Campus Connection

Meet the friendly folks at the A-B Tech Cafe. (l to r) A-B Tech student and part-time employee Marcus Trettevik, owner Anita Lenssen, owner Jeremy Cox, front-end manager Jenny Cox, and owner Traigh Hicklin.

Name: The A-B Tech Cafe and Grill

Owners: Anita Lenssen, Jeremy Cox, Traigh Hicklin

Location: J. Herbert Coman Student Activity Center

Mission: To create pleasant culinary memories for the faculty, staff and students of A-B Tech, and to provide an assortment of wholesome foods at competitive prices.

Highlights:

• Starting Aug.11, the Cafe will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. It offers a variety of menu items that cater to many dietetic needs, as well as a salad bar with a variety of meats and vegetables.
• A large percentage of the functions held on campus are catered by the Cafe.
• The Cafe recently held an Open House attended by over 300 staff members, faculty and students.
• All three owners are A-B Tech Culinary graduates. Anita and Traigh graduated together in 1994. Jeremy is a 1999 graduate of both the Culinary program and Baking and Pastry Arts.
• All three owners are dedicated to establishing a rapport with faculty and staff members as well as students. "It's our way of giving back to the school that gave us so much," says Lennsen.

Sidebar:

The Cafe is a real friends and family affair. Front-end manager Jenny Cox and owner Jeremy are brother and sister. Their sister, Joyelle, will start working in the fall. Jenny has taken classes at A-B Tech in early Childhood Development. One of Jeremy's first jobs was as an intern with Anita when he was 16. They have been close friends for over seven years.

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Summer Camp Connects Students To Technology

Along with classroom activities and demonstrations, campers got to blow off energy with Chairperson of Health and Physical Education Holly McCurry. Here they learn kickboxing techniques.

"Do we have to go? Can't this (camp) be for two weeks or three weeks?"

These are the words Pam Silvers, Chairperson of Business Computer Technologies and TechConnect Summer Camp coordinator, heard as her campers left for the day. This could be considered an unusual sentiment coming from 13- and 14-year-olds as they left a classroom in the middle of a beautiful summer day. But Silvers makes it clear with an infectious grin on her face, that it didn't seem unusual to her."If these kids are a representation of our youth today, then our future is in great shape; they came to class excited and ready to learn," she says.

Sponsored by A-B Tech and The Asheville-Buncombe Education Coalition, TechConnect is a week-long camp designed to give rising ninth-graders recommended by the Education Coalition a college experience at no cost. The first week was attended by students from Asheville Middle School; the second week by Erwin Middle School. This is a pilot program, and Silvers and Marilyn McDonald, who coordinates the Asheville-Buncombe-Madison Career Pathways Partnership, hope to gain funding to continue it into the school year."In the course of a life, one week is a rather short time to make an impact," Silvers says.

The week was packed with activity. Mornings, the students planned and researched their dream vacations using the Internet, Excel, and Microsoft Word, then created a final presentation in PowerPoint. Lunch gave the students a chance to interact with A-B Tech instructors, students, and role models from the community. Afternoons were spent at a different academic division observing demonstrations, and even creating their own ad."I learned that you have to work as a team; one person cannot save someone," said Tashawna Hamilton after attending a CPR demonstration given by Keith Owens in the EMS Department.

The week culminated with a celebration luncheon and certificate ceremony attended by parents and guardians, as well as representatives from A-B Tech and the school systems."There was only one thing wrong with camp," one mother was overheard telling A-B Tech Vice President of Instructional Services Sharon Morrissey,"It wasn't long enough."

If the reactions from the parents, students and instructors are any indication, then TechConnect was a rousing success."This is a critical juncture in these kids' lives," Silvers says,"They are about to attend high school. We wanted them to realize that 'yeah, I can do this stuff' and get them excited about education. We were looking to make a technology connection, an A-B Tech connection, and the connection that education is important to their futures."

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JobLink Linking With A-B Tech

Staff members of Mountain Area JobLink pose in front of their new home in the Maple Building on the Asheville Campus of A-B Tech.

The Mountain Area JobLink Career Center is coming to A-B Tech. JobLink is a one-stop employment and training resource for job seekers and employers.

Some of the services offered by JobLink include job listings, labor market information, and weekly workshops on career assessment, interviewing skills, resume writing, creative job search and Internet job search. In addition, a computer resource room is available where job seekers can do career exploration, prepare resumes and cover letters, and find job listings on a variety of websites. There are also interactive tutorials that customers can use to learn or strengthen skills in Microsoft Windows, Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint and Front Page.

The staff at JobLink consists of workforce professionals from various partner agencies. They can provide career information, guidance and counseling, and information on a number of training opportunities. There is also a full-time employment consultant from the Employment Security Commission who can provide job referrals on ESC job listings.

For more information, call 250-4761.

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Turning A New Page On An Old Chapter

- Submitted by Jesse Decker, PTK Historian

The Alpha Upsilon Eta Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa is proud to announce that we are well on our way to reaching five-star status. Our current participating members are dedicated to improving our chapter's involvement in the community and the region.

On a local level, we have raised money for the Literacy Council of Buncombe County by participating in the Altrusa Literacy Spelling Bee. We have also set up a cancer awareness and prevention booth during A-B Tech's Spring Fling to teach others about cancer prevention and collect money to donate to Camp Firefly, a local camp for children battling cancer. On the regional level, we have sent chapter representatives to the Carolinas Regional Convention and to the Officers Training Academy.

Our biggest achievement to date is the creation of a scholarship available to members of our chapter who are actively involved in Phi Theta Kappa. Each year, two scholarships of $250 will be awarded to members who meet our criteria incorporating the four hallmarks: scholarship, leadership, service, and fellowship. The scholarship was funded, in part, by the chapter's Pinnacle Award of $100.

Alpha Upsilon Eta is currently participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life and Project Graduation. Chapter representatives are also looking forward to attending the Honors Institute in High Point.

We are proud of our progress and look forward to the second half of a very successful year!

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Author! Author! Author!

Celia Miles, former instructor and chair of the English Department, has a new book, On A Slant: A Collection of Stories. This is her third since retiring in 2000. "In locales as varied as hometown back yards and malls, the canals of Venice, stone circles in Britain, abandoned tomato fields in north Georgia, the Greek islands and Portugal, these stories feature women at their breaking point, turning point, and mending point, from age six to 66 engaged in searching, suffering, surviving, and coming to terms with their situations, each unique, yet universal."

Getting By With A Little Help

The Asheville-Buncombe Community Christian Ministry's (ABCCM) Medical Ministry clinic was the beneficiary of A-B Tech's Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) students' fund-raising efforts. Called "passing the duck,"the students passed a straw duck around the classroom each day and whatever change they could spare was placed inside. The proceeds, which amounted to hundreds of dollars, were donated to several service organizations, one of which was ABCCM. This was noted in its July 2003 newsletter, Unto Others. Also mentioned was the amount of help the nursing students give as part of their Nursing In the Community curriculum requirements. Beth Reeves, ABCCM Clinic family nurse practitioner, says this help is invaluable to the clinic. "(They) do a little of everything, anything that needs to be done."

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