New Career and Transfer Center making sure students on right path

The counselors in Germanna’s new Career and Transfer Center have a question for GCC students:

“Do you know what you want to study and do you know where you want to transfer?”

Marie Hawley and Sheryl Williamson want to make sure students are on the right path--that there are as few missteps as possible. Missteps can be costly both in terms of time and money, they say, slowing students on their way to degrees and costing thousands of dollars in extra tuition and lost earnings. 

Career Counselor Hawley says of the new Center:

“This is an opportunity for students to really put together their career interests, things they’d like to study and make sure the pieces fit together to transfer for a bachelor’s degree.”

 Hawley said that when it comes to certain programs at universities where Germanna has a guaranteed transfer agreement, “we have to inform [students] that you cannot just do general studies and transfer--you need a degree focus.”

For example, she said, Germanna may have a guaranteed transfer agreement with a university, but not guaranteed entry into its business school without certain prerequisites.

Transfer Counselor Sheryl Williamson said: “We try to encourage students to look ahead. … What sometimes happens is that student graduates with that mentality transfer, they are then faced with taking additional math classes.”

“Or not admitted to the program,” Hawley said. “But if you prepare properly, you can align yourself.”

 “If you start at a four-year school, you have to declare a major by your junior year,” Williamson pointed out, adding that Germanna students should be thinking about that major before they transfer.

“The sooner you know where you want to go and what you want to do, the sooner you can match up your course work so it transfers more seamlessly,” Hawley said.

The Career and Transfer Center also offers assessments through the Virginia Education Wizard, counseling and information sessions and workshops in resume writing and mock job interviews. It also brings representatives from over 40 colleges and universities on campus as part of an annual College Fair. This year’s event will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at the Daniel Center in Culpeper and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 21 at the Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania.

The Center also offers resources “to help identify career paths students may not even know exist,” Hawley said.

It also helps connect students and employers for internships.

Williamson and Hawley have over 50 years of combined experience in education.

The Career and Transfer Center is located in room 228 of the Dickinson Building at the Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania.

The Center phone number is 540/834-1841.

Email addresses for the Center:

Career Counselor Marie Hawley mhawley@germanna.edu

Transfer Counselor Sheryl Williamson swilliamson@germanna.edu

Sabrina Dunaway sdunaway@germanna.edu

Career and Transfer Center's Sheryl Williamson and Marie Hawley

GCC internship program making Javier Penzelina's dream a reality

Germanna internship program helping him find public service path

Since he was in the second grade, Javier Penzelina has had a dream.

Germanna Community College’s internship program is helping him make it a reality:

The 2008 Caroline High School graduate and resident of Ruther Glen knew he wanted to be involved in politics, but wasn’t sure what exactly he wanted to do or how to get his foot in the door..

Germanna’s internship program has helped Javier Penzelina pursue his dream of a career in public service

Penzelina has been figuring it out with help from Cheri Ober, Germanna’s internship coordinator, who’s helped him land on Capitol Hill in the office of U.S. Rep Steny Hoyer and in Richmond on Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s staff.

Working for Rep. Hoyer in Washington, he focused on issues of concern to fellow millenials.

In Richmond, he worked in constituent services.

With the governor’s office, “I was able to get a better understanding of how state politics work, “ Penzelina said.

In Washington, he said he was surprised  to see that politicians who seem to be bitter foes in the media are often friendly when they’re not in front of the cameras. Penzelina has been interested in politics since the second grade and “the 2008 presidential election confirmed my desire to pursue a career in government.”

As a result of his experience, he’s decided that “Ultimately, I’d like to run for public office.”

“Javier is focused and has a deep commitment to serve the American public,” Ober said. “I’m impressed with the sacrifices he has made to complete the two internships…  these opportunities gave him the fire to want to continue his education and succeed in a political career.”

Penzelina thanked Ober for her help and added that Caroline Maloney, his second-grade teacher at Ladysmith Elementary School, helped him see what was possible early in life.

“She encouraged me to reach for the highest level,” he said of Maloney. “She never placed a limit on how far I could go.”

“Cheri has been a great person in my corner,” Penzellna said.  He said she’s been working hard with him in an effort to land a White House internship.

Penzelina spent the early years of his life with his aunt and uncle in the northern part of the Bronx, in a neighborhood on 224^th St.

