CT State Students Named 2023 Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholars
READ MOREIn the News — After 58 years, Three Rivers Community College graduates its final class
Norwich ― While delivering the student address at Three Rivers Community College’s 58th commencement ceremony Wednesday night, Ben Kinnie recalled the adversity he and his fellow graduates endured.
Kinnie, who earned an associate of applied science degree in general engineering technologies as well as a data analytics certificate, remembered graduating from high school in 2020 and enrolling at Three Rivers at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was one of two major obstacles he had to overcome in his life after going through open heart surgery at 3-months-old for a congenital heart defect.
Before the rain clouds rolled in, Kinnie referenced the Metallica song “Nothing Else Matters,” and its message of staying true to who you are, living life to the fullest, and embracing new points of view.
“While it is important to get that work done to accomplish your goals, it is equally important to never forget about spending time with the ones you love, going out and trying new things, visiting new places, and not being afraid of new experiences,” Kinnie told his fellow graduates.
A total of 436 graduates earned associate degrees and certificates this year. Eight students earned two degrees, five earned a degree and a certificate.
The college also recognized four recipients of medallions of academic excellence, students who had a 4.0 grade point average and met degree requirements: Kyle Benito, Juliet Kimble, Jodie Lattanzi and Samuel Sims.
Wednesday’s commencement was the last commencement for the school under the name of Three Rivers Community College. After six decades of operation, the school will be merging with the other 11 community colleges under the name Connecticut State Community College as of July 1.
Graduates celebrate in the rain and confetti. (Sarah Gordan/The Day).U.S. Treasurer and Chief of the Mohegan Tribe Lynn Malerba delivered the keynote address. She told the story of her own career and how she began at a hospital-based nursing school as opposed to a traditional university, which allowed her to continue her education and earn an income like many of Three River’s graduates have done.
She talked about how she thought she would one day retire from Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, and never thought she would one day be appointed chief of the tribe and eventually treasurer of the United States.
“Don’t hold onto your life plan so tightly that you miss the biggest adventure you never imagined for yourself,” Malerba said. “Life is a journey and it isn’t always a straight line.”
Three Rivers President Mary Ellen Jukoski told the stories of graduates that exemplified the diversity of the college, which included first-generation graduates, family members, and graduates ranging in age from 17 to 67.
Dr. O. John Maduko, president of Connecticut State Community College, commended graduates for being selfish ― missing birthdays, vacations and time with loves ones ― to pursue their education as well as their ability to adapt to an array of unforeseen circumstances. He said he learned the lesson of being necessarily selfish when he struggled as a freshman at California State Polytechnic University Pomona.
“Graduates, you are here today because, despite the very people and reasons that are dear to you, you were willing to sacrifice everything and uniquely be selfish to accomplish your life-changing goals,” Maduko said.
Mother and daughter graduate together
College commencements typically see parents seated as they watch their children receive their diplomas.
This year at Three Rivers’ ceremony, Dina Fares walked alongside her daughter, Kayla Lopez, in the ceremony.
Lopez, a single mother of two from Groton, told The Day before graduation that it was a long journey to get to this point. She works two jobs, one in the City of Groton’s finance department and the other as a co-secretary in the city’s public schools adult education program on a part-time basis.
The 41-year-old said she started taking classes in 2014, but could not do so consistently while her children, Kayla and her son Julio Lopez, were in middle school. As the children got older and more independent, she was able to enroll in courses on a consistent basis thanks to the affordability and schedule flexibility of Three Rivers.
She finished her course work at Three Rivers in the winter and has begun taking online classes with the University of Phoenix.
Fares, who received her degree in general studies, said she wants to be an inspiration to her children, as well as other mothers, to continue their education.
“You can do it,” Fares said. “You just have to stick with it. You can do anything you want.”
Kayla Lopez said she is proud of her mother for persevering after the two spent most of the last year taking classes at the same time.
“I think its really special for the both of us because I know it’s a really big dream of her’s,” Lopez said.
Lopez, 20, said living at home while the two were in school together was helpful as the two could relate to the struggles of coursework. Though the two were never in the same classroom at the same time, they did take some of the same courses throughout their careers.
Like her mother, Lopez finished her classes in the winter and has enrolled at Eastern Connecticut State University, where she will graduate next May with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in business administration, and plans to pursue a career in human resource management.
By Kevin Arnold, staff writer at The Day
READ MORECT Community College Artists Explore Diversity in Three Rivers “Exhibition 2”
The community is invited to “Exhibition 2,” a selection of works by artists from Connecticut’s community colleges exploring themes of diversity, equity and inclusion in Three Rivers Community College’s new Diversity 365 Gallery through Dec. 12. A closing reception will be held Dec. 13 from 6-8 p.m. to meet the artists.
