Imprint

Imprint Johnson County Community College

Spring 2012

Green, gray and possibly platinum: Galileo’s Pavilion loaded with energy savings, sustainable ideas

Contents

Imprint Imprint at JCCC is published five times a year by Johnson County Community College, 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park, KS 66210-1299; 913-469-8500, fax 913-469-2559.

Imprint at JCCC is produced by College Information and Publications and the Office of Document Services. Imprint is located online at http://www.jccc.edu/Imprint.

Editor: Diane Carroll • Photographer: Bret Gustafson • Designer: Randy Breeden When planning your estate, remember Johnson County Community College. For more information, call the JCCC Foundation at 913-469-3835.

Cover Reverse transfer agreement Outside Galileo’s Pavilion, which is under construction, are JCCC students Kris Mo (from left), and Kevin Clark; Jay Antle, director of the JCCC Center for Sustainability; Kim Criner, JCCC’s sustainability education and engagement coordinator; and Megan Carrithers, a master of architecture degree candidate at the University of Kansas. Mo and Clark, who are members of the Student Sustainability Committee, appeared before the board of trustees to speak in support of the pavilion.

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7 JCCC students can wrap up associate’s degree at K-State The two schools find a way for community college students who are just short of a degree to finish it while studying at the university.

Galileo’s Pavilion This green building, which will be open this fall, will help transform the campus into a living, learning laboratory for students.

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Overland Park survey finds community gives high marks to the college

Women’s basketball team in top form

Terry Calaway says JCCC’s goal is to be “the best college in America.”

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Students excel on the floor and in the classroom.

Notice of Nondiscrimination – Johnson County Community College does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, disability, age, religion, marital status, veteran’s status, sexual orientation or other factors that cannot be lawfully considered in its programs and activities as required by all applicable laws and regulations. Inquiries concerning the college’s compliance with its nondiscrimination policies may be referred to the Dean of Student Services or Director of Human Resources, Johnson County Community College, 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park, KS 66210, 913-469-8500; or to Office for Civil Rights, 8930 Ward Parkway, Suite 2037, Kansas City, MO 64114, 816-268-0550.

Culinary Academy

Fred Logan

11 Former JCCC trustee takes on new role as Kansas regent

8 Groundbreaking to take place in May A new building south of Regnier Center will have seven kitchens and be home to the hospitality management program.

One of Logan’s efforts has been to make it easier for students to transfer more courses from JCCC to four-year universities.

12 Safety concerns propel decision to skip trip to Honduras valley Students talk about previous research visits and look forward to the next one.

Back Cover

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Journalism majors work together

Powwow features dance competitions, free health screenings

Students in radio, TV and newspaper weigh in on convergence.

Start2Finish run set for July Profits support JCCC students who attend KU.

The May event is open to the public.

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Galileo’s Pavilion set to open for fall semester Galileo’s Pavilion is expected to earn a LEED platinum rating; construction will be completed this semester.

typical Johnson County

This will not be your Community College red brick classroom building.

For one thing, it’s not red brick at all. The exterior walls of Galileo’s Pavilion, going up just south of the Science building, will be clad with reclaimed gray slate chalkboards.

For another, it’s loaded with energy-saving features and local and reclaimed materials, with a goal of achieving LEED platinum certification, the highest possible mark awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council program.

the green fee proposed the idea again.

Antle and his team pursued the idea, but with a twist. They connected with Studio 804, a design/build program at the University of Kansas School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Each year, architecture students in the KU program design and construct a building over the course of a semester, gaining practical experience in bringing a design to fruition.

After meetings over the summer, Studio 804 prepared a proposal for a green building on the JCCC campus.

And a third distinctive feature? JCCC students are chipping in $150,000 toward its construction through a $1 per credit hour “green fee” that generates about $400,000 a year to support sustainability initiatives on campus.

They designed a U-shaped building with two classrooms linked via a lounge area, surrounding an outdoor courtyard that will be home to the Galileo’s Garden sculpture by Dale Eldred.

Work got under way in January on the 3,000-square-foot building that will house two general education classrooms, a lounge, kitchen and restrooms. It’s expected to be finished this spring, dedicated this summer, and ready for classes in August.

