Students and faculty from the Middlesex Lowell Academy Charter School came to MCC's Lowell campus to attend a concert presented by the MCC Music Department Outreach Program. The Music Outreach Program, now in its fifth year, has presented concerts and workshops in collaboration with Lowell High School’s music department, and has now expanded these valuable musical experiences to include the students from the Charter School.
The concert program, which took place in the Federal Building Assembly Room, featured Elizabeth Ostling, flutist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Carmen Rodriguez-Peralta, MCC faculty member, on piano.
Ostling and Peralta performed works by 20th century composers, including French composer Phillipe Gaubert, Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera and American composer Jennifer Higdon. Higdon’s piece, “Autumn Reflections” painted a musical picture of the varied moods of autumn. Students were invited to describe how the composer created moods of melancholy and brilliance and also learned about poly-rhythms and poly-tonality used by the composer.
Students were also invited to ask questions about the music and about the careers of the two accomplished professional musicians. Special props to Johannah Segarich, coordinator of MCC's music outreach program!
Congrats go out to Donna Holaday, one of our own at MCC, who was successful last night in her bid to be the Mayor of Newburyport!
Holaday, a councilor-at-large in Newburyport, was elected the city's newest mayor with a 2,704-2,257 victory (a 55% to 45% margin) over City Council President James Shanley. She'll assume the office in January.
Holaday, who has been with MCC since 1998, is the director of grant development and management here at MCC and has been one of our go-to grant gurus for years. Apparently she did not take her hometown campaign for granted.
Five Middlesex Community College art students are displaying artwork in the windows of Lowell’s historic Rialto Building. Created as part of the annual Lowell Arts Festival, the paintings, collages and elaborate cut-paper pieces will be on view throughout the month.
Students with artwork on display are Eastman Garcia of Lawrence, Kosta Gregory and Danny Phoun of Lowell, Patrick Munroe of Littleton, and Pai-Fang Lin of Lexington. Lin’s young daughter, Yi Yi, also filled one window with origami paper birds and flowers.
The Rialto Building, located at 240 Central St. in downtown Lowell, is slated to be renovated by the college and will house a performance and community space, as well as dance and theater classrooms.
Built in 1876 as the Boston & Maine Railroad Depot, the two-story brick High Victorian gothic structure housed a number of businesses over the years, including serving as the Rialto Theatre lobby from 1921 until the 1960s. Considered a Lowell landmark, it was saved from demolition by the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission in 1989. The exterior of the building was renovated by Lowell National Historical Park, which transferred ownership to Middlesex in 2008. The college is in the process of acquiring funding for interior renovations.
MCC Art Professor Margaret Rack had the idea to display student work in the Rialto Building’s windows after Arts Festival organizers suggested local schools and colleges create artwork for storefronts in downtown Lowell. "It occurred to me that the Rialto Building would be a nice fit for Middlesex, since the windows are grand and could be filled entirely for a bold statement showcasing our students' work,” said Rack. “It’s also fitting because that is MCC’s future arts building."
Over the summer, Rack and Margaret Swan, Chair of MCC’s Art Department, invited Middlesex students to participate in the site-specific project. “We recommended they consider the past and future use of the building as a possible theme for their designs,” said Swan. “As it turned out, their artwork is a mixture of site-specific work, as well as recent work completed during the spring 2009 semester.”
For more information about the Rialto Windows Project, contact Margaret Swan, Chair of MCC’s Art Department, as swanm@middlesex.mass.edu or 781-280-3803.
A closeup of Pai-Fang Lin's work.
This week, more than three dozens members of a delegation from Brazil visited MCC's Bedford campus to meet with MCC administrators to hear more about the college's international, business, and leadership programs.
The visit was facilitated by the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, and was part of a two-day whirlwind tour through many of Massachusetts' institutions of higher education. The MCC stopover spent a lot of time focusing on MCC's business training programs and partnerships. MCC President Carole Cowan brought about a dozen members of her administrative team to answers questions from the delegation, which consisted of professors, program directors, and administrators from universities and colleges in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The group makes annual trips to places of higher education. Besides MCC, the group visited Boston College and was then off to the University of Southern California.
