Students who’ve sweated out a summer school math class while friends were at the pool might smile at the idea of their math teachers brushing up on teaching skills as summer begins.

But the teachers want to. That’s what Germanna’s Center for Workforce and Community Education learned when representatives visited every school system in the region to ask in what areas they needed assistance.

The result is Math in Action: A Conference for Math Teachers by Math Teachers to be held at Germanna’s Fredericksburg Area Campus from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on June 24.

“It’s the first time we’ve done something like this,” said Kimberly Rodenberg, GCC Business & Career Coordinator. “We went around to the school systems and asked how we could help with professional development. Hands down, math teachers wanted help dealing with the strict changes in math requirements.  We partnered with all of the schools to bring in teachers who could share best practices with each other. We hope to make this an annual event.”

This conference is designed for teachers interested in helping students achieve at the highest possible levels in math.  Attendees will hear the latest news about mathematics instruction from the Virginia Department of Education’s Dr. Deborah Wickham and Christa Southall.

Teachers will have the opportunity to participate in sessions focused on instructional strategies for the teaching of math.  All break-out sessions will be conducted by teachers sharing best practices, helping to build a network of support throughout the region

“The teachers will be sharing their methods and skills,” said Brenda Tanner, a former superintendent of Madison County schools who is working with Germanna’s Center for Workforce as a consultant. That makes it somewhat unique.” She said  the conference will have a lasting effect, creating a virtual network of “teachers supporting teachers.”

Breakfast and lunch will be included.

The conference registration fee is  $79.

To register, call 540-891-3012

 It’s been nearly three decades since she was in high school back in her home town of Rochester, N.Y. and very ill with an autoimmune disorder.

“And I remember it was the nurses who talked to me, who helped me, who made a very big impact on me,” she says. “So I decided that’s what I would like to do.”

 She began studying to become a nurse.

Germanna’s acting Dean of Nursing Patti Lisk and 2013 grad Kim Casey.

But as a Navy wife, she had moved 20 times in 22 years before her husband Mike retired in 2009 and took a job at Dahlgren. The couple finally had a chance to put down roots and decided to live in Stafford County.

 “We were finally in a place where I could commit to something,” she says.  In 2009, at age 44, she resumed her nursing studies at Germanna Community College.

Casey says she had done careful research before choosing a college.  Living in Stafford, she had a number of options.

 She says she looked at the high pass rate Germanna students have traditionally had on the state nursing board exam. And she heard good things about the clinical and classroom experiences.

So she got in her car and drove out to the Locust Grove Campus, where the nursing program is based, and talked to a faculty advisor.

Casey praises Mark Haines, Coordinator of Counseling Services at Germanna’s Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania, for his help in her time at GCC. “I couldn’t have done it without him,” she says.

Haines says he knew she would be a good student when “she had already completed Anatomy and Physiology I and II, but she wanted to audit our A&P class to be sure she knew the material.”

 Casey made her decision and it was quickly validated.

 She says she was impressed by the quality of the faculty.

 And, she says, “The clinical aspect I received here was even better than I expected it to be, due in part to the Virtual Hospital experience.”  GCC’s Virtual Hospital uses high-tech human simulators that allow students to take charge and learn in a hospital environment with no risk to patients.

Casey says “nontraditional” students like herself who don’t fall into the typical 18 to 24 age group needn’t worry about fitting in.

 “There were younger students, students my age, students older than I am,” Casey says. “But there was a common thread. We all had a goal. We were all determined to meet that goal. The bottom line is we were all here for the same reason.“

 At Germanna, she was a model student.

 “But that’s not what makes her exceptional,” says Dr. Patti Lisk, acting Dean of Nursing at Germanna. “Kim is caring and compassionate. She treats each person with respect and understanding. She consistently puts the needs of others ahead of her own. We saw this in the clinical setting as she provided care for patients and was also apparent in the classroom.”

  She received The Florence Nightingale Award for her class. It’s presented to the graduate who is selected by his or her peers as being the most helpful and inspirational to the class.

