The unsinkable Melissa Eadie sets example for all of us

GCC students Kelly Ackert (left) and Melissa Eadie (second from right)and faculty member Davyda Hammond visit with Del. Ed Scott (second from left)

Nothing is going to stop Melissa Eadie—or even slow her down.
She lost a leg to cancer just before Germanna’s Fall semester began.
Without hesitation, she forged ahead, taking a full slate of classes as a GCC work study and doing quite well, thank you.
That comes as no surprise to those who know her. She’s a ballet dancer and has vowed to dance again.
Last week she joined a group of Germanna students visiting members of the state legislature.
She blogs about it here.

GERMANNA RECEIVES GRANT TO SUPPORT USING NEW GREEN ACADEMIC BUILDING AT FREDERICKSBURG CAMPUS AS A TEACHING TOOL FOR STUDENTS, AREA RESIDENTS

Germanna Community College has been recognized as a recipient of a $3,000 Greenforce Initiative Innovation Mini Grant. With support from this grant, GCC will design a program to train students to be guides for its new academic facility at its Fredericksburg Area Campus, which will be a green building, and provide an opportunity for engineering students to learn from the architects and builders as construction is in progress. The new Academic Services Building, slated for March 2012 completion, will incorporate reduced energy consumption concepts including a vegetated roof, passive solar heating, automatic shades, native plantings, water conservation, and superefficient heating and cooling. In total, four schools in Virginia and more than 15 nationally have been awarded a grant through the Greenforce Initiative.

The National Wildlife Federation and Jobs for the Future have joined forces on the Greenforce Initiative, a two-year project started in 2010, to spur innovation in the role of community colleges in the coming green-jobs revolution.


“We want to thank the Greenforce Initiative for helping us create an opportunity to increase the knowledge and awareness of green building and methods of reducing energy consumption,” said Dr. William Fiege, Germanna Dean of Professional and Technical Studies. “We are developing curricula and teaching modules for GCC’s engineering program that engage the mechanical systems and renewable energy features of the building. Here, the building itself is the laboratory, and students will get hands-on experience monitoring and calibrating a working green building.”

With support from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation and CS Mott Foundation, The Greenforce Initiative is strengthening green career pathways leading to postsecondary credentials and family sustaining careers; increasing access and success for lower-skilled adults; and using campus “greening” or sustainability efforts as “learning laboratories” for education and training. Building on the combined experience of NWF and JFF in environmental sustainability and workforce development, respectively, this commitment provides assistance to community colleges in six regions: Metro Chicago, Michigan, North Carolina, northern Virginia, Seattle, and South Texas. The Initiative has hosted eight summits in six locations, engaging hundreds of community college staff and faculty.

“We face a major challenge to retool and rebuild our workforce and meet the challenges of the coming clean energy economy," said Lisa Madry, Campus Field Director, National Wildlife Federation. "The Greenforce commitment will help accelerate America's ability to tackle the climate crisis while creating economic opportunities and pathways out of poverty."

Community colleges are increasingly called upon to both prepare graduates with the 21st century skills needed in a greener economy while also protecting community health and sustainability. "Post-secondary credentials are increasingly required for careers that pay family-sustaining wages," said Gloria Mwase, Program Director, Jobs for the Future. "While the labor demand in key "green" sectors offer job growth opportunities in many communities, it is critical that we ensure that under-prepared adults can access and succeed in these careers."

In Virginia, there are more than 336,000 jobs in a representative group of job areas that could see job growth or wage increases by putting global warming solutions to work, according to Huey Battle from the Northern Virginia Workforce Investment Board. The Virginia Community College System is committed to supporting the growth of sustainability-skilled jobs in Virginia, “By 2015 the Virginia Community College System hopes to be working with approximately 12,000 Virginia companies and we are starting to see demand for green jobs in Virginia in the weatherization, HVAC, and wind industries” said VCCS Chancellor Glenn DuBois.

Since its formation in 1936, National Wildlife Federation has worked with affiliates across the country to inspire Americans to protect wildlife for future generations. NWF seeks to engage and educate its 4 million members, partners and supporters with a focus on restoring habitat, confronting global warming and connecting people with nature. To learn more about NWF’s environmental higher education programs, visit the Campus Ecology www.campusecology.org and Greenforce Initiative www.greenforceinitiative.org pages.

Jobs for the Future develops, implements, and promotes new education and workforce strategies that help communities, states, and the nation compete in a global economy. In more than 200 communities across 43 states, JFF improves the pathways leading from high school to college to family-sustaining careers.

“CHINA IS CRUNCHING US.” IF VIRGINIA IS TO COMPETE FOR GREEN JOBS, COMMUNITY COLLEGES LIKE GERMANNA MUST PREPARE STATE’S WORKFORCE

Terry McAuliffe, chairman of GreenTech Automotive, says he’s bringing 5,000 “green collar” jobs to America from China, and that he’d like for a lot of those jobs to go to Virginians. His company bought a Chinese car manufacturer and is transplanting it to the United States.

During the Greenforce Summit hosted by Germanna Community College’s Center for Workforce and Community Education last week at the Daniel Center in Culpeper, McAuliffe, said, “I’m looking for a trained workforce here in Virginia” and that community colleges must play a key role in that training or the U.S. could lose the growing competition for green jobs to emerging ecomomies such as China’s.

