by Rosalie Young
Journalism student
When Samantha Williams was only 12, she embarked on a journey with her family to Hawaii. Little did her parents know, but they had planted the seed that would sprout and bloom all over the world. She found the traveler spirit in her soul.
At the age of 20, Williams has logged many hours on flights to Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Fiji. While most of those hours have been with family, she has also shared them with friends and a travel group called People to People Ambassadors. This program offers educational travel opportunities for students. It can also be a tool whereby college students receive credit for their hands-on study of the history, culture, art, geography, economics and government of the regions where they stay.
Fiji is one of Williams’ favorite destinations. Fiji is comprised of 333 islands. One tiny heart-shaped island is named Tavarua. Owned by a family friend, it is surrounded by turquoise water; offers world-renowned surfing and beaches of white sand. While in transit on one of her visits, Williams was invited to stay with a mainland family where polygamy was practiced. The family consisted of two wives sharing one husband in a house with two sides, one for one wife and kids and the other side for the other wife and kids. Williams found this situation rather strange, but it was a normal lifestyle for that family.
Williams hopes to continue to enrich her portfolio of foreign destinations with a jaunt across the Atlantic to meet the Queen.
by Rachel Kempen
Journalism student
Who knew that Girl Scout leaders, and craft workshops could be the wake-up call to becoming an instructor? MaryAnn David, a business instructor at Cambridge’s Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC) sure didn’t know. “I started teaching art workshops and trained adult Girl Scout leaders. Then it occurred to me that I wanted to be a teacher. I really enjoyed sharing my skills,” said David.
David has since then spent over 30 years as a teacher, and another 15 years as a college instructor. Today one can find her teaching business classes at ARCC. However, she won’t be there for all that much longer. “Currently I’m at retirement age; I plan to continue at this college as an instructor for perhaps a few more years but after that it’s time to pack my bags,” explained David.
Over the course of 45 years of teaching, David has learned a lot about herself she said. “I didn’t expect so much fun and enjoyment in doing what I now love to do! I didn’t ever think I could be teaching college level courses. It’s very exciting!” David stated.
“I have learned that the more I teach, the more I realize I don’t know. I learn so much from my students every day. It’s great to learn from them,” said David. “I am still in awe of what I do!”
During her time as an ARCC instructor, David said she had one student teach her an important lesson. There is nothing like a good nap. “I taught a keyboarding class to a very elderly couple (husband & wife) who tried their very best to manage the keyboard. Once though the elderly man fell asleep at the computer, and just leaned on the keys resulting in numerous pages of the same letter of the alphabet going on and on. I just let him sleep, as did his wife,” explained David.
However, David does the majority of the teaching in her classes. There she spends her time reaching out to students, and teaching them about computers and their software. But David said didn’t always teach about computers.
“I’ve always been a good typist and have had years of experience as a secretary. When everything changed to computers, I liked the idea of composing letters and messages via the keyboard and making corrections as you go. We used to use correction tape and white-out and before that, typing erasers and carbon paper. Can you even imagine?” stated David.
But that wasn’t the only thing that excited David she said. “I love the ability to think and speed-write as you go, and then make the corrections right in front of you before printing. Also, because I am not very good at math, I so enjoy Excel because it can do my math for me!” David explained.
Although David can agree that computers and technology often benefit people, there are some down sides she points out. “With today’s technology and the demand for accelerated, on-line classes, I feel the ‘personal touch’ has been lost. I believe personal communication is critical, and that seems to be gravitating more and more toward ‘texting’… Where is the interpersonal communication and reading of body language to interpret the message as intended?” commented David.
Also David mentioned that technology doesn’t come without its faults. “The college network has a way of ‘acting up’ and it gets frustrating when the computer saves a student’s files to a place where they then can’t find them again,” explained David. “Sometimes though the students just need to pay a little bit more attention to where they save things,”
Although technology can be frustrating, it doesn’t have to be scary said David. “I wish for my students to not be afraid of the computers and to try new things out,” she said. With her older generation students David understands that most are afraid and don’t like the change that technology brings. She can relate.
“At mid-life, I once went from a manual typewriter on the job to an electric, and that was miserable! Younger folks don’t seem to hesitate about jumping into new things and adapting; perhaps they don’t have the experience behind them to see what could go wrong,” David stated.
However, she explains that one shouldn’t be held back by technology but embrace it. “I am at retirement age and going strong; my mother-in-law is 88 with a computer and plays games and surfs the Internet all the time,” said David. “But, I understand that computers can intimidate both the old and young.”
For the next couple years MaryAnn David says she will remain at the ARCC campus. During that time she says her positive and cheery personality will be there to continue to teach students to not be intimidated by computers. She boosts, “I’m quite animated and lively in the classroom.”
by Joe Schmitz
Journalism student
In the age of technology and many opinions, Josh Gloe, a high school student, has the perfect answer.
