NRCC News

Campus Briefs -- Fall 2015

Nov 17 2015

This is an archived article!

This article was published on Nov 17 2015 and was archived on Nov 18 2016. The information below may be outdated or inaccurate.

NRCC Campus BriefsNRCC professor makes student success presentation in South Korea

Dr. Cynthia Wynne, New River Community College associate professor of biology, was recently invited to be the keynote speaker at an International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry meeting in Busan, South Korea. Following NRCC's renewed focus on student success, Wynne gave a talk titled "Enhancing Student Success through Fostering Quality Student-Teacher Relationships."

Her talk addressed the positive correlation between student success and positive student-teacher relationships, as well as strategies for supporting those relationships.

"For example," Wynne explains, "Students who have high quality relationships with their teachers are at a lower risk of school failure, enjoy school more, display lower rates of suicide, and are less likely to abuse alcohol and drugs."

She also discussed strategies to foster positive student-teacher relationships including learning about each student, welcoming and talking with students before and after class, creating a culture of interpersonal respect and creating a relaxed learning environment.

NRCC veterans officer hits the ground running

New River Community College's new veterans officer and connection specialist Barry Cox has been keeping busy both inside and outside the college connecting with area veterans and keeping up to date on benefits and related issues.

Over the summer, Cox attended the Legislative Affairs National Committee Meeting with the American Military Retirees Association in Norfolk, Va., where he sits on the committee representing western Virginia. He also made a presentation to the Radford Veterans of Foreign Wars post and the Christiansburg Disabled American Veterans chapter on GI Bill benefits.

Cox also accepted an appointment with the Employee Support of the Guard and Reserve, a Department of Defense office, to serve as a liaison between employers and employees who serve in the National Guard or military reserve. Recently, Cox presented the "Patriotic Award" to Gerald McPeak, superintendent of the New River Valley Regional Jail on behalf of ESGR. This is the second time McPeak has received the award for his support of National Guard members and military reservists who are employed at the jail.

Tripp receives outstanding technical educator award

Deborah Tripp, SkillsUSA Virginia students specialist, recently received the Virginia Association of Trade and Industrial Educators Outstanding Career and Technical Educator of the Year award. The award is based on outstanding contributions as a classroom or lab trade and industrial education teacher.

Award winners must "show evidence in teaching as well as contribution in the field at all levels."

Tripp, who is based at NRCC, was also recently re-elected as the SkillsUSA State Directors Association secretary during the 51st annual SkillsUSA National Conference in Louisville, Ky.

Levy attends NASA STEM workshop, sees student work debuted

Jeff Levy, NRCC instructor of drafting, attended a week-long NASA Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) workshop with others from Virginia Community Colleges at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Va. His team was assigned to the Sounding Rocket Team. Levy's role was the Launch Controller and Mission Manager.

"This was a simulated experiment to test our ability to complete mission-based tasks in areas that were outside our scope expertise and to work as a collective team under time constraints to accomplish the mission task," said Levy.

Additionally, Levy recently learned that design work done by past NRCC engineering design and technology students has been featured in the 2016 United States Submarine Calendar "Undersea Warriors." The calendar is published by the United States Submarine Veterans, Inc., organization and the opening page of the 2016 edition includes the students' concept design for the U.S. Navy's SSBN-X O