A-B Tech Nursing Chair Named One of State's 'Great 100 Nurses' for 2002

"It's a great honor to be recognized by your peers. Every nurse is a Great 100 nurse because we all make a difference." Brenda Causey is the only educator in WNC to receive this honor; one of only two in state from a community college.

Nursing Chairperson Brenda Causey was recently named one of the state's 'Great 100 Nurses' for 2002. According to Great 100 Inc. Selection Committee Member Susie Garland, Causey is the only educator chosen from Western North Carolina and very few educators are chosen to receive this honor statewide by the Great 100, Inc., a grassroots peer recognition organization honoring registered nursing professionals in North Carolina. A large majority of the 100 nurses chosen for the annual award work in hospitals, clinics and medical centers.

"The way it's set up, it's difficult for someone who's not a staff nurse to get it," explained Garland, also nursing programs coordinator for Mission St. Joseph's Health System

"The way it's set up, it's difficult for someone who's not a staff nurse to get it," explained Garland, also nursing programs coordinator for Mission St. Joseph's Health System

Causey said she was surprised and "very honored" to be chosen and also to be the first from A-B Tech to receive the award. She is also one of only two educators from a community college to be named to this year's list.

"It is a great honor to be recognized by your peers," Causey said, adding, "Every nurse is a Great 100 nurse because we all make a difference."

The 28-year A-B Tech veteran said she was chosen in a blind selection process because of the strengths of A-B Tech's nursing program as well as the sheer size. "With over 200 or so students, we are the largest program in Western North Carolina and one of the largest associate degree nursing programs in the state. This fall we will begin the evening/weekend schedule for those individuals who work during the day but want to obtain an associate degree in nursing."

As chair of the nursing department, Causey is highly active, serving on several A-B Tech and statewide committees, including: American Nurses Association, North Carolina Nurse Association, North Carolina Association of Nursing Students, Western North Carolina Health Care Network: Health Professional Shortages, Association of Community Colleges ADN Directors, ADN Council, Association of PN Educators and North Carolina Nursing Articulation Employment Task Force Committee. Return to top

A-B Tech and Biltmore Estate Partner To Offer Culinary Internships

The free five-day culinary internship program, in its first year at the Biltmore Estate, offers teachers, many of whom admit to having little or no kitchen or hospitality experience, the opportunity for hands-on learning they can use in their classrooms. (l to r) Culinary interns Ophelia Mitchell, Carol Lyerly, and Judith Simon prepare pastries at the demo kitchen in the Biltmore winery.

A cooking teacher from Edenton may find herself in a private dining room of the Biltmore Estate - not as a chef or server - but as a guest, sampling the exquisite tuna tartar with garden microgreens, ginger vinaigrette and cucumber relish. A family science teacher from Sylva may be seated next to her, enjoying the estate-raised beef tenderloin with white truffle essence, estate asparagus and estate Merlot sauce.

How? Through an educational partnership, created by A-B Tech's Hospitality Education Department, North Carolina's high school consumer and family science teachers are chosen for culinary internships at Biltmore, where they spend a week learning baking, meat and seafood fabrication, plate composition and garnishing, pastry and confection work. They also tour the Estate, sample the divinities, dine in one of the four restaurants on the Estate and bring lifetime experiences back to their students.

"I'm taking everything I have learned here back to the classroom and encouraging my students to go into this field," explains Sandy Cornett, a culinary arts teacher at South Granville High in Durham, while helping to prepare lunch in the kitchen of Biltmore's Bistro restaurant.

The free five-day culinary internship program, in its first year at the Biltmore Estate, offers teachers, many of whom admit to having little or no kitchen or hospitality experience, the opportunity for hands-on learning they can use in their classrooms. Each teacher is awarded 2.5 continuing education units from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. They also receives free passes to tour the Estate, a signed copy of the Biltmore Estate Cookbook, a certificate and a notebook full of teaching activities for their classes.

The teacher's evaluations are beaming with praise and there is a growing waiting list. "I take advantage of every development activity offered to me, but by far this was the best experience I have had in all of my years of teaching," smiles Carole Lyerly, a 26-year veteran from Cabarrus Central. "I hope they offer a second level of training next year."

Designed by A-B Tech instructors in conjunction with Biltmore chefs, the internships give teachers "credibility, confidence, experience and a passion that can translate into students eager to continue their education or enter the hospitality industry with a more realistic idea of what is expected of them," explains Gary Schwartz , A-B Tech Hospitality Education Instructor and President of the North Carolina Chapter of the Culinary Hospitality Tourism Education Alliance (CHTEA), which sponsors the program.

The partnership between A-B Tech, CHTEA and Biltmore is a pioneering" response to meet the educational training needs of North Carolina's consumer and family science teachers, Schwartz said, adding Biltmore is a "super" partner. "Educators have long acknowledged the win-win nature of industry partnerships, but never has a hospitality company showed such a reciprocal level of commitment to education as the Biltmore," said Schwartz. "From the vice presidents to the dishwashers, every member of the Biltmore family treated the interns with the level of hospitality and respect offered to dignitaries. They treated them like royalty."

The week-long training session began with a lesson on kitchen sanitation, safety and knife skills. The lesson plan followed a notebook, created by Hospitality Education Secretary Lee Sokol, which detailed rotations, recipes and plating specifications from all the kitchens, a kitchen glossary, measurement equivalents, rules for safety and sanitation and even a downtown dining guide.

