Greetings Alumni

My name is Tamara Fricke, and I am the president of the Springfield Technical Community College Alumni Association. In conjunction with Micaela McDonald, we are reestablishing this association and I am writing to you today to tell you about our goals for this group and to ask for your participation.

STCC alumni are the pillars of the community in western Massachusetts . We are the local business owners, teachers, executive managers, health care providers, technicians and so much more that you interact with on a daily basis. As we begin to reinstitute this organization, one of our primary goals is to provide alumni with the opportunity to network with each other. We are such a diverse and unique group I believe it would be a valuable resource for us to be able to reach out to one another.

In addition to this, we are looking for your input about other activities that you would like to see the Alumni Association undertake. Is there a place that you would like to visit with your fellow alumni? Would you like to give something back to STCC? What activities would you like to see us host? This is your organization. Help us help you get the most out of it!

To celebrate the school's 40th anniversary this year, the Alumni Association will be hosting a dinner in April. Invitations will be sent out in March and I hope you will be able to join us. I look forward to meeting and speaking with you all in the coming months.

Yours truly,

Tamara Fricke
Class of 2003

Alumni Spotlight : Homeless at 14

I was homeless at age 14 after a falling out with my mother. Thanks to family and friends, I somehow stayed on track, and at 16 years old I obtained my first apartment. I went to school every day because I had an interest in learning. I had a part-time job after school that helped me to support my everyday life. It was hard, but I graduated from high school with no one in the audience to cheer for me, but that did not deter me from feeling proud of what I had accomplished.

After high school I began working as a C.N.A. I got married at 21, had my first child, and soon after found out about how to live day-to-day as a victim of domestic violence. For eight years I lived this life before I could muster the courage to leave. When I finally did leave him, I had 3 children and myself to care for and support which is what I did for the next couple of years. I began to heal from the violence that was in my life but when there was an explosion in a local factory and my brother died I couldn't hold it together any longer. At this point I began to self-medicate with alcohol and drugs. This became a habit I could not afford, so I began to write bad checks and before I knew what happened, I was behind bars doing time for larceny, first in Ludlow and then Framingham .

After I did my time, I got out of Ludlow to find that every material possession I ever accumulated over 18 years was gone! I had nothing and nowhere to go, so I went to live with my younger brother. Soon after I moved in my brother decided that he was going to get back together with his ex so I had nowhere left to go. I was lost.

The entire time that I spent in prison my aunt watched over my children, when I got out of jail they would visit and we would all go to church on Sundays, I decided to give my life to God and that very day I left my brother's house and headed for the only women's shelter in Springfield I became homeless once again.

I found out quickly that they had programs for victims of domestic abuse but I wasn't in that place anymore. They had programs for women with children, but my aunt had provided a home for them and I did not want them to have to leave to come to a shelter, not knowing what they would have to endure. I was so scared, I had always watched programs on television about homeless people and I knew I was going to die, emotionally anyway. My first night at the women's shelter on Worthington St. will stay with me forever. I slept on the floor by the front door on what they call a floor mat. I will never forget how hard it was for me to close my eyes at night. Every night I clung to a Bible someone gave me and read it when I could not bear the smell of the lady lying next to me. When I got out of Framingham and realized I lost everything, I told myself, I still have a mind and I wanted to learn, so I signed up for classes at STCC.

After leaving the women's shelter and heading to Bliss Street for breakfast I would walk up the hill to campus. I had a part-time job as a work-study student, and worked in the Library sharpening my skills. I received my degree in June 2003. I was determined not to give up.

If it was not for the women's shelter providing a place for me to lay my head, I don't know where I would be. I wish there were more programs to help women who are homeless due to circumstances beyond their control. I knew from that first night I had to change my circumstances. I had to do whatever it took to get my life back.

