The Monday Minute with Dr. Williams | Montgomery College, Maryland

April 28, 2025

Montgomery College is alive with events that reflect the energy of spring and the College’s Transformational Aspirations. Our Town Hall meetingnew window on Wednesday will showcase remarkable students sharing how MC is guiding their post-completion success and highlighting how faculty and staff are using experiential learning to enrich learning and elevate student outcomes. A festival for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Monthnew window, which is celebrated in May, also happens on Wednesday—a joyful celebration of culture, community, and contribution.

Earth’s Health is Essential to Ours

MC’s Earth Week was a catalyst for curiosity, connection, and change. The week highlighted the link between our planet’s health and essentials like food security. A standout moment was visiting the vibrant greenhousenew window at the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus, where I talked with Tierney Acosta, a horticulture and sustainable agri-business student, president of the Permaculture Club, and founder of Wander Space Urban Farm. Her passion was palpable. She guided me through the greenhouse, which serves as a living classroom and shared about the community food forest. Thanks to strong partnerships with local organizations, these spaces are cultivating far more than crops. They’re growing sustainable futures, rooted in care for our shared environment.

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Backpacks on the Go featuring Dr. Jermaine F. Williams and Tierney Acosta

Experiential Learning on Display at Model United Nations

Twenty talented students competed in the Model United Nations conference in New York, representing Montgomery College this month. The students took the role of Japan across 14 committees and 24 topics, requiring extensive research and preparation. They visited the Japanese Permanent Mission to the U.N. and received a debriefing from the Japanese consular. The delegation also attended a keynote speech by the Canadian Ambassador at the U.N. General Assembly Hall. Congratulations to Davi DeAlmeida who won an award for his position paper that merged two topics, fostering resilience and inclusivity in the informal economy and promoting inclusive and sustainable global supply chains. The Model U.N. events are an extraordinary opportunity for experiential learning.

Celebrating MC’s Support for Displaced Federal Workers

The Community College Daily recently published my commentarynew window on MC’s response to the displacement of thousands of federal workers in Maryland. I was fortunate to be able to share how we quickly mobilized to support displaced workers with affordable pathways into high-demand fields like health care, IT, and life sciences. Our approach includes free of charge career coaching, credit for prior learning, targeted job fairs, and strong collaboration with partners such as WorkSource Montgomery and local economic development agencies. As you may know, we have also created an online hubnew window connecting individuals to critical information and resources. Thank you to everyone who has been involved in making this valuable connection to the community in a time of need. It is the essence of the service for which community colleges are created.

With Raptor Regards,
Dr. Jermaine F. Williams signature
Dr. Jermaine F. Williams
President
@DrWilliams_MCnew window

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