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LAKEPORT, Calif. – A former Lakeport resident has graduated from the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, in May.
Janae Tanti, who received her undergraduate degree, was among a record 1,850 graduates who participated in two ceremonies on May 11 under the majestic oak trees in the historic Cistern Yard.
South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Glenn McConnell was the commencement speaker. He told the graduating class that the most important value they can carry with them in life is integrity.
The College of Charleston is a nationally recognized public liberal arts and sciences university located in the heart of historic Charleston.
Founded in 1770, the college is among the nation’s top universities for quality education, student life and affordability.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Rocket Club got a big boost from Calpine employee Josh Wade when he asked his company to make a donation to the fledgling club.
Wade presented the Children’s Museum of Art and Science, the original backers of the club, with a check for $500. This money will be used for rocket kits and other supplies for next year.
Bill Bordisso, retired teacher and the club’s organizer, said the club had a great year.
The Rocket Club met weekly during the school year from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays at the Taylor Observatory in Kelseyville.
Bordisso said the 10 students involved were in grades fourth through eighth and came from various county school districts and charter schools and also included some home schooled students.
Three or four parents usually stayed for the sessions and Bordisso said, “It was hard to tell who was the most excited – the kids or the parents.”
Club meetings included information on Newton’s Laws, the history of the space program, the make up of the universe, and the use of scientific procedure. Hands-on activities were scheduled weekly to give students an opportunity, as Bordisso says, “to get dirty.”
Over the course of the year, club members made two rockets. For the first, all students had the same kit and they assembled them together.
For the second rocket, students got to each pick a different kit, some with enticing, descriptive names like Big Bertha, the Screaming Eagle, the Black Star Voyager and the Mean Machine (a rocket 6 feet tall). Twice the club held launches, once at Taylor and, at the end of the year, at Lower Lake Elementary.
Next year, says Bordisso, all launches will be at Taylor because the field is so much larger and it’s easier to recover the rockets after they’re launched.
“It’s heartbreaking,” says Bordisso, “When kids lose the rockets after they have spent so much time building them.”
Rocket Club member Jacob Stahr, a sixth grader at Terrace School, would like to pursue a career working for NASA. He loves math and is very good at it. His only complaint about the Rocket Club is that he wishes there was no summer break. He’d like to keep on building rockets all summer long.
He enjoyed building and launching the rockets as well as the other hands on activities like putting Alka Seltzer in a film canister to demonstrate Newton’s Law of equal and opposite reactions.
Overall, Jacob says, the club was “all around really, really fun” and he has been talking to two of his friends who may join him in the fall.
Mercedes McComb, a student at Kelseyville Elementary School, is also anxious for the club to start up again in the fall.
She said it was a “fun thing to do after school” and though she “felt weird being the only girl in the group” she wanted other girls to know “it’s really fun and they should get involved and show boys that rockets are not just a boy thing.”
Mark McCombs, Mercedes’ dad, attended all sessions with his daughter and would like to encourage other parents to get involved. He said a knowledge of rocketry is not necessary. It’s the shared experience that’s important.
He and Mercedes were very proud when both of their rockets were recovered intact after the launches. He feels participation in the club has broadened his daughter’s horizons and opened new avenues of interest for her.
Steven Sprague, who attends Mountain Vista Middle School, is also planning to participate again next year. He built the Star Voyager and the Chrome Dome rockets and wants other kids to know that being in the Rocket Club is “a lot of fun and building rockets is a great thing to do when you are bored.”
Bordisso is already planning for next year’s club activities. He would like to continue to build increasingly more complex rockets and take the club members on a field trip to a NASA facility in the bay area. He is willing to increase the club membership to 20.
Parents and students in grades fourth through eighth who are interested can call him at home at 707-279-0923. Adult volunteers are always welcomed and encouraged.
CMAS will continue to help support this club which is free for any Lake County student. CMAS greatly appreciates the interest of community members like Josh Wade and businesses like Calpine whose donations help to defer the costs of the rocket kits and other needed supplies. Donations to support and expand the Rocket Club program are always welcomed.
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UKIAH, Calif. – The 2013 graduation ceremony for the Mendocino College Nursing Program was held on Thursday, May 23, in the Center for Visual and Performing Arts at Mendocino College.
The ceremony began with an invocation by Dr. Barbara French, director of nursing at the college.
Nursing Instructor Fran Laughton’s introduction of the graduates was followed by speeches from student speaker Zyola Blu and class president Kristy Hosford.
This year’s graduates include Debra Gentry, Amanda O’Ferrall, Corinne Chaulk, Christina Pangle, Michael Teller, Gregory Hamilton, David Fissell, Jason Cox, Michael David Crowe, Geri Warner, Karen Kennedy, Samantha Rogers, Charlotte Kelley, Zyola Blu, Joanne Epperson, Gina Freeman, Alisa Grill and Kristy Hosford.
The Mendocino College Nursing program boasts some of the highest pass rates for a community college nursing program in the state of California.
According to French, the Mendocino College pass rate is 96.4 percent, while the statewide average is 85 percent.
Following the tradition established with last year’s graduating class, this year’s graduates each also received a check for $400 to fund their state board examination fees.
This generous gift was provided by the Mendocino Community Health Clinics, Ukiah Valley Medical Center, Albert Beltrami, Theresa Rohr, Daisy Ellsworth, Terri Ebrey, Leslie Saxon West, Barbara French and Jason Eddington.
According to Professor French, “For every month a nursing candidate waits to take their state board examination, their ability to pass goes down 24 percent. It is absolutely critical that our graduates take the examination immediately following graduation. This gift ensures that each graduate will take their state boards immediately.”
For more information about the Mendocino College Foundation, they can be reached at 707-467-1018 or at http://foundation.mendocino.edu/site/ .
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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Congressman John Garamendi (D-Fairfield), who represents UC Davis and who served as a University of California Regent and California State University trustee, once again this week called for Congress to prevent the Stafford student loan interest rate from doubling for seven million students and families in exactly one week – on July 1.
Garamendi is a cosponsor of H.R. 1595, the Student Loan Relief Act of 2013, which would freeze the interest rate on these loans at 3.4% for the next two years.
He also has signed a discharge petition to bring the bill to the House Floor for a vote. The petition has garnered the signature of 195 Members of Congress, but needs a majority (218) to force a vote.
“A college education provides a ladder for people to climb up toward their American Dream. However, in just one week, hard working students at UC Davis, Solano Community College, Yuba College, and schools across the country will be kicked down a rung unless Congress acts to prevent Stafford Student Loan Rates from doubling,” Garamendi said.
“Forcing students to pay an average of $1,000 more for their education would not only hurt them, it would harm America’s families, businesses, and our economy. For that reason, I have called for legislation freezing the current rate to be brought to the floor. Congress should not adjourn until we stop this senseless rate hike,” Garamendi added.
At UC Davis, 11,000 students use Stafford Student Loans to help them pay for tuition.
On May 23, House Republicans passed H.R. 1911, the “Making College More Expensive Act,” a student loan bill that was even worse for students and families than allowing interest rates to double – with even higher interest payments by students and families.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, under their bill, students who borrow the maximum amount of subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans over five years would pay nearly $2,000 more in interest costs than if interest rates doubled.
As a UC regent and CSU trustee, Garamendi voted against every undergraduate tuition increase, because he believes higher education is already too expensive and already pricing qualified students out of an education.