He was at Dealey Plaza and Parkland Memorial Hospital on Nov. 22, 1963. This Nov. 5th, he'll be at GCC for 'Standing Next to History' 50th anniversary JFK assassination panel

To observe the 50^th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Germanna Community College will host "Standing Next to History," a panel discussion featuring an eyewitness who was at Dealey Plaza at the time of the shooting and at Parkland Memorial Hospital moments after the presidential limousine arrived there.   

The event will be held in Sealy Auditorium at Germanna’s Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 5, 2013. Admission is free and it’s open to the public.

When shots rang out at Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963, Jack McNairy was a Dallas high-school student who watched as President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade sped away.  A Secret Service agent who had been left behind asked the 16-year-old McNairy to give him a ride Parkland Memorial Hospital. Once there, McNairy stared in disbelief into the president’s blood-splattered limo before the Secret Service ordered it cleaned and sent it back to Washington.

 McNairy, who will be part of Germanna's "Standing Next to History" panel discussion, was interviewed for the Discovery Channel’s 2008 “Inside the Target Car,” which, it said in a press release at the time, employed “cutting-edge forensics and Zapruder film archives to definitively prove that the fatal bullet was fired from the Texas School Book Depository.” 

Another member of the panel will be Jim Martin, who was a young newspaperman covering President Kennedy’s assassination from a Washington perspective.

Germanna history instructor Dan Carter will moderate the discussion with McNairy and Martin and GCC Assistant Professor of History Stuart H. Smith III will explain the political climate that led to the president making his fateful trip to Dallas. Audience questions will follow.

McNairy's Discovery Channel interview begins at the 8 minute mark in the video below.

 

 

 

GCC Center for Workforce to host second Startup Weekend Fredericksburg

Germanna Community College’s Center for Workforce and Community Education will host the second 54-hour Startup Weekend Fredericksburg Jan. 17-19 at the college’s Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania.

Christine Goodwin is a member of FredXchange, which is putting the weekend together. She is CEO and co-founder WishStars, an online platform that brings corporate donors and educators together, was tabbed in December for one of the Center for Innovative Technology’s GAP 50 Entrepreneur Awards.

She explained in May, prior to the first Startup Weekend Fredericksburg, that Virginia has the highest concentration of information technology skilled and professional services people of any place in the country – and the many of them live in our region:

“Our greatest resource in this area is the incredibly talented human capital we have. And yet every day, we send more than 15,000 of them into Northern Virginia and D.C. to work. Too many people have resigned themselves to accept that to live here they must spend 12-14 hours a day five days a week getting to and from work in the worst traffic in the country.”

She said startups are the way to keep the talent, profits and jobs home in our area.

“We felt that … the only way to do this was to bring local entrepreneurs, interested enthusiasts and local economic development authorities together with angel and venture capital investors from Silicon Valley, Washington D.C. and Boston together for 54 hours to give the talent in this area a platform for launching.”

Germanna College Board to meet Oct. 3 at Daniel Technology Center

The public is invited to attend the upcoming meeting of the Germanna Community College Board on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013, at 5 p.m. The meeting will take place at the college’s Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper. A sign-up sheet will be made available 30 minutes prior to the beginning of the meeting for those interested in addressing the board.

Germanna Community College is a two-year, public institution of higher education, serving the counties of Caroline, Culpeper, King George, Madison, Orange, Spotsylvania, Stafford and the city of Fredericksburg.

Germanna, Goodwill working together to help students with disabilities

Students with disabilities often find themselves at a disadvantage in the job market.

That’s why Rappahannock Goodwill Industries and Germanna Community College have launched a pilot program to help part-time students with documented disabilities hold steady jobs while they complete their studies as well as gaining skills they’ll need for post-graduation employment.

Students chosen for the Career Connected Education Program will be hired to work at Rappahannock Goodwill facilities and will be enrolled in required developmental classes at Germanna.

RGI and GCC officials say the Career Connected Education Program will help students with disabilities gain work experience and practical skills to find employment and fuel their drive to succeed.

In addition to providing on-the-job training, RGI will coach the students in job-search skills such as application completion and interviewing. In their Germanna classes, students will hone their resumes, get interviewing practice, and receive academic support and tutoring as needed. Students in the program will also receive assistance with any accommodations required in the classroom or on the work site.

As long as eligible students maintain a GPA of 2.0 and re-enroll each semester, students will have a job with Rappahannock Goodwill throughout their program of study. Post-graduation, Rappahannock Goodwill will provide placement assistance through its Job Help Centers to help program graduates find employment within their field of study.

