Ernest Grant, a 1977 graduate of A-B Tech's Practical Nursing Education program, was honored with the Distinguished Service Award from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was featured in the UNC-G Alumni magazine. He received his master's in nursing from UNC-G in 1993, and was a 2004 American Association of Community Colleges Outstanding Alumni Award winner.
Deborah Holebrooks, Career Start case manager, received some positive feedback from a participant in the program. "I value the Career Start program and the tutelage I got from Mrs. Alma Fisher," he wrote. "I am so thankful that I got the opportunity to be in her class. She is and was innovative and knowledgeable in helping me find employment and have been on this job since August 2005."
Career Start is a HRD program that works in conjunction with the Department of Social Services Food Stamp program. Since September 2005, over 5,000 participants have come through the program, according to Holebrooks.
The Invitational Award for July was presented to Lloyd Weinberg, Service Learning Coordinator. The award is given out each month to a person who is "caught" being and/or doing something invitational. Nominations may be dropped in any student suggestion box or sent in the campus mail to Elizabeth Scarbrough. The nominations are due by the 15th of each month and will be awarded on the last working day of the month.
The forms will be available online as well as by the student suggestion boxes, Records and Registration, the Business Office, the LRC, and the division offices. Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to nominate individuals for the award.
The staff of the Asheville Kidney Center wrote the following thank you note to the nursing students in adjunct instructor Diane Davis' class. "Thank you for all of your help at the dialysis center. We appreciate all of you and are inspired to see so many of you choose nursing as a career. We need good nurses."
Dan Lansford, the president of Mars Hill College, wrote a letter of appreciation of Charlie Farmer, welding instructor, for the arch installed at Mars Hill College. "Your work in the construction of the Sesquicentennial Archway for Mars Hill College is spectacular. The contribution of your skill and labor saved us a great deal of cost, but equally important was having the work done by an alumnus of the College - and from my own MHC class," wrote Lunsford. "The arch is a great addition and is already receiving positive response from the community."
Wendy Riley, a summer semester student in Loretta Carlton's public speaking class, had this to say about her experience. "Ms. Carlton made learning fun, resourceful, thought-provoking, emotional and personal," Riley wrote. "She gives her class her all and takes a personal interest in each and every student in there. She makes the class feel as if it were an extended family of one's own. You are very fortunate to have her on your staff."
The A-B Tech Association of Educational Office Professionals raised $1,438 with the Rages to Riches sale during the last weekend of July. The money will go toward the association's scholarship funds.
Asheville’s Independent Restaurants (AIR) is holding the Taste of Asheville, Sept. 27-30. There will be demonstrations in Magnolia during the day Sept. 28 in the Demo Hall. Tupelo Honey, Michel and Vonciel Baudouin of Bouchon and Joe Scilly of Corner Kitchen will be giving presentations. This year there will be a silent auction to benefit AIR’s new scholarship fund for A-B Tech’s Culinary students. The event is an assortment of culinary events offered at AIR restaurants throughout the Asheville area. The auction will be during the Taste Gala Sept. 28 at the Haywood Park Hotel.
Jeff Imes, COO of W.P. Hickman Company, expressed his gratitude to Charlie Farmer, welding instructor, for building TIG welding with light gauge aluminum into the welding associate's degree program. "It will be a great help to us as we seek to find qualified welders with the aforementioned capabilities," wrote Imes. "Thanks for your offer to build work instructions on our TIG welding process which you will then use in your curriculum and we can then use as part of our training program." The W.P. Hickman Company is also donating four TIG torches for student use and scrap pieces of aluminum.