Celebrating Diversity on campus

The second annual Diversity Day at LBCC had the campus abuzz.

It's a time when the college recognizes the many different groups and clubs that are offered. It is a great event to learn about the diverse types of people that organize clubs and have ways to get involved. It was quite the scene, students everywhere at the booths, musical circles with guitars and singing, even Rocky the Roadrunner made an appearance.

There was a wide range of clubs at the event, from anti-poverty and hunger (advocacy groups) to students to the leadership counselors. They all came out to persuade newcomers. Among the many were the LGBT Club, Dance Club even the Learning Center on campus had a booth out.

This year Diversity Day was held in the LBCC courtyard on Wednesday, October 19th. Every Wednesday the clubs come out to the public and try to recruit more students to join clubs around the campus.

Diversity Day is coordinated by mainly two LBCC attending students including the student body president, Ricky Zipp and Megan Rivas, the student leader at D.A.C. (Diversity Achievement Center).

Zipp has been involved with Diversity Day on campus for 2 years and is still going strong. He said that diversity is basically any one single attribute from how you dress, religion, or orientation.

Rivas says she enjoys the whole experience from the different clubs, booths and demo graphical aspect. The one thing she and Zipp always looks forward to is the field of flags. However some people get agitated by the flags for what they represent.

"Some people just get uncomfortable with it," said Rivas, "but you have to see the bad sometimes."

The field of flags (below) has been around since spring of last year. The field is a representation of the holocaust victims and each color represents a different groups such as other genocides.

So far there are 2,848 flags in the field. Each flag portrays 20,000 souls lost. The LBCC population is less than one flag.

The Student Union had a booth set up to get students more involved. The Ambassador team leader for the Student Union, Spike Keenan and student Holly Hine, had a table set up to get people involved in a fun game called, "Diversity Hunt."

"It gets the students involved and engaged" said Keenan, "we embrace diversity in all dimensions, clubs and departments."

Diversity Hunt is like a small scavenger hunt for the students to go around looking for certain clubs to get a stamp on a pamphlet.

The students ask questions about the club,. The clubs at Diversity Day are basically just trying to get students to learn more about the clubs that are offered in a fun easy way.

Each club has a pamphlet that includes the names of all the clubs that are in the courtyard. They hand them out to students and the students have to ask one to two questions about the club in order to receive a stamp in the pamphlet in a space where the club name appears. Once they have all the clubs marked off they have a chance to win a prize in a drawing.

"The students and staff are always excited, and the table booth people even dress in their represented clubs," said Hine.

Diversity Day was quite the success and continues to grow every year. Keenan said the best way to get involved is to join a club or to even make one yourself.

______________________________

At a glance:

To find out more about how to start your own club:

LBCC D.A.C.

Forum Building 220

Mon. - Fri. 9am-3pm

541.917.4461

For a list of clubs available on campus visit the following website:

http://www.linnbenton.edu/go/clubs

Join a club and be part of Diversity Day!

Diversity Day

LBCC campus

Students and Clubs

Oct. 19, 2011

A peek into Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan - Author
Charlie Rose - Interviewer and broadcast journalis
Author and reporter Edna Buchanan discusses with Charlie Rose about her 4th new installment on her Britt Montero book series.

In a 1996 interview with Charlie Rose, the famous fiction and non-fiction writer, Edna Buchanan discusses walking the police beat, her life in Miami, and her new upcoming book titled, Act of Betrayal. Buchanan had ended her career writing for the Miami Harold and began writing books about the murders and crimes she covered as a reporter.

Buchanan had actually found work at a small community newspaper before becoming a reporter for the herald. Later once she started writing for the Miami Herald newspaper, Buchanan talked about her reporting days with the law and how being close to police work was beneficial to cracking a story.

"No better creature on earth than a good cop," says Buchanan, "Its not just a job to them, its their life."

She has had a couple experiences working with police. She has covered more than 5,000 murder stories and has even married a policeman before.