In 2012, one of her nursing instructors, Karen Mittura, encouraged her to apply for a summer externship program at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center.

 She was accepted to work in the Palliative Care Unit at the VCU Massey Cancer Care Clinic last summer as a nurse extern. Palliative care, according to the Massey Center Web page, “is care that relieves suffering of the critically ill by managing pain and symptoms and addressing psychological, emotional and spiritual needs.”

“It was an amazing experience,” she says. “I had the opportunity to spend 500 additional clinical hours with an advanced practice registered nurse in addition to the clinical experience I received at Germanna. The experience was just invaluable.”

After the summer program ended, she was asked to stay on and work in the unit as a care partner until she graduated from Germanna in May.

In March, she was offered a full time position at the VCU Massey Cancer Center as a clinical nurse in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.

 This month, at age 47, she passed the state nursing board exam and officially became a Registered Nurse.

The Richmond hospital will pay for her to get her BSN, and for any other degrees she decides to pursue while working there.

She says she’s leaning toward a career as an oncology nurse. “It feels like I’m paying it forward because my mom is a cancer survivor. I’m respecting the care my mother received.”

GCC Middle College grad Terra Painter

The Middle College Program is designed to meet the needs of those between 18-24 years old who have not graduated from high school. The comprehensive goal of the program is to have the students complete the Middle College Program, enroll in a certificate or degree program at Germanna, and enter the workforce. Academically, the focus of the program is to help students prepare for the GED and earn college credit simultaneously. The small class setting provides a unique environment that engages the students in critical thinking and problem solving. Every staff member serves as a mentor, advisor, and student advocate.

Conceptual rendering of possible Germanna Stafford Campus

Germanna Community College President David A. Sam made the college’s plans for Stafford County clear when he delivered the keynote speech at the Stafford EDA’s 2013 Salute to Business luncheon Thursday at the Riverside Conference Center.

“We are here.” Dr. Sam said. “We are here to stay. We are here for the long haul.”

  “Stafford County is one of the best places for us to partner in terms of workforce development… We expand to meet the needs of our communities.” 

  And he added that Stafford, the county with the largest population in Germanna’s service area, is a logical place for GCC to grow.

 Dr. Sam said the college is getting closer to some gifts of land “that could result in eventually having a permanent presence.”

Obstacles remain, he said. “I’ll have to sell this to a lot of people in a lot of places.”  But, he said, it could “lead to a future campus in the Stafford Courthouse area.”

 He showed the crowd a concept rendering of what a Germanna Stafford Campus might look like.

 The campus, he said, would be another in a series of steps in raising Germanna’s profile in Stafford to meet community needs, beginning with the Stafford County Center in August 2009 and the GCC Automotive Center in August 2012.

 Dr. Sam said Germanna would respond to the needs of Stafford’s growing, evolving business community and mentioned, among others, professional and technical studies programs, workforce business and professional development courses and homeland security-related courses including cybersecurity.

Don Newlin, chair of the Stafford EDA, said of the prospect of Germanna expansion, “There are going to be plenty of students here at the rate this county is growing.”

  During the luncheon, Stafford Board of Supervisors Chair Susan Stimpson thanked University of Mary Washington President Rick Hurley. Germanna President Sam, George Mason University and Speaker of the House Bill Howell for their roles in making the new Stafford Tech and Research Park, which she called “a vision of the board of supervisors,” a reality.

Stafford EDA Director Tim Baroody, GCC President David Sam, Stafford Board of Supervisors Chair Susan Stimpson at EDA Salute to Business luncheon Thursday

 ”There are hundreds of them,” he said. The key to becoming one, he said, is to realize the same rule that applies to most things applies here. “You get out of it what you put into it.”

Startup Weekend is a global organization with a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities. said Christine Goodwin, one of Startup Weekend Fredericksburg’s organizers.

She said Startup Weekend Fredericksburg is a 54-hour event “designed to teach methodologies to enhance creative, focused, and collaborative innovation. For those participants who want to pitch an idea, Startup Weekend helps them form a team, work on the concept, and refine it so that they can launch a startup.”