I did obtain a nasty eye infection from the time I spent in the shelter which caused me to stop in City Opticians on Main Street for treatment, where I met my now current husband. Today he remains my best friend and a true gift from God! I now have a great job in Holyoke working for a program geared towards helping women coming out of jail get their lives back on track called Faith Unlimited Institute Inc. where I am an Outreach Coordinator for the Hampden County Sheriff's Departments After Incarceration Support Systems. Each day I make a difference in someone's life by giving them the assistance and the words of encouragement that they need to overcome their situations just as the shelter did for me.

I sit on the board of directors with Bill Miller as a member for the Friends of the Homeless here in Springfield. I am an active alumni member for STCC and I am proud to have been asked to take part in such a rewarding position representing an institution where the staff and its facilitators were on hand to offer whatever help I may have needed when I was beginning my homeless journey as well as assistance in my education and career decisions.

I want to encourage each of you not involved with the Alumni Association to come to a meeting and see what difference you can make, after going on and succeeding after graduation . I knew I wanted to change and God heard my prayers; he has blessed my husband and I; we just bought our first home in September of 2006. The Bible says in all things we should give thanks and I thank him for my homeless experience, I thank him for the opportunities and doors that were opened to me at STCC. I have a new life, a new respect for homeless people, and every opportunity I get, even through the college that supported me, I want to make a difference and if I could share a word of encouragement with someone, one simple phrase comes to mind: "Don't give up"…….

STCC Student Creates Sudoku Puzzle

Written by Setta McCabe

Christopher Walker-Ray of Sunderland, a Computer Science Transfer student at Springfield Technical Community College, has created a computer program to solve the Sodoku puzzles that are sweeping the country. The Sudoku puzzle squares appearing in books, newspapers and now websites devoted to the game have made popular crossword puzzles. No math skills are required, and the challenging 200-year old Japanese game has become an intriguing and apparently addicting pastime.

Even an expert player can need an hour to complete one of the puzzle grids, says Antonio Silvestri, Computer Science Transfer professor at STCC, who assigned a Sudoku solution as a project in his Data Structures class after seeing a news report about the game. "People around the world are occupying their time toward a solution of these puzzles," he said. "The rules for Sudoku are quite simple. Each puzzle square starts partially filled in; you complete the 9X9 grid so that every row, every column, and every 3X3 box contains the digits 1 through 9 with no repeats."

Applying techniques discussed in class, Walker-Ray wrote an "applet" to solve Sudoku puzzles. It can be accessed at http://www.chriswr.com/Sudoku/Sudoku.html. Silvestri says, "People who are frustrated with the solution of a game will certainly appreciate Chris's work. I've seen Sudoku solutions on websites but Chris's Sudoku Solver is simpler and easier to use."

Christopher Walker-Ray's Sudoku Solver -
http://www.chriswr.com/Sudoku/Sudoku.html

An Award-Winning Career Began At STCC

Written by Micaela McDonald

Lawrence Roberge grew up in Ludlow, MA about 15 minutes away from Springfield . After high school Lawrence knew that he wanted to go on to college but the question was where? Lawrence decided to begin his college experience right here at Springfield Technical Community College . With good academic standing Lawrence graduated from STCC in 1981 with an Associates degree in Liberal Arts & Science.

From STCC Lawrence transferred to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he received two additional degrees; a bachelor's degree in Zoology with a minor in Chemistry and a bachelor's degree in Psychology. This was a very difficult and time consuming task. Lawrence attended classes at UMass 12 months each year never missing a summer or winter session and finally reaching the 210 credits that he needed to fulfill his requirements. Lawrence realized that he had an extreme passion to learn new things and while taking classes towards his bachelors' degrees he somehow fit in graduate courses as well.

After graduation from UMass Amherst he went to the University of Mass Medical School in Worcester MA where he received his graduate degree in Biomedical Science in 1989 with a concentration in Physiology-but this also included an great amount of coursework in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, and Microbiology. After this he went after a Biotechnology Studies Certificate from Becker College and he graduated in 1994.

