Grit of Germanna's Fall 2011 grads called "legendary"

Germanna Student Government President Carla Marie Craft addresses crowd of 1,000 at 2011 Fall Commencement
In wake of quake, Virginia Community College Chancellor Glenn DuBois calls grit of Germanna 2011 Fall Commencement graduates "legendary"

Go to Germanna home page to register for classes for the spring.

Shootings at Virginia Tech and in Caroline County

Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to the students, faculty, staff of Virginia Tech and to the families of the victims. Colleges should be places of enlightenment, free of fear. We must not develop a siege mentality and we cannot turn campuses into fortresses. They must remain places where members of our communities are able to come and go freely in order to benefit from all we have to offer.

Germanna has always been a safe place to learn and work. Nonetheless, the college continually takes steps to make our security tighter, smarter and better able to respond to any problem nimbly and effectively, and we will continue to do so. We will review the actions taken at Tech and learn from their responses.

We also send our deepest our concerns and care to the state trooper wounded in Caroline yesterday. Both incidents show that law enforcement personnel daily put themselves at risk to protect and serve all of us.

--Germanna Community College President David A. Sam

"Germanna is a tremendous asset" to national security

Times may be tough, but the Department of Homeland Security is hiring, a crowd of 160 was told today at a Germanna Center for Workforce & Community Education Intelligence & Homeland Security Summit at Fredericksburg Square.
DHS has a $50 billion budget for 500 programs, said summit panel moderator Robert Zitz. Zitz is a Fredericksburg native who is a former Deputy Under Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
He said USAjobs.org, the official federal government jobs site, lists 500 pages of DHS job openings, 79 of those pages in Virginia, Washington and Maryland. "They are hiring, but it's important you have the skills," he said. Often, career-switchers can make themselves more marketable to DHS by simply picking up a certification or taking a class. He said Germanna offers many courses that can quickly make an applicant attractive to agencies.
Germanna's Center for Workforce & Community Education is looking at broadening offerings that will help area people get DHS and intelligence community jobs.
GCC President David A. Sam said the college is continually trying to match curriculum with existing job openings. "We know that because of the 'skills gap,' millions of jobs are going unfilled because people lack the training to do them," Sam said.
Zitz thanked Sam, saying "Germanna is a tremendous asset" to national security because of the training it already offers because it allows adults asking "How can I take my life skills and what I've learned in the past and package them in a way that helps" DHS to do so quickly.
"Many people still don't know what DHS is," said panelist Scott Weber, a homeland security analyst who appears frequently on CNBC, Fox News, CNN and BBC Television and is former senior counsel to the Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. The answer is whatever it takes to keep Americans safe, he said. "Secretary Chertoff used to answer that question by saying DHS is doing its job "Every day something bad doesn't happen."
"At DHS, there are so many job opportunities in so many fields," said panelist Cedric J. Sims, a senior executive who has overseen $6.8 billion in IT investments across DHS and has also been a leader with the Secret Service. "Come to government service," he urged the crowd.
The summit provided an overview of what various agencies do, how they do it, and offered advice on how to pursue jobs at those agencies.
"You really can change the world," said Al League, a former leader in the geospatial intelligence community, member of the Senior Executive Service for Defense Intelligence and winner of the Service to America Medal for National Security and International Affairs. "You can influence people--help senior leaders and decision-makers do the right thing."
GCC's next Intelligence & Homeland Security Summit will be held May 1 at the college's Daniel Center in Culpeper.

"It's never too late," says Germanna Community College student who overcame her fears to return to school after 27 years

Sherry Loehr spent 14 years as a substitute teacher in Spotsylvania County, “and I loved every minute of it.”
But to get where she wanted to go in teaching, she needed a teaching certification, and she didn’t have one.
She put off going to college for years, thinking she was too old--that she wouldn’t be able to do it.
Now she has an evangelical zeal about people beyond the “traditional” students’ age going back to school, even if they fear that they’ll be too rusty to pick up where they left off.

“I want to tell everyone they can do it,” Loehr said.