The exhibition features two-dimensional works in a variety of media by staff and a student from Gateway, Housatonic, Manchester, Naugatuck Valley, Three Rivers and Tunxis Community Colleges.
Included in “Exhibition 2” are reduction relief prints by Naugatuck Valley Community College’s Madeeha Sheikh, created through a complex process in which sections of printing block are carved away before each new color is layered over the others. Sheikh used this process to create a five-color nonrepresentational self-portrait, “In My Room,” and her wedding image, “Shaad.” Her artist statement explains that her work explores LGBTQ+ South Asian Muslim personhood and how her self-portrait “relates to the way each person can be perceived by others as many different people, and the boundaries that exist between these identities.”
Patrick Keller, a staff member at both Three Rivers and Quinebaug Valley Community Colleges, digitally created “Colors” by visually
interpreting a section from the Black Pumas’ song by the same name. Each colored rectangle represents a single musical note on the scale. The vertical length of a colored rectangle corresponds to the note’s frequency, while wider rectangles correspond to longer notes in the passage. Added to this visual interpretation, Keller repeats the pattern four times, filtering the assigned colors to represent four differences in color vision as defined by the ophthalmologic terms: trichromacy, or normal color vision; deuteranopia, a reduced sensitivity to greens; tritanopia, an inability to distinguish blues from greens; and achromatopsia, a condition which causes the color spectrum to be perceived in tones of white, gray and black. “Thinking about diversity, equity, and inclusion, it’s important to remember that we don’t all see the same way,” Keller wrote. “There is beauty in exploring these differences, and in recognizing that we are all much more than meets the eye. The song ‘Colors’ itself is an ode to how the diversity in the world around us is a source of joy.”.
In addition to the work of Sheikh and Keller, “Exhibition 2” includes pieces from the following artists: Elisa Eaton, Manchester Community College; Elizabeth Efenecy, Gateway Community College; David C. Jackson, Tunxis Community College; Kristin Lund, Housatonic Community College; and Ashley Thompson, Three Rivers Community College.
The Diversity 365 Gallery is located in the Three Rivers Donald R. Welter Library and is open Monday – Thursdays, 8:30 a.m.-8 p.m., and Fridays, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. when the college is open. Pieces can also be viewed in a virtual gallery available at www.threerivers.edu/diversity365.
Exhibition #3” is scheduled for the spring 2023 semester and will be an open call to artists from the CSCU community as well as to residents of Connecticut. Announcements on submission deadlines and procedures will be posted to the Diversity 365 Gallery’s webpage in December 2022.
The college is in the process of creating a permanent collection for the Diversity 365 Gallery. The selection committee will choose art for the permanent collection from exhibits one through three in spring 2023 semester. The college’s purchase of the permanent collection will be funded by Three Rivers College Foundation.
READ MOREEnvironmental Issues Seminars – Spring 2023
Join us for fifteen free seminars on some of the biggest environmental issues challenging us today. Topics range from Water Quality in Long Island Sound, Global Climate Change in Connecticut, Natural History of Connecticut Owls, Molecular Analysis of Cannabis (Marijuana) and so many more and are taught by a range of experts in their fields. Seminars are held in room C101 at Three Rivers Community College on Wednesdays, from 6:00-8:30 p.m. Guests are encouraged to arrive promptly by 6:00 p.m.
(Note: Environmental Issues Seminar (ENV K295 and BIO 289 are the same class) can also be taken as a 3-credit college course. Call 860-215-9016 for more information.)
A full list of seminars and lecturers is included below:
- 25th – Dr. John Lane, United States Geological Survey (USGS) – Water resources in the developing world: volunteering to help supply water for those without.
- Feb. 1st – Dr. Gary Robbins, Professor of Hydrogeology UConn – What we can learn from the water systems of ancient Rome.
- 8th – Dr. Jordan Bishop, New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC) – Water quality in Long Island Sound.
- 15th – Corrie Folsom-O’Keefe, Audubon Connecticut – Coastal bird conservation across Connecticut.
- 22nd – Dr. Gerry Berkowitz, Professor of Plant Sciences UConn – Molecular Analysis of Trichome Development and the Cannabinoid Flowers: How to increase THC production?
- 1st – Dr. James O’Donnell, Professor of Marine Science UConn, Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation(CIRCA). Global climate change abroad and in Connecticut, and what can we do about it.
- 8th – Dr. Tom Meyer, Professor of Geomatics, UConn – Using GPS to reveal the secret lives of mountain lions.