“A lot of things can happen in 54 hours,” Perrelli said. “We’ve seen relationships develop into companies that get funded.”

 The event is set to run from 5:30 p.m. Friday  to 9:30 p.m. Sunday at Germanna Community College’s Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania. It’s being hosted by Germanna’s Center for Workforce and Community Education. Germanna also is one of the sponsors.

Perrelli  is the managing director of Fortify Ventures, a D.C.  ”accelerator” technology fund that seeds startups and assists in their early growth.

Pitches will be made at the end of the weekend.

Asked what advice he’d give on pitching, Perrelli said these things are key: 

• “Number one, be very direct about the message–’Our company does x for y customers’
•  ”We are going to monetize our Web site or platform or app by doing this, that or the other.”
•  This is to be a real company. “Give concrete information about working on it, full time, starting tomorrow.”

 Goodwin said it’s not imperative that attendees begin Startup Weekend with a concept and a team. She said those interested in becoming entrepeneurs can show up, become part of a team of people with diverse skills on Friday, then work through the weekend.  She said others may want to simply watch and learn.  “There are people there with the chops to give feedback,” Perrelli said.

  And, Perrelli said, everyone who attends will be swept up in the energy and enthusiasm of entrepeurism.

  It’s not too late to be a part of it. Register here.

Joe Daniel

When Culpeper’s Drop It! The Healthy Living and Weight Loss Challenge 2013 wrapped up Thursday a total of over $300,000 in donations to Germanna’s Nursing and Health Technologies programs had been raised since the annual event began in 2010, according to GCC Educational Foundation Director Mike Catell.

Joe and Linda Daniel and the Culpeper Regional Health System have donated funds toward Germanna’s nursing and health programs for each pound lost since the inception of Drop It!.

Joe Daniel is president at Culpeper Wood Preservers and a member of the GCC Educational Foundation Board. The couple donates $20 to Germanna for each pound lost. This year’s total of 2,502 pounds lost works out to a $50,040 donation. CRHS donates $30 a pound to health care programs. Some of that $30 has gone to Germanna in the past. No announcement has been made about that yet for this year.

During a press conference at Powell Wellness Center, Joe Daniel explained why he and his wife Linda donated $20 to Germanna’s Nursing and Health Technologies program for approximately 12,000 pounds lost through Drop It! over the years.

“The goal of this program is to improve the health of the whole community,” Joe Daniel said. “The other thing is education. … “You talk to any hospital executive or administrator and they’ll tell you nurses are the lifeblood of their hospitals… It’s a great partnership. The bottom line is it’s about health, education and jobs.”

The program, Daniel noted, has enabled Germanna: “to expand its nursing program—to double the number of folks who are getting nursing or nursing-related education. And this has a huge, long-run impact on the community. Let’s say we graduated 50 people today. What’s the average age?  Thirty. So they have 30, 35 years to work. That’s 1,500 work years. Multiply that by the number of patients they’re going to see–many tens of thousands of people are impacted by that educational experience. And next year we’re going to do the same thing. And the next the same time.”

He said there’s no way to measure the long-term impact. .

“When you do the return on investment, “ he said. “When you see the work people are going to have– the improvement in health, the improvement in their lives, I’ll tell you what, I’m happy to invest in it and I think it’s one of the best investments Linda and I have ever made.”

Linda Daniel

Linda Daniel said: “I worked in the health profession for almost 40 years. I think health is so essential to keeping your whole mental outlook and your emotional outlook as well as your physical well being and we all want to get older and better and stay healthy and the best way to do it is to move and keep involved in a program like this.”

Germanna President David A. Sam said the college is grateful.

“We want to thank the Daniels for their long term support for Germanna in many ways, especially the nursing program and health care programs,” Dr. Sam said. “Thanks in large part to them, Germanna now graduates two RN classes a year in December and in May.

