC welcomes new vice president

Finger Lakes Community College President Robert K. Nye has appointed Adam W. Rathbun as vice president of administration and finance.

As a member of the college’s senior leadership team, Rathbun is responsible for maintaining the college’s fiscal health and efficient administrative functions. This includes financial and business services, the operating budget, facilities and grounds, campus police, environmental health and safety and enterprise risk management.

Rathbun has more than 20 years in government and higher education operations, including roles with the National Security Agency (NSA) and Carnegie Mellon University. He most recently served as director of finance and business for Pennsylvania State University’s Beaver Campus, where he led the development and execution of a campus master plan.

Rathbun has a master of business administration (MBA) from the University of Baltimore and a master’s certificate in project management from the University of Pittsburgh. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and the Maryland Air National Guard.

Rathbun is also a New York community college graduate, having earned an associate degree in computer information systems from Orange County Community College in Middletown.

College seeks partner for rural training pilot

Finger Lakes Community College is seeking local organizations to collaborate on a project to provide live online training at sites throughout the College’s service area of Ontario, Seneca, Wayne and Yates counties.

FLCC is one of five community colleges from across the nation selected to share in a $1.9 million grant to design pilot programs to support rural students and promote economic growth through education and training.

By January 2022, FLCC hopes to begin a pilot program in which students can attend classes a short drive or walking distance from home and learn specific skills sought by an employer in that same community.

“Transportation and broadband come up over and over again in discussions about the factors that prevent people from taking advantage of training opportunities,” said Todd Sloane, FLCC’s director of workforce development. “This project is meant to help people get started on a path to upward mobility.”

Continue reading “College seeks partner for rural training pilot”

185 FLCC students join Phi Theta Kappa honor society

The Finger Lakes Community College chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year colleges, inducted 185 members for the 2020-21 academic year.

Phi Theta Kappa promotes scholarship, leadership, service and fellowship. FLCC’s chapter, Alpha Epsilon Chi, was chartered in 1981 and provides leadership, service and scholarship opportunities for members. Membership requires completion of 15 hours of associate degree coursework and a GPA of 3.0. Phi Theta Kappa members also serve as campus ambassadors.

New members are listed below by county and town:

ALLEGANY
Wellsville: Morgan Barber

BROOME
Endwell: Joseph Temple

CAYUGA
Cayuta: Samantha Dudgeon

COLUMBIA
Hudson: Walter Hill

DUTCHESS
Beacon: Andrew Singh

ERIE
Cheektowaga: Angela Ballard

GENESEE
Byron: Rose Hubbard

LIVINGSTON
Avon: Jennifer Clark, Grace Clements

Geneseo: John Christie

Hemlock: Danielle Meek

Lima: Mariah McGuire, Ezekiel Sonoga

Livonia: Emily Keefer

Springwater: Samantha Gossage

MONROE
East Rochester: Laura Forero

Fairport: Kaitlyn Hoitt, Joy-Chi Laneri, Lydia McNally

Greece: Timothy Obilisundar-Delaney

Hilton: Ryan Beutel, John Pfeffer

Honeoye Falls: Caroline Chudnick, Chester Doskos, Leah Herring

Mendon: William Allen

Pittsford: Nicole Goodnough

Rochester: Delia Hanley, Tyler Koster, Tanisha Mason, Grant Rodriguez, Julianna Skill, Alejandra Washington