Before becoming heavily involved in reporting murder stories and walking the police beat in Miami, Florida, Buchanan grew up in Patterson, New Jersey and moved to Florida in 1961 with her mother.

"The moment I saw Miami, it felt like I was coming home" says Buchanan, "I felt like I belonged here." She said how the feeling was like going from black and white movie to all of a sudden being in technicolor.

Buchanan also got a chance to talk briefly about her 4th installment in her fiction book series. Act of Betrayal involves a character named Britt Montero.

The story is about a character named Britt who reports a story about a missing teenager. In a long string of events, Britt uncovers a frightening pattern of identical cases. Many similar profiled boys start to vanish without a trace, its up to Britt to find out who and why.

The story takes place in Miami, Florida, a lot of Buchanan's books take place in Miami for the setting. "Miami is the main character in all my books," says Buchanan. She also says her character, Britt Montero, is who she would like to be.

"She's a woman of action, she is a role model for me."
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At A Glance:
Edna BuchananEdna's new book "Act of Betrayal"
February 3rd, 1996

To inform the public of her new book and her past experiences as a news reporter for the Miami Herald.

So You Think We Can Dance?

How many people do you think like to dance? A couple maybe, thousands, millions of people? Maybe not out in public, or out in the club, maybe home alone in your room blasting 80's music in boxers and a tank top like Tom Cruise.

The students at LBCC are finding ways to express themselves through dance at the LBCC dance program. Though it may be smaller than dance other programs, students get to experience dance with unique instructors and talented peers.

Rachael Lehman-Arana, who is 19 years old of Albany, is in her second term at LBCC. She has only taken one term of dance at the college, but once was enough to get her even more interested in the experience.

“It was fun,” says Lehman-Arana, “The warm ups were relaxed, and the instructor always pushed you to do more.”

Lehman-Arana has had some previous dance/cheer leading experience so she took some Hip-Hop classes. She mentioned to me that she had wished there were a few more offered classes in a wider range of levels with different dances. She also commented on the instructor of the dance program.

“She's a very fun instructor and very unique. She always gave you positive encouragement," says Lehman-Arana.

Another addition to the dance classes is the head instructor at LBCC. Katherine Sanders (Above) of Albany, is the the main instructor of the dance classes at LBCC. Katherine mentioned how she loved every aspect of dance. She talked about what dance meant to her and why she enjoys it so much.

She has been teaching dance for about 21 years. It will be her 5^th year teaching dance at Linn-Benton in January. She did mention that one thing that she wishes the campus had was an actual program for dance.

“It's not exactly a program, just activities like a P.E. Class. You can't really move forward, you can have the opportunity but its hard to move forward and advance on.” says Sanders.

There are a lot of students here who enjoy dance and love taking the classes. However the budget for another program is not available at the moment.

According to the LBCC activites database the fall term of last year, the enrollment count was about 85-90 students in the class, this fall with less dance classes offered, the enrollment count is now around 50 students.

In 2012 during the fall and winter terms there will be dance classes offered such as Hip-Hop, Contemporary and Jazz.

Fortunately, Sanders has made a dance club for LBCC for anyone that enjoys dancing to come and join. She started the club as an instructor and did the choreography and organization.

This year she is”passing the torch” as she says to the students, and have it more student run. Many students feel that there needs to be a more official dance program offered at Linn-Benton Community College

Most people that know about dance find it to be a passion, an escape and a way to let your emotions go crazy. Dance is the type of art and activity, that lets people express themselves in a such way that the passion is overwhelming.

The students say dance classes are fun and everyone is around people who share the same respect for the art. People can be themselves and just do what they love and dance and express themselves in one big emotion.

According to an article by the Fired Up Dance Academy, dancing is also a great way to build up strength and also provides insight to the appreciation for dance. It also offers different links to find colleges and univerisities that offer dance to the students.

At LBCC (Linn-Benton Community College) many students participate in the dance program. There are some thoughts on the fact that dance classes are only offered twice a year. Many students here on campus take the dance classes that are offered here.