Gloe created Project:Informed in late December 2009. It is a discussion forum in which members can chat, talk about or debate any topic they please. The goal of the site is to get people involved in current issues and for the members to freely discuss their side of the argument. The forum includes discussions on anything ranging from video games to religion.
“I hope to turn the board into a thriving community to debate and share thoughts,” says the 17-year-old Gloe. “We have members as young as 13 and as old as 50, so certainly everyone is welcome.”
he forum has a section for general thoughts, as well as an opinion section. The opinion section is moderated by Gloe, so that the debates don’t become offensive or derogatory, making the site safe for young members.
Armed with a new site and goals to attend a four-year university to double-major in mass communications and marketing, Gloe claims he is just scratching the surface of his potential. He encourages people to check out the site.
He said, “It has a laid-back and welcoming feeling with plenty of areas for fun, but also a professional and controlled area for members to debate and discuss more serious issues.”
Gloe grew up in St. Francis, Minn. and currently attends school at Anoka-Ramsey Community College. He also volunteers at the local church and at Feed My Starving Children.
Gloe hopes his site is the next big hit. It can be found at http://projectinformed.proboards.com/.
By Angelina Geinosky
Michael Seymour is the vice president of operations at the Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC) Coon Rapids Campus. Seymour is an anomaly; at least that’s how he described himself. “In the way that I work, play, and view life, I’m a little bit different. I have the comfort from across all social classes, in the way that I can be up on 65 at fat boys, with a table full of bikers and feel at home, or I could be hobnobbing with professionals, doctors and lawyers, and have a foundation to converse with everybody,” said Seymour.
He has worked as the vice president of ARCC for the last eight years. Seymour said that now there isn’t a second that he is not thinking of the institution. He stated that after being involved with the college for as long as he has, his career became bigger then himself.
Seymour said that ARCC helped him to mature as a person, stating that he has grown much more patient since he took on the role of vice president, but admits that if he had been asked 12 years ago, he would never have imagined himself sitting in the vice president’s chair.
Seymour said that he has been part of many changes he has been a part of at ARCC over the last 12 years. He admits that nothing is really done by one person. He said “a lot of people contribute to the success of ARCC. I would never say, so and so works for me, but that they work with me.”
Seymour said that he feels the biggest impact he has had on ARCC is what he calls the coming together of the Coon Rapids and Cambridge campuses over the last decade. He stated that when he came on as the vice president, the campuses were like two separate entities, and now the relationship in regard to business alignment as well as student services is better than ever.
He accredited the faculty and students for helping to make the institution what it is today, acknowledging that every new day presents new obstacles that challenges the established perimeters, obstacles that he and the faculty have to find solutions to in order to keep the “highly regarded” reputation ARCC has earned over the years strong.
Seymour said that after time “It seems easy. People just look around and they see that thing are not that bad. We have facilities, nice technology, nice do-able workloads, and all those other things that make for a nice place to work. Safe environment, civil people, doesn't just happen. It takes leadership from the president down or the students up."
Seymour moved to Minnesota because of a job offer, he started working as a technology professor at a small university located in Austin, Minn. Seymour said that the market was too small for his career in Austin, which is how he ended up at ARCC, where he started his path towards vice presidency.
Seymour worked as what he calls “one of the first technology directors of the school.” He described that as a technology instructor he usually thought in a mathematical business-like manner, which he says is the sort of thinking he is required to use as the Vice President as well.
Seymour was born in Milwaukee, Wis. 1964, but he was raised in Sheboygan, Wis. for the first half of his childhood with his little brother Mando, and his parents Eufemia and Jerry Seymour. . He explained that his mother was full blooded Latino.
Seymour attended Ferris State University and earned his associate and bachelor in television production, and also earned his master’s in teaching there, as well. After attending Ferris State, Seymour initially worked making and editing training videos out for the corporate offices of General Motors. He admitted that it was a dull, unfulfilling job and decided to pursue a more technological career. Seymour said that he had learned a lot in the way of computer functionality due to the ever changing technological advancements in the television production field.
Seymour is now living with his wife Karla, and their two children, Tori, 15 and Tyler, 11 along with their dog Murphy Macray in Andover, Minn. Seymour stated that besides hunting with Murphy, he mostly enjoys spending time watching his children participate in their own distinct activities. However, he stated that he is happy to take advantage of all the time he can get with his family; he admitted that the hardest part of being the vice president of ARCC is finding a balance between the college and his family.
By Angelina Geinosky
Mary Ann Larios is helping students to find their career paths everyday as a career counselor at Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC); ironically she didn’t always know that this is what she would one day be.
Larios actually changed her career path several different times in her life before she discovered her calling as a community college counselor. After graduating from high school, Larios attended Macalester College in St. Paul Minn., initially majoring in vocal performance. However after her freshman year she said that she decided to change her major and transferred to Saint Benedict Saint John University where she pursued a career in interior design.