The sculpture is an outdoor installation that functions as a solar timepiece. It previously occupied the space where the building sits and gave the building its name. Suspended on steel cables at the center of Eldred’s work is a stainless steel disk with a hole in its center. On the ground beneath the disk is a nickel-coated plate etched with lines that denote the 21st day of each month. As the sun passes overhead, the disk casts a shadow on the lines, providing a solar calendar.

The work honors the 17th-century Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei who challenged the theory that the sun revolved around the earth.

Jay Antle, director of the JCCC Center for Sustainability, said the new construction supports the JCCC strategic plan calling for the college to champion environmental sustainability in the curriculum and in the college infrastructure, transforming the physical campus into a living, learning laboratory.

Antle said the idea of constructing a building on campus as a learning opportunity for technology students has been floating around for years. Last spring, a student on the college’s Student Sustainability Committee that administers

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The plan was approved by the JCCC board of trustees in November.

It also got a stamp of approval from students. JCCC’s Student Senate voted unanimously in favor of the project. The

The exterior walls of Galileo’s Pavilion are clad with reclaimed gray slate chalkboards.

Student Sustainability Committee appropriated $150,000 from the student green fee toward construction, with an extra $50,000 allocated to cover contingencies. The rest of the funds for the $700,000 building will come from the college’s campus development and capital outlay funds.

“What’s cool about this building is that it’s being built by students, and our students will be learning in it, and it came from a student idea,” Antle said.

While JCCC students are not involved in the construction, crawl spaces throughout the building will allow JCCC technology students to see how the green technology used in the building works once the building is finished.

And there will be green features aplenty in the building. Photovoltaic solar panels on the roof will provide some of the building’s power, as will a small, 2-kilowatt wind turbine nearby.

Antle said on a good day, the two sources could provide as much as 60 to 70 percent of the building’s power

needs. Students can track the energy use on a screen located in the lounge that provides real-time displays of energy consumption.

The lounge will feature innovative LED lighting, which reduces energy use without causing eye strain.

“Studio 804 blends cutting-edge aesthetics and cutting-edge performance, and those lights do both,” Antle said, citing the lights as one of his favorite interior innovations.

Some of the building’s features are literally green. A roof garden atop the building, likely planted with low maintenance plants like sedum, will provide insulation. Rainwater from the roof will be collected in a cistern, and used to water living walls of plants on the north sides of both classrooms as well as the lounge. The living wall both improves air quality in the building and provides a natural aesthetic touch.

Landscaping will use native plants, Antle said, and because of the slope of

the site, it’s likely that the landscape will incorporate a rain garden.

Furniture for the building will come from sustainable sources such as recycled materials, and the floors will be polished concrete.

All together, the green features are expected to add up to a LEED platinum rating.

Galileo’s Pavilion will be the college’s second LEED-rated building. The Olathe Health Education Center, which opened in August, received a LEED gold rating, the second-highest rating.

LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, rates buildings for their performance in sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, material selection and indoor environmental quality. The rating system was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council in 2000.

“The energy usage and the use of local and recycled materials are the real winners for LEED,” Antle said.

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College ranks high in Overland Park survey of voters and leaders The survey found that respondents continue to value excellence in education.

90 percent of

More than Johnson County’s residents have a favorable view of Johnson County Community College, according to a recent survey commissioned by the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

The survey of 800 registered voters and 693 business representatives revealed that 93 percent of those polled had a favorable impression of the college. Of those, 68 percent had a very favorable impression.

The survey, conducted early this year

by Neil Newhouse, Public Opinion Strategies, polled respondents on a range of quality-of-life issues that included education. The firm found that a long-standing commitment to excellence in education remains a priority in the community.

JCCC President Terry Calaway welcomed the findings.

“Our faculty, staff, board and administration have worked diligently to provide the highest quality education experience for students and employers locally. Our student success data and focus on customer service and retention is amazing by anyone’s

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standards. I believe the community response data are indicative of the fine work of our team and our focus on being the best college in America.”

Among the other survey results: When asked if JCCC did an excellent, good, fair or poor job on being affordable, 44 percent said excellent, 39 percent said good, 8 percent said fair or poor and the rest said they did not know.

When asked how the college rated on providing high standards of academic quality, 48 percent said excellent, 37 percent said good, 6 percent said fair or poor and the rest said they did not know.