“It was a diverse neighborhood and diversity was the pillar my upbringing was centered around,” he said. “When we moved to Virginia, we had to make the adjustment from a but city to a slower-paced rural area.”

Spending his formative years Virginia “has taught me more about myself,” he said,  “and it is why I want to give back in the best way I know how–public service.”

The interships forced Penzellna out of his comfort zone. He said he had to assert myself in intimidating situations, speaking up in meetings with high profile people.

He will graduate from Germanna in May and will study political science at UMW.

He said he’s glad he chose to start at GCC.

“The professors here do a really good job and they’re really friendly and cater to the needs of students here..”

“For me, Germanna made economic sense,” he said. “It cut my tuition in half. I’m debt free right now. When I graduate from UMW, I won’ t have the same debt as someone who went to a university for four years.”

“I’ve really enjoyed my time at Germanna and I’m grateful for the internship opportunities,” he said. “I encourage other students to take advantage of the opportunity.”

GCC interns learning an 'incredible amount in a very short time' at NIH

Sara Tenda, a 2013 Germanna Community College graduate, is spending her summer as part of a group working on developing better treatments for high-risk neuroblastoma patients.
She’s doing lab research at the Cell & Molecular Biology Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institute, near Bethesda, Md.  According to the National Cancer Society Web site, neuroblastoma is a form of cancer that develops in the nervous system of embryos and fetuses and affects young children.

Sara Tenda

Tenda and fellow Germanna student Ulisses Santamaria are part of the 2013 National Institute of Health Community College Summer Enrichment Program. It’s intended to boost the number of community college students who plan on careers in health care and research as they transfer to four-year colleges and universities.
In addition to doing full time research in a laboratory or on an NIH project, they take courses and attend workshops.
Tenda and Santamaria are early success stories for Germanna’s new Experiential Learning internship program.
“It’s much more intense than I expected it to be,”  Tenda, who is transferring to Virginia Commonwealth University says of her internship. “There has been quite a learning curve for me. It’s an incredible amount in a very short amount of time. That makes it very intense.”
She says she hadn’t decided whether she wanted to go into medical research or become a practicing physician. Now Tenda is leaning toward clinical research or becoming a physician. She plans to apply to medical school after getting her bachelor’s degree at VCU.
Tenda, who is 36 years old, lives in Spotsylvania County. She’s a graduate of Potomac High School in Dumfries.

Ulisses Santamaria

She said Cathy Walsh, her Biology 101 instructor at Germanna: “was extremely helpful. She wrote the letter recommending me-- and she must’ve done a very good job, because I’m here.”
Santamaria, an 18-year-old Spotsylvania County native and Courtland High graduate, is being mentored by Dr. Alon Poleg-Polsky in research involving the structure and function of the retina at the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke in Bethesda. The work involves investigation into how the retina performs preliminary image processing and transmits visual information to the brain.
In an email, he says he’s been studying contrast sensitivity in mouse retinal ganglion cells.
The work is not for the squeamish.
Santamaria writes: “We take mice and we unfortunately do kill them (very quickly, I promise), and then we extract their eyes and place them in a petri dish full of a saline solution and a carbogen (carbon and oxygen) tube to keep the cells in the eye alive. Then we cut open the eye and clean it out until only the shell of the eyes and the retina is left. Then we cut the retina in half to have two specimens to work with per eye. Then we take the retina and mount it onto a harp (A square wire of platinum with nylon strings going across it to keep retinas in place), and then put it into a profusion chamber (means that it's kept at the body's temperature, and constantly having saline solution in the chamber using a setup akin to a drip IV in a hospital) under a confocal microscope and view it using a monitor.”
Like Tenda, Santamaria says he’s learning a lot in a short time and he loves it.
Santamaria says Dr. Trudy Witt, an assistant professor of biology at Germanna,  is one of the teachers who made a difference for him.
For more information on Germanna’s internship program,  email Cheri Ober, its coordinator,  at cober@germanna.edu or go to http://www.germanna.edu/Students/Experiential_Learning_Center/for_students/

NIH internship brings Germanna student a step closer to childhood dream

 Germanna Community College student Ulisses Santamaria, the son of immigrants from El Salvador, has always wanted to be a doctor—so much so that as a child he became his own first patient.