Germanna President David A. Sam

“The support you give us is instrumental in terms of scholarships,” Dr. Sam said. He said the Daniels’ generosity has made it possible to buy equipment, including high-tech human simulators used in Germanna’s Virtual Hospital.

“We also deeply appreciate the long partnership with Culpeper Regional Hospital and Culpeper Regional Health Care System,” Dr. Sam said. “They provide clinical instruction, clinical sites. They’ve contributed $1 milllion over the years to our programs.”

Brook Luke won the 2013 Drop It! top prize of $1,000 for losing the highest percentage of body fat– 16.96 percent.

Greg Napps of Culpeper Regional Hospital, Joe and Linda Daniel and GCC President David A. Sam post with Drop It! winners at press conference at Powell Wellness Center in Culpeper. Over 2,500 pounds were lost by hundreds of participants

The event is set to begin Friday, June 7 at Germanna Community College’s Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania and culminate in the best startup ideas being chosen Sunday, June 9.

Christine Goodwin, 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 lives in Locust Grove and is a graduate of Spotsylvania High School and what was then Mary Washington College.

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, she says. “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 says startups are the way to keep the talent, profits and jobs home in our area.

“Several of us who are entrepreneurs knew that many other entrepreneurs were in our region working alone on their startups or their apps. We felt that our entrepreneurial ecosystem was too fragile and dispersed. And we felt that we needed to put together an event that showcased the cool things that have come out of this region on a global platform and also functioned as the foundational event for strengthening and building out our ecosystem. We felt that with the impacts of sequestration hitting our region it was important to move the economic needle in the direction of low-cost of entry, high-growth startups and 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 DC, and Boston together for 54 hours to give the talent in this area a platform for launching.”

Goodwin credits WishStars taking off to her experience at a Startup Weekend in Reston last year.

Startup Weekend is a global organization with a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities. she said.

Startup Weekend Fredericksburg is a 54-hour event, Goodwin says, “designed to teach methodologies to enhance creative, focused, and collaborative innovation.  For those participants who want to pitch an idea, Startup Weekend helps them form a team, work on the concept, and refine it so that they can launch a startup.”

To date, there have been 1,068 Startup Weekend events held in 478 cities around the world and from these events over 8,000 startups have been created.   Goodwin says that for the rest of the participants, Startup Weekend is an opportunity to get experience that enhances creative and critical problem -solving, to try new skills, and to get expert instruction on new methods of brainstorming.

WHO ATTENDS A STARTUP WEEKEND?

• Frontend Coders
• Backend coders
• Social Media professionals/enthusiasts
• Business professionals/Business development professionals
• Marketing professionals
• Graphic designers
• Writers
• Visionaries
• Project managers

WHY ATTEND STARTUP WEEKEND FREDERICKSBURG?

“For those participants who want to kick start their company, find co-founders and advance as entrepreneurs who build technology companies, and create jobs, SUW is an opportunity to get hyper focused mentoring from angel and venture investors, serial entrepreneurs, and subject matter experts in coding, marketing, commercialization, and business development,” Goodwin says.

SUW is also a great professional development experience, she says.  “I strongly encourage people with awesome day jobs who don’t have a big idea to pitch or who aren’t looking to start their own company to come and join a team so they will get an opportunity to get a rapid immersion education in a whole new way of thinking about how you do what you do and for executing differently.  You will learn techniques for collaboration, problem solving, and product development that will help you improve many things including team dynamics, validating requirements and customer needs, determining product/market fit using metrics to quantify it, and using metrics to drive product development.   A key tenet of Lean Startup is to fail fast – to use data to quickly validate — or invalidate — assumptions about needs, requirements, and preferences and to build out capability based on that data.”

She says attendees will have a chance to network with some successful people in their fields and others “and experience first-hand all of the dimensions of innovation in one event.”

WHY DO A STARTUP WEEKEND IN FREDERICKSBURG?