“Not only in Virginia, but in America, we have got to get in front of this,” he said. “China is crunching us.”

McAuliffe said he’d like to locate a lot of jobs involving construction of electric and hybrid vehicles in a part of Virginia with a high unemployment rate.

He said the site must, “have good rail access, be close to a port and have quality workforce development. It doesn’t do any good unless I can get people to work in the factory.”

Virginia Community College Chancellor Glenn DuBois said the state’s community colleges are up to the job of preparing the workforce for to fill green jobs.

“Until recently I didn’t see a huge demand for jobs, but we are now starting to see it and starting to respond,” DuBois said.
“There is much more to do,” DuBois said. “We have to teach it and prepare the workforce for it.”
He is optimistic about the VCCS’ ability to deliver in part because: “I’ve never seen a better environment for grants. And green sustainability is at the top of the list.”

Grants from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation helped fund the Germanna summits as part of the national Greenforce Initiative, organized by the National Wildlife Federation and Jobs for the Future.

“Community colleges across the country,” said Victor Branch, marketing manager for Bank of America, “are at the forefront of green growth and innovation whether it’s addressing their own sustainability, developing new curricula to cultivate the green workforce or making their campus operations a classroom by integrating sustainability into education to prepare graduates for jobs in the renewable energy and low-carbon economy.”

Solid as a Brock

Germanna found a perfect fit in its new Dean of Arts & Sciences Deborah Brock, who as a passion both for leadership and teaching. GCC didn't have to look far. she's a longtime Fredericksburg resident.

'Thank you for believing in me when I didn't believe in myself'

Anita Newhouse of Culpeper didn't believe she was smart enough. She was wrong ...

I came up with every excuse I could think of:

“I have a child.

“I work full time.

“I wasn’t a good student in high school.”

The truth is, my self esteem and confidence were so low that I honestly didn’t think I would be successful in college. I thank God I listened to a friend who pushed me to enroll at Germanna Community College in 2000. She suggested taking one class at a time until I was used to that, and then later taking more than one class each semester. As each semester passed, my confidence increased and I held my head a little higher.

I couldn’t believe that I was going to college and that I was working towards an associate’s degree! No one in my family had ever attended college, and now I was. It felt amazing.

One of my professors at GCC, Randy Martin, encouraged me to check with the University of Mary Washington to find out what classes that I had already taken would transfer as well as what other classes I could take at Germanna that would transfer. I humored him, still not believing it was realistic. Mr. Martin checked with me periodically to see where I was in the process. He even said that he was not going to let me stop at an associate’s degree.
One day I realized that if he believed in me and he thought I could do it, maybe I should pursue it. But I didn’t have the money to continue my education. And though my self esteem had increased during my time at Germanna, I was still not confident enough in myself to believe that I could also be successful at a university. I simply thought I was not smart enough.

I met with an advisor at UMW and was able to take a lot of classes at GCC that would transfer. Germanna provided me with educational assistance for tuition for these classes as well as for the books.

In addition to working full time and attending school, my husband and I are small business owners, and this takes a lot of my time. I was only able to take one class a semester at UMW. I didn’t really have the time or money to devote to any more than that.

In April of 2009, an email about a fellowship program was sent to all state employees. I quickly closed the email without really reading it because at the time I didn’t realize what it was. Later that day my wonderful supervisor, Sarah Somerville, came to me and asked if I had read the email. I told her I looked at it briefly but that I didn’t really know what it was or if it even pertained to me. She explained to me that it was the Chancellor’s Fellowship scholarship and she encouraged me to apply for it. If she hadn’t brought it to my attention, I would never have applied. I did, and I was awarded the scholarship which provided me the opportunity to be a full-time student for the first time ever.

Not only could I be a full-time student and not have to balance work, but I also had no worries about the cost of attending the university as my salary and tuition would be taken care of during the academic year in which I was attending school. Dr. David Sam, Germanna’s president, called to tell me that I was awarded the scholarship and when I hung up with phone with him, I cried. I cried because I was so grateful for the opportunity and I couldn’t believe that I was going to be receiving my Bachelor’s degree.

As a full-time student, I was able to network and build relationships. This was something I was never able to do before while balancing other things in my life. When I finished classes at Germanna, I would always rush home to my family. As a full-time student, I was able to stay after class to discuss my thoughts on various things and build relationships that I will continue to maintain.

On May 8, 2010, I graduated from the University of Mary Washington with my Bachelor’s degree in Leadership and Management. I am forever grateful to so many people for supporting me through this journey and providing me with this opportunity.
Thank you, Chancellor Glenn DuBois, for providing such a scholarship. Thank you Sarah Somerville, for being such a wonderful and selfless person and encouraging me to take advantage of this opportunity though it would mean I would have to leave the counseling office. Thank you Randy Martin for believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself. Also, thank you Pam Frederick for being so supportive of me at all times.
I can’t tell you how much it means to have such wonderful supervisors who encourage growth and want the best for their employees. Joan Fischer, Kelly Wolfe, Katey Denner, and Dean Rowe, thank you all for always believing in me! Dr. Sam and Victoria Waldron, you both were willing, without hesitation, to write letters of reference for me and I am so grateful for that as your opinions and insight are extremely valued.

Thank you as well to every single employee at Germanna who has believed in me, and shared in my exciting journey.

God bless you all!

--Anita Newhouse