Prof. Rich Gossweiler appreciation: 'How do you measure the lump in a student's throat?'

When Cory MacLauchlin began teaching at Germanna Community College, Prof. Rich Gossweiler told him his goal should be simple:

“‘How do you measure the lump in a student's throat?” Gossweiler asked him. “If we don’t make the students feel something, then we miss the point.”

“To me, that’s his legacy,” said MacLauchlin.

Judy Napier and Margaret Gossweiler
at celebration of Prof.Rich Gossweiler's life

 Gossweiler passed away on April 10 after 45 years of teaching in the Virginia Community College system, most of them at Germanna.

He had retired from teaching full time, but couldn’t stay away from GCC , its students and faculty and continued to teach part time.

He was at GCC’s Locust Grove Campus that day when he began to feel ill and went outside to rest on a bench. He collapsed moments later.  Germanna nursing professors who had come to love Gossweiler worked heroically to keep him alive till an ambulance arrived. He passed away that evening, with family --and Germanna faculty and staff  who considered him family-- at his side. He was 74.

“Rich Gossweiler was not only a great teacher of students, but someone who played a critical role in mentoring faculty and staff,” Germanna President David A. Sam said at a celebration of his life at GCC’s Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper on May 6.

.At a retirement event, Gossweiler  had urged faculty members to continue to “challenge the students … make them go further than they expected.”

Gossweiler also asked them to remember that “students are your friends."

Prof. Rich Gossweiler and Prof. Don Frank
at retirement event

“When we go through town, we always run into our students. The wonderful thing about community colleges is you see the results—you see [former] students. You make friends,” he said.

Many are passionate about teaching.  Gossweiler’s feelings went beyond that. He couldn’t contain the joy the profession brought him--and it was infectious.

“When he wasn’t smiling, he was roaring with laughter,” Sam said.

“He helped instill in me the passion I have today,” said Dr. Patti Lisk, dean of nursing at Germanna.

At the celebration of the late professor's life, a former student said, “As long as he taught, there’s a piece of Rich Gossweiler in every one of us.”

In a sense, we were all Rich Gossweiler’s students.

He left so many of us with lumps in our throats.

Virginia Living cites Germanna, UMW for excellence in 2014 State of Education survey

Virginia Living magazine’s State of Education issue, out this week, features the Old Dominion’s top high schools and colleges for 2014.

Germanna Community College was the only two-year school cited for excellence in arts and humanities. Virginia Living praised Germanna’s Center for Workforce and Community Education for its SkillUpVA workshop program that will be launched as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) this fall. Four-year colleges and universities cited in the magazine’s 2014 arts and humanities category include the College of William and Mary, Hampden-Sydney College and Virginia Commonwealth University.

The University of Mary Washington was cited for science, math and technology for its master’s degree program in geospatial analysis.

Fredericksburg Academy, for its use of digital media in the classroom, and Orange County Public Schools, for its computer science and information technology program, were cited for excellence in science, math and technology.

How to find out if an "honor society business" is honorable

Students at some of Virginia's community colleges have been contacted by "honor society businesses" falsely claiming to be affiliated with the schools. One email urged students to “Activate your John Tyler Community College HonorSociety.org membership.” Some students have paid fees without question.
  Students are advised to ask a trusted professor and refer to this Association of College Honor Societies standards alert and Community College Success' "Honor or scam?" blog post before acting on "honor society business" e-mails or letters.

 

Germanna SGA President Jenny is determined to make a difference. She refused to give in--first to cancer, now to heart disease.

