Dr. Judy Ackerman, vice president and provost at Montgomery College's Rockville Campus, was selected as one of Washington SmartCEO magazine's "Brava! Women Business Achievement" award winners. The winners were honored on July 16th and were also profiled in the July issue of the magazine. The "Brava! Women Business Achievement" awards celebrate 25 women who are active leaders and role models, believe in building companies that are resources, and who provide services that people can and will rely upon. The award is also based on community involvement through philanthropic acts.

Dr. Judy Ackerman was one of three higher education reviewers for the Maryland State Department of Education of the first public draft of the Common Core Standards in Mathematics. The National Governors Association Center of Best Practices stated, the “standards will be research and evidence based, internationally benchmarked, aligned with college and work expectations and include rigorous content and skills.”

A number of new administrative appointments were made at the Rockville campus. Dr. Robert Brenneman was appointed acting instructional dean of Science, Engineering and Mathematics effective July 1, 2009. Dr. Brenneman previously served as chair of the Rockville Chemistry Department. Dr. Rodney Redmond was appointed interim instructional dean of Social Sciences, Education, History, Health and Physical Education effective August 1, 2009. Dr. Redmond served as associate dean of Humanities since 2005. Professor Michael Berman was appointed acting associate dean of Humanities effective August 17. Professor Berman has been a member of the Department of Reading, English as a Second Language and Linguistics.

Maryland Secretary of Higher Education James Lyons visited the Rockville campus on July 30th as part of the Governor’ Capital for a Day in the City of Rockville. Secretary Lyons met with college and campus administrators and heard presentations on Combat 2College, infusing museum studies in the curriculum and through internships, our top notch two-year college Engineering Program, the Early Childhood associate of arts in teaching and alternative certification.

The Rockville campus will host a six member Chinese delegation from Jiaxing (near Shanghai) in cooperation with the Rockville Sister City Corporation on September 14th. The delegation is interested in learning more about community colleges and our technical education programs. They are also interested in possible exchanges of students and faculty.

The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County has awarded the Paul Peck Humanities Institute a $9000 grant to support the current Portraits of Life initiative Coordinated by Dr. Ken Jassie. This initiative takes Portraits into MCPS schools and creates meaningful opportunities for students to learn about the Holocaust. The Paul Peck Humanities Institute has partnered with The Maryland Arts and Humanities Council, and Montgomery County Public Libraries to bring the 2009 One Maryland/One Book Program to Montgomery College. James McBride, author of Song Yet Sung, will speak at Theatre Arts on October 27 at 7:00 pm.

The Rockville athletes and coaches will start a new academic year with an interim athletic director. This was a busy summer for MC- Rockville athletics. Coaches ran softball camps, baseball camps, volleyball camps, and both women’s and men’s basketball camps. Thanks to the help of WDCE, the department hosted a Youth Sports Camp for County youth. The camps were successful and will help us recruit more Montgomery County student to the college. Currently, men’s soccer coach Steve Nakamura is making his final cut of about 75 players down to 24 and the women’s coach Kelly Wakeman will cut her roster down to 24 players as well. Additionally, Steve just received a letter of thanks from Montgomery Soccer (MSI) for “providing high quality instruction for 65 coaches” at their recent annual coaches meeting. This is one of the many services our coaches provide for the community.

Professor Michael Farrell recently had three drawings purchased by the D.C. Commission on Arts and Humanities for the District’s Art Bank Program. The works will be displayed, on a rotating basis, in D.C. government buildings. Professor Komelia Okim exhibited in Hawaii in the group show, Rendezvous 11 at Honolulu City Hall exhibition Hall in June. Professor Okim has also been invited to exhibit at INCHON Emigration Museum's Inaugural Exhibit Homecoming of the Korea Diaspora from September 9th to December 9th. She will be speaking at the Opening Ceremony. The event is sponsored by the INCHON City Government. Dr. Percy North was a discussant for a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute on American Engages Russia at the New York Public Library on June 22nd. Adjunct Professor Jean Hirons led two pastel workshops this summer, in Marion, MA, and Allenspark, CO, and had a show of 26 pastel paintings at the Marion Art Center. Ms. Cecilia Tao, a long-time jewelry-making student won the first prize in the enamel category of Creative Crafts Council’s 27th Biennial Juried Exhibition at Strathmore. The Creative Crafts Council is an umbrella organization of fine craft guilds in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.

This summer the Counseling Center welcomed over 80 new, first-time students through the How to Succeed in College program which included five sections of DS107 – First Year Seminar. The college-wide First-Year Experience common theme is “Peace and Justice.” There will be various activities planned at the Rockville Campus and the other campuses for students, faculty and staff centered on the theme. Prof. Marcus Peanort and Prof. Tyra Goodgain (GT) will repeat their Best of Region 2 presentation, Educational Planning and the First-Year Experience (FYE): Helping Students Navigate their Journey…EARLY!, at the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) annual conference in San Antonio, TX on October 1, 2009. They were selected by their peers as Best in Region during the Regional NACADA conference in Dover, DE, back in March which entitled them to an automatic slot to present at the Annual Conference. Prof. Joan Hawkins and Prof. Julie Levinson have been selected to present at NACADA. “Turning the Tables with Technology: Preparing Students for Transfer,” will cover the use of technology (e.g., the web, podcasting, social networking, etc.) to reach students to provide accessible and current transfer advising and related information regarding programming and transfer events at MC and transfer institutions. On August 13th, the inaugural First-Year Parent/Family Orientation program was held for the parents and families of our first-year students to get important information about MC and how they can be successful supporters of their students. Approximately 22 parents and family members attended the event and provided very positive feedback. A second session was held on August 20, 2009. Prof. Joan Hawkins and Prof. Anne Schleicher (GT) in the spring began working with Ms. Debra Harris, EVP’s office, to develop a process to establish criteria for evaluating articulation agreements. This will continue in the fall and requires the review of all our current articulations agreements and those in the pipeline. Rockville Campus Transfer Day is set for September 30th where local and out-of-state colleges and universities will be on-campus talking to our students. Previous Transfer Days in the fall have yield attendance of over 500 students and the hope is to surpass that number this year.