Vitality – Page 7 – FLCC Forward

Tune in to check out mockumentary and other New Media student creations

Image of virtual episode from New Media capstone project — Assistant Professor Paul Engin, bottom, and two students appear in an episode of a mockumentary called “Room 2420” about the spring 2020 New Media capstone class. The production had to be moved to a virtual format.

A mockumentary and a video game inspired by competition for parking spots at the FLCC main campus are among the projects to be presented by New Media students during a virtual livestream event planned for 5 p.m. Monday, May 11.

The New Media and Game Programming and Design capstone exhibition and presentations would have been held on campus this past Friday, had it not been for the pandemic. Organizer Paul Engin, assistant professor, decided the show must go on – the only way it can – and got to work coordinating the livestream with the help of some colleagues like Jeff Kidd.

Students around a ping pong table — New Media students met at the Geneva Campus Center before the COVID pandemic to discuss a group project.

Four class projects will be presented by their student creators and the class will offer a group presentation on the development process. Presenters will use Webex, and viewers will be able to watch via YouTube.

The New Media capstone course is a collaborative development of several, semester-long group projects. Students in the class begin by pitching their ideas to a panel of faculty and staff that this year included Margaret Pence, Rick Cook, Dave Ghidiu and Jeff Kidd.

Members of the New Media capstone class are shown during a visit this past winter to the Geneva Campus Center to plan the Park Shark project.

One of the projects, a mockumentary called “Room 2420,” began with last year’s New Media capstone class. Student Sam Bailey is the project lead for this year’s Season 2. Paul said it was off to a good start “but quickly changed when we could no longer be together for the production.”

“At that point,” he added, “the class had to decide if we were to continue production or not. The class accepted that it would be different and storylines had to change a little, but everyone adapted to the change and was up for the challenge.”

Staffer Jim Perri joined Webex meetings in recent weeks to help guide students through the script change process. “Although not an ideal situation being remote, I think it presented opportunities to think about story and approaches differently,” said Paul, noting that the first three episodes will be shown during today’s capstone presentations.

Another project to be aired is a game called Park Shark that was inspired by the success of the Project Rock and Holo-Pong games, also created by last year’s capstone class and still available at the main campus for public use.

“The idea evolved from trying to Park in A lot on main campus and having others sneak into the spot you were pulling into – park sharking,” said Paul. “The plan was to develop an upright arcade style game with webcams allowing head-to-head competition with different campus centers, bringing a different level of collaborative play across all our campuses.”

The move to virtual forced a change, and the student developers got to work creating an app-style game instead.

Learn more about Park Shark, “Room 2420” and two additional projects, “Will of the Wisps” and MILK by tuning in at 5 p.m. here.

Three FLCC students receive SUNY Chancellor’s Award

Three Finger Lakes Community College students have received the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence.

The award is presented annually to students at each of the 64 SUNY institutions who have best demonstrated their integration of academic excellence with other aspects of their lives, which may include leadership, campus involvement, athletics, career achievement, community service or the arts.

FLCC recipients are as follows:

Head and shoulders photo — Justin Cosser

Justin Closser of Rochester will graduate in May with an associate degree in horticulture. Closser previously served in the New York State Army National Guard for eight years, including a tour in Iraq. He is a member of Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year colleges, and president of the Horticulture Club. Closser also played lacrosse.

Rebecca Hazard of Canandaigua will graduate this year with an associate degree in therapeutic massage/integrated health care. A certified farrier and blacksmith, she moved from the West Coast to Canandaigua six years ago. Hazard is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, the Therapeutic Massage Club, and the Wildlife Society. She also volunteers at Light Hill, the comfort care home on Parrish Street Extension in Canandaigua.

Sarah Middlebrook of Clifton Springs will graduate in May with an associate degree in psychology. She is a Navy veteran who discovered her interest in psychology working with students with autism at Midlakes Education Center. Middlebrook is the president of the Student Veterans Organization and a member of the Logging Sports Team and the Phi Theta Kappa honor society. Middlebrook organized the Third Annual Armed Forces week at FLCC, including the Formal Dinner and Dance. She also serves on the Veterans Advocacy Council and LGBTQ+ Health Initiative Community Advisory Board.

