In Brief: March 2023

Last week, the Collin College Lady Cougars played in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I Tournament in Lubbock. This is the first time any basketball team from Collin College has made the national tournament. The Lady Cougars finished their regular season with an all-time best 28-1 record and were ranked No. 7 in the NJCAA Coaches Poll. Eight players earned All-Region and All-Conference honors, while womens coach Jeff Allen was named a national coach of the year. The teams compete in the North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference (NTJCAC) in Region V of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).

Waiata Jennings (Rotorua, New Zealand) All-Region V Team, First Team All-Conference, Player of the Year, Co-Freshman of the Year
MacKenzie Buss (Lake Dallas) All-Region V Team, First Team All-Conference
Isaiah Washington (Converse) First Team All-Conference
Robby Williams (Charleston, West Virginia) Second Team All-Conference
Caroline Glud Rasmussen (Kongens Lyngby, Denmark) All-Conference Honorable Mention
Mykaila Pickard (Anchorage, Alaska) All-Conference Honorable Mention
Beyonce Lane (Corpus Christi) All-Conference Honorable Mention
Lav Cvetkovic (Novi Sad, Serbia) All-Conference Honorable Mention
Jeff Allen NTJCAC Womens Basketball Coach of the Year

In addition to conference coaching honors, Jeff Allen was named Two-Year College National Coach of the Year by the Womens Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). Jennings was also named to the 2023 WBCA Two-Year College Coaches All-America Team.

Basketball player Mackenzie Buss was featured in a Denton Record-Chronicle article, the local newspaper which covers sports in her hometown of Lake Dallas. Read the story here.

The Collin College Countywide Career Fair should draw more than 100 employers from Collin County and the surrounding area on April 20 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Plano Campus. The career fair, the booths of which stretched from the Living Legends Conference Center to the atrium last year, has grown. Organizers are expecting large crowds for this years fair.

Dean Daphne Babcock of the Wylie Campus has been selected as the Chair of the Wylie Chamber Womens Conference to be held this summer.

Executive Dean Dr. Diana Hopes is serving on a panel at the Texas Women in Higher Education Conference on March 28 with other senior administrators from across the state. The programs title is Leadership Playlist, and the leaders will share their favorite podcasts, books they read, etc., to inspire conference attendees.

Collin College is proud to announce its annual NISOD Excellence Awards recipients. A total of 35 applications were received, with 12 nominees making it to the final group. The NISOD Excellence Awards were established in 1991 to allow NISOD member colleges to recognize individuals doing extraordinary work on their campuses. Since then, more than 30,000 recipients have been honored with the Award by their colleges. Congratulations to the following 2023 Collin College NISOD Winners: Amy Bierhup, professor of Nursing; Richard Brunner, professor of Computer Systems Security; John Byers, director of Continuing Education Programming; John Guillory, district college and career counselor, Scott Kerr, coordinator for Collin College Fire Academy; Keyona McClellan, coordinator for international students/advising associate; Tonya McMillion, professor of Communication Design-Video; Daniel Quong, graphic designer; Bryan Russell, program coordinator for Collin College Law Enforcement Academy; Sean Sweeden, program career coach; Erwin Whitlock, manager for Facility Plant Operations; Kamilah Asabi-Willis, associate dean for Student and Enrollment Services. Congratulations to them all for this outstanding accomplishment.

The Collin Dance Ensemble was selected to perform an original work by a Collin College professor at the gala concert of the American College Dance Association(ACDA)South-Central Region Conference earlier this month. The gala selection was the 11^th for the Collin College Dance Department, an unprecedented feat for a community college. Professor Tiffanee ArnoldsHIVEwas selected for the gala concert in a blind adjudication process where the adjudicators know only the title of the dance and the year that it was choreographed. Thirty-nine dances, choreographed by faculty, students, and guest artists, and performed by students ranging from community collegesto universities withgraduate programs, were submittedfor adjudication. Of those 39 dances, 11 were selected for the gala concert. The piece was performed by the Collin Dance Ensemble, 16 of whom traveled with Arnold, Professor Meghan Cardwell-Wilson, and Associate Dean Courtney Mulcahy to the conference at Sam Houston State University, March 6-9.