Middlesex Community College President Carole A. Cowan addressing visiting Brazilian delegates.
Back by popular demand, it's MCC's Trivia Night!
The event was a huge hit when it was held in the spring, and it looks as though many of the same teams will be returning this time around. Everyone is looking to topple last spring's winners, the Tech-Know Geeks out of our Information Technology Department, seen here basking in their victorious, but fleeting glory:
MCC Fall Trivia Night is going to be held on Friday, November 6, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Bedford Campus Cafeteria. The entry fee is $40 per team, payable ot the door prior to the start of the event. Proceeds from the event will support the MCC Foundation's Annual Fund. Gather a team of 4 to 8 players, or register as a solo free agent. The event is open all all MCC faculty, staff, students and alumni as well as the local community.
Teams are encouraged to dress creatively to distract their opponents and to bring cleverly themed tables decorations, soft drinks, and culinary treats. Take a look at last spring's winner for most festive table and costumes:
The winning team gets bragging rights and a trophy that goes on display in MCC's trophy case. There will also be a sports memorabilia silent auction just in time for holiday shopping, and a 50/50 raffle.
To register, visit www.middlesex.mass.edu/trivianightregistration or contact Jonathan Crockett at 781-280-3785.
And to help folks get in the spirit of things and get revved up for the event, here's a smattering of questions for you to take a run at. First person who posts the most right answers wins. And remember - NO USING THE INTERNET OR RESOURCES OTHER THAN YOUR OWN BRAIN TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS!
1) What Stanley Kubrick movie was hyped "In Vietnam the wind doesn't blow, it sucks"?
2) What is the name of Doc Brown's very clever dog in Back to the Future?
3) What other man, besides Paul Revere, was originally sent out to warn patriots that the British were coming on April 18, 1775?
4) Who was known as "Moses" of the Underground Railroad?
5) What is a male cat if a female cat is a queen?
6) What animal has been dubbed nature's skyscraper?
7) Which country owns the Canary Islands?
8) What nationality is the Muppet Show's chef?
9) What was Cinderella's real name?
10) Who had the ring immediately before Bilbo took it in the Hobbit?
11) Who beat Bobby Riggs in tennis' famous Battle of the Sexes?
12) What winter Olympic event combines cross-country skiing with rifle shooting?
Good luck and we'll see you on the 6th!
Under a bright blue sky and with a wind roaring into the open meadow, more than 75 MCC administrators, faculty and students gathered with their community partners on Thursday to officially open the MCC Fitness Trail!
Located behind the Trustees Building on the Bedford campus, the trail has been waiting for decades to be unearthed, something that occurred over the past year, with some help from the MCC Day of Service.
The trail consists of two loops - one of them is a 3/4 mile loop that encircles a small frog pond, located behind the North Academic Building. The other is a 1.25 mile loop that winds out to Orchard Road, runs across the meadow, behind the Farmhouse, and comes out across from the Cataldo Administration Building.
The trail was supported by an MCC Foundation grant through the Annual Fund, and is another terrific project out of the Student Activities Division. It's really been Athletic Guru Jonathan Crockett's baby since its inception, but a number of other MCC personnel have stepped in to help make the trail a reality, in particular the Facilities staff who helped clear the trail and also install the 10 fitness stations throughout the trail.
For a structured workout, the 10 station Fit Trail combines a series of scientifically designed exercises which when combined with walking or jogging can provide a well-balanced physical fitness routine for the entire body.
As most folks know, the 200+ acre MCC Bedford campus was once home to a Marist Seminary, which opened in the fall of 1926, offering educational programs and training for the Catholic priesthood. One priest had a particular interest in the woods and the nearby pond and took it upon himself to cultivate those areas. The priest, a teacher of Greek and Latin, dredged the pond and landscaped the woods.
