Archive for June, 2007
Richland College Student Receives BKM Scholarship Honoring Chancellor
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Long before Ngoc Quan Dinh was born, his grandparents died in Vietnam because they did not have the medications they needed to cure their illnesses. Dinh, now a student in the pharmacy/biology program at Richland College, plans to finish his education at RLC and then transfer to the University of Texas at Austin’s pharmacy program so that he can fulfill a lifelong dream: to help build a better future for others and to prevent a similar tragedy from happening to anyone else.
As an honors student and community volunteer, Dinh needs financial assistance to reach his educational goals. Yesterday, he become the second recipient of the Dr. Wright Lassiter Jr. BKM Scholarship, which honors the Dallas County Community College District’s chancellor. The scholarship was established in 2006 by BKM Total Office of Texas - a Dallas-based office furnishings company. Lassiter presented Dinh with the $2,500 scholarship award during a special higher education seminar on Thurs., June 28, at BKM’s corporate offices in Dallas.
The scholarship is administered by the DCCCD Foundation and funded by BKM.
Dinh says, “I plan to fulfill my educational goal of making it through the pharmacy program at Richland and at the University of Texas at Austin by remembering how much my mom has suffered and sacrificed her life to give me and my siblings a chance for a better future. I will strive toward my goal for a better future for everyone.”
In order to receive the scholarship, Dinh met the following requirements:
* Completed at least one semester at a DCCCD college and earned a minimum grade point average of 2.5 or better;
* Enrolled for a minimum of 12 credit hours;
* Majored in one of 10 specified fields of study;
* Completed the required scholarship application, including an essay on short- and long-term goals, plus a letter of recommendation.
Dinh, a pharmacy/biology major, has earned a 3.83 GPA. A resident of Garland, he is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa international honorary for two-year college students, the RLC Student Government Association and Richland Connections Club. He has been named to the National Dean’s List, volunteers as a tutor at the college to help other students overcome their fear of mathematics and helped the SGA write its new constitution. Dinh also is active in the Vietnamese-American community; has served as a team leader for the annual City of Richardson trash pick-up; and volunteered for the Texas Special Olympics games in Arlington, helping athletes who competed in tennis.
“I plan to be a pharmacist for a company like CVS or Walgreen’s so that I can distribute medication to my patients and develop relationships in order improve their overall health,” said the RLC student. “I intend to accomplish this goal by interacting with people through community service projects, by becoming a pharmacy technician to get experience and by excelling academically. And I plan to ensure that I will meet my educational goals by remembering all of those people who are even less fortunate than me, my mom (who constantly struggles for my success), and my siblings and friends who have given me so much hope and inspiration to accomplish my goals.
DCCCD, the largest undergraduate institution of higher education in Texas, serves more than 64,000 credit and 25,000 continuing education students each semester. The district includes seven individually accredited colleges - Brookhaven, Cedar Valley, Eastfield, El Centro, Mountain View, North Lake and Richland - plus the Dallas TeleCollege and several additional locations.
BKM Total Office of Texas provides workplace furniture and related services throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area. BKM is a certified HUB dealer and Women Owned Business Enterprise; its products, breadth of services and experienced team enable the company to provide creative, comprehensive furniture solutions that work within any budget. BKM’s clients include DCCCD, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Bank of America, AT&T, Verizon, the University of Texas at Arlington, UT-Dallas, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Southern Methodist University and Baylor University.
For more information about the scholarship, contact Ella Shaw, scholarship coordinator for the DCCCD Foundation, at (214) 860-2149. For details about BKM, contact Andy Vanderveer, director of marketing, at (214) 902-7206.
Published by Anitra Cotton on June 29th, 2007 tagged News, Uncategorized | Comment now »
Travel and Meeting Management covered at Richland College’s July 18 Info Session
Richland College’s Travel, Exposition, and Meeting Management (TEMM) program will host an information session, 7-9 p.m., July 18 in Crockett Hall, room C140. Local industry leaders will speak about industry trends and job opportunities as well as how to develop a career in the travel, exposition, and meeting management industry. Richland College program coordinator M.T. Hickman will also provide information about how to enroll in the school’s TEMM classes.
With one of the largest convention centers in the country and the expansion of Victory Park and other venues, Dallas is one of the fastest-growing markets in the nation for the meetings, special events, and trade shows. Each year, thousands of people in the Dallas area are involved in the planning and managing special events such as galas, promotional events, concerts, and festivals. The demand for working professionals in this often hidden industry will continue to expand. Opportunities are also plentiful at travel agencies, convention and visitors bureaus, and cruise lines.
The Richland College TEMM program offers professional development to inexperienced individuals as well as those who have previously worked in the field. Richland offers a certification in meeting management, the only one offered in Texas, and a certificate in travel. Students can also earn an associate’s degree, covering both fields of study. The program offers variety of courses, including running a home-based travel agency, which is also the only course of its kind offered in Texas.
For more information, contact MT Hickman at (972) 238-6097 or mthickman@dccccd.edu.
Published by Anitra Cotton on June 27th, 2007 tagged News, Uncategorized | Comment now »
New policies, construction planned as Richland College goes green
As the threat of global warming and natural resource shortages become more of a reality, more businesses and organizations are going “green” in an effort to preserve our environment. Several educational institutions are also jumping aboard the green train. Richland College is among one the first community colleges in the U.S. to participate in the campaign for sustainability.
Richland’s president, Dr. Steve Mittelstet, recently agreed to sign the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). This agreement solidifies commitments from college and university presidents to contribute to a more eco-friendly world, both locally and globally. Richland will be one of only two Texas higher education institutions, the first in North Texas, to make such an agreement.
The ACUPCC signing means that the participating colleges and universities are to complete a thorough plan to achieve climate neutrality and facilitate policies and procedures like collecting inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and conceptualizing goals to reduce those gases as well as encouraging the purchase of energy-efficient appliances. Richland will also make sustainability a part of its curriculum and other educational experiences for students.
Dr. Mittelstet has also been appointed to lead a consortium of 23 community colleges across the nation in designing an “innovations distributions lab” for curricula, programs, and services that help students learn to build sustainable local and global community at societal, economic, and environmental levels. This multi-year project will be launched this October in a national Wingspread Conference in Racine, Wisconsin, in conjunction with the Johnson Foundation, the Continuous Quality Improvement Network, and IDEO, an award-winning, international design firm that helps organizations transform through innovation.
The college has already made considerable efforts prior to the signing of this agreement. GREENRichland was formed in the fall of 2005 to develop campus practices, policies, and programs to promote sustainability. This group of faculty, staff, and students has hosted a series of events including a sustainability transportation fair last month featuring hybrid cars, scooters, and electric bicycles.
Even bigger plans are in the works, as Richland prepares to construct a $40 million, 141,167-square-foot science building. College administrators are striving for platinum status under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. LEED is a nationally recognized standard for the design and construction of high-performing green buildings.
The new science facility will host Richland’s health and science programs. Features will include special construction for harvesting sunlight, cisterns that irrigate rain water to other parts of the campus as well as interactive devices in restrooms that users control. Some building materials will be recycled, such as the carpet, and local vendors will be utilized as often as possible to minimize exhaust fumes from lengthy transports. The décor will even be eco-friendly and is to include a geology pit for a hands-on “field learning” for the students.
For more details about Richland’s climate commitment, contact Anitra Cotton at 972-238-6022 or anitracotton@dcccd.edu.
» View PDF of “A Natural Commitment” in the Richardson newspaper