Exhibit features work by Rochester artist Karen Sardisco

Opening events for a new exhibit in Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34 at Finger Lakes Community College are planned for Thursday, March 12, starting with a talk by the featured artist, Karen Sardisco.

The 2 p.m. talk will be followed by a hors d’oeuvre reception from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Both will be held in the gallery located on the first floor of the main campus, 3325 Marvin Sands Drive, Canandaigua.

Sardisco is an associate professor who teaches drawing and painting in the visual and performing arts department at Monroe Community College. Her paintings and prints have appeared in solo exhibitions throughout the Rochester and Finger Lakes area. She was previously featured in the gallery in 1997. She returned six years ago to co-curate a show titled “Intersections/Conversations between Form and Plane: Sculptors and Their Drawings” with gallery director Barron Naegel.

“We’re pleased to welcome Karen back to FLCC,” said Naegel, who also works as an associate professor of art at the College. “Her work considers the physical and personal aspects of place and identity. Urban planning and architecture, for example, are some of the many areas that can be referenced in her art.” Continue reading “Exhibit features work by Rochester artist Karen Sardisco”

New exhibits celebrate alumni artwork at FLCC’s two galleries

Finger Lakes Community College’s two art galleries – Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34 and ArtSpace36 – will showcase the work of accomplished alumni in exhibits set to open later this month.

The Biennial Alumni Exhibition in Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34 will showcase the work of artists Melissa Newcomb ’02 and Dee Westfall ’14, both members of the Keuka College art faculty. The exhibit will open Thursday, Jan. 30 with a 2 p.m. talk by the artists, followed by an appetizers reception sponsored by the FLCC Foundation from 4 to 6:30 p.m.

Newcomb, associate professor of art at Keuka, earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the State University of New York at Oswego and master’s degrees from Oswego and Rochester Institute of Technology. Her vast portfolio includes a six-by-eight foot pen-and-ink mural of the Rochester city skyline, created for the office of Marathon Engineering. She was honored by the college’s Alumni Association with the Outstanding Alumni Art Achievement Award in May 2013.

Westfall, adjunct instructor of ceramics at Keuka, earned a bachelor of fine arts in ceramics at RIT after completing her associate degree at FLCC. The owner of Westfall Ceramics, she has participated in numerous gallery exhibits and has created pieces for commercial facilities and private collections.

Three additional art alumni will be celebrated just a few miles away, at the College’s downtown gallery, ArtSpace36. Jessica Marianacci Valone ’08, Erica Bapst ’98 and Michelle Garlock ’87 will be featured in the exhibit, also set to open Thursday, Jan. 30. A free, public reception and talk by the artists is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 13 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Continue reading “New exhibits celebrate alumni artwork at FLCC’s two galleries”

Bestselling author on organic, sustainable farming gives talk

A seventh-generation farmer who penned a New York Times bestseller about his transformation to organic and sustainable operations will visit Finger Lakes Community College later this month to close out the ninth season of the George M. Ewing Canandaigua Forum speaker series.

Forrest Pritchard will give a talk titled “Sustainable Agriculture: Gaining Ground and Growing Tomorrow” at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 26 in the Student Center Auditorium at the main campus, 3325 Marvin Sands Drive, Canandaigua.

Pritchard has authored three books. The first, “Gaining Ground, A Story of Farmer’s Markets, Local Food and Saving the Family Farm,” made the New York Times Bestseller list, was named a top read by Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post and NPR’s “The Splendid Table.” His second book, “Growing Tomorrow,” offered a behind-the-scenes visit with 18 sustainable farmers from across the county. His latest book, “Start Your Farm,” was co-written with Ellen Polishuk.

“People often say that local, organic food is expensive, but never take the time to understand why conventional food is so cheap,” he said. “From New York family dairy farms, to our food system at large, we’re learning how our food choices have major consequences. We’ll discuss how local food impacts us all, and how to enact positive change.”

Continue reading “Bestselling author on organic, sustainable farming gives talk”

Sands Family Foundation’s $3 million gift largest in FLCC history

Drawing of building — A concept drawing of the Sands Center for Allied Health

The Sands Family Foundation will donate $3 million to Finger Lakes Community College to more than double its nursing program.

The gift, the largest in the college’s history, will cover nearly half the cost of an expanded wing at the main campus in Canandaigua to be called the Sands Center for Allied Health.