“When the roots of academia first found footing on this piece of land, a nature-loving priest discovered a remarkable woods. It was a woods that offered spiritual retreat, recreation, and tranquility for the boys and Fathers of the Marist Seminary,” Crockett said during the open ceremony. “The Marist Community has long since disappeared, replaced by the MCC that we know today. And for years, these trails have been all but lost and forgotten quietly and secretly enjoying the passing of seasons. Until today.”
While the trails have been there for decades, most MCC folks, not to mention the college's neighbors in Bedford and Billerica had rarely ventured out onto the trails. As of yesterday, even MCC President Carole Cowan, who has been at the college for more than 30 years, hadn't explored the trails.
Everything changed when the ribbon was cut to officially open the trails and dozens of people started their woodland exploration treks.
Crockett said he hopes the trails will also serve as a recreational resource for hikers, runners, skiiers, snowshoers, and anyone interest in bird or wildlife watching.
Crockett said the network of trails is “not simply a path through the woods, it’s a rich and complex part of the history of this land. It’s a connection, literally and symbolically, to Bedford, Billerica, and many towns and cities beyond.”
Just as significantly, the MCC series of trails is now expected to link with the Bay Circuit Trail, a series of over 200 miles of trails that stretches across the state of Massachusetts, from Duxbury to Plum Island.
Art Smith, chair of the Bedford Trails Committee joined the MCC team at the event.
“This place on this planet is filled with memories for me,” said Smith, who grew up in Bedford. He recalled the genesis of the tract of wooded land. “Out in these woods was a strange and somewhat forbidding place called the Marist Seminary. That it became MCC has lifted the veil and produced one of the more outstanding assets
of our community.”
The MCC Foundation has created a program to help maintain and sustain the trails. Anyone interested in helping to support the Fitness Trail Preservation Fund can call the MCC Foundation at 781-280-3522.
Now that we've caught your attention, folks need to know about an important upcoming community event in the city of Lowell.
Thursday, October 15th is Unwanted Medication Disposal Day at the Lowell Health Department, an important community health initiative that MCC is helping to partner. It's time to clean out your medicine cabinets and drawers of all of your old, unused prescription drugs. The end goal here is to help keep potentially dangerous medicines from getting into the hands of curious youngsters.
The drop-off is available to anyone who lives, works, or goes to school in Lowell, and that includes our MCC population.
The disposal is free and safe, with no questions asked. Additionally, the Health Department's method of disposal avoids flushing old medicines, which could prove harmful to our rivers. The event will be held at the Lowell Health Department at 341 Pine St., Lowell on Thursday, October 15th from 8 a.m. to noon. For more info, contact Maria Ruggiero at the Lowell Health Department, 978-970-4010.
There was a bunch of rain-related songs that almost made it into the headlines, the Beatles Rain, the Ronettes' Walking in the Rain (any others you can think of?) but in the end, we decided to just heap some praise on a stalwart band of MCC students and staffers who ventured out on Saturday in less-than-perfect conditions to take part in the Merrimack Valley Start Heartwalk!
More than 1,000 people did the trek around the Merrimack River on Saturday, during sometimes heavy downpours which clearly did not dampen the spirits of Team MCC!
The walk, organized in conjunction with the American Heart Association, was intended to help raise more than $300,000 to help fund research to prevent heart disease and strokes. Included among the walkers were dozens of survivors of heart attacks or strokes.
Team MCC included several members of this year's crop of Fellows from the Paul H. Sullivan Leadership Institute, other students from the Student Affairs office, and a handful of MCC administrators as well. Congrats to all for this great community service!
More than 200 people have signed up for Wednesday's free public health community forum, Preventing Opioid Overdoses, a partnership project between MCC's program on Homeland Security, the Lowell Health Department, and the office of State Representative Thomas A. Golden Jr.
Seats are still available for the event, being held on Wednesday at the Tewksbury Hospital Auditorium, 365 East Street. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with doors opening at 8 a.m.