“Even if they don’t test well in the math or English, Germanna will help you.”
After having been out of school for 27 years, Loehr needed some tuning up on math. “I was afraid I was going to fail the [placement] test. For an older student like me, that was really scary. But you don’t fail, you just take developmental classes. I needed a little refresher. I don’t feel I would have passed calculus and statistics if I hadn’t had that background.”
Once she jumped into the pool, she said, the water was warm. All her fears faded away and she loved it.
“If there’s anything I got from this whole experience, it’s that it’s never too late,” she said.
Germanna President David A. Sam likes to say that America’s reached a point at which lifetime learning is a necessity--that everyone is going to have to change jobs a number of times. That we will have to reinvent themselves. And that we all need to take classes to stay current in whatever our field is right now.
“I thought I was too old to go back to school and that if I did, once I finished school, I would be too old to get a job,” Loehr said. “Now I know I’m going to get a job--and I have at least 20 years to work.”
She earned her associate’s degree at GCC and transferred to the University of Mary Washington, where she’s decided she wants a career in historic preservation.
“Germanna really prepared me so well,” she said. “Everybody was saying it was going to be so much harder at UMW, but it’s not.”
She has four children, all of whom attended Germanna.
Her daughter Sarah Loehr entered GCC’s nursing program, then transferred to VCU to earn a financing degree and now is studying law.
Her son Paul Loehr started at Longwood. “He joined a fraternity and things sort of went downhill. It wasn’t a good situation. My husband and I said, ‘You need to come home. He did and things went reaally well.” After getting back on course at Germanna, he transferred to VCU, where he was a business major and earned a degree in accounting.
Her son Adam dropped out of high school, got his GED with Germanna’s help, then entered Germanna’s Automotive Program. “Adam has a wonderful job working as an automotive specialist in downtown Fredericksburg, “ she said.

“Last year my baby, Matthew, my youngest child, was going to J. Sergeant Reynolds. He was unhappy. He came back home and went to Germanna, and I thought it was pretty funny that we took four classes together.” Matthew was 18 and his mother was 46.
But no one’s laughing at this older, “non-traditional” student.
“My kids are so proud of me,” she said. “They really admire that I’m able to do this.”

“I want to tell everyone they can do it. It’s never too late.”
Once you take that leap, she said, you can succeed.
“Germanna’s changed my life.”

She said she’s also glad she started at Germanna because: “I saved so much money. If I’d spent those first two years at a four-year school, I would have accumulated a lot of debt.”
She said GCC saved her family a great deal of money in the education of her four children, too.
“I was one of those parents who bought into the idea of prestige. ‘My kid’s got to go to UVa; my child needs to go to this big school.’ It was peer pressure.’
She said her oldest daughter Sarah initially wanted to stay home and go to Germanna, but she pressured her to go elsewhere. Then Sarah ended up at GCC anyway, until she was ready to leave home. Now she’s at the Charlotte School of Law.
“Parents need to think about how much savings they’d have if they sent their children here for two years,” she said. “They’ll still get bachelor’s degrees that say ‘Mary Washington’ or the name of whatever four-year school they transfer to.”

Stafford EDA named Germanna's 2012 Philanthropist of the Year

Don Newlin, chairman of the Stafford County Economic Development Authority, accepts Germanna's 2012 Philantrhopist of the Year Award on behalf of the EDA.

The Germanna Community College Educational Foundation named the Stafford Economic Development Authority its 2012 Philanthropist of the Year at its Annual Dinner Friday night, Nov. 18, 2011 at the Fredericksburg Country Club.

On May 5, 2011, The Stafford EDA awarded Germanna a matching challenge grant of up to $1 million to be used toward the establishment of a permanent campus in the county. Officials said the intent is to support workforce development and economic development in the county.

When the challenge is met, the Stafford EDA will have donated $1.375 million to Germanna since 2009, when GCC opened its Stafford County Center at Aquia Park. In the first year the Stafford Center was open, it attracted 1,000 students, and in its second, 1,200. Enrollment has already outgrown the facility. The Stafford EDA has also donated $75,000 toward the construction of a new GCC Automotive Program facility in the county, which is expected to be completed in the spring of 2012.