The expansion will enable the college to gradually double the number of students it accepts into its registered nursing (RN) associate degree program. Currently, FLCC has 80 openings for new students each fall.

Older woman posing with two grown sons — Mickey Sands, with her sons, Robert and Richard, in front of a portrait of her husband, Marvin Sands

“With a growing need for nurses in the Finger Lakes region, this generous gift from the Sands family will help FLCC fulfill a critical community workforce need,” said SUNY Chancellor Kristina M. Johnson. “The Sands Center of Allied Health will put many more nursing students on a pathway to providing valuable health services to people right here in New York.”

FLCC will also launch a licensed practical nursing certificate program (LPN), which can be completed in one year. The college anticipates scaling up to as many as 56 LPN openings per year within three years.

Objective 3 of FLCC’s strategic plan calls on the college to meet the needs of high demand sectors in our region. This gift allows FLCC to more than double its nursing program to address the local shortage of health care workers.

Continue reading “Sands Family Foundation’s $3 million gift largest in FLCC history”

Victor teen to share vaping nightmare

Photo shows teenager Giovanni Marino in a hospital bed. — Giovanni Marino, 19, of Victor, spent several days in a hospital intensive care unit because of vaping-related lung illnesses.

A Victor teenager who nearly lost his life from vaping-related illnesses will visit Finger Lakes Community College on Thursday, Nov. 21 to share his experiences as part of the Great American Smokeout.

Giovanni Marino, 19, will give a free, public talk from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Lecture Hall 2775 on the second floor of the main campus at 3325 Marvin Sands Drive, Canandaigua. The event is part of FLCC’s efforts to promote the Great American Smokeout, a national movement by the American Cancer Society to encourage smoking cessation.

Earlier this fall, Giovanni spent over a week at Thompson Hospital, including several days in the intensive care unit. Months of vaping that began recreationally shortly after he began his freshman year at the University of West Virginia had severely damaged his lungs.

He said doctors told him he developed pneumonia as well as a syndrome that made his lungs look like “shattered glass.”

“Essentially, it was a culmination of everything – the doctors think my lungs were weakened by the nicotine and they also think there was a potential of me having inhaled cyanide,” he said.

The cyanide and other noxious chemicals could have been contained in the vape cartridges – also called “carts” – that Giovanni was buying illegally from the black market.

This event has been organized to coincide with the Great American Smokeout, a national cessation movement by the American Cancer Society. It embodies FLCC’s value of vitality as a means to bring awareness to a serious public health threat.

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Students stage Steve Martin comedy

Picasso character pointing pencil at the chest of Einstein character — Daniel Jackson, right, cast as Picasso, challenges Juan España, who portrays Einstein, in the Finger Lakes Community College production of Steve Martin’s “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.”

Picasso and Einstein walk into a bar …

This classic setup is the basis for comedian Steve Martin’s play “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” which Finger Lakes Community College students will stage on Nov. 15 and 16 at the main campus in Canandaigua.

This long-running off-Broadway absurdist comedy is set at a bar in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris in 1904, a year before Einstein publishes his theory of relativity and Picasso transitions into cubism. Einstein and Picasso have a lengthy discussion about genius and inspiration at the bar, which is named the Lapin Agile, French for nimble rabbit.

Performances will be held in the Student Center Auditorium, 3325 Marvin Sands Drive, on Friday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 16 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. General admission is $8; entry for students and seniors is $5. This show is recommended for mature audiences.

Juan España

Student Juan España II of Penn Yan, cast in the part of Einstein, said he particularly enjoys the moment when the two characters, who begin by squabbling, discover their kinship.

“Einstein doesn’t see art as smart, and Picasso doesn’t see science as beautiful,” he said. “They are both geniuses, but of two different kinds, and they have this moment of recognition.”

“The play is asking if there is a difference between genius and talent,” added Daniel Jackson, of Naples, who plays Picasso.

España said learning to research characters in his acting classes helped him with the conundrum of playing a historical figure at a point in his life when we was still an obscure patent office worker.

Theatre productions are great opportunities for students to apply what they have learned in class. The college’s strategic plan emphasizes the importance of applied learning, particularly as a way to experience FLCC values.