From 1989-1993 Lawrence worked at NERAC- formerly affiliated with NASA as a technology specialist advising corporations across the US, Canada, and Europe on new product development, business, patents, and basic research for the Biotechnology, Medical Device, and Pharmaceutical companies. He consulted and assisted many companies in the development of new drugs, diagnostics, and medical devices as well as advising them on evolving technologies, new patents, and new business opportunities.

From 1987 until 2000 he did adjunct teaching at such colleges as Bay Path College, Assumption, Anna Maria, Quinsigamond Community College, Elms College, Lesley University, and Holyoke Community College.

He also taught at the Springfield High School of Science & Technology (SCITECH) where he designed and taught one of the few year long Biotechnology courses in the entire state along with teaching Biology, Chemistry, and Human Biology courses there. He received the Celebrated Teacher award from the Springfield Chamber of Commerce in 2000 for my work at SCITECH.

From 2000 until 2002, Lawrence taught biology courses full time at SUNY-Orange (aka Orange County Community College, Middletown, NY). He worked on the campus-wide committee developing their distance learning program (online courses) and was the Biology course coordinator for theBiology Dept. in 2001. Lawrence also did research on using video microscopy to enhance biology classroom teaching techniques.

In 2003 Lawrence joined Goodwin College and set up the science dept program for their newly approved nursing program. He designed the labs, curriculum, and taught the courses for Chemistry, Anatomy & Physiology, Human Biology, and Microbiology. He had many challenges at Goodwin seeing that had no labs in place when he started! Eventually, he had set up all of the Anatomy & Physiology labs, Chemistry labs, and Microbiology lab experiments as well as integrated multimedia and computer techniques intoboth classroom-based and lab-based instruction.

To add to his never ending list of credits he has integrated new video and media technology into all of his classroom and lab presentations, including FLASH, Molecular Modeling, PowerPoint, Simulated Dissections and Animations. In March 2005, he was awarded the INNOVATIVE EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING, LEARNING, & TECHNOLOGY AWARD from the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (Florida Community College ,Jacksonville ,FL) for his work using Microsoft Producer in classroom based lectures. During his presentations in Florida on the topic, Microsoft had representatives present who were impressed with his work.

Lawrence is presently teaching at Becker College as well as teaching online biology courses for Florida Community College (Jacksonville , FL). After one year of courses and projects, he will receive his Online Instructors Certificate from Florida Community college Online in August 2006.

To Lawrence the CASE/Carnegie Foundation PROFESSOR OF THE YEAR award was quite a surprise but to the rest of us it was there was know doubt that he fit this critereia. Lawrence has always strived to build studentknowledge of the sciences to help them understand the world around them as well as enhance their knowledge of science to succeed in their careers and their academic aspirations.

Here at STCC we would like to take the time to Congratulate Lawrence on all of his wonderful accomplishments and his innovating projects!

STCC Student Writes Java Program

Written by Setta McCabe

A second Computer Science Transfer student, Ian Ricci of Springfield , took on the assignment of rewriting a program called RDNSLOGS. Originally developed by Silvestri, the program allows website operators to identify the visitors to their site by webserver address. The windows program reads log files generated by web servers and produces a file of DNS Reverse Lookups, says Silvestri. Essentially, it translates the numeric IP addresses in Window log files to the corresponding host names. This way a webmaster can generate a report showing information on visitors by country of origin, type of platform (Mac or PC etc.) and domain name. More information can be found on Silvestri's faculty website http://faculty.stcc.edu/silvestri/rdnslogs.

Silvestri said that since writing the program two years ago, "I've received many requests from around the world for a similar program that will run under other operating systems." He has regularly assigned the problem to his Java and Data Structures classes, but it was Ricci who finally created the solution.

"Ian decided that a port of RDNSLOGS written in Java would fulfill the requirement that the program run universally on every operating system, from PC to Macintosh, to Solaris to Linux. The Java computer language was designed to allow a program to be run on any computer that contains a Java Virtual Machine, which all computers now do. You may download Ian's Java system from his website at http://cs.stcc.edu/~ricci/rdnslogs".

