Three Rivers Community College Announces Spring 2022 Dean’s List

Three Rivers Community College is pleased to release the Spring 2022 Dean’s List for publication. Students earn their place on the Dean’s List by receiving a 3.4 or higher grade point average based on a minimum of 12 credit hours. Congratulations to these accomplished students!

The list of names can be found in an attached Excel document here with one sheet ordered by town and one by last name.

Three Rivers College Foundation Honors Board Member Christopher Jewell

Norwich, CT – The Three Rivers College Foundation honored Christopher Jewell at the annual Golf Classic held on Monday, May 23, 2022, at the Great Neck Country Club in Waterford, Conn.

Jewell is the Chief Financial Officer/Principal at Collins & Jewell Company, Inc. and is retiring from the Three Rivers College Foundation Board of Directors after 10 years of service. His leadership brought many important opportunities to the Board and the College, particularly in the field of manufacturing. He is a key stakeholder in the vital manufacturing pipeline that he helped establish through Three Rivers’ state-of-the-art Manufacturing Apprenticeship Center at Grasso Tech. The pipeline provides job training and gainful employment to people in eastern Connecticut. He is a man of action, who consistently showed up for the Three Rivers College Foundation and maintained a guiding focus on what best served our students. He understood that Three River’s students are our friends and neighbors and are looking for an opportunity to build a brighter future through education.

Foundation Board Members at the Golf Classic

During the Golf Classic Dinner Reception, Foundation Board President, Dr. Mark Tramontozzi, announced that Three Rivers nursing student Samantha Venturo, was awarded the Christopher Jewell Scholarship. This one-time scholarship, in honor of Chris Jewell, rewards a student who values education and is committed to their community, and committed to service to others. In addition, board member and Senator Cathy Osten bestowed an official Citation from the General Assembly that honored his exemplary service to the board.

Every Friday at Collins & Jewell, employees don Hawaiian shirts – a testament to Jewell’s unique ability to combine successful business with a fun-loving work environment. The board of directors presented Chris with a Hawaiian shirt to add to his collection at the reception.

The Golf Classic raised more than $45,000 to support Three Rivers’ students. To learn more about the Foundation, and the full scope of what Three Rivers has to offer, visit www.threerivers.edu.

Environmental Engineering Technology Students Attend NEAS Conference

April 8-10, Dr. Diba Khan-Bureau and her three Environmental Engineering Technology students drove to Burlington Vermont for the NEAS conference where Khan-Bureau presented her scientific poster. The poster and her research, “Using geometric morphometrics to disentangle Didymosphenia hullii and D. geminata (Bacillariophyceae) from Connecticut, U.S.A., and two congeneric relatives,” will be published in June in the European Journal of Phycology.

The students attended all presentations, reporting they learned a great deal and enjoyed the events. Last year, students Kathy Doiron and Allen Lyon presented a poster via Zoom. With the event held in person again, this year is the first time that AS degree students participated at a live NEAS conference. This year Kathy, Allen and Rye Walencewiz helped present Khan-Bureau’s poster while she judged grad student posters.

Rye Walencewiz and Aykurt Kalican, two of Khan-Bureau’s students, received $500 scholarships from the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers. Additionally, several other students are being awarded with Epsilon Pi Tau, a title given to those students in the Engineering Technology degree programs who have 30 or more credits and a 3.0 or higher GPA.  Khan-Bureau quipped that she is very proud of her students’ accomplishments.

Three Rivers College Foundation Receives $28,000 in Grants from the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut 

Three Rivers College Foundation Receives $28,000 in Grants from the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut 

Norwich, Conn. – The Three Rivers College Foundation was the recipient of two grants, totaling $28,000, from the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut. The first grant of $18,000 will provide support for nursing education at the College. The second grant of $10,000 will go towards Environmental Research, Fieldwork, and Hands-on Learning Internship Opportunities for students in Three Rivers STEM disciplines.

Three Rivers Community College is the only higher education institution in Southeastern Connecticut that teaches future nurses. In Southeastern Connecticut, when you enter a hospital or care facility, there is a high likelihood that a Three Rivers nurse is providing your care. TRCC nurses train, live, and work in this shared community. As healthcare rapidly changes due to the ever-increasing role that COVID plays in our community, TRCC is prepared to train the nurses of tomorrow thanks to grant funding, like this opportunity from the Community Foundation.