When asked what kind of job the college does on operating efficiently, 30 percent said excellent, 42 percent said good, 10 percent said fair or poor and 18 percent did not know.

On the issue of tax increases, 63 percent of the respondents said they would support a tax increase for higher education, while 80 percent would support a tax increase for K-12 education.

When asked if higher education at

JCCC was critical for economic development, 83 percent agreed. And 85 percent agreed that the college is preparing a workforce that is ready for the jobs and careers of today and the future.

JCCC’s Office of Institutional Research also has conducted research that shows the college is doing a good job. The office’s data from 2010-11 found the following: • 92 percent of JCCC’s career program completers find a job within six months.

• 84 percent of students say they would enroll at JCCC again.

• 83 percent of students are very satisfied with their experience at JCCC. • 94 percent of employers are satisfied with JCCC student preparation.

The polling firm for the Overland Park chamber conducted telephone interviews with registered voters. Those interviews were followed by an online survey of business representatives from the chambers of commerce of Overland Park, Shawnee, Leawood, Northeast Johnson County, De Soto and Spring Hill.

K-State and JCCC sign reverse transfer agreement to help students get degree

JCCC President Terry Calaway, left, and K-State President Kirk Schulz sign the agreement in JCCC’s boardroom.

who transfer to Kansas State

JCCC students University while still shy of an associate’s degree now will be able to get that degree through a new agreement between the two institutions.

“This is a big deal for both the institutions and the students of the state of Kansas,” said JCCC President Terry Calaway.

“It’s a win-win for both.”

Under the agreement, students who transfer to K-State with at least 45 credit hours will be eligible to complete their remaining 19 credit hours for an associate’s degree while taking classes at K-State. In essence, the 19 credit hours will count toward their K-State degree and their associate’s degree at JCCC. The arrangement, which takes effect as of the spring 2012 semester, helps JCCC by improving the college’s completer rate, said Dennis Day, JCCC’s vice president of student success and engagement.

A lot of students take two years of classes at JCCC and are just one or two courses away from the degree when they transfer to a four-year school. Community colleges are under more pressure nationally to become accountable, Day said, and Kansas legislators and college leaders want to increase the number of students who earn degrees.

The idea for the reverse transfer agreement came about during discussions of how the two schools could provide a more seamless transfer process for students from JCCC. Also providing the impetus was the statewide effort from the Kansas Board of Regents to improve articulation agreements between two-year and four-year schools.

K-State officials plan to notify all students who are eligible for the JCCC degree during their first semester at K-State.

JCCC personnel will then review the student’s transcript to determine if the K-State classes will count toward a JCCC degree.

K-State President Kirk Schulz said that increasing access to higher education for all Kansans is a vital part of K-State’s 2025 plan.

“This reverse transfer partnership with Johnson County Community College advances our visionary plan by providing a new opportunity for students to achieve even more with their educational goals,” Schulz said.

Students interested in learning more about whether they are eligible for the reverse transfer agreement may email Cindy Thompson, articulation development and transfer coordinator for JCCC, or call her at 913-469-8500, ext. 3876.

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This southwest view shows what the front of the building will look like.

Construction starts in May on home for Culinary Academy is the kitchen, then the

If the heart of a home new home for the hospitality management program at Johnson County Community College will have an extra big heart.

The 36,000 square-foot building will house seven kitchens: five culinary labs, an innovation kitchen and a demonstration kitchen in a culinary theater.

Groundbreaking for the Culinary Academy will take place at 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 22, with an anticipated completion date of August 2013.

The one-story building, to be located directly south of the Regnier Center parking garage and easily visible from both College Boulevard and Quivira Road, will serve the 700-plus students in JCCC hospitality management programs and allow the college to offer more continuing education classes for the general public.

A soaring 18-foot high lobby will make the building feel much larger than a one-story building, said Lindy Robinson, dean, business.

The first thing visitors entering the lobby will see is the innovation kitchen to the left. The glass-walled space will give visitors a chance to see the college’s award-winning culinary team in action as they practice for competitions.

Currently, the team practices in kitchens in the Office and Classroom Building, tucked away from public view.

Visiting chefs also will be featured in the innovation kitchen, Robinson said.

