April 2013 - Highlights at a Glance

• Professor Montopoli Announces Scholarship Winner
• Math Students Honored
• 50th Anniversary Memories
• Annual Student Showcase
• I'm Going 2 College Program Honored
• Women's Soccer Team Holds First Ever Tryouts
• Sustainability Fair Held
• Math Professors Visit Campus
• Foundation Receives Record Number Scholarship Applications 

Professor Montopoli Annouces Scholarship Winner

Professor George Montopoli accepting his award at the Teacher of the Year Banquet

Montopoli’s special honor includes a scholarship for an outstanding high school student residing within the college district who intends to enter AWC the next year, or to a continuing AWC student. Professor Montopoli chose Maria Martinez, a high school senior at Gila Ridge, to receive the “George Montopoli Presidential Teacher of the Year Scholarship.”

Maria is interested in going into law enforcement; she is actively involved in karate and track, and is an artist. The funding for this scholarship is provided through the president’s budget.  The scholarship is available to students who have achieved and maintained a GPA of 3.0 or higher and is renewable for three consecutive academic year semesters.   It covers in-state tuition and other fees assuming a 15 credit course load.

The scholarship was announced publicly at the Teacher of the Year banquet at the Yuma Civic Center on April 23.

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Math Students Honored

This year’s winners are Cuong Do (1st place, $250), Zachary Barney (2nd place, $150), and Kale Wicker (3rd place, $100)

 

The 5th Annual AMATYC (American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges) Awards ceremony honored AWC’s top scorers in the national AMATYC math competition. This year’s winners are Cuong Do (1st place, $250), Zachary Barney (2nd place, $150), and Kale Wicker (3rd place, $100).The awards are provided by the AWC Foundations, thanks to the generous support of Mr. Dan Fauth from Chicago Title. While the awards are not scholarships, they have been used by winners in previous years to qualify for scholarships from AWC as well as other institutions.

Additional awards which are funded by individual math professors were also be presented.

For more information, please contact Luis Martinez, associate professor of Mathematics at AWC, at luis.martinez@azwestern.edu, or (928) 344-7656.

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50th Anniversary Memories Collected 

Plan to celebrate the 50th next academic year

If you have memorabilia: Please consider sharing it for display or for reproduction (photography or video) at the main campus of AWC. The switchboard/information desk in the College Community Center (3C) can collect your items, Monday – Thursday, noon – 5:00pm. You may loan or donate your items to the school. Suggested items include: photos, newspaper stories, logo’d merchandise, club or sports material, or items from the earliest days of the college.

If you would like to donate to the college: In celebration of the 50th Anniversary, a list of suggested projects that are seeking donations has been created. “50 Ways to Love Your College” includes everything from park benches to science equipment to bike racks. This one-time donation to the AWC Foundation will help sustain AWC into the next 50 years. For more information on “50 Ways to Love Your College”, please contact Christina.hawkey@azwestern.edu.

Annual Student Showcase

I'm Going 2 College Receives Award

Almost 1000 5th graders have visited the campus during the program that happens each semester

The joint NAU-Yuma and AWC program, I’m Going to College, received an Excellence Spotlight Award from Expect More Arizona.

The program received one of the three awards recognizing education excellence in Yuma and La Paz counties.

The I’m Going to College (IG2C) program is a semi-annual event that targets 5th grade students from Yuma and La Paz counties and is designed to create an awareness of the opportunities of a college education and to instill the idea that going to college is an attainable goal.

Fifth grade classes that participate in the IG2C event receive workbooks that introduce to the benefits of a college education, majors and careers, financial aid, and good study habits to prepare for college. Each activity in the workbook is in a format that can easily be incorporated into the class curriculum.

The event culminates with a field trip to the AWC and NAU-Yuma campus where students spend the day as a college student. The event begins with an orientation, includes three mini-college classes taught by full-time NAU and AWC faculty and closes with an achievement ceremony where each student receives a certificate of completion for their first day of college.

“The field trip to campus is the key component of this event,” said Tara Cobourn, IG2C committee member from NAU. “Students get an idea of what it’s like to be a real college student and are able to take classes from actual college professors.”

The students who participate in IG2C also receive annual postcards congratulating them on the completion of each year in their 5-12 grades and directing them to webpage where they can download a list of things to do each year to prepare for college. Also included is a bilingual Parent Packet that includes information and numerous resources of ways to save and pay for a college education.

“The event generates an excitement that we aim to help them to maintain throughout their remaining school years,” Tara Cobourn said.

Since its inception in Spring 2010, the I’m Going to College program has hosted roughly 1,000 students from 27 different schools in Yuma and La Paz counties.

The Excellence Spotlight Award is part of Expect More Arizona’s Expect More Excellence Tour that highlights ware Arizonans are doing to make program toward world-class education.

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Womens Soccer Hold First Try-outs

First womens soccer announced this month

After the announcement by AWC in late February that women’s soccer would be the first sport added by the college since 1999, the buzz has been non-stop in the Yuma-area soccer community about the addition.  The first thing that AWC Women’s Head Soccer Coach Kenny Dale did after the announcement was hold an organizational meeting at the college, which was attended by over 100 people.  He then held a series of open tryouts over a three-week period, and came away ecstatic at not only the level of overall interest but also the existing number of college-level talent currently in the area.  “With all of the calls & e-mails over the past couple of years that (AWC Athletic Director) Jerry Smith & I have received about women’s soccer, I was certainly optimistic that those people would come forward once we made women’s soccer a reality,” said Dale.  “With that said, though, I never expected this kind of interest or talent to show up right out of the gate.  These nine student-athletes are a symbol for what extra academic opportunities can be had by just following up on your dream.  And they’re just the start of the roster we expect to have this coming fall.”

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Sustainability Fair Held

Students from local schools visit the campus for the annual Sustainability Fair

The Arizona Western College Sustainability Council held its 6th Annual Sustainability Fair on April 11, on the AWC main campus.

The fair featured a display of various hybrid vehicles, a fashion show of recyclable clothing, food vendors, an inflatable whale, music provided by AWC students, and more. The general public and AWC community stopped by to learn various ways to help promote a sustainable environment for future generations.

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Regional Math Professors Visit Campus

 Foundation Recieves Record Amount of Scholarship Applications 

Arizona Western College is proud to announce the AWC Foundation has received a record number of scholarship applications. Compared to the usual 200 to 300 applications per year, the Foundation received over 1,000 applications this year, says Christina Hawkey, Executive Director of the Foundation. Over 50 volunteers are currently reading over 1,000 essays and scoring the applications. Winners will be announced the first week of May.
Hawkey attributes this year’s success to the Foundation staff’s concentrated efforts to increase awareness and assist with the application process. Many students had reported feeling nervous about writing essays required for scholarship applications, so the Foundation sponsored four scholarship workshops facilitated by Dr. Ellen Riek, Professor of English at AWC. Students on satellite campuses had the option of participating via ITN.
“It has also been helpful to have the AWC Foundation Office on the AWC Campus,” Hawkey says. Students were able to stop by and get help from Sonnet Nelson, Scholarship Specialist, who also presented scholarship information in many of the classes.
“It is important that students know what resources are available to them. Students are now aware of the many scholarships the AWC Foundation has available. It is also important that we are willing to help students with the application process and answer any questions they might have. Our job is to help students. Our community has been very generous with their donations to various scholarships, and it is our job to award them to worthy students. What a great year.”
She says if any community or civic organization does not have applicants for their scholarships, the Foundation would be happy to help award their scholarships based on its large applicant pool.
For more information, please contact Hawkey at christina.hawkey@azwestern.edu, or (928) 344-1723.

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