Additionally, the Environmental Opportunities Project will provide environmental education, research, and fieldwork for community college students from TRCC who are interested in the environment and STEM disciplines. Providing community college students with real research opportunities opens the doors to more opportunities and success in the science and environmental disciplines.

The Three Rivers College Foundation, in partnership with the Community Foundation, remains committed to providing financial support for educational opportunities in Southeastern Connecticut.

In the News | From ages 17 to 69, students from all walks of life graduate from Three Rivers

Norwich, CT (May 25, 2022) — 

Norwich — Amber De Souza’s household became one with three virtual students when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, as she woke up hours before her kids and stayed awake hours past their bedtime to maintain her own schooling at Three Rivers Community College.

“The days were full, exhausting and yet purposeful,” said De Souza, 31. “Filled with determination to achieve my aspirations and with two little boys looking up to me, I rose to the occasion. I knew that because of them, nothing is impossible.”

As the student speaker at Three Rivers’ commencement Wednesday evening, she told fellow graduates she stood there not only because of the love she has for her children, but also because of a great loss: Her youngest brother died from lymphoma a few years ago at age 18, inspiring her to pursue a nursing career. De Souza got her first degree at Three Rivers in December and has been accepted into the nursing program.

At Three Rivers this year, there are 465 graduates receiving degrees and certificates, with 11 people receiving two degrees each and seven people getting a degree and a certificate.

The graduates range in age from 17 — Three Rivers Middle College Magnet High School student Alayna Woodhams got her associate degree in general studies and a library technology certificate — to 69. Many of the graduates are the first in their families to go to college.

“When I look around at my fellow graduates, I feel so fortunate to be amongst such a diverse student body,” De Souza said. “I see students that come from all walks of life and all phases of life. What a magnificent sight to be seen.”

College President Mary Ellen Jukoski shared some of those stories.

Philip Burns served in the Navy for 11 years and is graduating with a degree in construction technology, after keeping up with his classes and those of his five sons while his wife was away on military orders.

Rida Fatima came to the U.S. from Pakistan in 2017, took all online classes at Three Rivers, and will now pursue a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

Student Government Association President Lorenzo Enderle said he wasn’t there to speak of graduates’ resilience, but “to that voice at the back of our heads that doesn’t listen when others praise how strong we were to have made it this far. It is worthy of love. You are worthy of love, and not because you succeeded in so many places where others fell, but because some part of you insisted that your story did not end there.”

The college also recognized five recipients of medallions of academic excellence, who have a 4.0 grade point average and met degree requirements: Ariel Babbitt, Lilia Burdo, Bellana Parungao, Stacey Smith and Sarah Van Walkenburg.

A ‘surreal’ moment

In talking the day before commencement about their journeys to this point, Gwen Oppert of East Killingly and Geré Johnson of New London said graduating is “surreal.”

“It’s been a really long road to get there,” said Oppert, 39, who is getting an associate degree in nursing 20 years after first starting her education. She started at the University of Rhode Island right out of high school, but pregnant and in need of a job, she started working as a certified nursing assistant. This sparked her interest in doing more in nursing.

Oppert — who now has three children: a 19-year-old and 9-year-old twins — then moved to Washington state, came to Connecticut and started at Three Rivers in 2006, and then moved to Georgia before coming back. When the pandemic hit, she was working on an ambulance as an EMT.

She expects to get her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Charter Oak State College in December 2023 and then plans to get her master’s. From her experience as a homebirth midwife and having a lot of friends who are gender nonbinary or have transitioned, her goal is to provide care “to all bodies and all genders.”

Johnson, 23, is graduating with a degree in environmental engineering technology and headed to the University of Connecticut in the fall to study agriculture and natural resources.

The Philadelphia native knew in high school she wanted to study marine sciences, so she ended up at UConn Avery Point. After two and a half years there, she took a break for mental health reasons.

Through a fellowship in Philly, she was surprised to learn there was a farm near where she lived and developed a passion for agriculture and urban farming. She wants to travel the country helping farms owned by people of color be more sustainable and more engaged with the community.

By Erica Moser, Day Staff Writer

The original article can be found here: “From ages 17 to 69, students from all walks of life graduate from Three Rivers“