The following classes are offered here: Ballet, Jazz, Hip-Hop, and all of them range from beginning level techniques to advanced techniques.

“There's so much to say with dance, its something that makes you feel connected mentally, emotionally and spiritually. There's just a lot of joy," says Sanders.

If you would like to become part of the dance program and/or the dance club at LBCC, visit Sanders's instructor website or email her for more information about the dance programs.

Sanders also owns her own dance studio in Corvallis, Oregon, called Downtown Dance Corvallis.She offers dance classes of all types ranging from hip hop, to contemporary, and jazz. More information can be found on the website or give her a call to find out about the offered classes.

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At a glance:

Become a dancer!

Downtown Dance Corvallis

223 NW 2nd St.

Corvallis, OR 97330

Phone. 541.829.0070

If interested at all, come and dance your heart out.

LBCC Dance Program

LBCC Activities Center

To bring more attention to the offered dance classes and dance clubs at Linn-Benton Community College.

Websites involved: linnbenton.edu, firedupdanceacademy.com, downtowndancecorvallis.com

Setting a Foundation

After nearly four decades at LBCC, assisting the Nursing Program and being part of the Foundation on campus, Paulette Myers will be retiring at the end of November.

Paulette Myers, is the Coordinator of the LBCC foundation at Linn-Benton Community College. She has been a working staff member for 37 year.

The Foundation is an organization that coordinates donations to the college that include money, property, instructional equipment and materials that in turn provides more for the students. It has been a working establishment since 1972.

The Foundation also manages student scholarships, grants and loans, it has also helped with new installments on campus and remodeling of buildings such as White Oak hall.

"It really is like a full circle," says Myers, "you put the event on, raise the money and then give it out to the students and the college."

After graduating high school, Myers had been a secretary work study at LBCC for one year where she got a glance at what she wanted for a future career.

Myers worked for about 6 months before finding an open position available at the college and in 1974 Myers became Secretary for Nursing which then evolved into being the Health Occupations Program Assistant for which she had been for 27 years.

In 2000, Myers was referred to a job opening at the Foundation by the former president of Administration at LBCC, Jon Carnahan. Her job at the foundation now is planning events, parties, dinners and fundraising events.

"I was sort of known as the party giver" says Myers, "it was just the perfect job to move to, I love to put on parties.

Ann Adams, the Director for Information services has been working with Myers for quite some time now.

"She is an excellent employee," says Adams, "She is the heart and soul of the foundation, and she's always positive."

Adams says that Myers always knows who to check with for information, and always follows through with what she says she's going to do. Adams says that they call her the "party planner."

Adams has been a working staff member for 24 years, she started working at Linn-Benton Community College in 1974.

Myers received the Mario Pastega Outstanding Classified Employee Award in 2007. An award that is given out every year in the fall to one outstanding faculty member and one classified staff member. She had received the award which was a check for $1,000. Myers says that it was quite an honor.

Myers said that the best way to help out with the Foundation and to get involved is to participate in the Annual Fund Drive on campus for the staff and students to get involved. There is also an off-campus Fund Drive as well.

"Just from the staff we get over $60,000 a year towards the Foundation," says Myers. "It’s one of the best ways to get involved."

At the end of November of 2011, Myers will be retiring. She says that she plans to work part time for the college until they can find a new person to fill her spot in the Foundation.

"This really is a great place to be," says Myers, "it’s like one big family."

______________________________________________

At a glance:

Paulette Myers

Coordinator for the Foundation

Worked at LBCC for 37 years

Email: myersp@linnbenton.edu

Want to make a donation? Contact the Foundation:

The Foundation

6500 Pacific Boulevard SW

Albany, OR 97321

Phone: 541.917.4209

Website links:

www.linnbenton.edu/go/foundation
http://www.linnbenton.edu/go/foundation/paver-project

Related articles:
http://po.linnbenton.edu/communicator/0510Insider.pdf