SCC helps minority students prepare for college

Features

Related Photos

The SCC GMSCPP middle school students helped with Operation Christmas Child at Beacon Hill Baptist Church in Somerset as their November activity. GMSCPP students are shown with Operation Christmas Child officials.
Left, SCC GMSCPP middle school students tare pictured with SCC Assistant Professor Xia Zhiming during their EKU campus tour. Right, Middle school students and their parents met with. Dr. Roger Tate (left), and GMSCPP Director George Martinez.
Pulaski County middle school student Joey Hines, who is a participant in the Somerset Community College GMSCPP college preparatory program, tried on a NASA space suit during a visit to the Wonderworks Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

January 7, 2009

Community News

Anonymous The Commonwealth Journal Wed Jan 07, 2009, 07:52 AM EST

The Governor’s Minority Student College Preparation Program (GMSCPP) at Somerset Community College is designed to help minority middle school students in the Somerset and immediate surrounding county area prepare for and think about going to college.

The long-term goal is to increase postsecondary enrollment of traditionally underrepresented minority groups in Kentucky academic institutions.

The Somerset Community College GMSCPP program has been in existence for eight years. It involves a summer camp component, as well as monthly activities during the academic school year.

During the current academic school year, the GMSCPP students have participated in the following activities and events thus far: the August event consisted of a back-to-school trip to the Williamsburg Water Park; the September activity involved a trip to Eastern Kentucky University for a tour of the campus and attendance at an EKU football game; the October activities included a trip to the Wonderworks Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., for a full day of hands-on learning in the fields of science and technology; in November, the GMSCPP students participated in Operation Christmas Child at Beacon Hill Baptist Church; and in December, there was a Christmas reception held to recognize the students and their parents for their participation in the program this current academic year and to encourage the students.

“The SCC staff and faculty have been a consistent source of support, assistance and encouragement to our students and I sincerely thank you very much,” said George Martinez, coordinator of the SCC GMSCPP Program.

“In addition, the SCC Office of Cultural Diversity has provided ongoing mentorship, input and guidance to our program,” Martinez added.

“Past directors of the SCC GMSCPP Program, Terri Lynn Reynolds and Natalie Gibson, paved the way for the program to be a positive experience for the GMSCPP students and SCC college community as a whole. The collaboration from everyone has always been wonderful. This fall Xia Zhiming, an assistant professor in the SCC Business and Technology Division, accompanied the group on the trip to EKU and Dr. Roger Tate, an SCC professor and chair of the Social Sciences Division, attended the Christmas reception for the students,” Martinez said.

Middle school students currently participating in the SCC GMSCPP Program are Demitrius Peevy, Joey Hines, Katelyn Bess, Desire Napier, Micah Cunningham, Kelsie Whitson, Maria Martinez, Savaghn Alexander and Clorissa Covington.

If you would like to assist with the GMSCPP Program or if you know a middle school student who should be participating in the program, contact George Martinez at 606-451-6698.

“Always know that your positive involvement in the lives of young students will pay off and be beneficial to you as well. I thank all those who have been participating with the program all along and thank those who will participate with the program in the future,” Martinez said.

Somerset Community College is a comprehensive two-year institution of higher education. SCC has campuses in Somerset and London, centers in Clinton, McCreary, Casey, and Russell counties. The Web site is:

www.somerset.kctcs.edu

Call for admission and registration information toll free at 1-877-629-9722.

KCTCS serves the Commonwealth through 16 community and technical college districts that form a seamless system of 62 campuses open or under construction. KCTCS colleges change lives by providing accessible and affordable education and training through academic and technical associate degrees; diploma and certificate programs in occupational fields; pre-baccalaureate education; adult, continuing and developmental education; customized training for business and industry; and distance learning. For more information, visit:

www.kctcs.edu

Text Only

Features

Water Hazard
Money is in the federal budget for continued normal operation of the Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued safety guidelines for hundreds of fishermen who enjoy trout fishing in the Cumberland River below Wolf Creek Dam.
James Gray, project leader for the hatchery, said there have been no recent accidents below the dam. However, last summer, sudden opening of a sluice gate overturned a boat and a man and woman had to be fished out of the water, he said.
Fishing from the bank and from boats is highly popular immediately below Wolf Creek Dam. The often turbulent waters are teeming with rainbow trout stocked from the nearby hatchery.
Continued operation of the nearby trout hatchery was in doubt last year because $6.3 million to operate the facility at Wolf Creek and eight other national fish hatcheries was left out of the FY12 budget. The money has since been restored, Gray noted.
The hatchery at Wolf Creek produces 1 million trout each year with an annual budget of $907,000. “We’re operating normally,” said Gray.

March 22, 2012 1 Photo
Historic Masonic building gets well-deserved facelift
The large crane reaching to the top of the Masonic Building downtown is lifting workmen this week as they repoint bricks on the west side of one of the oldest structures in Somerset.
Bricks and mortar on the face of the Masonic Building reportedly are more than 120 years old. The building at 104 North Main Street just north of the courthouse was renovated or rebuilt about 1890 when it was purchased by Somerset Masonic Lodge No. 111.
There are conflicting memories whether an old hotel building, called the National Hotel, was torn down and the existing Masonic structure was built at the site, or whether the building, reportedly in bad state of repair, was renovated by the Masons. Herb Stone, a Somerset plumber who took care of the building for 40 years, said the original building definitely was renovated.