Other visiting chefs may appear in the 75-seat culinary theater located to the right of the entry. The theater will be

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equipped with a modified kitchen and back room preparation area for cooking demonstrations. A video production room and equipment will allow demonstrations to be taped and aired on the college’s cable channel.

The tiered theater, set up with narrow tables and chairs much like the Hudson Auditorium in the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, likely will become home for entrylevel classes and will allow those classes to grow to 40 students, Robinson said.

More traditional classroom space is located on the west end of the building, with four classrooms scheduled for the initial construction. There’s room to add more, if needed, in future construction phases, Robinson said.

The building will house five culinary labs: two for professional cooking classes, one for pastry classes, a garde manger or cold foods kitchen and a restaurant kitchen.

The restaurant kitchen will adjoin a dining room on the east end of the building that will be used for Thursday hospitality luncheons and other events. The dining room can be converted to two classrooms as needed, a switch from the set-up in the Office and Classroom Building where classrooms are converted for the weekly meals.

The dining room also will be available for other events. In fact, with the lobby area and an outdoor patio on the east side of the building, the academy could be host to a number of events, Robinson said.

The cold foods lab is designed so that it can be used for meat fabrication, she said, with tracks in the ceiling that can be used to hang a side of beef. While JCCC student chefs

The southeast view shows off a soaring 18-foot high lobby.

The northeast view provides an alternate look at the lobby area.

may not have to do their own butchering, they need to know where cuts of meat are from and how that affects the cooking method used.

Cuts from the shoulder, for example, come from heavily used muscles and so benefit from low and slow cooking, Robinson said. Cuts from the loin, on the other hand, come from muscles that get less use and are tender, making them candidates for fast and hot cooking.

Meat fabrication possibilities don’t end with JCCC student chefs, Robinson said. The lab would allow the college to offer continuing education classes for butchers entering the field.

“Skilled butchers work in grocery stores and Costco,” she said. “But many of the trained butchers are retiring.”

In fact, she sees a great deal of potential for continuing education courses in the new building. Grocery stores are offering more specialty products, like expanded cheese lines, and continuing education will be needed for those workers.

Other continuing education classes could feed the hunger to learn about

cooking fueled by the growth of the Food Channel.

“People want to take our entry-level cooking classes, but we can’t do that now,” she said.

With the new building, those classes could become a possibility, along with summer cooking classes for kids, which have been requested by parents for years.

It’s possible that an eighth kitchen could be added – an outdoor kitchen adjoining the outdoor patio – if funds become available.

“Smoking and grilling are in big demand,” Robinson said.

Behind the scenes, space is important in the new building as well. A back dock will provide easy delivery of the ingredients students need for their classes, and the inventory will be kept in a central storage area adjacent to the dock. The area includes specially designed storage as well as laundry facilities.

from view during events.

Hospitality management faculty and staff will be housed in the building, with an office suite that accommodates 15 or more people, as well as workspace for adjunct instructors, a conference room and library.

However, Robinson said, the plan’s main focus is the students.

“We’re putting our money where the students will benefit,” she said.

The building is expected to cost $12 million, about $3.2 million of which was raised by the JCCC Foundation, Robinson and Ona Ashley, director of hospitality management, and fundraising continues, Robinson said. The project got off the ground with a $750,000 challenge grant from former Kansas Sen. David Wysong and his wife, Kathy.

DLR Group in Overland Park designed the building; J.E. Dunn is the general contractor.

Because event space in the Regnier Center overlooks the new Culinary Academy, Robinson said landscaping will screen the back dock and utilities Spring 2012 | Imprint

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Women’s basketball team in top form on the floor and in the classroom Sophomore guards Amy Briggs, left, and Mary Pat Specht have helped elevate the basketball program.

basketball coach

JCCC head women’s Ben Conrad arrived on campus four seasons ago and has elevated the program to new heights. He has guided his teams to three consecutive 30-win seasons and three NJCAA D-II tournament appearances. Off the court, his teams have experienced similar success.

In 2009-10, Conrad’s first season, 75 percent of his roster recorded a 3.0 grade point average or better on a 4-point scale. Last year, 67 percent reached that standard, and this past fall, 79 percent posted grade points above 3.0. Conrad believes that success on the court and in the classroom go hand-in-hand.