The forum, which is co-sponsored by Tewksbury Hospital and the Greater Lowell Pharmaceutical Association, will focus on breaking the cycle of opium-based drug overdoses. The plague of many communities, such overdoses often impact people who become addicted to legally prescribed pain medications following accidents or work-related injuries. Most addicts have long histories of working and providing for their families. But, unable to kick the newly acquired habit, they sometimes turn to heroin and other street drugs, which can bring misery, family suffering, and premature death.
Forum speakers will include medical and public health practitioners, recovering addicts, and relatives of addicts, emergency responoders, a representative of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Bureau of Substance Abuse and Rep. Thomas Golden, who has focused legislative attention on the issue.
The forum will be of special interest to medical, nursing, pharmacy and allied health practitioners, community and support groups working against drug overdoses, organized labor, and employer groups.
More than 100 MCC students were joined today by President Carole Cowan and Congresswoman Niki Tsongas of Lowell as they performed community service as part of the college's Seasons of Service, with today's events coordinated to commemorate the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on our country.
Last October, more than 800 MCC students, faculty and staff took part in a Day of Service, donating their time and efforts to projects at 55 sites in 16 local cities and towns. MCC people cleaned parks and riverways, sorted food at local food pantries, did repair work at area homeless shelters and provided support to people with physical and cognitive disabilities. On that one day, MCC personnel provided over 2,400 hours of service to the college's communities.
This year, instead of just one day, the service project has been extended by the college's Center for Community Engagement throughout the whole school year, as part of a Seasons of Service initiative, with an eye toward surpassing last year's totals.
On Friday, a series of events were rolled out in conjunction with the call for service to help memorialize the 9/11/01 attacks. In the Lowell cafeteria, as more than 100 students folded and sorted thousands of pieces of donated clothing for the Lowell Wish Project, they were joined by Tsongas, who took some time to speak to them not just about the significance of the 9/11 anniversary, but the importance of their volunteerism. Tsongas then spent about an hour sorting clothing with the students.
The projects will continue throughout the school year.
And in the meantime, don't forget to take a moment to remember those lost eight years ago today. MCC's prayers and support are extended to all of the victim's friends and families who have carried on in the wake of that unforgettable day.
Folks on MCC's city campus are taking steps in the right direction by joining a robust exercise regimen, complete with free membership and equipment!
Take the Stairs is a new health and wellness campaign the college has kicked off for occupants of its city campus, due in great part to unavoidable construction taking place on two of the main campus building's four elevators. The work by state contractors commenced weeks ago, but despite the college's fervent wishes, it couldn't be wrapped up in time for the start of the fall semester.
To try to ease the crunch in the other two elevators, MCC administrators and its fitness team are encouraging everyone - students, faculty and staff, to use the building's two stairwells as often as possible and has launched an ambitious fitness program to entice folks to participate!
MCC's Health and fitness guru Jonathan Crockett and his colleagues have been standing at the stairwells handing out prize tickets to anyone caught using the stairs. The tickets are entered into a random raffle for prizes like a front lot parking space, cafeteria food coupons, MCC merchandise, and coupons for discounts off textbooks or at downtown businesses.
By the way, if anyone's curious, there's quite a few stairs at stake in each of the city campus stairwells - 118 of them, ground floor to 5th floor! The average person can burn 10 calories per minute using stairs. So step right up, and generate some stairs!
So it's back to school time here at MCC, and while students are running around scooping up their textbooks and doing their last-minute class registrations, the MCC administration is also spending a considerable amount of time trying to get students, faculty, and staff prepared for the changes to come in the downtown Lowell parking scene!
With the arrival of our new neighbor, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, into the new Inn and Conference Center, the availability of parking in the Lower Locks Garage has decreased.
In hopes of alleviating the backup and parking crunch at that garage, as well as the Davidson Street lot, day students are now required to park at either the new Early garage on nearby Middlesex Street, the Ayotte garage alongside the Tsongas Arena, or the Davidson Street lot.