After graduating from St. Benedict in 1982, Larios decided it was time to “go out and see what was out there.” She moved to Colorado Springs, Colo. and lived with her older sister. However, due to the struggling economy at the time Larios was decided to move to Phoenix, Ariz. where she had heard there were jobs available in the interior design field.
Larios worked as an interior designer and enjoyed it for about six years. During her mid-20’s however, she started working as a volunteer with soon-to-be moms and realized that counseling was what she calls her real passion. “I found I was getting so much more reward and satisfaction from this volunteer work then I was when I was an interior designer,” Larios admitted. Larios decided to go back to school and received her masters in counseling from Arizona State University and later went on to gain her doctorate in human services from Walden University .
At first Larios was intrigued by junior high and high school counseling, but after a couple of informational interviews, she said she could sense that these schools were not for her. It was a friend of her husband’s who introduced her to community college counseling and after a couple more informational interviews she knew that this was the job she was meant to do. “Typically people in a community college are in the realm of wanting to improve their life through education, and it’s really exciting to be a part of that,” she said.
She admits that even though she loves working at ARCC, her job can be hard sometimes because she doesn’t always know the outcome of the students she has helped. “I might have some students come talk to me about a personal issue, or their career or whatever it is, and that might be the end of it. But I don’t know how their life progressed, and I think when your in a community college setting that’s typically the case,” Larios said.
Now after what Larios calls “a long journey,” she is happy to say that she has found a perfect match for her life. What she says she loves most about her job is the diversity of her workload. She says that her work excites her because she is not always doing the same thing over and over again.
Along with counseling Larios also takes part in many different mental development workshops at the school, in addition to teaching an online career development course. Larios said that she really enjoys the educational environment of ARCC, saying that she is confident in knowing that her work associates are always supportive of her and her different ideas.
For Larios, she says, it is both the faculty and students at ARCC that makes coming to work everyday a treat. She is admits being overwhelmed by her colleges’ fantastic work ethic as well as the willingness of students at ARCC to succeed. She says she loves knowing that she can make a difference in their lives and thrives on it, stating “I wouldn’t call it helping people, because people help themselves, but I enjoy being on that journey with them. To me, it’s very exciting."
By Angela Geinosky
Brittany Olson is a hairstylist, who says that styling hair is one of her passions in life. For the last three years she has been living what she says is her dream job as a hairstylist at Fantastic Sams hair salon in Cambridge, Minn.
Olson recalls the day when she knew she wanted to style hair. At age seven her aunt gave her a “how to braid hair” book and unleashed little Olson’s passion. She can still remember the first hair cut she ever gave. “The first haircut I gave was probably on my mom! She was sooooo nervous because she is kind of picky and didn’t know if I had enough experience to give her a cut. It did go well though; she has had the same variation of the haircut for years so I did a good job,” she said.
Of all the skills that Olson learned at the Regency Beauty Institute in Blaine she says tht at she enjoys creating updos (elegant styled hair) on clients most of all. At Regency, Olson won several updo contests, and even created them for weddings and proms when she was just a senior in high school.
Although Olson admits she loves her job, she said that she knows that with any job it is easy to get burned out from doing the same thing over and over again, that is why she is currently attending Anoka-Ramsey Community College so she can further her career at her second job, Wells Fargo. “I like to balance it out so that I still go to work and love it along with reflect my passion to the people that are in my chair,” she said. Currently Olson is enjoying her life as a student. She lives with her fiancé Ian, in Isanti and is looking forward to her own wedding, which when it comes to the hair, she said she will be more than ready.
By Alyssa Peterson
Twenty-one-year-old Angelina Geinosky, from Warrenville, Ill., has an incredible passion for singing.
“My mom told me that I could sing before I could talk. I don’t know if I was influenced by Disney movies, or it could be my father’s love of music, all I know is that apparently I have been singing my whole life,” Geinosky said.
Her choir director and mentor, Gordon Krauspe, “inspired me to really go out there and do something remarkable with my talent. He helped me discover my true passion of music,” Geinosky said.
Geinosky showed off her talent in several school choirs and even participated in the Midwest Young Artists. “One of the things I have learned over the years about my love of singing,” she said, “is that although I love to sing on my own, I enjoy singing much more when I am singing in a choir.”
Geinosky’s favorite singing part in her choir was the alto. She enjoyed it so much more because she usually got to sing the harmony.
Geinosky concluded the interview with the comment that, “I really enjoy all the hard work and teamwork that comes along with chorale music because it helped me learn restraint and balance in my singing. I just love how people are blessed with the gift of song, and I think it's amazing that, when trained, I can use my voice the same way a person uses any other kind of instrument. Plus- it makes me happy.”