“Germanna has been gratified and honored by the ongoing investments by Stafford County's EDA,” GCC President David A. Sam said. “We are pleased in turn that our Educational Foundation can recognize and celebrate that investment and partnership by naming them the 2012 Philanthropist of the Year.”

“Germanna is an important partner in our vision that was established in our Economic Development 10-Point Plan to build a business-friendly environment and an educated workforce,” said Chairman of the Stafford Board of Supervisors Mark Dudenhefer. “The Economic Development Authority has worked hand-in-hand with the Board of Supervisors in moving this vision forward, and we are thrilled that they are being honored for their efforts.”

Don Newlin, the Chairman of the Economic Development Authority, added, “The EDA has worked hard to enhance the higher education offerings in Stafford, and Germanna offers a diverse selection of courses to help college students and working professionals advance their careers,” he said. “We look forward to our continued work with Germanna to ensure their long-term success in Stafford.”

Germanna hopes to break ground on the Stafford Campus soon, but it must first meet the $2.5 million local funding requirement for the state to fund the rest of the cost for the facility's land and development. The Stafford EDA challenge was a major step. Plans are for the facility to be built in North Stafford, but no site has been selected.

"On behalf of the Educational Foundation, it is an honor to recognize Stafford County's Economic Development Authority for its leadership and investment in Germanna,” said Michael A. Catell, Director of the GCC Educational Foundation. “The Foundation's mission is to promote and support the growth, progress, and well-being of the College, and we look forward to a continuing partnership with the EDA in carrying out that mission."

Amy Peery, a GCC Educational Foundation Scholarship recipient who is a nursing student at Germanna and a single mother of three, told the crowd at the dinner: “Germanna Community College has changed not only my life, it has changed my family’s life and these scholarships are helping to change our future. Please, always remember that you are providing so much more than just financial assistance. My most sincere thanks are extended to you all, for the possibilities you create.”
She said she had “little hope” before entering Germanna,” and that the college and had “truly rekindled my faith in life.“

GCC currently has a Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania, a Locust Grove Campus, centers in Stafford and Culpeper. It has long-range plans for a center in Caroline County. Construction on a third academic building at the Fredericksburg Campus is expected to be completed by March 2012.

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Hawraa Alabalal: Because of GCC, her American dream within reach

VIDEO

"For me, it was a dream coming to America," says Germanna Community College student Hawraa Alabalali, whose mother married an American soldier before they immigrated to the U.S. from Iraq in 2008. She says GCC counselors and faculty are helping her toward her goal of becoming a dentist, and that the college's affordability makes paying for graduate school later feasible. "It felt good to be part of a community," she said about coming to Germanna. Making friends was easier, she said, than it had been in high school.

We should honor veterans by giving them jobs and providing them with job training

By David A. Sam
Germanna Community College President

When I was young, I vividly remember my mother making a point to buy a poppy for each of us to wear on our clothing for “Remembrance Day,” as she still called November 11. We know it as Veterans’ Day, but she was born November 30, 1918, just nineteen days after the guns fell silent to end the War to End all Wars, and that is what the day was called when she was a child. She always reminded me of 11-11-11 because the Armistice took effect on November 11 at 11 am.

Today is another 11-11-11. And, unhappily, many wars have followed.

Today, at both Germanna Community College campuses, students, faculty, staff and community members read from the roll of those who have died in the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Today we also pause to thank our veterans and remember those not here to be thanked. It is the least we can do.

We can also:

- hire a veteran
- retrain a veteran
- assist a veteran in trouble
- pray for those who are serving and have served
or just feel a deep gratitude in our hearts for those who have answered the call and stood their ground so we can live without having to defend ourselves.

The poppies we wore memorialized the poppy fields in Flanders where many Americans lie instead of having come home. Around the cemetery, many battles were fought in the Ypres region. Heavy fighting over the years of the war cost about a million casualties. The battles were memorialized in a famous poem by a veteran of that war:

The poppies we were memorialized the poppy fields in Flanders where many Americans lie instead of having come home. Around the cemetery, many battles were fought in the Ypres region. Heavy fighting over the years of the war cost about a million casualties. The battles were memorialized in a famous poem by a veteran of that war:
In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Veterans Department web site