By Amanda Casanova

Dr. Mark Anderson and other Healthcare Associates of Irving employees presented a check for nearly $4,000 to the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation on Dec. 20.

The money was raised in September as part of the 2^nd Annual Hogs and Hearts Rally. The funds, which total $3,950, will be used for the foundation, which funds scholarships and internships for students.

“It’s pretty much double what we did last year,” Dr. Anderson said.

Also part of the fundraising, staff competed against teams to bring in diapers, Dr. Anderson said at a presentation at the Healthcare Associates of Irving.

“It filled that whole wall out there,” he said.

The Hogs and Hearts Rally also collected more than 40,500 diapers for Our Children’s House of Irving, a specialized program for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years with moderate to severe medical needs.

The September rally included food, raffles, motorcycles, games and children’s events.

Dr. Wright Lassiter Jr., chancellor of the Dallas County Community College District, was elected chairman of the Parker University board of trustees during the group’s recent December meeting. He will serve a two-year term as board chairman; he first was appointed to Parker’s board in 2007 and previously served as treasurer.

“I am honored to serve as chairman of the board of trustees for Parker University,” said Lassiter, who previously served as president of El Centro College – one of seven individually-accredited colleges in DCCCD – for more than 20 years. “Parker is a growing university that has many exciting developments ahead, which I am glad to be a part of."

The appointment comes as Parker University pursues a five-year strategic plan that calls for 12 new degree programs and a total student enrollment of 2,500. The institution is growing to meet the needs of an expanding health care industry; it currently enrolls approximately 850 students in its doctor of chiropractic and massage therapy programs.

“Dr. Lassiter is a great fit for this role,” said Dr. Gery Hochanadel, provost of Parker University. “He not only has an extensive background in higher education, but he also is an esteemed leader in the DFW education community. He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the board of trustees, and we will benefit greatly from his leadership.”

Maria Garza, auxiliary business services manager for the Dallas County Community College District, has earned the designation of Certified Auxiliary Services Professional from the National Association of College Auxiliary Services.

CASP is a four-year certification program for aspiring auxiliary services professionals and is the only certificate which demonstrates that recipients have met a high standard of excellence as defined by industry experts; it also indicates that they have the skills needed to be a director of auxiliary services in the areas of management, leadership, marketing, student development and operations.

"I am very proud of earning the CASP designation. It provides me with a means to develop and demonstrate my knowledge and core competencies in auxiliary services. This certification certainly prepares me for more senior responsibilities at DCCCD,” said Garza. “It also gives me a great foundation and benchmark for providing excellent services to students and staff and for improving the quality of the student experience at DCCCD."

“We are pleased to congratulate Maria Garza,” said Ron Campbell, CEO of NACAS. “Earning the CASP designation requires recipients to meet an advanced standard of expertise and experience in higher education auxiliary services. CASP recipients are among the best and brightest of our industry.”

The Dallas County Community College District is one of nine colleges and universities in the U.S. honored by University Business Magazine as one of its winter 2012 “Models of Efficiency.” Sponsored by Higher One, the program recognizes innovative approaches for streamlining higher education operations through technology and/or business process improvements.

In 2012, the district changed the way it processed financial aid verifications by implementing the GlobalCORE + File Review verification solution from Global Financial Aid Services Inc. Prior to that time, DCCCD students who were selected for financial aid verification were directed to a website to print forms and then complete, mail, drop off or fax them to their colleges. However, more than 50 percent of the paperwork was completed incorrectly, and staff members were overwhelmed with student inquiries. The review process took six to eight weeks, awards were delayed and complaints grew.

The new solution provides an online student portal branded to DCCCD, automatic student e-mail notifications, paperless document collection and an interface for Financial Aid and Contact Center staff members so that they can monitor status, check documents and run reports. Compliance review for verification files was outsourced, and review results were communicated to DCCCD’s student information system daily. As a result, file review time was reduced from weeks to less than five days, which allowed staff members to focus on counseling and assisting at-risk students.