Webster: Leah Shammah, Webster Dalton Talbot

NEW YORK CITY BOROUGHS
Astoria: Matthew Burges

Bayside Hills: Catherine Rivers

Bronx: Olga Grajeda-Giske, Lisa Lawrence

Brooklyn: Zakaria Gassab, Natalie Saint-Cloud, Jessica Sokolovsky

New York: Geoffrey Awinyo, Elyse Robinson

Queens Village: Ahaila Mohabir

South Ozone Park: Rayad Hardial

Staten Island: Otto Cocozello

ONONDAGA
Clay: Leslie Strobeck

Jordan: John Pritchard

Syracuse: Benjamin Lanning, Amber Orr

ONTARIO
Bloomfield: Austin Bonbrake, Riley Gardner, Alycerose Griffiths

Canandaigua: Ashlyn Badger, Shelby Brennessel, Inez Burkard, Jessica Butler, Kelly Callon, Ashley Durkee, Olivia Fiero, Sophia Garlock, Aimee Hawkins, Derek Laflam, Heather Lindquist, Hannah Lochner, Lydia Miller, Carter Moore, Aaron Pierce, Mitchell Steedman, Francesca Tiermini, Jenna Wallace, Jaida White, Emma Whitehead, David Zabliski, Patrick Zufelt

Clifton Springs: Octavio Mateo

Farmington: Chloe Bliss, Gabrielle Constantino, Bianca Laudise, Kasey Lawrence, Linda Mesick

Geneva: Aaliyah Beverly, Ariyanah Beverly, Giavanna Crawford, Melissa Gradwick

Susanna Howard, Lindsey Johnston, Aneesah Lattimore, Thomas Lloyd-Jones, Augustine Long, Rosa Long, Mary Mazzarese, Alejandro Rudas

Hall: Jason Mosher, Kaitlin Smith

Honeoye: Samantha Colf

Manchester: Caitlin Hale, Kenneth Schrom, Stacey Swanger, Caitlin Unger

Naples: Jake Cratsley, Mary Kathyrn Riesenberger

Phelps: Hannah Galloway, Nathan Mahoney

Shortsville: Gavin Davis

Stanley: Allison Harford, Katrina Meyer

Victor: Corey Baiera, Alyssa Baird, Adam Cary, Samantha Catholdi, Gabrielle Landry, Alfonso Montes, Bonnie Pestle, Liam Richards, Katrina VanOrman

ORANGE
Monroe: Esther Taub

Painesville: Matthew Schunk

OSWEGO
Cleveland: Patricia Geldof

PUTNAM
Carmel: Gail Vilchez-Mahi

SENECA
Lodi: Mary Cabot

Ovid: Jamie Bruning, Jamie Vazquez

Seneca Falls: Taylor Brignall, Mariah Dunham, Angel Gonzalez, Kristen Poole, Victor Tumbiolo

Waterloo: Kendall Cornwell, Exzavier Mattei

STEUBEN
Campbell: Nathaniel Carlin

Plattsburgh: Jaclyn Bennett

Savona: Kalyska Payne

SUFFOLK
Brentwood: Maria Arocho

TIOGA
Spencer: Marisa Alton

TOMPKINS
Lansing: Kaitlin Aasen

WAYNE
Lyons: Janaye Austin, Jacob Stearns

Macedon: Nigel Butler, Shannon Kirbis, Elisabeth McKee, Zackary Morrison, Kaitlyn Nichols, Nicklaus Sapienza

Marion: Alycialee Divelbliss, Jessica Mander, Alejandra Vargas

Newark: Cora Barbera, Phoebe Bates, Jacob Boughton, Samantha Compton, Madison Dillon, Kaylee Dunn, Allison Hines, Mercedes Logins, Hoalai Luong, Susanna Maclaren, Cynthea Valcore

Ontario: Sarina Barber, Treavor Barnhart, Jacob Kachmaryk

Palmyra: Carla Charland, Kim Dey, Elizabeth Hannig, McKenzie Heusler, Maureen McClelland, Morgan Pieters, Elizabeth Wagner

Walworth: Leah Terry

Williamson: Cody Beland, Olivia Masker, Jordan Williams

WYOMING
Strykersville: Paige Shoemaker

YATES
Keuka Park: Morgan Kingsley-Hunt, Philip Simmons

Middlesex: Megan Walker

Penn Yan: Jessica Cintron, Natalie Dawley, Alexandra Hudson, Robert Phillips, Brendan Pinckney, Lindsey Vankeuren

Rushville: Gabrielle Doran, Samuel George