“Success breeds success, period,” Conrad said. “People who achieve in the classroom are usually people who achieve in other areas. We do emphasize academic achievement in our program, and we’ve implemented a very successful study table and mentoring program for our student-athletes.

“We also recruit kids that are a good fit for JCCC,” he said.

“We get great kids who are willing to work in the classroom.

We try to create a culture in our program that values academic success and achievement.”

Sophomore guards Amy Briggs and Mary Pat Specht have been part of the most successful two-year run in JCCC women’s basketball history, winning 64 games and two district titles. They also had a top-10 national tournament appearance, were ranked No. 1 in the final poll twice and completed an undefeated conference season this year.

Individually, both players will leave their mark in the history books for 3-point accuracy, and each received All-America honors by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.

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However, while both agree that the team and individual accomplishments are important, their main focus and drive to succeed comes in the classroom.

“Academics are important,” Briggs said. “This is what I am here for because someday my basketball career will over.”

Their hard work in the classroom will be rewarded this June when they will be honored as NJCAA Academic AllAmericans. Both could receive the NJCAA Pinnacle Award for Academic Excellence, given to student-athletes producing a 4.0 grade point average.

“Academics have also been important to me,” Specht said. “I have always placed a high priority to get high grades.”

Participating in a collegiate sport at any level is extremely demanding. It takes a special athlete to be able to juggle the demands of a sport while maintaining high academic standards.

Sophomore Brianna Kulas, a transfer this year from Kansas State University and an academic award winner for the Lady Cavaliers, says playing at JCCC and K-State are similar; it is a matter of staying organized and being responsible.

Conrad says the reason they are successful students is because they avoid trivial distractions.

“They are focused on the task at hand,” Conrad said. “They also have tremendous work habits, which comes from their upbringing, not from anything we’ve done with them.”

Briggs says it is tough being a student-athlete because so much time is put into practices and film study in addition to going to school.

“Playing basketball is time-consuming and tiring, but it’s worth it,” Briggs said.

Fred Logan tackles issues at state level as a regent had a short learning curve when he

Fred Logan took his place on the Kansas board of regents after being appointed to the post by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback in July.

As he settled into his role on the board that directs the state’s 32 public higher education institutions, he found himself dealing with issues like transfer and articulation that he had previously faced as a member of the JCCC board of trustees from 1992 to 1997.

“Serving on the JCCC board of trustees was superb preparation for serving on the board of regents,” said Logan, a Leawood attorney with decades of experience in support of education.

“I just instantly felt a comfort level with the issues that we had before us on the regents, particularly on issues like transfer and articulation. When I was on the board of trustees in the early to mid-90s, we were dealing with those issues in a very early stage so I had a real familiarity with them.”

Logan served as a JCCC trustee for five years.

colleges in Kansas and among higher education in Kansas in general,” Logan said.

Beyond transfer and articulation issues, Logan said the two main community college-related issues the regents face are service areas and funding.

The state is divided into service areas both among the six regent-governed institutions and the community colleges.

The regents are taking a preliminary look at the service areas, he said, though it likely will be addressed in the longer term rather than immediately.

The regents will take three important steps this year regarding transfer and articulation, Logan said. They’ve already approved an initial list of courses that will be automatically transferable with board action in June.

Funding is more pressing, and Logan said he’s feeling optimistic about higher education funding, noting that Brownback included $41 million in new funding for higher education in his budget proposal to the legislature this year.

In June, Logan said he expects the regents to approve a proposal that makes courses consisting of 55 to 59 hours of credit, with learner outcomes attached, automatically transferable across the state’s higher education system. The regents also are expected to establish a program that would assure quality across the entire higher education system, as well as approve a second batch of courses that would be automatically transferable with regent approval in December.

“I’m hopeful and optimistic on tech ed funding,” Logan said, noting that both the regents’ legislative package and the governor’s budget proposal included $8 million for additional technical education funding for the year that starts July 1.

“Transfer and articulation issues will always be there,” Logan said. “It’s something the board of regents will continue to work on.”

He is active in community affairs, serving on the Shawnee Mission School District Committee for Excellence that advocates for excellence in the school district and in public education.

