Prizes were recently awarded for the most hours studied by Mayland Community College Basic Skills Adult Education students during September’s National Literacy month celebration. Winner of a Collector’s Quartz Pocket Watch and chain was Larry Young, a lifelong Bakersville resident and son of the late Ford and Celia Young. Young was a Henredon employee for 39 years.

Mitchell Historic Courthouse 2011 Literacy Month Winners

Prizes were recently awarded for the most hours studied by Mayland Community College Basic Skills Adult Education students during September’s National Literacy month celebration.
Winner of a Collector’s Quartz Pocket Watch and chain was Larry Young, a lifelong Bakersville resident and son of the late Ford and Celia Young. Young was a Henredon employee for 39 years.

According to his Adult Education GED teacher, Libby Wise, Young is a hardworking, dedicated student. He has successfully studied for and passed 4 out of the 5 GED tests, and will graduate soon.

In his spare time, Young enjoys hunting, fishing, and working. He attends to McKinney Cove Baptist Church and participates in GED classes at the Mitchell Historic Courthouse on Bakersville’s Main Street. Larry and wife Brenda are the proud grandparents of a grandson and granddaughter. They also have two grown sons.

Also winning a Literacy Month prize was Brandy Phillips of Bakersville, who is now a GED graduate.

Fall GED graduation will be held on Friday, November 4, in the Sam Center Auditorium on Mayland Community College’s Main Campus in Spruce Pine. The public is invited to attend. For additional information regarding FREE GED or the GED graduation, please phone 828 765-7351, extension 291 or 216.

Mayland is big enough to serve, small enough to care. No place so near can take you so far.

                         Starting An Agriculture Business

Do you have idle land you would like to grow something on? Are you looking to earn extra income by growing something? Do you already grow a product but would like to make more money from it by adding value to it? If you answered yes to any of these questions or you have an agriculture business idea and don’t know where to go with it then I invite you to participate in an informative three-part workshop to assist people with learning how to get started in an agriculture business or to produce a new product from something they already grow.

The workshop will be held on October 17, 24, and November 1, from 6-9 p.m. at the Mayland Community College’s Main Campus in Spruce Pine. Topics include, I Have An Idea – Where Do I Begin, Managing The Farm As A Business, How To Sell and Add Value To What You Grow.

Workshop sponsors include, N.C. Cooperative Extension Mitchell County Center, Mayland Community College and N.C. REAL. To register call the Mitchell County Extension Center, 828-688-4811.

 

Pictured from left to right Allen Cook (Career Coach), Curtis Carpenter, CJ Edwards, Alex McFalls, Keith McFalls, Alicia Mahoney, Amanda Carpenter, Billie Gurley, Megan Mahoney, Candace Bray, Sarah Ellis, Tiffany Burleson, Tiffany Ramsey, & April Jones (Career Coach).

Get R.E.A.L. Participants in Competitive Edge Etiquette Dining Workshop at Mountain Air Country Club

Get R.E.A.L. Program youth participated in a workshop hosted by Mountain Air Country Club in August. The group learned more about etiquette and professionalism.

Matthew Dicristino, the Club House Manager with Mountain Air, presented the workshop. He instructed youth in the areas of basic etiquette skills, dinner interviews, professional attire, and how to make a great first impression on prospective employers.  

Following the workshop Dicristino and Carlene Dicristino, Special Events and Catering Manager, took guests on a tour of Mountain Air. Get REAL participants learned about job opportunities at the country club. After the tour, the youth got to practice their newly learned etiquette skills with a three-course meal prepared in the Orville & Wilbur’s Grill.

The focus of the Get R.E.A.L. Program is to ensure youth gain the skills required by employers of today’s workforce. Get R.E.A.L. is part of Mayland Workforce Programs (WIA), and works in cooperation with the Mitchell, Avery, and Yancey Joblink Center to give customers a competitive edge in the current economy.  

The Get R.E.A.L. staff and participants thank those at Mountain Air Country Club for making everyone feel welcome and giving youth the opportunity to learn valuable etiquette skills.

Get R.E.A.L. is federally funded by the Workforce Investment Act through the

Mayland Community. Funding is granted from the High Country Workforce Development Board located in Boone, NC. Youth services are located in each of the counties at the JobLink Career Centers.

 This program provides eligible youth ages 16-21 with assistance in obtaining and maintaining their career goals through college tuition assistance, job training, work experience, leadership skills, and other services that will help youth become more prepared for the workplace and their career. For more information about Get R.E.A.L. contact April Jones at the Yancey JobLink at 682-6618 ext. 10 or Allen Cook at the Mitchell JobLink at 765-7758 or at the Avery JobLink at 737-5419.

Gateways to Celebrate Creative Work of Community

Gateways is the new creative journal of Mayland Community College and celebrates the creative work of our communities.
The College welcomes submissions from students, community members, and faculty and staff. The focus of the 2011 inaugural issue will be on history, so submissions of pieces that concern the past and our relationship to it are encouraged. All pieces should be original and, unless specifically solicited, may not include previously published work. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but you must notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
Hard copy submissions must be accompanied by a SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope) if you wish to have your work returned. You can mail submissions to Gateways at Mayland Community College, Attn: Elizabeth Hardy, PO Box 547, 200 Mayland Drive, Spruce Pine, NC 28777. Email submissions are also welcome. Please send to gateways@mayland.edu with “submission” in the subject line. Submission(s) should be a separate document or attached as a MS Word or RTF document (JPEG for art).
For all submissions, please include a cover letter or message with the author’s name, phone number, and email address, and type and title(s) of submissions, along with a brief biography. Pieces should be titled but should not include the author’s name. Make sure your cover letter includes the title(s) of your submission.
All submissions must be received by the deadline, October 1. Notification regarding inclusion will be sent via email.
Types of submissions accepted include fiction and creative non-fiction. Works of short fiction, essays, articles, or stand-alone excerpts of longer works should not exceed 6,000 words and must be double-spaced in a standard font. Works with sources must be documented in MLA format with appropriate citations.
Poetry: Up to five (5) poems of any length may be submitted. Poems should be single-spaced.
Photography and art: High-contrast black and white preferred, photographic reproductions of other art forms are acceptable. If submitting as hard copy, please burn files to a CD-R.
All published work becomes the property of Mayland Community College. All contributors will receive two complimentary copies of Gateways.
For more information please contact Elizabeth Hardy via e-mail at gateways@mayland.edu or call 1-800-4-MAYLAND, x 271.