Other winter 2012 “Models of Efficiency” recipients were Baldwin University (WI); Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management (CA); Northern Michigan University; NorthWest Arkansas Community College; Polk State College (FL); Southern California University of Health Sciences; Texas A&M Health Science Center; and the University of West Georgia.

By Sissy Courtney

At Valley Ranch Elementary School, teacher Camille Ricciotti received a surprise visit during a Coppell Middle School East holiday band performance that conceivably everybody there will never forget. Camille’s boyfriend, Kenwin Cummings, slipped from behind the band, got down on one knee, and proposed to her. She said, “Yes,” and the entire school cheered as the band played the Wedding March.

The event, which just lasted a matter of minutes, required many phone calls, planning, and preparation behind the scenes – and lots of “Yeses.”

Kenwin’s first proposal was to Valley Ranch Elementary School Principal Cynthia Arterbery. She also said, “Yes,” to him and his plan, and she called the Middle School East band director to ask if the band could play the Wedding March. Although that meant the students had little time to learn the music, the proposal got another, “Yes.”

The day of the concert was also Teacher Dessert Day at the elementary school Dec. 19.

“I took my class to the program thinking we were just going to the program, and all this started to happen,” Camille said. “My principal called me up to the front and was just introducing me to the students since I’m a newer teacher here, and she handed me a cupcake. It was Dessert Day for the staff. On the cupcake it said, ‘Will you marry me?’

“I was just really shocked because I didn’t think Ms. Arterbery was going to call me to the front at all, so once she had me in front of everybody, she had me kind of on the spot,” Camille said. “I was trying to wave to the kids, and she hands me the cupcake. I looked at it, and I was confused. Then she said, ‘There’s a very special person who has a question to ask you.’”

Kenwin made his move.

“All the band kids knew about it, but they kept it a secret,” Kenwin said. “I came kind of behind the band, and some of them saw me and started snickering and smiling, because they knew what was about to happen.”

“And then I saw him, and I thought, ‘Oh, My Gosh, this is happening in front of the whole school and all the kids,’” Camille said.

In front of Camille, the band and everybody, Kenwin got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.

“I said, ‘Yes,’” Camille said. “I don’t think we even put the ring on. I think Ms. Arterbery had to say, ‘Go ahead and put the ring on.’”

Laughing, Kenwin said, “She had to prompt us through.”

“Then we kissed, and all the kids were like, ‘Oooooo!’” Camille said.

“The kids loved it,” Kenwin said. “And then the band played the Wedding March song. It was kind of cool, because when Ms. Arterbery brought it up to them, they didn’t know how to play it, and so they learned to play it just for this little event. They did good; they played it twice.”

“It was perfect,” Camille said. “There was just so much going on, and they played it, so we decided we could make our exit.”

After the concert, Camille and her students went back to her classroom, and Kenwin said he went back with them “to hang out for a while.”

“I called both of my parents,” Camille said. “They had already known, and my brother had already known too because Kenwin had already talked to them. And I sent a picture of my hand to my friends with ‘Woohoo!’ They all knew what I meant.”

Camille seemed unfazed that nearly everybody knew about the proposal before she did.

“I thought it was cool because I just started at this school and for him to call my principal and other teachers here that I barely even know…” Camille said. “It was really neat that they were all doing this for me when they really don’t know me that well. It was a good way to bond with them, and it was a good way to get to know everybody.”

“A great way to break the ice,” Kenwin said.

Camille said she had not been the least bit suspicious. She said they picked out the ring a year ago, but she did not know he had bought it.

“First of all, I did not think he would do something like that in front of so many people,” Camille said. “When I would think about how it would happen, I would think, ‘We’ll just be out to dinner, just us two, and it will be very low key,’ and I was perfectly fine with that. So for him to do something in front of so many people and all this planning, it was not what I expected from him at all.

“Kids have been stopping me in the hall saying, ‘Congratulations,’ or just, ‘Hi,’” Camille said. “They recognize me now, and I’ve had a couple of them ask to see my ring – parents too.”

“The parents of some of my students asked, ‘Were you the one who got engaged, because my other kid came home and said, ‘Somebody got married at school,’” Camille said. “Or they ask, ‘Is this the first time that somebody got married at school?’”