Ricci, a graduate of Cathedral High School, is transferring to the University of Massachusetts Computer Science department starting this month. He'd like to continue on to earn a Ph.D. and eventually own "a big corporation along the lines of Microsoft." He's been an independent contractor, and already owns a small company, Remagine.net. The two-year-old company is doing pretty well, he reports in network design website design, graphic design and marketing. "Going to STCC is awesome, he says. The faculty is great, and Tony Silvestri is a cool guy and a really good teacher."

Walker-Ray, a graduate of Amherst High School, has found STCC and the Computer Science Transfer program "very positive experience. The staff is very encouraging; they'll spend time with you to be sure you understand." His goal is "to have options, to be able to work anywhere, to be invaluable." He'd like to "get into software development, or animation, web page structure, video games, and database stuff." He'll be transferring in the fall to the University of Massachusetts in Computer Science.

Download RDNSLOGS-
http://cs.stcc.edu/~ricci/rdnslogs

Lucille Hood

Written by Micaela McDonald

There is someone in everyone's life that helps to make the path traveled a little bit easier, who supports, guides and inspires every aspect of one's life, and whom you will look back upon and say, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for one of our graduates, that person was Lucille B. Hood.

David Apts, an STCC PTA alum, contacted us to honor the professor who had this kind of impact on his life. He stated, If it were not for Lucille, I would not be where I am at in my life today, and I wouldn't have had all the privileges, opportunities, or had the ability to live this adventure I've been able to live as a physical therapist. Lucille saw something in me back in 1970 that I did not even see in myself, nor did anyone else. She loved physical therapy; she loved teaching; she was right where she needed to be in life and had a profound impact upon multiple students.

Lucille B. Hood was the director of the Physical Therapy Assistant program at STCC for many years and influenced many students and staff. Many stayed in touch with Lucille after they had left STCC because for them, she was their eternal mentor. Lucille passed away a few years ago and in late August of 2005 David contacted us to establish a scholarship in his mentor's name.

In the next few months the STCC Foundation and David worked together to notify all of the PTA alumni to tell them about the plan to institute a scholarship in Lucille's name. A letter explaining David's mission was distributed through a mass mailing to all of the PTA alumni. And in the weeks that followed, alumni, students, faculty and staff got together at night to place calls to the PTA alums and gather their support. Talking one on one with people who were influenced and guided by Lucille has been a wonderful tribute to her hard work and dedication.

Three months after this campaign was initiated, we have raised $4,405.00 from our PTA alumni. Recently we were elected to receive a Federal Title III grant that matches dollar for dollar on all money raised for scholarships established in nursing and allied health. So, with this match there is $8,810.00 in the Lucille B Hood scholarship fund thus far and the money is still coming in! We want to thank David for his time and effort and his continuous support of this wonderful institution.

If you want to honor someone who has influenced your life, or establish a scholarship in your own name, please contact:

Micaela McDonald

Alumni Relations Coordinator
Springfield Technical Community College
One Armory Square
Springfield, MA 01102-9000
Phone: 413-755-4490
MaMcDonald@stcc.edu

STCC Admissions Agreement

Written by Micaela McDonald

For years Springfield Technical Community College has had a commonwealth transfer compact with four year state colleges and universities in Massachusetts. This compact was designed to make sure that students receive proper recognition for the academic progress they earned at a community college in the process of transferring to a four year institution. This compact states that an associate of arts or an associate of science degree will be transferred as a unit and will be applied toward a bachelor's degree at the succeeding institution.

Another benefit that STCC put into place to help their students continue their educations is the joint admission program. This is an agreement between Springfield Technical Community College and other Massachusetts public colleges and universities that guarantees students in the program admission to Massachusetts public institution of their choice. The only stipulations of this agreement are that a student must graduate from STCC with an approved major and a cumulative grade point average of 2.5 or higher. One-third of the student's tuition will be waived at the four year institutions if the student has a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher at STCC at graduation. Participants in this program are required to complete the intent to enroll form by a specific deadline date in order to confirm their admission status.

