Aug. 2022 News Blog
News briefs from the HCC campus and beyond
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'Yo Soy HCC!'
HCC held its second annual Bienvenidos celebration for Latinx students on Sat., Aug. 27, with food, music, a workshop, and a panel discussion featuring three HCC alumni: Maritza Santiago '15, Angel Vargas '22, and Alexandra Santiago '21, pictured above, center, bookended by Spanish professor Raúl Gutiérrez and Irma Medina, coordinator of HCC's Pathways program on the left; and Julissa Colón, director of El Centro, and Sharale Mathis, vice president of Academic & Student Affairs, on the right. "Whatever you bring is you, and you should be proud of that," Gutiérrez said during his workshop, Language as Placemaking (Idioma como creador de espacia). "This is what placemaking means, that you are comfortable with what you bring and are respected for what you bring."
Success Stories
SAMP, HCC's Student Ambassador and Mentorship Program led a three-day intensive orientation Aug. 23-25 for its 25 student "Success Ambassadors." SAMP is a program designed to offer leadership and professional development training and workshops to women, non-binary, and transgender students. This fall, SAMP ambassadors will mentor some 500 other students and work as interns in departments throughout campus. Over the course of the week, ambassadors learned about campus resources and how to best support their "Success Scholars" (mentees), and tested their HCC knowledge by teaming up for a campus-wide scavenger hunt that included tac-tac-toe challenges – and a few dance battles – along the way.
Culinary Connections
Holyoke mayor Joshua Garcia (Above, front and center) and other Holyoke community representatives visited the HCC MGM Culinary Arts Institute on Thurs., Aug. 19, for a tour of the facility and lunch prepared by students in the college's accelerated summer line cook training program. The event was held to celebrate the line cook trainees final class and their graduation from the program. The invitees represented community-based, civic and state organizations serving the Greater Holyoke community whose members or clients may stand to benefit from the variety of free workforce training and credit career-focused programs offered by HCC, particularly in the Hospitality and Culinary Arts areas. "This event was an opportunity for our programs to connect with regional and local partner agencies, and for them to connect with each other," said Kermit Dunkelberg, assistant vice president of Adult Basic Education & Workforce Development. (Thumbnail photo: Student chefs celebrate the completion of HCC's accelerated line cook training program.)
Éclairs Savoureux
Students in HCC's Summer Youth Culinary Arts program show off the tasty eclairs they made for their families during the baking portion of their class on Tues., Aug. 9.
Pride Talk
The HCC radio station, WCCH 103.5 FM, celebrated 
Pride Month in June with "In the Community," a four-part series of podcasts created and hosted by student Lance 'DJ Loki' Fydenkevez and Alannah "DJ Ribbit' Brunt. Episode guests included Eva Sweeney, president of HCC's Rainbow Forward identity club (on gender identity and being trans), HCC President Christina Royal (on growing up, coming out and being leader who identifies as queer);educator and LGBTQ+ advocate and ally Tara Roberts (on the importance of gay-straight alliance groups in schools); and adjunct professor and WCCH faculty advisor Stevie Converse. (on the history of the LGBTQ+ community leading up to Stonewall). Follow the links above to listen to each episode. The entire series is archived on SoundCloud. (Photo: DJ Loki, left, with guest Eva Sweeney, president of HCC's Rainbow Forward Club)
Healthy Simulations
Michelle Sherlin, the coordinator of the Simulation Lab 
at HCC's Center for Health Education & Simulation, writes a bi-monthly column for HealthySimulation.com, an online magazine for healthcare educators. Her most recent pieces focused on how to save money on simulation equipment and supplies, how to use low budget props to set up healthcare simulation scenarios, and how to get started with interprofessional patient simulation. In 2021, Sherlin, RN, BSN, CHSE (certified health simulation educator), received the Advocate Award for "Excellence in Clinical Simulation" from Education Management Solutions, a company that designs technology for the simulations used in healthcare education, citing her pioneering, 20-year career at HCC: "When Michelle first joined Holyoke Community College (HCC) as the Simulation Coordinator, the college had one high fidelity patient simulator – still in a box. During her work there, she has expanded the use of simulation to include embedding multiple simulations into every single health career course in the college. She also assisted in designing the school's 18-bed simulation center with over 15 high fidelity simulators of all ages and countless task trainers and mannequins. Most recently, she has spearheaded the implementation of several interprofessional simulations for HCC students with students from health career programs at other colleges."
