Saturday, June 14, 2003

            In 1983, Barton County Community College established the Distinguished Instructor Award to honor academic excellence by its faculty. A total of nineteen instructors have received the recognition, including two this past May, Jeana Brack, teacher of business computer management, and Michael Cox, the first associate faculty member for the honor. He teaches history and leadership at BCCC’s Ft. Riley outreach.

      “As in most educational environments, we work as teams,” Cox said on his receiving of the award. “This is a team effort, not my individual accomplishment. As team captain, I get to go get the trophy.”

            Brack concurred. The greater honor belonged to her peers.

            “I work among a group of hard-working and incredibly talented people. To be nominated by them for this award is invigorating.”

            Prior to 1999, some considered being nominated for the award an ordeal not worth the time. The paperwork nominees were required to fill out, and the personal information needing to be gathered, was too time-consuming of a problem.

            “Some of the faculty found the previous nomination process cumbersome and impersonal and they expressed a desire to see it simplified,” said Dr. Karen Clos, Dean of Learning and Instruction at Barton. “So rather than have a committee review a mountain of paper applications from nominees, we schedule semi-formal interviews that encourage the faculty to meet the selection committee and personally elaborate on their strengths and their love for teaching and learning.  That’s something you don’t see with a pile of paperwork.”        

Nominees are asked to focus on three things: 1). what they have done to improve teaching and learning at the college 2). what they have contributed to the community  3). what they have contributed to the college

            “I really do believe that everyone can learn, and everyone should have the opportunity to learn,” said Jane Howard, BCCC Director of Business Management & Leadership, and 2001 award recipient. She acknowledges being overwhelmed; but, like Brack and Cox, it is not the focus for what they do.

            “A lot of teachers who receive awards are not wanting to sit down and write about what we do. We just look at it as part of our job,” she said. “We see it as part of what we do for our students.”

            The students are the focal point, as Rick Bealer, Barton Psychology instructor and 1991 award recipient, agrees in explaining his teaching philosophy.

            “As trite and as corny as it sounds, people don’t care what you know until they know that you care,” he said. “This has to be foundational to what I do. I care about students as much as they will allow.”

            “Good teachers actively look for ways to motivate a student to learn,” said Clos, a teacher herself. “I’ve seen our faculty at Barton do this a thousand times over. What our faculty does to facilitate the learning in students is magic. It really is. They set a fire in the heart of the learner to make them want to learn more. It’s a wonderful way to earn a living.”

            “All phenomena – as matter or motion – can be explained as manifestations of force.”

            Such was the theory being proposed across the BCCC campus, in promotions for “Dynamism”, the latest effort from Barton’s Dance Theatre, Friday and Saturday nights. Initial impressions in the Fine Arts Auditorium, were of a still impressiveness. Something unique to the college and engaging to Great Bend was about to happen.

            “I hope it’s as bang-up good as it was last year,” said Gina Munz, patron of artistic endeavors in Great Bend.

            A subtle douse of the lights and a raise of the curtains sounded the music for the show to begin. The first two numbers, choreographed to songs by 3 Doors Down and Missy Elliot, established these young ladies’ talent to illustrate the music through unison formations and individual moments at center stage was clear. And yet, this was Barton Dance Theatre - as the third piece showed.

            “Between the Lines”, an interpretative piece featuring actor and dancer, drew the audience in with its introspective display of an individual eager to be part of the group, only to lose himself once fully absorbed into something appealing from the outside, but something quite else from within.

            Cheyla Clawson, Barton dance instructor, performed it with Matt Mazouch, Barton drama student the first night, and husband Jeremy, the second.

            “The monologue was from a play my husband and I did,” said Clawson. “A group looks like they’re having a really good time. What they’re doing looks like so much fun. But then you lose yourself. You act like someone you’re not.”

With the audience drawn into the performances on stage, Clawson brings the show down from the stage and into the audience.

            “So why not touch the audience? I like blending dance and theatre,” said Clawson in explaining “Dear Me,” the first piece coming out of intermission.

Leanne Cooper, Friday night, and Jessica Crosby, Saturday, danced around and over a chair placed downstage. Halfway through the song an ensemble cast, embedded within the audience, joined in, transforming the theater seats into the theater stage.

“It was the easiest piece to remember, but the hardest to perform; because they had to stay in character with a member of the audience.”

            The evening’s finale, inspired from the soundtrack of “Gangs of New York” - appropriately entitled “…Life” - told tales of joy and heartache at the turn-of-the-century.

            Initially, it was viewed as involving six couples. When thirty kids came to audition, Clawson knew the roles would need to be more.

            “It’s always a work in progress for me,” she said. “They are students. This is where they get their training. It’s important to incorporate a lot of people.”

            One who carries a measure of experience herself, studying mime and acting under Nick Johnson, who studied under world-renowned Marcelle Marceau, her personal stamp of expertise placed on the evening, mixed with the opportunities granted her students, was not lost on the audience.

