One day away from her thirty-third birthday and two days away from Mother’s Day 2013 a mother- Melissa Goodrich walked in the South Mountain Community College Graduation Ceremony alongside her own mother– Sandy Stinson.
Not only did Sandy and Melissa both graduate Class of ’13 but they also graduated with the same degree– Associates Degree in Liberal Arts.
Melissa started at South Mountain Community College in 2008, taking most of her classes at the Laveen Center. After taking a few years off she became a wife, a mother and she decided to come back and now she’s done it! Melissa’s next plan is to continue her education journey on to Arizona State University to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Art History—which she is very passionate about along with photography, and psychology.
Sandy works from home and also took most of her classes online in the comfort of her home. Sandy quit high school decades ago, fought to get her G.E.D. and now, years later she is a member of Phi Theta Kappa, and the first of her siblings to graduate from college. When asked how she felt about it she was very excited and Melissa said “I think she is more excited than I am!”
When asked about their experience here at South Mountain Community College both Melissa and Sandy had lots of praise for the school.
When asked why they chose South Mountain Community College Sandy said “South is a good campus and they are doing a lot of good things like for the community St. Mary’s Food Bank Distribution, and volunteering at Andre House, etc.”
Also, before coming to SMCC Melissa attended other Maricopa Community Colleges in the valley and in comparison she said “coming down here I got the most encouragement from Academic Advisor’s like Deborah Spadafore; they’re more caring about what classes you take and what classes you need.” And Sandy said that she “felt awkward coming back to school. I didn’t know anyone except Melissa but they encouraged me to keep going. ”
Just to make it an even greater year for the family Melissa’s husband has also began to attend South Mountain Community College taking classes at the Laveen center while Sandy’s other daughter will be graduating this year with a Bachelor’s Degree at Argosy University.
Sandy and Melissa decided to take on college with each other’s support and had each other’s back when it came to classes “What she didn’t know, I knew”- Melissa and in the end their hard work has paid off.
Congratulations Sandy and Melissa!
Written by: Agneda-Amber Salas, SMCC
Region Semi-Final Wrap-up
The Cougars (#4 seed) knocked off Central Arizona College (#1 seed) in a series sweep to clinch a berth in the Region 1 Division Championship series. South Mountain received strong pitching performances from Scot Hoffman, Matt Loeffler, Jared Mattera, and Vinny Lujan in not allowing an earned run in the 4-2 and 4-0 wins. Freshman Garret Gandolfo had five hits and two runs batted in. Sophomores Lane Doty and Jordan Frabasilio added three hits each. The Cougars will tacke on Cochise College (#2 seed) in Douglas, AZ this weekend, Thursday thru Saturday.
MountainTop 10: April 29, 2013
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And speaking of awards….hope your calendar is marked for this Thursday night, May 2, when SMCC presents its annual student and employee awards, starting at 5:30 p.m. in the Student Union. Mistress of ceremonies Lara Collins will oversee the proceedings, which will include an array of awards spotlighting student achievement, plus our new SMCC Pillar Awards, presented to three employees.Don’t stay out too late, though, because the next morning, May 3, beginning at 9:30, we will be right back for our end-of-the-year College Luncheon and Celebration, featuring Years of Service awards, our Educational Lean teams, and a salute to our outgoing (and ultra-lovable) retirees. The program runs until 11 a.m., at which time lunch will be served, continuing until 1 p.m. Hope to see you all at both of these great events!
We always have oodles of events at the end of each semester—as this week’s MT-10 bears out—but without fail, the SMCC Honors Showcase is always among the best. Nancy Deegan’s Honors students will show off their spring research projects this Wednesday, May 1, in the Library Community Room. And even though these projects aren’t ALL fun and games, some of them are—you can try your hand at one of the board games created by our students, as well as experience their many other poster and PowerPoint presentations. It goes from noon to 2 p.m., and we’ll even feed you—get food for thought AND food for your gut—all for free!
If you recall Dr. Olson’s most recent newsletter, our new student orientation efforts are beginning to yield tangible, positive results in improving our retention and persistence rates. And a key component of our iStartSmart new student experience is our AAA115 class, “Creating College Success.” Adjunct Instructor Ahmad Daniels wrote up a recap of his experiences teaching this couse at SMCC, and shared it with us—you can now find it on our SMCC Voice blog….here:
One of SMCC’s best kept secrets are our student music recitals. Come relax in the cool, aural splendor of the Performance Hall, and listen to what our music students have spent the semester mastering. Not only is it an enjoyable (and free!) musical experience, but it also gives them the chance to perform for a real audience—an important part of music performance. There are concerts Monday and Tuesday night at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 6 p.m., Thursday at noon, and Friday, again at 7 p.m. For a complete rundown of who all is playing, call our Performing Arts Hotline, x38353.
If you think everything at the Main Campus stops after Graduation, May10, you’ve got another thing coming. Not only do our ACE and Upward Bound feeder programs continue on through the summer months, two of our most successful summer programs run throughout the month of June. OurMinority Male Summer Bridgeprogram—SMCC’s Innovation of the Year for 2013—enables Latino and African-American male high school seniors to take a four-credit math class and the aforementioned “Creating College Success” in five weeks, at no cost! You can get the details here:
Here’s another SMCC Graduation success story, forwarded from Academic Advisor Deborah Spadafore, featuring 2013 graduate Rana Ali:“My name is Rana Ali and I am at this time a junior at Arizona Cultural Academy and College Prep, which I joined two years ago. Currently, I have attained enough college credits to graduate this May with two associate’s degrees, and be only three classes away from my third.The graduation day, May 10, will be just five days after my sixteenth birthday.
Sophomores TC Mark (Catcher), Colton Frabasilio (Catcher), and DW Warner (Infield) were named 1st Team All-Conference for their performance in the 2013 season. Sophomore Jordan Frabasilio (Infield), freshman Justin Behnke (Outfield), and sophomore Chris Freudenberg (Pitcher) were named 2nd team All-Conference. The total of six baseball players matches the largest number of All-Conference recipients in the history of South Mountain CC.
Week 14 Baseball Wrap-Up
The Cougars clinched a berth in the Region 1 Division Playoffs last week by splitting road two road series, at Yavapai College and Pima Community College. On Tuesday, South Mountain traveled to Yavapai, needing two wins or a combination of two Arizona Western College losses to qualify for the post-season. The Cougars dropped the first game by a 9-1 score, but Arizona Western was defeated by Pima CC in the first game of their series. Therefore, South Mountain needed just one win. The Cougar bats came alive in the second game, while pitchers Jared Mattera and Chris Freudenberg kept the Roughriders at bay. Sophomore TC Mark’s grand slam in the 7th inning seasled the 14-4 run-rule victory for South Mountain sending the Cougars to the playoffs. On Saturday, the Cougars split a double-header with Pima CC, losing 7-4 and winning 12-9 to wrap up the regular season. Freshman Justin Behnke had 6 hits on the day.