March 1, 2012 2 Photos
E'town execs offer hints to help resurrect Virginia Cinema
Like a slow-moving film plot, progress on the long-defunct Virginia Cinema seems to drag. Like the quest of any movie hero, the road to renovation is filled with obstacles and potential pitfalls.
But film-lovers know that the cavalry always rides in to save the day ... and local officials are hoping to find a little extra help from out of town as well.
The offices of the Downtown Somerset Development Corporation hosted a couple of special visitors on Wednesday: Emily West and Heath Seymour from Elizabethtown, Ky.
Apropos to their town’s on-screen heritage (given the 2005 movie “Elizabethtown,” based on the western Kentucky community), the two were on hand to help share their own experiences renovating a deserted movie theater and turning it into something citizens can be proud of — the same thing Gib Gosser, executive director of the Downtown Somerset Development Corporation (DSDC), hopes can be done with the Virginia Cinema on East Mt. Vernon Street.
“The Virginia Cinema project has really been floundering over the last six or seven years,” said Gosser. “We’ve been trying to get it off the ground and there’s not been much progress.”
Enter West and Seymour. West is the executive director of the State Theater in Elizabethtown — its version of the Virginia Cinema, a grand old movie house that had fallen into disrepair after it closed in the early 1980s — and Seymour is Elizabethtown’s counterpart to Gosser, as executive director at Elizabethtown Hardin County Heritage Council.

February 23, 2012 1 Photo
Unearthing History
“It’s a little curious.”
Martin Shearer, executive director of the Somerset-Pulaski County Development Foundation, was talking about apparent tunnels and walkways beneath the ground where the former Ferguson Shops were located. The development foundation, current owner, is preparing the land for possible industrial sites on property vacated by Crane Company in 2006.
“To rehabilitate the area, we’ve got to find out what’s below,” said Shearer. Both he and Mark Bastin, assistant executive director, admit to be completedly confounded by the unexpected, man-made cavities beneath the surface.

February 23, 2012 2 Photos
Oasis Cafe opens at Eagle Heights
Officials and well-wishers gathered Saturday morning to celebrate the grand opening of the Oasis Cafe with a ribbon cutting. The cafe, located on 115 Jordan’s Way off Ky. 914 and near Eagle Heights Church, is a full service restaurant with a lunch a dinner menu. Cafe will become the “Hope Kitchen” Monday through Saturday between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and will serve free meals to those in need. The Oasis Cafe is located at the same campus at the Oasis Care Center and Thrift Store.

February 19, 2012 1 Photo
Refining Moment
The plant manager of Somerset Refinery, evolving into Continental Refining Company, is one who Pulaski countians would call “one of us.”
Kristopher Gibson, son of Doyle and Deidra Gibson, is a native of Somerset. So is his wife, the former Kristen Flynn. Both Gibson and his wife are graduates of Somerset High School. They have two little Pulaski countians with another on the way.
Kristopher –– everybody calls him Kris –– knows his way around Somerset Refinery. He started working at the refinery as “summer help” in 1994 while still in high school.
Gibson earned his way up through the ranks in the maintenance department; as process operator and then operations manager. In 2006, Gibson left Somerset to work for Marathon Oil in Catlettsburg. He returned to Somerset Refinery in 2008 as plant manager.

February 16, 2012 3 Photos
Howl About That
A growing population of wild hogs has recently been making news in western Pulaski County while coyotes, a more widespread pest, continue to be a problem in many parts of the county.
Wayne Adams, who lives on Pitman Road off Ky. 192 along Pitman Creek, is totally frustrated with the number of coyotes around his place. He believes one of his dogs has been killed by coyotes, and he killed a coyote Sunday night attacking his other dog.
“I’ve got a night light outside and we feed our dogs out there,” said Adams. “Coyotes come into his yard all the time ... we see them.”
Adams said his little Blue Heeler, an Australian cattle dog, disappeared about a month ago and he is convinced coyotes killed him. His other dog, a mixed Blue Heeler and collie, was attacked by a coyote Sunday night shortly after dark.

February 15, 2012 1 Photo
A Sister Among Brothers-In-Arms
Somerset Police Department on Monday officially welcomed the first female officer in nearly two decades into its family.
“Make no bones about it, we take care of each other as brothers, and we’ll take care of our sister too,” said Acting SPD Police Chief Major Doug Nelson during Monday’s Somerset City Council meeting.
Newest SPD officer Courtney Brittle took the Oath of Office during the meeting from Pulaski District Court Judge Jeffrey Scott Lawless with a generous number of family and friends in attendance.

February 15, 2012 2 Photos
A Ray of Sunshine
Katelyn Collins has a smile that can light up a room, and it seems to do just that wherever she goes.
“She’s just so happy,” said Lisa Criswell, a Hopkins Elementary School 3rd grade teacher, who has worked with Katelyn for almost two years. “All the kids kind of feed off (her).”
Katelyn, a third-grade student at Hopkins, has seen her fair share of obstacles. She was born four months early in 2001 to mother Tawana Collins. She was one of a set of twins. The other twin did not survive.
Katelyn was born with several health issues.

February 12, 2012 2 Photos
Newspaper veteran name Publisher of Commonwealth Journal
SOMERSET — A fourth generation newspaperman has been named publisher of the Commonwealth Journal.
Rob McCullough, 50, who started working in a newspaper mailroom when he was 15, officially assumes his duties today. He succeeds Jack McNeely who has accepted a position with the Daily Mountain Eagle in Jasper, Alabama.

February 2, 2012 1 Photo
More Features Headlines