He lauded JCCC President Terry Calaway for his role in efforts to improve how courses transfer from community colleges to the state’s universities and between community colleges.

In 1997, Logan received JCCC’s Hugh Speer Award for Distinguished Service to the College. In 2008, the JCCC Foundation named him the Johnson Countian of the Year, an award presented for distinguished civic leadership.

“Dr. Calaway is viewed as a real leader among community

In addition to his law practice, Logan Logan and Watson, L.C., in Prairie Village, and his work as a regent, Logan writes a column about public affairs in the Kansas City Business Journal.

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Staff

For the present, returning to the past will have to wait until the future Professor William McFarlane works with student Katia Roque at the Copan ruins in Honduras.

“History is not was, it is.”

Requiem for a Nun, Act I, Scene III – William Faulkner History will not be repeating itself, at least not this summer for JCCC’s anthropology department.

In the summers of 2008, 2009 and 2011, JCCC’s William McFarlane, associate professor and chair, anthropology, and Miranda Suri, adjunct professor, anthropology, Queens College, N.Y., traveled to Western Honduras with a band of intrepid JCCC students to excavate ancient Lencan archeological sites. The group took a hiatus in 2010 and will be doing so again in 2012.

“On June 28, 2009, there was a coup in Honduras,” McFarlane explained. “The president was removed by the military and this created a number of concerns for the project. We work closely with government offices, and it was not clear who was in a position to authorize research or assist us. We decided to take a year off and make sure that the government was stable and that there were no risks to safety.”

For similar safety concerns, the group also has decided not to return for the summer 2012 season.

“Since the start of this year there have been a number of events that made us re-evaluate how safe the project is for everyone,” McFarlane said. “Although we have high hopes that stability will return to Honduras, for this summer we had sufficient concerns about unpredictability and increasing violence in the bigger cities. In the end, we felt it’s better to err on the side of caution.”

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This is particularly unfortunate considering that the trip had become so popular that McFarlane and Suri last year decided to increase the number of student travelers, and also asked Sandra Moran, JCCC adjunct associate professor, anthropology, to join the team.

“Sandra took on the job of field director,” McFarlane said.

“She was an ideal candidate for this position.”

Suri agreed: “Sandra made a great addition to our staff this year. Her enthusiasm to tackle whatever needed to be done and her rapport with the students was really invaluable.”

Although the first trip with students didn’t occur until 2008, McFarlane and Suri spent years laying the groundwork.

“Since 1998, my work has focused on Western Honduras,” McFarlane said. “I finished my dissertation research in 2002 and by 2004 I was looking for a new research area. My research partner, Miranda Suri, and I approached the Honduran Institute of History and Anthropology. IHAH is the government agency that oversees research. At their direction we visited the Jesus de Otoro valley, met with local stakeholders and mutually agreed that there was great potential for long-term research. It was at that point that Dr. Suri and I formed the Proyecto Arqueologico de Otoro.”

The valley is believed to contain 13 pre-Columbian sites, so research in the area addresses issues of cultural identity.

McFarlane said that anthropologists are trying to figure out why there were so many sites and how one culture differed from the next.

The town of Gracias a Dios is a favorite destination for students.

Last year’s students universally praised the educational value of the adventure.

“The field school as a whole was an amazing opportunity to experience,” said Inga Fonder. “Each aspect of the project, from excavating in the field, working with the other students and interacting with a different culture and the local community all had great qualities. The part that resonated with me the most was developing a deeper respect and appreciation for the purpose of the research. It’s not only about what you find while excavating, though that has importance. It’s also about tying together the past to help people link to their history and learn more about it themselves. Being a part of helping develop the information available is an honor to be able to contribute toward.”

Thomas P. Morrison ticked off a laundry list of highlights.

“The whole experience had impacted both my understanding of archaeological field, lab, and theory methods as well as my view on Central American cultures,” he said. “Although it would be nearly impossible to summarize the field school into one memorable moment, the moments that have sunk very deep into my schema were both pleasures and curses.

Having to walk 25 minutes at 6:30

Nicholas Erickson excavating.

every morning to reach the dig house, I was honored with an opportunity to say ‘buenas’ to all the residents passing through the municipal section of Jesus de Otoro. To my surprise, many people knew certain English phrases and were quite eager to practice.