By PAMELA GOULD
The Free Lance-Star
After two bouts with cancer, a massive heart attack, quadruple bypass surgery and three additional heart attacks, 40-year-old Jenny Stone has stared down her mortality.
“I realize tomorrow is not promised,” she said. And with that fact ever-present, she’s chosen to make the most of her time by going after her goals with determination.
“It’s get up and go or sit down and die,” said Stone, who lives in the Falmouth area of Stafford County.
“I want people to understand, when they have tragedies in their life, you can take them and get back up and have them as your reason for life.”
Stone ran a catering business and relished the work, but the heart attack in 2008 that led to her bypass surgery put an end to that career.
Her doctor said the long hours and the heavy lifting the job entailed were too much for her heart.
That’s what led Stone to chart a new course.
She enrolled in Germanna Community College three semesters ago and is now working to become a counselor so she can make a difference in others’ lives.
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GCC student's humanity shines: from Fredericksburg to Cameroon, Jonathan Hollingworth puts others before himself

Jonathan Hollingsworth receives a 2012 Germanna Student Academic Award from English teacher Voytek Dolinski, who wrote: “He is one of the most mature and insightful writers I have had at Germanna. "Perhaps the best way to understand Jonathan is through his own words:"

"There is a great lack, I believe, in the way we see worth in others. Even our terminology is skewed. We use monetary metaphors like 'value,' and 'worth,' as though people are goods to be bought and sold. If we could look into someone else’s eyes and understand how important they are, more than our possessions, more than our pride, more than our pleasure, then perhaps we would not just value them, or find them to have worth, but we would love them."

Helping humanity trumps textbooks

DEEDS: COLLEGE ON HOLD FOR CAMEROON

BY EDIE GROSS

THE FREE LANCE-STAR<p>

Jonathan Hollingsworth was eating dinner in Fredericksburg, at one of Aladin Restaurant’s outdoor tables, when he spotted a homeless man asking for change.

“We can do him one better than that,” he told his friends before inviting the man to join them for a meal.

“He was quiet at the beginning. By the end of the night, he was making the whole table laugh,” said Hollingsworth, 20. “He told me, ‘I actually haven’t had a real conversation in three months.’ I couldn’t believe that. I probably don’t go three hours without talking to someone.”

The encounter last summer was life-changing for Hollingsworth, who lives in Spotsylvania County.

He recalled times when he’d avoided eye contact with the less fortunate, because of guilt or shame or discomfort, and he vowed never to do it again.

All human beings have worth, said Hollingsworth, and the very least we can do is acknowledge that with a look, a smile, a handshake or something even more meaningful.

To put his beliefs into practice, Hollingsworth will spend the next year in Cameroon in West Central Africa serving some of the country’s poorest residents

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The hot new degree?

Germanna is considering an associate's degree in Fire Science Technology, a program offered to provide students with a broad-based knowledge of current and future advances in the fire science field. The program is projected to start in August 2012. The college has offered a Fire Science Technology certificate program since 2007.

Would you be interested in pursuing a degree?

Let us know what you think.

Student Survey Link



Employer/Volunteer Agency Survey



Jeffrey Bailey wishes Germanna Community College offered an online Fire Science Technology program when he was starting out as a volunteer at the Brandy Station firehouse in Culpeper County 30 years ago, when he was a 16-year-old, but the Internet didn't even exist then.

In 2007, the 48-year-old Culpeper resident, who's been a career firefighter for two decades, had the chance to pass on what he learned in all those years of doing this dangerous work to students as Fire Science Technology Director at Germanna when the college started a certificate program.

Now Bailey says Germanna is in the planning stages of implementing an Associate's Degree Program in Fire Science Technology. The projected startup is August 2012. "Many of our students have been asking for the associate degree," he says.

"One of the first steps is to find out exactly how much interest there is in this program from two facets," he says. "The first being the potential student body--is there enough support from students and or potential students that want to earn an associate's degree in Fire Science Technology? The second facet is the employers-- including volunteer agencies--would there be a benefit for them to have employees or members that have been through the program, are currently enrolled in the program or are planning on taking the program?" Most students are expected to be active volunteer and career firefighters.

The degree would make firefighters safer in their work, and make area residents safer in their homes.

Thousands of firefighters live in the Germanna service area of Stafford, Spotsylvania, Caroline, King George, Culpeper, Orange and Madison counties and the city of Fredericksburg. Some of them work as career firefighters in places like Fairfax County and Richmond and also volunteer