In the fall of 2005 STCC formed a joint admission agreement with two local private institutions American International College (AIC) and Western New England College (WNEC). The students who would like to take advantage of this opportunity must sign up for the program prior to completing a maximum of 60 semester hours or have the option to sign up during the enrollment process. The student must maintain a 2.3 grade point average at STCC to be accepted at WNEC and a 2.0 grade point average to be admitted into AIC. Students who maintain a grade point average between 3.0 and 3.5 will be awarded a $5,000 scholarship and those who maintain a grade point average above 3.5 will receive a $7,000 scholarship.

If you would like to look into these opportunities further please contact Pam White at 413-755-4452 in the Cooperative Education/Career Services/Transfer Affairs Office.

My Name is Daniel

Springfield Technical Community College
Alumni Office
One Armory Square
Springfield, Massachusetts 01102-9000

My name is Daniel and I graduated STCC in May '04 with an A.S. in Business Administration. This was a wonderful opportunity for me. You see, I graduated Agawam High School in '99, but after which I went to prison for two years for some serious felonies that I committed when I was seventeen. I had no SAT's, a poor high school record, and no money. STCC helped me through a Phi Theta Kappa scholarship to earn my degree.

After graduation, I was working as a server at Max's Tavern, and I went on to WNEC. I earned a B.A. in mathematics in May '07 while supporting my wife of 2 years now and our 11-month-old baby. I have recently received a substantial offer from MassMutual where I will be starting in July as an actuarial analyst training to become an enrolled actuary.

I want to thank STCC for being a keystone in my professional development. My education there was a stepping block for me to achieve greater things in life.

Sincerely,
Daniel

STCC NAMES FORMER GRADUATE AS PRESIDENT OF NEWLY IMPLEMENTED ALUMNI BOARD

October 10, 2007
Contact: Ric Serrenho
1-860-925-6065 ext. 113

Springfield , MA - Ric Serrenho, COO and Vice President of the Windsor, Connecticut based digital media firm Visual Concepts, has been named President of the Alumni Board at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC). A former STCC graduate and longtime STCC supporter and volunteer, Serrenho will serve as a leader in managing the board’s goal of fostering community awareness of the contributions that STCC graduates have made to the area.

The Alumni Board, a newly-developed committee will work to promote STCC's continued educational excellence through the building of financial resources, as well as staying active in state and local government on behalf of the college.

"STCC turned my life around, and gave me direction when I needed it most. I was an unmotivated student in high school, with grades that would have made it difficult for me to get into a traditional 4 year school. Attending STCC opened up the world of higher education to me, and the positive experience I had there is something for which I will be eternally grateful. My involvement with STCC today in helping to enrich the continuance of excellence at the school has been a completely rewarding experience for me. I, along with the college, encourage and implore other STCC graduates to reach out and find out more about how they might be able to help the school in some way. I feel privileged to have been awarded the opportunity to give back in such a fundamental way through my role with the Alumni Board," says Serrenho.

Ric Serrenho graduated in 1980 from Springfield Technical Community College with a degree in Tele-communications and later attended New York University. He began his career at then WHYN-TV Channel 40 in 1974 as a news-photographer.  Later, he moved to WWLP and WTNH in New Haven. An Emmy winning Producer/Director, Ric's visionary work has established his company Visual Concepts, as a leader in digital media.  Ric co-founded the company in 1986 and continues to work closely with the staff to push the creative envelope.  He especially enjoys working with non-profit organizations as his knack for creativity combined with his desire to help them to achieve their goals makes for very rewarding work. Ric oversees the entire Visual Concepts multi-media department. Visual Concepts services include Web consulting and design, video production and event planning and staging.