Ulisses Santamaria to research how the retina processes images

  “I’ve always had a thing for medicine,” he says. “Even as a kid, if I was kind of my own doctor. If I had cuts or bruises, I’d fix them myself. I was pulling my own teeth out when they were ready. I pulled out the last [baby tooth] when I was 9 years old.

 “I wanted to be a clinical surgeon. But I’ve always thought it was interesting what goes into the research that goes into developing tools used in surgery.”

 He has worked as a volunteer at the Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center, mostly in the emergency room.

Now the 18-year-old Spotsylvania County native has become one of the early success stories for Germanna Community College’s new Experiential Learning internship program. Through the program Ulisses has landed an internship at the National Institute for Health.

 He will be mentored by Dr. Alon Poleg-Polsky in research involving the structure and function of the retina at the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke in Bethesda. The work will involve investigation into how the retina performs preliminary image processing and transmits visual information to the brain.

His father immigrated from El Salvador in 1989 to escape a civil war there.  His mother followed a year later.

“For my mom, it was a better opportunity to work over here and send money back home,” he said. “At the same time,there was a war going on in El Salvador.  Instead of going into the civil war, they told him it would be better to come to the United States to avoid that.”

  Ulisses is the first member of his immediate family to go to college. His father works as a home renovator.

  Ulisses is the first member of his immediate family to go to college.

He credits Gary Brightbill, an 8^th grade science teacher at Battlefield Middle School who was honored as one of Spotsylvania County’s best teachers for 2013, for piquing his interest in science. “He set off the spark,” Ulisses says. Faculty members at Germanna have fanned that spark into a flame, he says.

“I always planned to come to Germanna from the moment I began my freshman year at Courtland. “It’s less expensive than four-year schools and I’ve had good teachers here.  Dr. Trudy Witt, for biology, is one of my favorites.  Prof. Mike Shirazi in math—that man is great. And [Prof. Shawn Shields-Maxwell] is a pretty awesome chemistry teacher.”

Prof. Trudy Witt

 Prof. Witt said: "Ulisses is an excellent student ...  His love of life and enthusiasm for science is contagious. He was a pleasure to have in class."

Cheri Ober, Germanna’s internship program coordinator, says Ulissis has been working his way through college by delivering pizzas. This summer the paid NIH internship will give him the chance to earn money doing work related to his career goal for the first time, she says.

To learn more about Germanna’s internship program, email Ober at cober@germanna.edu or go to http://www.germanna.edu/Students/Experiential_Learning_Center/for_students/

 

 

 

Disney internship advancing Germanna student toward career goal

Germanna student Laura Veigel is going to Disney World--but not for the rides or the shows.

Veigel, who lives in Stafford County, is entering Disney College’s Professional Internship Program for the spring and summer of 2013. Beginning Jan. 15th, she will work at Disney World and take classes there in subjects including leadership.

“I’ve always wanted to work for Disney,” Veigel said. “It’s been my dream since  middle school, and this is my first step toward reaching that goal.”

  Her internship will be in food service, but her goal is to become a message therapist on a Disney cruise ship. At 18, her only previous work experience has been in food service and she sees the internship as a means of getting her foot in the door. She said she’ll be living in an apartment complex Disney provides the students and taking classes in leadership.

  “Internships are the new interview,” said Germanna Experiential Learning Coordinator Cheri Ober. “And in a challenging economic environment, they are highly valued by companies in choosing their next new hire. 

 “Internships are an opportunity to get your foot in the door; gain access, gain skills and show initiative, not to mention add excellent company names to your resume.  Disney is a resume builder ...  Laura will be able to apply her experience to anything she chooses to do.”

   Ober said the classes Veigel takes at Disney will add value to the business classes she has taken at Germanna. 

  “She will have an opportunity to really understand organizational culture and leadership, enhance her communication skills and get hands-on experience in the field of hospitality.”

 The experience, Ober said, is applicable to Germana’s Business 290-Coordinated Internship class, which means she’ll have the opportunity to earn academic credit through Germanna while in Orlando.

  Ober said Germanna students have interned  this fall at local companies like Providence Services Corporation, The Engineering Groupe, Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance and Thrive. 

   “They too have learned valuable skills that will improve their chances of employment after graduation,” Ober said.

   She said Germanna students are applying for internships with the Star Radio Group, HCA and at the White House for this spring and summer. 

  

  For information on the Germanna internship program email Ober at cober@germanna.edu.