In the days to follow, the teachers spent mornings learning while working in each of the Estate's four kitchens, preparing food for that day's menu at The Bistro, the Stables Café, Deerpark, and The Inn at Biltmore. The group was treated to a three-course lunch each day in the Bistro restaurant at the winery. During lunch, members of the estate made presentations on the different opportunities offered for students on the estate. Tom Ruff, Vice President of Hospitality Operations, personally invited all of the teachers to come back with their students. Afternoons were filled with different workshop on kitchen skills, and supplemented with handouts and recipes that could be translated directly into lesson plans. Eight of the 12 interns from out of town spent the nights at A-B Tech's Mountain Tech Lodge. Graduation day included a four-course lunch in a private champagne cellar of the winery.

At every kitchen, the interns were greeted by the chefs, and given practical lessons in preparing the menu for that restaurant. According to Schwartz, the teachers were impressed with the way their activities were so well organized on the work sites and the great attitude of the chefs and cooks.

CHTEA is a grassroots teachers' organization composed of high school, community college and university educators and cooperating stakeholders who believe in the support of culinary, hospitality and tourism education. The mission of CHTEA is to advocate culinary, hospitality and tourism education programs at all levels - high school, community college, four-year college and graduate - as well as for continuing education for industry professionals. Return to top

Madalyn Rogers Is First LRC Solo Exhibitor

Madalyn Rogers' drawing, 'Sarah', depicts her grandmother, one of the first women enlisted in the Women's Army Corps during WW II.

One of this country's first female soldiers and her letters home during WWII is one of the subjects of an art exhibit hosted by A-B Tech's Learning Resource Center through October 25.

Entitled 'Recent Works,' the exhibit features the drawings of local artist and A-B Tech Technical Services library assistant, Madalyn Rogers, whose grandmother was one of the first 50,000 women enlisted in the Women's Army Corps in World War II. The piece depicting Rogers' grandmother - 'Sarah' (seen on the right) - and several others tell the story of a woman who gave up her child to serve in the military and suffered greatly during the war, later losing her life to mental illness.

"These drawings have many meanings to me. They are my struggle to celebrate my grandmother's life, comprehend her sufferings and remember her significance to me and God," said Rogers. "I am proud of her as an individual and also as a member of the brave group of men and women who served this country during that terrible time."

A lifelong resident of Buncombe County, Rogers studied art with an emphasis in drawing at the University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNCA), graduating magna cum laude in 2001 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. The 16 pieces in the exhibit consist of drawings, acrylic wash or collage; pieces are available for purchase.

According to Rogers, she chose drawing because it's the "basic root" of art. "The action of drawing is in my opinion the most direct, basic form of creating art," Rogers said. "I can't distance myself from the paper with a paintbrush or other tool; my hands interact intimately with the surface of the work."

The immediacy of drawing also appeals to Rogers, who said it compels her to create. "I make a mark and there it is. I have to deal with it, whether to work over, around, or with it, or even erase it."

Her upcoming exhibit explores her Christian faith in the face of human suffering and examines the conundrum of creating a three-dimensional environment on a two-dimensional surface. "Any art I make by its very nature is an expression and celebration of my faith in God," Rogers said, adding, "He (God) has put eternity in their hearts. When I make artwork, I believe I am declaring and celebrating that I am eternally valuable to the God who created me."

Rogers received several art awards for her work while attending UNCA, including the Peter Krivatsy Scholarship and Second Place in the 1996 North Carolina Juried Arts Exhibition at UNC-Greensboro. Twice she received Honorable Mention: Best Drawing in Show at the UNC-A Annual Student Juried Arts Exhibition, for "Untitled" in 2000 and a triptych comprised of "Baby Blue," "Carl: Death of an Anniversary," and "Vermilion" in 2001. As an Undergraduate Research Scholar, Rogers published a paper entitled Remember Lazarus: Celebrating the Importance of Human Life Through the Creation of Artwork that Memorializes "Forgotten" People in the 2001 UNCA Journal of Undergraduate Research. The paper chronicles her experience exploring the meaning and purpose behind her visual work.

She has exhibited her artwork at the University Gallery on the UNCA campus, the Alla Prima Gallery in downtown Asheville, and the Grace Community Church Gallery in Arden. "Untitled" was also exhibited for several months in Raleigh at the main offices of the University of North Carolina system. Return to top

What a Tangled Web

Jason Penland, a dual-enrolled student at A-B Tech and Madison High School, was recently mentioned in the Madison News-Sentinel. He was pictured with his senior project, a 6-foot-tall, 75-pound iron sculpture of a spider sitting on a web that he welded.

Church Leaders Visit Class

A-B Tech Bible students organized a panel discussion this summer to ponder age-old questions and contemporary interpretations of the New Testament.

Comprised of 14 area religious leaders, the panel answered questions posed by students of the summer class titled, "Introduction to the New Testament." The questions focused, in part, on contemporary interpretations of the Bible and how leaders and their congregations apply the teachings to their lives.

The panel discussions were first hosted by the spring semester class. Plans for this fall's companion course, "Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures)," include another guest panel with Jewish, Christian and Islamic leaders.

Victoria Press Accolades

Fred Chappell, Poet Laureate of North Carolina, sent a letter to Nancy Dillingham, an instructor in Adult Basic Skills and a member of the editorial staff of Victoria Press, praising the recent issue of the literary magazine, calling it "the best VP issue yet."

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