Provost Office

Dr. Judy E. Ackerman was invited to become a member of the U.S. Department of Education Adult Numeracy Technical Workgroup. The workgroup will meet periodically over two years to analyze the findings of the National Math Panel for applicability to adult numeracy development. They will also offer advice on teacher training models that are applicable to adults and will contribute to the document Principles of Adult Numeracy Instruction. The workgroup met for the first time in April and will meet again in June.

Applied Technologies

The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Washington Metro Chapter awards scholarships annually to students pursuing construction related careers. At their monthly dinner meeting on May 7th, six students from the Management of Construction program at Montgomery College were awarded scholarships totaling of $ 14,000. These scholarships are awarded on the basis of financial need and extracurricular activities, including involvement in the ABC Student Chapter at Montgomery College. Students receiving scholarship awards were: Ben Farrow, Karina Gallegos, Parker Goodfellow, Alex Grinke, Nery Ochoa, and Navid Portovifarb. The first group of Construction Management graduates receiving a bachelor’s of science degree in construction management technology from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore were honored at this spring’s Universities at Shady Grove graduation. As a result of our articulation agreement with UMES, five of our former students - Jonathan Fox, Kara Guthro, Tracy Hill, Michael Montague and Hatib Prom - were recognized for completing their degree. Kara was also recognized with an academic achievement award as an outstanding senior.

Art

Art Department Professors Kim and Jassie along with 10 MC students recently returned from a trip to China. Prior to the trip, Dr. Jassie prepared the students with four weekend lectures on Chinese Art. Professor Kim will use both summer and fall semesters to work with the students on creating art inspired by their trip. The current exhibition on display in the Sarah Silberman Art Gallery until June 26th highlights the work of scholarship award winners for this academic year. Finally, it is with great sorrow that we say goodbye to Sarah Silberman who died at 98 on May 29th. The Sarah Silberman Art Gallery is part of her incredible legacy: we will continue to remember and celebrate her commitment to art and to Montgomery College and our students.

Computer Applications

Computer Applications Professor Susan Cooperman completed the first semester of a Smithsonian Fellowship, which she describes as an enriching and informative experience that will be included and published in her soon to be released eighth book, Professional Office Procedures, fifth edition.

Math

The Student Math League team placed first in the State of Maryland and 4th in the Mid-Atlantic Region in the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) Student Math League competition this year. As the top team in Maryland, they received a plaque, and the top two students, Matthew Lee and Bathiya Senevirathna, each received a $20 award. The Math Department held another successful Sonya Kovalevsky Day on Friday, April 18th on the Rockville Campus. This year 13 teachers and 29 middle school girls from Montgomery County public and private schools participated in workshops and activities designed to encourage interest in and further study of math and science.

Music

The MC World Ensemble, under the direction of 2008 Outstanding Faculty Award recipient, Professor Dawn Avery, performed for a standing room only audience at the University of Maryland's Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park last month. Professor Avery recently won an Expressive Media Collaboration Grant from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian to compose and perform new works, premiering the first Native Chamber Ensemble – Three Sides Taagi Trio. The focus of her work will transform the sonic, visual, organizational, and performative aspects of contemporary classical chamber music by incorporating native elements of community, nature, story-telling, and ceremony. Audience participation will be incorporated into the production. Professor Avery was also recently elected to the Board of Directors of the American Composer's Forum, a national composer's organization focused on policy and education initiatives. And to round off a month of excitement for Professor Avery, her compositions are featured in a soon to be released film Our Spirits Don't Speak English: Indian Boarding School (a Richheape Film).

PAC

The Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center Guest Artist Series presented the comedic legend Bob Newhart on Friday, May 16th. The performance was sold out since the end of November 2007 with no paid advertising! Bob Newhart’s career has spanned two successful television shows, 14 feature films, three Grammy awards, an Emmy and a Peabody award, and millions of albums sold worldwide and he still performs to sell-out crowds all over the country. The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, was the first comedy album to go to #1 on the charts, and is still ranked as the twentieth Best Selling album of all time, according to Billboard. Mr. Newhart has also been honored with the distinction of being heralded as an “American Master” by the PBS documentary of the same name. The last show of the season was the Two Bean Production Winnie The Pooh (a TheatreworksUSA Presentation) on Saturday, May 31st. This enchanting musical is based on the beloved classic stories by A.A. Milne and featured Christopher Robin and his friends, Eeyore, Rabbit, Piglet, Owl, Kanga, Roo and, of course, everyone’s favorite bear, Winnie the Pooh. This show was completely sold out and every little person in the house loved it.

Paul Peck Humanities Institute

This summer, The Paul Peck Humanities Institute has placed seven MC students at the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This is the first time that students have interned at the United States Holocaust Museum over the summer. Mark your calendar: On August 19th in Theatre Arts Arena, The Paul Peck Humanities Institute in collaboration with Montgomery County Public Libraries, the Montgomery College Library, and the Montgomery College Honors Program will host the inaugural event for the MD Arts and Humanities Council's One Maryland/One Book program. The featured book for the program is Ron Suskind's A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League, written about former Ballou High School student Cedric Jennings. Both Suskind and Jennings are scheduled to be in attendance. As a follow-up activity, there will be a series of dialogues on race, run by trained facilitators, during the fall ‘08 semester.

SEM

This summer, Dr. Virginia Miller, a faculty member in the Chemistry Department, will be working as a guest researcher at the U.S. Army Research Lab in Adelphi, Maryland. Dr. Miller will work in the Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate as a member of the Radio Frequency (RF) Electronics Branch. Her research will focus on the synthesis and development of novel ferroelectric materials for use in electric field tunable RF phase shifters. Materials for use in the design of these phase shifters must have a small dielectric constant, be highly tunable and exhibit low microwave losses over the temperature and frequency ranges of interest for military applications. Dr. Miller joined the Chemistry Department last fall. She received her master's and doctorate degrees in chemistry from Princeton University and was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Associate at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. Dr. Miller has received many other awards in her field, including the American Ceramic Society Spriggs Phase Equilibria Award.