Kathy Meyer, adjunct professor of Marketing, was one of 20 women nationally recognized by M&Ms in its Women Flipping the Status Quo campaign. Meyer co-founded the non-profit She Supply, which provides period products and undergarments for women in poverty. Since its inception six years ago, She Supply has donated over 1 million products to North Texas women. Her story was covered on NBC 5, her picture was broadcast on the jumbotron at Times Square, and her organization will receive a $10,000 grant! Check out the news story here:www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/flower-mound-woman-honored-for-flipping-the-status-quo/3209569/)

The Collin College Nursing program was approved by ACEN (Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing) to increase the ADN (Associate Degree Nursing) cohort size starting in fall 2023 from 90 learners to 120 learners and to add a second LVN-to-RN cohort. This expansion will allow the nursing program to admit 105 more applicants annually.

Collin Colleges Phi Theta Kappa chapter, Alpha Mu Tau, attended the Texas Region Convention in Irving, March 10-12, and earned the following accomplishments:
District II Hall of Honor: Raymond Philip, Alan Tovar, Yerassyl Dauletbak, Nicolly Moreno, Charlene Sunde, and Jennifer Morrow, advisor.
Texas Region Awards:

• Five Star Chapter
• Honors in Action & College Project Participation Award
• Friend of Texas, Amanuel Moges
• Poster Competition, HIA First Place: Alpha Mu Tau, Collin College
• Speech competition:
  • Prepared:First Place: Jayna Burch, Alpha Mu Tau, Collin College
  • Impromptu: Second Place: Charlene Sunde, Alpha Mu Tau, Collin College;
• Award of Merit for Outstanding Alumni: Anna Seida, Alpha Mu Tau, Collin College
• Hall of Honor for Outstanding Members: Yerassyl Dauletbak, Alpha Mu Tau, Collin College
• Hall of Honor for Chapter Officers:
  • Charlene Tanya Sunde, Alpha Mu Tau, Collin College;
  • Jayna Burch, Alpha Mu Tau, Collin College
• Continued Excellence Award for Advisors: Dr. Jessica Hargis, Alpha Mu Tau, Collin College
• College Project Awards of Merit: Alpha Mu Tau, Collin College
• HIA Award ofDistinction Theme 4 Architecture and Design of Play: Alpha Mu Tau, Collin College
• Nancy Long Continued Excellence Award (three years as a top chapter): Alpha Mu Tau, Collin College
• First Finalist Most Distinguished Chapter:Alpha Mu Tau, Collin College (AMT is no. 2 out of 92 in the Texas Region).

The Frisco campus hosted the inaugural induction of dual credit students into Psi Alpha on March 3. Psi Alpha is a national honor society for high school students, inviting students who plan to major or minor in psychology and students who have an interest in psychology.

Dr. Monica Gallamore, professor of History at Frisco Campus, traveled with four students as part of the HIST 2389 Co-Op History on Site Study Tour in Santa Fe, New Mexico, March 12-17. Collin students along with students from the University of Central Oklahoma and Northern Oklahoma College conducted intensive, real-world research and study in Santa Fe, San Ildefonso Pueblo, and Bandelier National Monument with the U.S. National Park Service. This is the first time Collin students have been invited to participate along with UCO and NOC. Students had the opportunity to visit the ancestral homelands of the Pueblo People preserved through the Bandelier National Monument, a U.S. National Park, and meet the direct descendants of those Pueblo People, the Martinez family.The Martinez family are the inheritors of the ancient tradition of creating black-on-black pottery which was brought to world fame by Maria Martinez, the matriarch of the modern Martinez Family. Activities included walking tours, a guided tour of the San Ildefonso Puebloby Marvin Martinez, a hike in the Bandelier National Park , and the opportunity to participate in a traditional pottery firing by the Martinez family in the San Ildefonso Pueblo.

The APCAA, the Science Labs, and the Brenda Willard Goodell (BWG) Library at the Celina Campus partnered to present an open house Tailgate Time event on Feb. 9 to showcase the resources available to students. Both day and evening sessions were held. Students were able to meet staff from the respective areas. About 150 dual credit students attended the night event.

The Collin College Law Enforcement Training Academy hosted a two-day seminar titled Identifying and Intercepting School Violence through Cyber-Investigation, on March 27-28. The popular seminar drew officers from across the area to the Public Safety Training Center for information on stopping school violence before it occurs.

iCollin Virtual Campus Economics Professor Kaycee Washington presented at the Central Texas Economics and Teaching Conference in Austin in February.

McKinney Campus Art Professor Brianna Burnetts artwork was accepted into the Dallas Center for Photography juried exhibition Modern Analog.