The couple had been dating four and a half years.

“(Camille) is from New Jersey, and I’m from North Carolina,” Kenwin said. “I moved to New Jersey to play with the (New York) Jets.” They met in New Jersey. When he left the Jets to play linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys, Camille moved too and started her teaching career. Kenwin has since left the Cowboys for another career.

“We love the Dallas area,” Kenwin said. “There are a lot of opportunities, and she started her career here, so we decided to hang around, and we fell in love with it.”

“This class is my dream job,” Camille said. “Once I got this classroom, we decided we were going to stay.”

The couple is thinking about having their wedding in June or July and planned to look at venues in Charlotte, NC, over the holiday break.

Most days Sheila McBride arrives at work to find sick plants scattered about. She loves that.

“People come in to find out what is wrong with their plants, and we help them out,” said McBride, diagnostician at the Texas Plant Disease Diagnostic Lab in College Station.

The lab, part of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, handles up to 2,000 samples a year, according to Dr. Kevin Ong, director.

“This plant clinic started off in 1956 solely to support county AgriLife Extension agents in helping farmers, but over the years that has changed,” Ong said. “We still use the Extension mission to serve the people of Texas, but we now have a big group of samples that come in from the growers and professional landscapers, arborists and homeowners.”

For McBride, the daily challenge comes from opening boxes from mail services or accepting samples in person, then carefully examining the leaves, stems, branches and roots to determine why a plant is sick.

“I have to look at each sample and decide in my diagnostic mind how I am going to treat it,” she said. “My number one best friend is my microscope. Probably about 80 percent of the plants that come in I can diagnose using my microscope. There are specialized spores that I can see … and that will lead me to find out what’s causing the problem.”

And the most typical sample the lab receives? Turfgrass from homeowners wanting to correct problems in their yards.

The plant clinic uses a variety of other methods to diagnose problems if the source isn’t determined under the microscope, she said. Sometimes plant samples are put in a specialized medium to see what grows. Other times a polymerase chain reaction is used to look for organisms that cannot be observed by microscope.

McBride said she also likes to educate people about plant diseases and provide tips and advice about curing or preventing illnesses in plants.

Information on how to get a diagnosis for a sick plant can be found at http://plantclinic.tamu.edu/.

McBride offers these tips for sending samples.

If possible, send a whole plant. “I like to see the leaves, the stems, the roots, the whole picture,” she said. “In fact, send pictures as well, if you can,” McBride said.

Trees obviously can’t be shipped intact, but send more than a leaf. A branch would be good. “Individuals see that a leaf turns yellow and so they just send us a leaf,” she said. “But we need more than that to get the full picture.”

Don’t add water to the sample or make it wetter than it already is.

Send samples fresh. “Don’t let a sample sit in a vehicle for four days in 100 degree weather,” she said.

Among her favorite diagnoses is “fire fungus” after the Bastrop fires in 2011 and a palm tree disease that appeared for the first time in Texas.

“After the fires, people started seeing an orange fungus growing all over the trees,” McBride said. “The people around Bastrop were worried that it would be harmful to humans, their pets or the wildlife.”

She said the lab performed a series of tests – from isolating and growing the fungi to DNA analysis and classical morphological identification to determine it was a harmless Pezizomycete – similar to some fungi that appeared after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

The palm tree disease, she said, was identified in the lab and now is being confirmed by attempting to infect healthy baby palm trees growing in the lab in order to watch the disease progression and prove it is killing palms.

The plant clinic tries to provide for each sample not only a diagnosis but some recommendations for control.

“And I also try to give them just a little bit of information as far as the actual pathogen and what it does,” she said.

The cost for the diagnosis and recommendations is $35 for in-state samples or $55 for samples from outside of Texas.

“The interaction we have with plant owners gives us the opportunity to provide them with information and teach them how to take care of plants,” Ong added. “If a disease problem is caught early, then action may be taken to prevent further loss and in fact save quite a bit of money. Also we benefit from healthier plants or even a readily, available food supply.”

Source: Texas A&M University System