Headlines

• Water Resources Grant will Create Three Wetlands on Campus
• Phlebotomy Classes Offered to Entry-Level Mission Employees
• Fisher Wins Golden Star for Work with Extension Service
• First Students Finish ACA 115 Course at Alternative High School
• Part-Time Instructor Job Fair Leads to Increased Applicants
• Fehl Writes Textbooks on Computer Applications, Plays Music
• Art Department Open House Features Student Work
• Automotive Students Repair Van for Boy Scouts
• Children's Holiday Party Brings Cheer To Head Start Students
• Designed Teaching and Learning: Creative Activities
• Humanities Department Gets Acquainted With DT&L
• Silverman Receives Faculty Access Award
• Meet Foundation Scholarship Recipients
• Fox Awarded Scholarship for Entrepreneurship Education Forum
• Whisenant Named Invitational Education Award Winner
• Session on A-B Tech Leadership Institute Presented at SACS Meeting
• Welcome, New Employees
• Nursing Project Team Forms Connections
• News From the Small Business Center
• Winners from Universal Campaign Receive Travel Bags
• World Connections Committee Upcoming Events
• Tech Notes

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Water Resources Grant will Create Three Wetlands on Campus

This stormwater area below the ATM on the Asheville campus will be enhanced through a grant from the N.C. Division of Water Resources.

A-B Tech received a $62,500 grant from the N.C. Division of Water Resources to create and enhance three storm-water wetlands on the Asheville campus. The terms of the grant require the college to provide a match of $11,600. Students will provide about half of the work needed.

The three areas targeted are a large one below the ATM near Victoria Road, a medium one between Smith-McDowell and Hemlock, and a small one below the tiered parking near Sunnicrest.

Students in Surveying have collected information about the areas on campus and a landscape architecture class will provide layout and design contributions. Carpentry students will construct benches and signage and biology classes will assist with removal of undesirable plants, planting of desirable ones, and weeding and monitoring. Design work will be done in the spring, and earth-moving activities will be completed over the summer.

For more information about the grant or to volunteer for the project, contact Scott Jackson, Biology Instructor, at 254-1921, Ext. 235 or by e-mail at sjackson@abtech.edu.

Surveying Program   Carpentry Program   Biology Department

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Phlebotomy Classes Offered to Entry-Level Mission Employees

Mission employee Turkisha Mallory holds a practice arm while Stacey Walker sticks it for a phlebotomy class A-B Tech offers for entry-level Mission Hospital employees.

A-B Tech’s partnership with Mission Hospital to offer phlebotomy classes for entry-level employees of the hospital completed its third cohort in December.

“It was something we started with human resources and A-B Tech to help with retention of current employees,” said Pat Allen, Mission Lab Educator. “We wanted to offer entry-level employees the means to get the education to move up in the hospital.”

Employees of Mission Hospital apply for the class, and 16 are accepted into each cohort. Students come to classes taught by Melissa Hyatt, Medical Laboratory Technology chair, in the evenings at A-B Tech, where they receive 40 hours of classroom instruction. “Once they successfully complete written exams and their performance competency, Mission takes over and carries out the clinical training,” Hyatt said.

After clinical training, the students sit for the American Society of Phlebotomy Technicians certification exams. The hospital system pays for the exam, which is taken in the A-B Tech classroom. According to Allen, an average of 10 to 11 students in each cohort finish and become certified. “We’ve got really good success with people that finish. We had two completers hired into the lab as phlebotomists,” she said.

“Our goal is to have two classes a year,” Hyatt said. “There have been as many as 200 names on the list waiting for the class, which is specifically for entry-level employees. It’s part of the Jobs to Career Initiative at Mission. On the latest employee satisfaction survey at the hospital, this program was one of the highest rated. Even those not taking the class see it as a good thing.”

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Fisher Wins Golden Star for Work with Extension Service

Alma Fisher, Human Resources Development instructor, received the Golden Star Award from the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.

Alma Fisher, Human Resources Development instructor, received the Golden Star Award Nov. 20 from the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service's Expanded Foods and Nutrition and Education program (EFNEP) for her assistance over many years.

Within her work with ASPIRE (Assessing Strengths, Promoting Integrity, Retaining Employment) program at A-B Tech, Fisher includes EFNEP as in integral part of the coursework. Her students are taught everything from how to set goals and overcome barriers to how to cook nutritious, inexpensive meals.

When EFNEP changed its curriculum in 2006, it would no longer fit into the ASPIRE syllabus. Fisher worked for two weeks to find a way to continue the partnership. "Today EFNEP and ASPIRE are partnering more efficiently and successfully than they have ever partnered in the past," according to her nomination.

"Alma has identified opportunities for the educational resources of Cooperative Extension in general and EFNEP specifically to be made available to her students," wrote Kenneth Reeves, Buncombe County Extension Director. "I appreciate all that Alma has done in support of our program."

Human Resources Development Program

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