            “It’s great for the kids. It’s a form of expression the kids are enjoying, and the audience is enjoying,” said Bob Feldt of Great Bend. “This is wonderful to have this art form here in Great Bend.”

            “It was perfection,” adds Gina Munz, pleased her expectations were not only met, but also exceeded. “It was organic in spirit, tremendous in feeling and absolutely gorgeous in movement.”

            A pair of wise old adages state: “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” and “If you wish to find a good woman, express a desire to cook.” How applicable such proverbs are to people of today is granted the opportunity to be tested when “Thai Cooking 101” arrives at the Barton County Community College campus July 15^th.

            Any individual serious about adding to their current kitchen skills, or hoping to develop a measure of common sense around the kitchen, is welcome to attend. No prerequisite is required for taking the class.

            “It’s very simple,” said Choosri Withrow, instructor of the course.

            She came to America in 1969, from her native Thailand, to follow her daughter who was studying communications at the University of Missouri.

            “Thom”, the name given her by childhood schoolmates, decided to also follow her daughter’s lead into higher education, attaining a degree in restaurant management for herself. It served as the complementary next step to the knowledge of Thai cooking she learned from her mother.

            The class she will be teaching at Barton will feature a hands-on approach to becoming acquainted with traditional Thai dishes. One such offering, curry, is known in a different way to the Thai people.

            “Curry is very common in the big cities,” she explained. “If you have a chance to go to a restaurant in America (that serves it), it would be very different than what you would find in Thailand. Some of them use different vegetables. Some of the cooks cook it too sweet. It depends on the curry. It’s a little bit sweet, but not like they cook it in America.”

            The dish consists of either beef, chicken, pork or seafood cooked in fresh coconut milk – as is done in Thailand – and then mixed in chili paste (a special Thai spice) that is either red, green or yellow – depending upon the type of peppers used.

            “Some of our dishes look alike,” Withrow adds, referencing the similarities between Thai food and Chinese food. “We make sweet and sour dishes like the Chinese, but we put more vegetables in.”

            Pot Pie is a very popular dish in Thailand that the Thai people call stir-fried noodles. They use rice noodles about the size of chicken noodles, add sweet and sour spices, ground peanut and some spring onion for a tasty meal all enjoy.

            The class begins July 15^th and runs every Tuesday evening through August 12^th. What a student can expect to get from the class when it is all done boils down to three simple things.

            “I would like them to learn how to cook real Thai food,” Withrow said. “They can also learn about the different culture. How we eat rice in Thailand is different from the rice bought at the store. And, I want them to have fun. They can have fun with me in class.  Lots of fun.”

            For more information on “Thai Cooking 101” call the college at 620-792-9266 or 1-800-732-6842.

April 26, 2002

 

            A new form of government officially took its place on history’s stage as George Washington was sworn in today as the first chief executive, the “president” of these fledging “united states”.

            Washington, from the Virginia House of Burgesses, served as a leading opposition voice to British oppression.  His military expertise and interest in the country’s expansion westward made him the overwhelming natural choice to lead the thirteen colonies into its rule as a democratic nation.  His reticence and humility made him the ideal antithesis to the monarchy of King George as public life never presented itself as an ambition – beyond service to his country.

            “I was summoned by my country,” he stated, “whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat I had chosen … a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me.”

            This dedication to a cause greater than himself finds precedent in two previous calls to duty: the call to oppose British restrictions, and the call to form a constitution by which the nation could be led.  Both instances drew him away from his Mt. Vernon home in which he incessantly longed for retirement.

            Washington took his oath of office in New York City.  The Chancellor of New York, Robert R. Livingston administered it from the balcony of the Senate Chamber at Federal Hall on Wall Street.  A swelling crowd of historically-conscious people was there in attendance as witnesses to this auspicious event.

            The inaugural address to the nation followed, a speech given before a joint session of the Congress of the United States.

            Washington’s patriotism to the country already attested, he proceeded to use much of his words in acknowledgment to his deep personal religious faith.

            “It would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe,” he said.

            Washington’s conviction of divine guidance in ordering the events that broke America from the rule of Great Britain was made clear through his call for the people to acknowledge the same.  Absent the intervention of the hand from on high, the ties to the mother country would still bind and struggle, he said.

            This unity of country established, Washington went forward to request that unity amongst new government officials to remain equally as strong. He rebuked the notion of breaking into rival factions that would vie for power.

            “I behold the surest pledges,” he stated, “that as on one, side, no local prejudices, or attachments; no separate views, nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests.”

            The general concluded his address with a rather unexpected, though believable, request to the House of Representatives. He politely refused any monetary profit for his new post. The expectations from the role of chief executive were that it be limited to “such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.”

           

The sense derived amongst the crowd in the room represented what many speculate as the prevailing mood of the country. The totalitarian regime of King George officially buried, the democratic servitude of President George Washington, with the republic of the United States of America, could now begin. A servant of God, rather than a god himself, Washington clearly views this new role with the honor of a servant, an essential facet to leadership where America assumes its part in “the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of government … finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”