Spring 2010 - Rockland Community College

Now and Then
Spring on campus, now and then:
there’s nothing new under the sun!
SCENE is published by
the Rockland Community
College Foundation
Don Cairns, Executive Director
and
Campus Communications
Editor: Tzipora Reitman,
Director of Communications
zreitman@sunyrockland.edu
Staff Writer: Lisa Saunders
Photography: Collette Fournier
Design: Ginny Apostolides
We invite your comments!
Rockland Community College
145 College Road
Suffern, NY 10901
(845) 574-4595
www.sunyrockland.edu
2009
circa 1970
50th Anniversary Events: www.sunyrockland.edu/go/50
Mentoring Program from page 1
Mentors meet with a group of 40 educationally
disadvantaged students who are part of three
“learning communities,” each of which consists
of a group of students who are all enrolled
in the same three sections of core courses.
There are currently eight peer mentors, seven
paid and one volunteer. The mentors are paid
$10/hour and work approximately five hours
a week. They are required to meet personally
with their mentees twice a month and to
maintain weekly contact through e-mail, text
or phone.
Mentors also create and present workshops in
areas such as time-management, study skills
and essay writing. The mentors formed a Peer
Mentoring Club, where they share ideas with
each other and with other students considering
becoming mentors.
Dear Editor,
My good friend and former colleague, Florence Mason,
sent me a copy of the first page of SCENE, Fall 2009 – FIF-
TY YEARS!! How well I remember 1959 starting out from
“scratch” – we used backs of cardboard boxes for blackboards
and former patient rooms on the top floor [of Brucker Hall]
were still furnished! In fact, I still have a walnut washstand
(painted white on the outside and blue inside) from one of the
rooms. I removed the white paint!
Those were the days – coupled with excitement, fun and
frustrations. How well I remember when Joan Silberman
enrolled as a student and Dan Masterson signed on to teach
English!
I can’t believe RCC is celebrating its 50th anniversary
and I am celebrating my 90th!! The years may be piling up
but the memories remain fresh. I put in three days a week at
the local historical society as volunteer archivist and come
2010 start my 32nd year with Meals on Wheels…
Some of the happiest and rewarding years of my life were
at RCC and I predict the next 50 years will bring even greater
growth, but may it always remain a community college.
Cordially,
Jane Freeman
Sun City, Arizona
2
[Ed. Note: Dr. Freeman served as the College’s first Director of Student
Personnel when the College opened in 1959.]
Mentors are recommended by faculty and go
through a rigorous application process and if
selected, a five-hour training course. At the end
of their training, the mentors were rewarded
with lunch with National Basketball Association
legend Ron Harper, who told the students
how coaching on the court and mentoring
in the dorm helped him as a player and as a
student.
Kathy Carroll, Professor/Counselor, and Joe
Falco, adjunct faculty, Psychology, researched
and designed the mentoring project as an integral
part of the Learning Communities Pilot
Program, and meet weekly with the mentors.
Dr. Cliff L. Wood, College President, said,
“Mentoring, including peer mentoring, can
dramatically help students be more successful
and achieve more.”