Displaced Worker Finds Assistance At A-B Tech
Debbie Ellison worked at a manufacturing job for 23 years until laid off. Like others, she found another manufacturing job. The second one lasted 10 years before it took its operations to Mexico.
With the opportunity to go to college through NAFTA, Ellison decided to enroll at A-B Tech to get her degree in Office Systems Technology. However, after being out of school for over 30 years, it wasn't easy to return.
"I am in my 50s, and going back school with homework when you have a job is hard, but when you have a house and family to care for, too, it's hard to juggle all that," she said. "Coming back to school meant taking schoolbooks everywhere I went, whether it was going to church or visiting family or just shopping."
Dr. Dennis King, vice president of Student Services, helped Ellison with that transition. "Dr. King has been a lot of help to me," she said. "I used him as my advisor. He helped me choose my classes each semester. He is terrific and if it had not been for him and his encouragement I probably would not be graduating in May. I went to him with tears in my eyes when I felt like I couldn't make it anymore, and he listened. He is truly an asset to A-B Tech."
Ellison also expressed gratitude for her Introduction to Computers Instructor, Alex Lord. "The lady knows the computer inside and out. She was only an e-mail away, and she would always e-mail back," said Ellison. "She cared about her students, helping them excel in anyway she could. She was truly an instructor that always gave you the confidence students sometimes need. Even later in my other semesters, she would help me in any way she could."
With her courses complete, and waiting to walk across the stage to collect her degree in May, Ellison is searching for her new career. Sharon Southers at Mountain Area JobLink and Kathy Sinclair at the Employment Security Commission are helping her get started. "It is helping quite a bit," she said.
Hutchinson In Financial Literacy Coalition
Carol Hutchinson, Accounting instructor, has been meeting with the Asheville Buncombe Financial Literacy Coalition and a U.S. Department of Labor representative in an effort to improve financial literacy in the community.
"This is a brand new coalition organized just last year," Hutchinson said. "Our goal is to improve financial literacy in the community."
Other members of the coalition include Consumer Credit Counseling, Pisgah Legal Services, Eagle Market Streets Development Corporation, Department of Social Services, Council on Aging and other human service agencies.
Improving financial literacy will include income tax preparation. "What should you do with your refund from income tax?" Hutchinson asked. "I would like to hear people are going to use it to get a return of investment."
The first focus will be on Earned Income Tax Credit. "We want to make sure people take advantage of EITC. Not everyone is getting tax credit that is due. There is a large amount of money out there the IRS feels that is not being taken advantage."
For the 2003 tax year in Buncombe County, it was estimated 4,597 taxpayers that were eligible for EITC did not take advantage of it. That amounted to nearly $2.5 million unclaimed.
Hutchinson will also be incorporating a module on basic financial literacy into her principles of accounting course.
She was chosen as an alternate for the U.S. Treasury's Taxpayer Advisory Panel. This panel advises the Treasury on ways to improve the IRS. This past year, she was also appointed to the national Board of Directors for the Teachers of Accounting at Two Year Colleges (TACTYC).
A-B Tech Art To Be Displayed At NCCCS Office For 2006
Student Tom Pazderka created "Terra Pectus," a multimedia piece with acrylic, plaster, glaze, earth, sand and polyurethane, to be included in the NCCCS 2006 Art Show.
Artwork created by a staff member and a student at A-B Tech has been chosen for display in the North Carolina Community College System's annual art exhibit at the System Office in Raleigh.
Martin Lancaster, President of the NCCCS, selected two pieces from A-B Tech for inclusion in the exhibit to open March 16 and run through the end of 2006.
Joe Franklin, College Information System (CIS) Curriculum Project Manager, submitted a digital black and white photograph of Beaver Lake. Student Tom Pazderka's multimedia piece, Terra Pectus, will also be displayed.
The artwork is displayed in the hallways, conference rooms, executive suites and other public spaces throughout the six-story Caswell Building, headquarters for NCCCS. The building is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays with tours available for public visitors.
Nearly 150 pieces, representing about 50 community colleges across the state, will be showcased. These include paintings, quilts and other fiber art, sculpture, pottery, baskets, photography and stained glass.
The exhibit was the idea of President Lancaster, who asked that it be organized right after he took office in 1997. President Lancaster personally selects every piece in the show. His goals for the exhibition are first, to provide an attractive and stimulating environment for the employees and visitors of the System Office and second, to showcase the quality and variety of talent at work in North Carolina's community colleges.
A quilt titled "Wispers," by Janice Maddox, an adjunct instructor at A-B Tech, was included in the 2005 exhibit and has been requested to be displayed by the Department of Insurance for 2006.
CIS Curriculum Project Manager Joe Franklin's black and white filter grain digital photo of Beaver Lake will be on display in the Caswell Building at the NCCCS office.