“Walking that early morning stretch through town exposed me to certain cultural norms that I would have never read in any book: Pineapple carts, noon-day drunks, stray dogs, packs of chickens, fighting roosters, familyowned/worked stores, everyone – including the elderly – urinating on walls, loud noises, bleachers of macho stares, and many ‘buenas’ were there to welcome me every morning to the beautiful Central American life.”

“It was a great learning environment for archaeology,” said Tomoe Urano, “actual hands-on experience in excavating and mapping along with enthusiastic classmates and professional (and patient) field directors/professors. I was always excited to see and compare my groups’ excavations and artifacts with the other groups’. I learned so much in three weeks. It was a lot of work but I had a lot of fun learning and studying how to properly excavate the Honduran/ Mesoamerican culture, its past and present.”

Sara Ramirez and Samantha Phillips at Pulhapanzak Falls.

Students received credit for the courses People and Cultures of Mesoamerica and Archeological Field Methods.

They also maintained a daily blog, which can be accessed at http://padoarchaeology.blogspot.com/2 011_06_01_archive.html

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Student journalists learn value of togetherness Journalism students Amy Folmer and Joshua Browning now work in the same building.

Separation used to be the best way to describe

student media at Johnson County Community College.

Broadcast journalism students produced the monthly JCAV News and weekly Campus Updates in the TV studio in the Billington Library. ECAV Radio, the college’s online radio station, had a home in the Commons building, while the student newspaper, The Campus Ledger, had its own office in the Commons.

The separation meant that JCCC student journalists didn’t work together very often.

Not anymore.

This year, The Campus Ledger’s office on the mezzanine level of the Commons became the Student News Center, a newsroom for all three groups of student journalists. It also serves as a classroom and video-editing lab for broadcasting and video students.

The ECAV office, also on the mezzanine level of the Commons, became the classroom for broadcast and video classes, as well as a new radio production class that was introduced this month.

The move reflects a journalism trend that emerged about the time the Internet started gaining traction as a 24/7 news source accommodating words, video and audio in the early to mid-2000s. Known as convergence, the trend encourages journalists to use whatever means they need to tell their story. The same story might be reported as an ink-on-paper print story, as a video online or aired on television, and as audio clips on a radio broadcast or embedded in a Web story.

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After a semester of convergence, leaders of the three student media outlets are starting to see its potential.

“We’re finding ways we can all have some hand in what the others are doing,” said Joshua Browning, the station manager for ECAV Radio.

Convergence has had its bumps – “sometimes it feels like we’re throwing a kink in the gears when it should feel more like we’re expanding the mechanism,” said Rachel Kimbrough, former editor-in-chief of The Campus Ledger.

MacKenzie Clark has since been named editor-in-chief.

Kimbrough’s goal was to have reporters write ECAV news briefs to go with the stories they write for The Ledger, and to have at least one JCAV story featured in each issue as well.

JCAV has shifted its format to accommodate convergence as well. The production began as a monthly news magazine but now focuses on individual segments that are timelier, said Amy Follmer, executive producer for JCAV. The goal is to have reports ready to air weekly, she said.

In addition to an online presence on YouTube, JCAV segments are shown on the college’s cable channel and on digital sign monitors around campus.

ECAV, which is an Internet radio station, has used content produced for JCAV sports videos to create a radio sports show as well.

The three news outlets share an advertising sales manager and a webmaster for a shared website at blogs.jccc.edu/jcccsnc/. Each also has its own website.

Powwow at JCCC features free health screenings, food and entertainment Ed Smith, left, and Sean Daley have been instrumental in setting up the powwow, which will take place May 4 and 5.

Johnson County Community College and the University of Kansas Medical Center are once again teaming up to host a powwow and health fair in May. The sixth annual “Our Nations Energies Health and Wellness Powwow” will take place on Friday, May 4, from 6 to 10 p.m. and on Saturday, May 5, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. at JCCC’s gym. It is sponsored by the American Indian Health Research & Education Alliance, a joint venture that began six years ago between the college, the medical center and several area American Indian community organizations.

AIHREA has grown significantly since its early days and so has the powwow, said Sean Daley, a JCCC associate professor of anthropology who was instrumental in starting the organization.