Pictured is Mayland Community College GED graduate Billie Jo Summerlin Townsend at work as a pharmacy technician

GED leads Townsend to New Job

“Finding time to attend class and study for my GED after working on a job all day was a challenge, especially with two young children,” said 2007 GED graduate Billie Jo Summerlin Townsend. “It was all worth it because now I am enjoying the best job I’ve ever had as a Pharmacy Technician at Ingles.”

Townsend loves helping the sick and she gets to do it for a living in the pharmacy career that she’s worked in for three years.

After high school, Townsend worked for four years at Henredon, until rumors of a plant closure encouraged her to gain employment elsewhere. She moved to Ethan Allan, where she worked for thirteen years, until the facility closed.

When the closure occurred, Townsend was among the scores of adults who took advantage of the free Mayland Community College Adult Education classes where she earned her high school equivalency (GED), a credential which helped open the door to her dream job.

“The teachers in the GED classroom are just wonderful,” said Townsend. “They will help you reach your educational goals. If you need to complete high school, go for it!”

Townsend and her husband, Greg, love nature, and enjoy hiking with their two daughters, Amber, 16, and Megan, 12. The family attends Grassy Creek Baptist Church.

Townsend shares that the biggest goal she and her husband have is to help the girls through college.

Remember, there’s no place so near that can take you so far! The Learning Lab at Mayland: big enough to serve, small enough to care. Call us or visit today (828-765-7351, ext. 291).
 

Pictured is MCC Medical Assisting student Angel Moore at left getting pinned by instructor Shannon Atkins.

Medical Assisting Program Pinning

Angel Moore participated in the Medical Assisting Program pinning ceremony held in July. She and her fellow classmates finish one more step in becoming a Medical Assistant.

Moore heard that Mayland’s Medical Assisting Program was a good program to enroll in, and once enrolled in the program, found that it was a good fit for her.

The Medical Assisting curriculum prepares multi-skilled health care professionals qualified to perform administrative, clinical, and laboratory procedures.
Course work includes instruction in scheduling appointments, coding and processing insurance accounts, billing, collections, medical transcription, computer operations; assisting with examinations/treatments, performing routine laboratory procedures, electrocardiography, supervised medical administration; and ethical/legal issues associated with patient care.

Graduates of CAAHEP-accredited medical assisting programs may be eligible to sit for the American Association of Medical Assistants’ Certification Examination to become Certified Medical Assistants. Employment opportunities include physicians’ offices, health maintenance organizations, health departments, and hospitals.

“It has been a really fun program,” said Moore. “We have worked hard and learned a lot. I am enrolled in the fall to continue taking classes at Mayland because I am interested in continuing my degree in the health care field.”

Moore said she wanted to stay close to home and has come to love Mayland.

“Mayland has great people, great programs, its not expensive, its been the perfect fit for me,” said Moore.

Mayland is now accepting applications for the 2011 Medical Assisting Program that begins fall 2011. The deadline for application is August 12. For more information on this exciting career opportunity, contact Melissa Wilson at 765-7351 ext. 235.

Pictured is Human Services Technology student Wanda Battisti who is working on her degree at MCC.

                      Human Services Technology Program

Wanda Battisti found herself being affected by cutbacks in the mental health field. In a proactive move, she decided to attend Mayland Community College and further her education in the Human Services Technology Program.

“Furthering my education has allowed me to grow in my confidence in the work I am doing in the mental health field and a sense of security because now I have the education to support my work,” said Battisti.

After being in the workforce, Battisti said the classroom work mirrored her experiences in her real world job experiences.

“I feel like I can do the job at a higher level now,” said Battisti. “My time at Mayland has made such a positive difference for me and my family. Being in the classroom has sparked my confidence to continue my education past my degree at Mayland.”

Battisti said she has learned a lot not just from being in the classroom, but also with her externship in the local school system.

“ I have really enjoyed my externship,” said Battisti. “It’s been a hands-on learning experience.”

According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 edition, “the number of social and human service assistants is expected to grow by nearly 23 percent between 2008 and 2018,” which is much faster than the average for all occupations. This increase is due in large part to the aging population and increased demand for mental health and substance abuse treatment.”

“This is an exciting time to be a human services professional, and an exciting time for the human services profession as a whole,” writes National Organization for Human Services (NOHS) VP for Professional Development & Education Neil Headman in the September 2010 issue of NOHS’s newsletter, The Link. “It is a time of great growth, providing many opportunities for people to participate.”

Mayland’s Human Services Technology curriculum prepares students for entry-level positions in institutions and agencies that provide social, community, and educational services. Along with core courses, students take courses which prepare them for specialization in specific human service areas. Emphasis in core courses is placed on development of relevant knowledge, skills, and attitudes in human services. Fieldwork experience will provide opportunities for application of knowledge and skills learned in the classroom.

Graduates should qualify for positions in mental health, child care, family services, social services, rehabilitation, correction, and educational agencies. Graduates choosing to continue their education may select from a variety of transfer programs at senior public and private institutions.