- 22nd – Dr. Morty Ortega, Professor Natural Recourses & Environment, UConn – Social behavior and evolution of South American Camelids.
- 29th – Kim Hargrave, Director of Education Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center – Natural history of owls of Connecticut.
- April 5th – Greg Bugbee and Summer Stebbins, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station – Invasive aquatic plants in Connecticut’s lakes, rivers, and ponds.
- April 12th – Hank Gruner, Author, Herpetologist, Retired VP of Programs, Connecticut Science Center, Hartford – Conservation of amphibians and reptiles in Connecticut.
- April 19th – Christian Bruckner, Professor & Head of Chemistry, UConn – A whirlwind tour through the Periodic Table of elements from an environmental chemistry Perspective.
- April 26th – Bob Russo CLA Engineers, Soil Scientist, – Sedimentation and erosion control on solar energy sites: creative solutions.
- May 3rd – William Ouimet, Associate Professor of Geography, UConn Sediment Coring Facility– Geological and environmental analysis of rivers, lakes, reservoirs, wetlands & estuaries in Connecticut.
- May 10th – Kevin Franklin, TRCC Environmental Engineering Technology Adjunct Professor, Licensed Land Surveyor – Surveying the Earth! Using GIS and drones for surveying.
Click here to see a poster of these seminars
READ MOREConnecticut Has Best Community College System in U.S.
Connecticut’s community college system, was ranked No. 1 in the nation by WalletHub this week, and several of the community colleges ranked among the top 15 in the country in the financial website’s reports on community colleges and state-by-state community college system rankings.
Of the 677 colleges on the list, four Connecticut community colleges ranked in the top 15 nationally:
- Naugatuck Valley Community College (10th Place)
- Northwestern Connecticut Community College (11th Place)
- Manchester Community College (12th Place)
- Capital Community College (15th Place)
The state ranking of colleges is based on an analysis of a WalletHub “2022’s Best & Worst Community Colleges” report released this week at a time of rising inflation and individuals looking for ways to stretch their budgets while increasing educational and career opportunities. More information on the “2022’s Best and Worst Community College Systems” ranking is available here.
To determine where students can receive the best education at the lowest tuition rates, the website compared 677 community colleges nationwide across 19 key indicators of cost and quality. The data set ranges from the cost of in-state tuition and fees to student-faculty ratio and graduation rate. For the state-by-state analysis, WalletHub calculated a weighted average of the scores earned by the community colleges in each state and the number of students enrolled at each college.
Credit registration for the fall 2022 semester is in progress at the 12 Connecticut community colleges, with hundreds of degree options that prepare students for transfer to four-year degrees and transition into the workforce with programs in health care, manufacturing, information technology, early childhood education, business, and more. Most of the colleges also offer English as a second language certificates for non-English speakers looking to start on their path to an associate degree. A variety of class formats are available including on-ground, online and hybrid.
There is still time to apply and register for Connecticut’s free community college program, PACT. Prospective students must complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, apply and register for classes. The FAFSA can be submitted online at www.fafsa.gov. For more eligibility information and details on PACT, visit ct.edu/pact.
The 12 community colleges in Connecticut are merging in 2023 to become CT State Community College, one of the largest community colleges in the country and largest in New England, dedicated to quality, access and affordability. CT State students will be able to apply once and take classes at any campus. Locations include Asnuntuck (Enfield), Capital (Hartford), Gateway (New Haven and North Haven), Housatonic (Bridgeport), Manchester, Middlesex (Middletown and Meriden), Naugatuck Valley (Waterbury and Danbury), Northwestern (Winsted), Norwalk, Quinebaug Valley (Danielson and Willimantic), Three Rivers (Norwich), and Tunxis (Farmington).
READ MOREThree 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.
READ MOREIn the News | Windham Tech Teacher Wins State Award
Norwich, CT (May 10, 2022) —
During her summer breaks, Windham Technical High School science teacher Rebecca Cipriani Reyer is often engaging in professional development opportunities.
This August, for example, she will study marine acoustics with a team of female scientists and female high school students at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod.
As always, Cipriani Reyer will share that experience with her Windham Tech students and have them build hydrophones, or underwater microphones, to study whale sounds.
In recognition of her commitment to teaching, she was honored as the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System (CTECS) Teacher of the Year, which was announced on May 4.
“It’s a huge honor,” Cipriani Reyer said. “I’m appreciative of my colleagues who nominated me and my students who work with me every day.
She is now up for the Connecticut Teacher of the Year honor.
Each school district can nominate one individual for that honor, with the exception of the CTECS system, with one teacher nominated from the entire CTECS system.