Faculty and staff with pass cards will still be allowed to park at the Lower Locks garage, along with all of the other downtown garages. Personnel who work at the college's Middle Street facilities will still be able to use the Roy garage on Market Street, along with the other city garages.
Part-time daytime faculty and staff will be able to get their parking receipts validated to enable them to park in the Lower Locks, Roy, and John Street garages. The validator will be located at the Lowell Campus Manager's office on the 5th floor, or with the faculty secretary on the fifth floor of the Talbot Building. Evening faculty, staff and students will be able to get their parking receipts validated in the lobbies of the City and Talbot buildings, for use in the Lower Locks, John Street and Roy garages.
Whew! Got all that? Now bring on the calculus and creative writing classes!
(Or at least one of the top 40 billboards in the Greater Lowell area)
Since you've all probably been too busy paying attention to the rules of the road, focused on your own lane, cognizant of your fellow drivers, and of course, keeping a watchful eye peeled for those police officers waiting for you at the end of the Lowell Connector, you probably haven't had a chance to see MCC's new billboard alongside the Connector, towards the end.
Well because here at the MCC blog our goal is to provide you information that helps make your life just a little easier, one of our intrepid field reporters/photographers glommed a shot of said billboard while heading in-bound recently. Relax, no accidents occurred, and no speeding tickets were issued as a result of this photo shoot.
At the end of the day, it's just a different way for us to get the word out about some of the exciting things happening here at MCC, in this case, our new Weekend College. But now we know how those rock stars feel when they finally make it onto Billboard!
Six Middlesex students recently spent two weeks in Russia, participating in the college’s International Student Fellowship Program to Russia. The trip was part of an ongoing exchange program between MCC and Bryansk State Technical University. BSTU students visited Middlesex in June.
MCC students Leah Alloway (Lowell), Andres Arzapalo, (Lawrence), Jose Disla (Lawrence), Jamie Joshi (Cambridge), Tara Kirby (Nashua, NH) and Danielle Milagre- Pimenta (Acton) with advisor Aimee Rusman (Westford), director of MCC’s TRIO Program for Student Achievement, visited the region around Bryansk, a city of 400,000, located six hours southwest of Moscow. They toured museums, a crystal factory, poet Feodor Tyutchev's estate, and Tolstoy Park. They stayed at a summer camp in Sosnova and also enjoyed several other excursions around Moscow. The students prepared for the trip through a series of lectures on the history and culture of Russia.
Middlesex Community College will kick off Seasons of Service, a year-long, community-service initiative, Tuesday Sept. 8 when students, staff and faculty volunteers from the Bedford and Lowell campuses work at Lowell’s Community Gardens Greenhouse preparing the gardens for winter.
Also as part of the initiative, on Sept. 11 (the newly designated National Day of Service and Remembrance), members of the campus community will send cards to U.S. soldiers in Iraq, sort clothing for the Lowell Wish Project, and stack food and unload trucks at Lowell’s Open Pantry.
Coordinated by MCC’s Center for Community Engagement, Seasons of Service begins fall semester and will offer college volunteers a variety of community-service opportunities throughout the academic year. The goal of the initiative is to surpass the 2,400 volunteer hours performed on one day during MCC’s 2008 Day of Service.
Seasons of Service will build on the college’s commitment to meet the needs of community partners by making the college community aware of local volunteer needs. Individuals, student clubs and campus organizations interested in volunteering will be matched with a community partner with projects that correlate to their interests and needs.
“MCC’s dedication to service is evident in the numerous institutional commitments focused on civic and community engagement,” said Sheri Denk, Coordinator of MCC’s Center for Community Engagement. “The college has a long-standing, nationally recognized Service Learning Program, and enjoys lengthy and productive partnerships with many community organizations, business groups, and school districts.”
For more information about Seasons of Service, contact Sheri Denk, Coordinator of MCC’s Center for Community Engagement, at
denks@middlesex.mass.edu or 978-656-3159.