“The idea behind AIHREA was to pull resources and pull energy to address Indian concerns in the area,” Daley said.

“We have at least a dozen projects going on now, and the powwow is one of the bigger ones.”

The event is open to the public. Admission is free, as are the health screenings that will be administered by medical center health professionals. Food will be available for purchase along with arts and crafts.

A grand entry of Native dancers will take place at 7 p.m.

Friday and again at 2 p.m. Saturday. A gourd dance, a traditional Indian dance, will begin at noon Saturday. And dance competitions with participants who registered in advance will take place Saturday afternoon.

“We have people from all walks of life come to watch and we encourage that,” Daley said.

Attendance has been growing over the years. More than 1,200 people participated last year in the health screenings that included tests for cholesterol, diabetes, blood pressure, vision and lung health.

“One of the things we do that makes us a little different is that we have follow up and referrals,” Daley said. “If we identify you with a serious condition, you see a doctor, assuming you want to. We have an agreement worked out with KU Med. A few years ago, we found a brain tumor on the spot and within a few days we had the woman in surgery and the tumor was removed.”

AIHREA’s collaborators include the Indian tribes in Kansas, the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and the Heart of American Indian Center in Kansas City. The alliance also works closely with Haskell Indian Nations University, the University of Kansas and the junior and senior high schools in Lawrence.

Soon after the formation of AIHREA, the KU Medical Center took the lead in applying for federal grants to support the organization’s work. The grants helped bring about the opening of the Center for American Indian Studies at JCCC in the fall of 2010. Daley is the director of the center, and Ed Smith serves as its research project coordinator.

Among AIHREA’s projects is a smoking cessation program geared toward American Indians. The program, called All Nations Breath of Life, takes into account the use of tobacco in Indian ceremonial activities. The program was put together by KU researchers and is now in use nationwide.

AIHREA also has youth outreach and diabetes programs and conducts healthy home assessments to determine whether mold or other noxious elements are making Native children sick. The alliance also is working on a documentary about a Navajo code talker from World War II and is conducting a study on contemporary American Indian identity to determine how it influences health practices.

“We do a lot,” Daley said, “or at least we try to do a lot.”

Spring 2012 | Imprint

15

JOHNSON COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE

NONPROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE

12345 COLLEGE BLVD

PAID

OVERLAND PARK KS 66210-1299

Johnson County Community College

Start2Finish 5K Run-Walk to take place July 21 at JCCC This summer, Johnson County Community College and the University of Kansas Edwards Campus will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Start2Finish 5K Run-Walk. As in past years, proceeds exceeding the cost of the run support scholarships for JCCC students who continue their education at the KU Edwards Campus through the Start2Finish educational partnership.

• T-shirt for all runners

Students participating in the Start2Finish program begin at JCCC, graduate with an associate’s degree and end up with a bachelor’s degree from the KU Edwards Campus.

Students face a large tuition difference between JCCC’s current cost of $84 a credit hour to KU Edwards’ total cost of $363.

Start2Finish races in the past attracted 300 to 400 runners annually. The event has raised more than $50,000 to date for scholarships. Past participants had this to say:

This year’s race will be at 7 a.m. Saturday, July 21. Instead of the traditional start at JCCC and finish at KU Edwards, the race will begin and end at JCCC, 12345 College Blvd. in Overland Park, because of area road construction.

Registration per participant is $22 in advance (mail, online or at packet pick-up) or $28 on race day at JCCC. A special buddy discount is available when registering with a friend. Online registrations also will include a small convenience fee.

“The misters were awesome! I loved the concept of this race. Helping someone get a college education is tops in my book.”

The race will feature: • A certified 5K course • Medals to the top three finishers in each five-year age group and awards to top overall male and female and top masters male and female

• Misting and water stations along the race course • Special gift for all race finishers • Free food for everyone • A short run for children ages 2 to 9 at the conclusion of the 5K run-walk

“Overall, this was an excellent race and I am grateful to have something so close to my home.”

“I coach a girls’ running group that focuses on building self-esteem, good body image and anti-bullying. This was their first race and definitely was a great first experience!”

For complete Start2Finish race information, visit iStart2Finish.org/5k.html.