“Startup Weekend Global takes multiple factors into consideration, but chief amongst those is the strength of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the community that is applying,” Goodwin says. “We started our interview by telling Startup Weekend that our region produced the ultimate startup- – The United States of America.  And that we have a long tradition of innovation in this region.”

WHY HOLD THE EVENT AT GERMANNA?

“We have the facilities and support, and we work closely with the business community, so it’s a good fit,” says Germanna Center for Workforce and Community Education Interim Vice President Martha O’Keefe. She says GCC’s Center for Workforce provides training and professional development for the region’s business community, including courses and programs supporting small businesses that may be helpful to startups.

“We work closely with the region’s offices of economic development to respond to workforce needs,” O’Keefe says. “We work collaboratively with offices of economic development, K-12 school divisions, other higher education schools, Chambers of Commerce, etc. to help connect the business community to programs and resources.”

A HEAVY HITTING LINEUP OF JUDGES AND COACHES

“People who are considering either pitching or who are just curious about a SUW event and are on the fence should know that if they don’t register, they’ll be missing a great opportunity to get plugged in to, network with, and benefit from the experience of our amazing line up of judges and coaches,” Goodwin says.

“We have startup gurus and investors like Paul Singh, founder of Dashboard io and Jonathon Perrelli of Fortify Funding judging.  We have serial entrepreneurs, subject matter experts in web/mobile strategy and implementation, data analytics, commercialization, user interface/experience design, and Agile and SCRUM development methodologies, and marketing all in one place who are excited to meet with and help the teams. “

Goodwin says those interested in starting up businesses can’t get “the level of personal, one on one interaction, feedback, and networking” from any other event for the $100 cost of registering for Startup Weekend Fredericksburg.

“We also have Whitney Johnson, who co-founded Rose Park Advisors  keynote speaking and judging at the event, Goodwin says. ” I met Whitney at a conference for women in business last June and we just really connected.  She is committed to increasing the number of women in business who have a dream they want to follow and aren’t sure how to make it happen. “

Premier sponsors include Germanna, The Free Lance-Star,  FRED FM@96.5 Fredericksburg.com, eCornell and ZebraReach. Goodwin said SUW Fredericksburg still needs $3,000 worth of business sponsorships to cover costs. The biggest expense is food.

Learn more and register for Startup Weekend Fredericksburg here.

• Students should attend class, even if they are not officially registered for that class. Class registration will resume when the Internet services are available.
•  Faculty must pay close attention to the accuracy of their class rosters and maintain manual attendance logs as needed.
•  Deadlines for payment and drop/add will be extended to accommodate students who need this assistance, as long as students have attended their classes at least once.
•  Access to Blackboard is available through learn.vccs.edu.
•  Interactive video classes can continue as scheduled, in spite of Internet outages.
•  Germanna Testing Centers are closed temporarily. Routine service will resume when the technical services are stabilized.
•   Access to library resources will be severely limited during periods of internet outages.
•   E-2 Campus texts and emails will be sent with updates as they become available

  “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.”

At the NIH,Ulisses Santana will research how the retina processes images and transmits them to the brain.

 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’s new Experiential Learning internship program. Through the program, Ulisses has landed a summer 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.

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, with 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.”

Germanna biology Prof. Trudy Witt recognized Santamaria’s potential

Prof. Trudy Witt says: “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/

An’aan Avant

An’aam Avant, who was the student speaker at Germanna Community College’s Spring Commencement last night, initially had doubts about GCC.

Having been home schooled until she entered GCC at age 16 through the college’s Dual Enrollment program as the equivalent of a high school junior, she wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

“At first I had the stereotypical ‘less than’ attitude about Germanna,” she said. “What made me fall in love with Germanna was the faculty. The teachers were there for me. They really cared about my well being and they continue to care and I know they will still be there for me in the future.

“I’ve spoken with friends attending universities and they’ve told me they don’t see the same kind of attention and caring there that we do at Germanna.”

Avant received her associate’s degree at age 18 last night thanks to Germanna’s Dual Enrollment program, which allows high school and home schooled students to earn college credit inexpensively.