“CTECS is so fortunate to have a teacher like Rebecca (Cipriani) Reyer,” CTECS Interim Superintendent Ellen Solek said in a press release. “She is tremendously passionate about science, her students’ learning and their future success. She is a shining example of teachers who go the extra mile for their students. I am honored to recognize her as the 2022 CTECS Teacher of the Year.”
Windham Tech Principal Eric Hilversum spoke highly of Cipriani Reyer in the press release. “She radiates positivity, is readily available to her colleagues and students and is committed to the mission of Connecticut’s technical high schools,” he said. “Her enthusiasm to seek our professional development in her content area and pass her knowledge on to students is unmatched. Windham Tech is proud to have her on our teaching staff.”
Cipriani Reyer said becoming a teacher was a “lifelong dream” for her, noting that a big part of the job is getting to know the students individually and figuring out how they will learn best.
She said she is “always learning” through her job and she loves to learn from her students.
Cipriani Reyer said it is not always easy to make a connection between her professional development experiences and her lesson plans.
“Sometimes, I have to be more creative,” she said.
The Windham Tech teacher has an extensive educational background, including an associate degree in nuclear engineering technology from Three Rivers Community College in Norwich; a sixth-year diploma in professional education in gifted education from the University of Connecticut; a master of arts in education degree from UConn; and a bachelor of science degree in elementary education from UConn.
She began working at Windham Tech in Sept. 2018.
“I love working with my students,” Cipriani Reyer said, adding that she loved to work in science. In addition to being a teacher, she leads the school’s Student of the Month Committee, is secretary for the Science Professional Learning Community, and is a member of the Staff Club, a member of the Health and Safety Committee and the Scheduling Committee at Windham Tech.
Cipriani Reyer was a technical training intern at Dominion Energy Millstone Power Station in Waterford in the summer of 2018 and was a teacher at Renzulli Academy in New London from Aug. 2015 to July 2017.
She has also taught at Sayles School in Sprague and Chaplin Elementary School.
By Michelle Warren, The Chronicle
The original article can be found here: “Windham Tech Teacher Wins State Award“
READ MOREIn the News | Global City Norwich classes help the city’s aspiring entrepreneurs launch businesses. How?
Norwich, CT (May 11, 2022) —
Eudora Poe wants to learn how to expand the marketing potential for her Connecticut-based jewelry, clothing and accessories business.
“I want to hear everyone’s ideas on how they improved their businesses, and improve my own, and maybe I can share some of my ideas I have, and we can learn from each other,” Poe said.
Poe is part of a group of entrepreneurs participating in Global City Norwich‘s Working Lab program, intended to teach entrepreneurial skills to local people. The class covers topics from how to access resources to making an interest into a business. Global City Norwich Liaison Suki Lagrito said this is the second time the class is being taught in this form.
“It’s an exploratory class, so they’re here to gain a certain skill set that’s different from college learning, because here, it’s a casual environment, where not only are the business skills being taught, we’re exploring their culture, and how that interest can be leveraged into the business world,” Lagrito said.
By culture, Lagrito doesn’t just mean race or ethnicity, but also the cultures around certain hobbies or interests, like jewelry, cat lovers, or coffee drinking.
In the class, Lagrito is also joined by Three Rivers Community College Professor Nicole Colter. She said it’s a condensed but “a really hands on, connected version” of some of the business classes at the college.
Speaking broadly, Colter said she believes there’s plenty of business opportunity in Norwich with its diversity of people and interests. However, Colter said there’s still a need to be supported, and connecting entrepreneurs with the right resources is the important part.
“They’re out there, it’s just finding them,” Colter said.
Lagrito said many students from the original class are still working on their businesses and are collaborating with businesses in the area. One of them is Jannette Velez, who owns a jewelry business and a cleaning business. Velez said the class made her get over her fears and feel comfortable reaching out for resources to help her businesses, from grants and loans to connecting to other business owners.
“I was able to build relationships and teams, and start becoming a volunteer in the community, and become more involved with what’s going on in the community,” Velez said.
Velez came back to the classes on Monday to be a mentor for the current entrepreneurs. She said she wants to show the current students that it’s not just a dream, saying owning her own businesses has given her the ability to work her own hours, and one day, the ability to provide for employees better than her own prior nine-to-five experience.
“It’s not something you want out of life, it’s something you make out of life,” Velez said.
This also includes helping out her sister, New London resident Maitee Velez. Maitee Velez wants to open a pagan-themed business. Seeing her sister’s success in the class, Maitee Velez said it makes her more confident about how the class will turn out.
“I want to build a community that could help me with anything I could possibly need, whether it’s a random, stupid question, or the next step for my business,” Maitee Velez said.
