May '24 News Blog
News briefs from the HCC campus and beyond
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TRIO Charm
On Thursday, May 16, HCC celebrated its largest class ever of TRIO Program graduates – 106. One of them was Charmain Maximo, a 41-year-old early education major from Holyoke, who took the microphone at the end of the reception to tell her fellow students and TRIO staff what a difference the program has made in her life. Maximo, who will graduate from HCC June 1 with a certificate in early childhood education, already has a job lined up at the Holyoke YMCA. At the TRIO reception, she was wearing a colorful sash that said, "Teacher." "I'm really excited," she said. "I get to run my own class." One of the keynote speakers was Latinx Studies major Alanna Brunt '24, who just completed her first semester at UMass Amherst after transferring there for the spring semester. "I will say, having just ended my first semester out there, it's awesome, but it's not as good as HCC," Brunt said. "I really don't think anything is better than this." PHOTOS: (Thumbnail) Charmain Maximo '24, with Derek Estrella and President George Timmons at the May 16 TRIO reception. (Above) Ehab Abdelrahman '24, with Estrella and President Timmons. For more photos, please go to our Facebook photo album.
The Music Man
Most people are used to seeing Music Professor Bob Ferrier '77 with a guitar in his hand. Not so much with a crown on his head. But, during a recent celebration of his 40th year teaching jazz at HCC, he played along with the joke and reluctantly put one on at the behest of the students and colleagues who came to pay tribute to the man who literally brought jazz instruction to the college in the 1980s. "When you think of all the people who have studied with him and been influenced by him, and had a love of music engendered by him, it's really something, isn't it?" Music Department Chair Elissa Brill Pashkin said before introducing Ferrier and the jazz guitar ensemble during the spring ensemble concert. "Even just the number of people who have had the chance to hear him play and experience that joy." Ferrier, who studied music himself at HCC in the mid-70s, has been playing guitar since he was about 10 years old and started teaching at a Springfield music store as a teenager. "A lot of people teach because they don't have enough gigs," he said. "Some cats, they settle for teaching, but I always loved it. I knew at 16 ½. I knew that this was deep, this teaching thing, and it never wore off. It never wore off. It's just as satisfying as playing to me." When I teach, he said, "I'm hearing the future. I have this thing for supporting and nurturing along the future of guitar playing. And I love it. I never got sick of it." Music to our ears. (PHOTOS: Above, Bob Ferrier performs with the Amherst Jazz Orchestra during the annual HCC Jazz Festival in March. Thumbnail: Ferrier wears a crown marking his 40th year teaching music at HCC.)
Harvard Appointment
Retired HCC president Christina Royal has been named a 
president-in-residence at Harvard University for the 2024-2025 academic year. Royal joins retiring Hamilton College president David Wippman as the latest members of the Judith Block McLaughlin Presidents-in-Residence Program, the Harvard Graduate School of Education announced earlier this month. As a presidents-in-residence, Royal and Wippman will teach and mentor students in HGSE's higher education degree programs, contributing to courses and providing valuable insight based on their long careers as university presidents. Royal retired from HCC in July 2023 and has since been appointed as a member of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. Royal is the first community college president to serve as an HGSE president-in-residence since the program was created in 2001. "It is important for Harvard graduate students who are studying higher education to understand that community colleges are essential to the ecosystem of public post-secondary education and the vital role they play as an economic engine for society," Royal said. "I've dedicated my career to higher education, with a particular focus on historically marginalized and racially minoritized students."
CAMO Cleanup
In advance of the upcoming Memorial Day holiday, 
the Civilian and Military Organization Club (CAMO) at HCC took part in a community service project at Saint Brigid's Cemetery in Easthampton. Led by club advisor Derick Santos, HCC's veterans benefits counselor, and students Alex Ramos and Nelson Murphy, club members spent the day cleaning veterans' headstones, clearing dirt and grass from flat markers, and adorning graves with the U.S. flag to acknowledge their service to the country. "We are committed to continuing our community-based activities for the veterans and military-affiliated population in western Massachusetts," Santos said. "The CAMO club is actively seeking veterans and military-affiliated students around campus who would like to join our group next semester." (PHOTO: CAMO club member Nelson Murphy scrubs the grime off a gravemarker.)