Mother and son veterans going to college together at Germanna

As America’s involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq has drawn down, the number of veterans enrolling in college is rising.

According to the Navy Times, the number of active duty members of the military and veterans taking advantage of the GI Bill to go to college increased 13 percent in 2012 to nearly 500,000, along with 50,000 dependents.

Craig Hill and Sabrina Crenshaw are mother and son vets at GCC

Some of them, including 44-year-old Germanna student and GCC Veterans Services Office work study Sabrina Crenshaw have had college in mind for a long time.

“A lot of people go into the military because they couldn’t afford to go to college,” she says. “My parents couldn’t afford to send me, so I joined the Army.”

 After two years of duty, she left the Army she returned to civilian life, planning to go to college.

“It didn’t work out like I wanted,” she says, “so I joined the Navy.” She did a 20-year tour in the Navy, working with Marines.

While she was in the Navy, she jokingly told her son that they would end up going to college together.

 That’s the way things worked out. Her son, Craig Hill, went into the Air Force so he could use the GI Bill for college. Now he’s returned to civilian life and is also a Germanna student.

   Crenshaw is working toward a career as a paraprofessional mental health counselor.  Hill plans to enter Germanna’s Pharmacy Technician program.

 “Sabrina and Craig are typical of those families with a heritage of several generations having served in the military,” says Robert M. Dixon, Germanna’s Student Veterans Counselor.  “With the duration of our military involvement in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, we can expect more occurrences where parent and child are both veterans studying at the same college.  This is an indicator of the value our veterans place on their education and the importance of the benefits they have earned for their continuing education.”

 Crenshaw, who attended a larger college before enrolling at GCC, says she likes Germanna better because: “Germanna is more people oriented. It’s more caring. At the other college, you’re just a number. Here the staff really takes care of the students and the instructors make sure students understand what’s being taught.”

Both Crenshaw and Hill say the transition from the military to civilian life has been difficult.

“In the military you know what you’re going to do, what time you are to be there and there are consequences,” Crenshaw says.  “In civilian life, if you do it, you do it and if you don’t, you don’t.”

 Hill, who is 21, says: “I’m used to the structure. But if I have a plan, I’m OK. For me, it’s difficult to be in the classroom with kids just out of high school. ”

They both said they appreciate the GI Bill’s educational benefits. “It’s nice to have your country give something back to you,” Crenshaw says. “I’m enjoying it.”

Dixon says that like many veterans, Crenshaw, who was a petty officer E6, and Hill, who was an  Airman E2 had more responsibility in the military than someone in a comparable stage in civilian life.

 “Veterans are a tremendous resource for society,” Dixon said. “They’re mission-focused. They’ve produced proven results. They know how to organize resources and people. Why wouldn’t we want to leverage that in the community?“

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Germanna, Goodwill working together to help students with disabilities

 Students with disabilities often find themselves at a disadvantage in the job market.

 Rappahannock Goodwill Industries and Germanna Community College have launched a pilot program to help part-time students with documented disabilities hold steady jobs while they complete their studies as well as gaining skills they’ll need for post-graduation employment.

 Students chosen for the called the Career Connected Education Program will be hired to work at Rappahannock Goodwill facilities and will be enrolled in required developmental classes at Germanna.

 RGI and GCC officials say the Career Connected Education Program will help students with disabilities gain work experience and practical skills to find employment and fuel their drive to succeed.

In addition to providing on-the-job training, Rappahannock Goodwill will coach the students in job-search skills such as application completion and interviewing. In their Germanna classes, students will hone their resumes, get interviewing practice, and receive academic support and tutoring as needed. Students in the program will also receive assistance with any accommodations required in the classroom or on the work site.

As long as they maintain a GPA of 2.0 and re-enroll each semester, students will have a job with Rappahannock Goodwill throughout their program of study. Post-graduation, Rappahannock Goodwill will provide placement assistance through its Job Help Centers to help program graduates find employment within their field of study.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Germanna College Board member praises faculty, staff

Germanna Community College Local College Board member William Thomas praised GCC's faculty and staff in a Culpeper Star-Exponent story published Saturday.
“As a Culpeper resident since 1971, I’ve seen Germanna be born, grow and expand,” he said. “I’ve even taken a number of non-credit courses. I thought I had a fair understanding of the role Germanna and other community colleges play. But I had barely scratched the surface."