Even if a student’s career path doesn’t end with business ownership, Lagrito said the skills from the class will still serve people well, from time management and creative thinking, to building relationships.
“These are all skill sets that can be translated into real life, whether you’re an entrepreneur or not,” Lagrito said.
By Matt Grahn, Norwich Bulletin Writer
The original article can be found here: “Global City Norwich classes help the city’s aspiring entrepreneurs launch businesses. How?”
READ MOREIn the News | OutCT holds first LGBTQ mental health and wellness symposium
Norwich, CT (April 29, 2022) —
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, psychotherapist Chevelle Moss-Savage “had to provide a service that is so personal via a computer,” and she felt herself experiencing isolation and Zoom fatigue. She also recalled the “vicarious trauma” from seeing police brutality on people of color.
“I thought, if I am having issues with all of these things, other folks are as well,” said Moss-Savage, who is vice president and education committee chair of the New London-based LGBTQ nonprofit OutCT.
Hence her idea for an LGBTQIA+ — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual — health and wellness symposium was born, which OutCT held Friday at Three Rivers Community College.
The daylong event opened with a keynote speech from Robin McHaelen, a Manchester-based consultant whose career has focused on LGBTQ youth, about engaging the mental health of people who are transgender and nonbinary, meaning people who don’t solely identify as male or female. With the words and nuances of how people identify constantly changing, McHaelen said, “we can’t keep up, but we can keep open.”
She talked about the bills introduced and passed in other states to restrict LGBTQ+ curriculum and restrict access to medical care and sports for transgender youth. But she said it’s also a Connecticut issue, pointing to the Parents Against Stupid Stuff PAC spending money trying to make transgender rights and critical race theory issues in the gubernatorial race, and to a Hartford school nurse placed on leave for social media posts about LGBTQ students.
Lindsay Gillette is someone who has worked with a lot of queer youth as co-chair of OutCT’s youth group for five years. When she first started, she anticipated she’d be talking to a lot of gay and bisexual teenagers, but it was mostly gender-nonconforming teens. She talked about her experience leading the youth group — teaching skills like self-defense, gardening, cooking and CPR, but also talking about goal-setting, social media, and biases and prejudices.
“My goal was to create the most well-rounded individuals,” she said. The group has gone on trips to places like a ropes course, escape rooms and Mystic Aquarium. At the annual Pride event held at Ocean Beach Park in New London, she had a separate youth space, with activities like a photo scavenger hunt, ice cream social and blacklight dance party.
Gillette came up with a phrase: “Pride for a day, proud for life.”
Other workshop topics included family building options, stress relief, financial freedom, fair housing, and trauma.
The topic of religion had come up earlier, with McHaelen commenting, “Every single religion in the universe has both love and judgment in their tenets, and what supportive families have managed to do is privilege love over judgment.”
In the second keynote address, Inclusive Education LLC founder Elijah Manning talked about how being an ally is a verb, not a noun. The difference, he said, is about being there to help rather than trying to make yourself look good by helping.
“Don’t perform. You’re not putting on a show. You’re not a peacock,” Manning said. He added that communities have been working on problems facing them for years, and “they don’t need you to come in and tell them how to do things. They need you to come in and support them.”
By Erica Moser, Day Staff Writer
The original article can be found here: “OutCT holds first LGBTQ mental health and wellness symposium“
READ MOREIn the News | Let’s Go: Poetry reading at Otis Library
Norwich, CT (The Day, April 22, 2022) —
As part of Harris Sisters Month, Otis Library presents a poetry reading by Norwich native, Three Rivers Community College professor and inaugural Hartford Poet Laureate Frederick-Douglass Knowles II from 11 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 23 in the Otis Library Community Room.
This free program is sponsored by The Elsie Brown Fund.
Praised for his eloquence, charisma, frank social activism and ability to communicate and live the power of words, Professor Knowles is the author of BlackRoseCity, a potent collection of poems addressing the struggles and successes of a Black youth growing up in Norwich.
Professor Knowles was a 2019 First Place winner of the Nutmeg Poetry Award and received a 2020 Artistic Excellence Award in Poetry from the Artist Fellowship program of the Connecticut Office of the Arts; he was also a 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee.
For this event, Otis Library announces that Professor Knowles has created a poem specifically in homage to Sarah and Mary Harris and the legacy of Prudence Crandall’s Black students.
The approximately 40-minute reading will be followed by a 20-minute discussion period. This event will be sign language interpreted and will be recorded and available for future viewing on the Otis Library YouTube page.
By Day Staff Writer
The original article can be found here: “Let’s Go: Poetry Reading at Otis Library”
READ MORE