Tag: Northwest Vista College

Bring Your Lawn Chair to Watch the Eclipse on April 8

Posted on by NVC Voice

Hey Wildcats! Do you know what’s happening on April 8, 2024? Brace yourselves for a total solar eclipse! This rare event occurs every 18 months or so when the moon passes through the path of the Earth and sun, completely blocking the face of the sun, and covering Earth in total darkness for a few minutes. The coolest thing is that the sky starts to darken, almost like sunset, letting us know that the eclipse is approaching. Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime experience!! 

The best view we have learned from researchers is actually going to be the southwestern region of the North America, more specifically Texas and Mexico. The last time we had a view like this here in San Antonio of a total solar eclipse was back in 1397! According to NASA, the United Sates of America will not see another total eclipse until 2044, where the totality will only be seen from three states: Montana, North and South Dakota. 

The total eclipse is scheduled to begin around 12:15 pm central time and is expected to end by approximately 2:55 pm, as it moves across the United States. The maximum totality period is expected to last for about 4.5 minutes and will occur around 1:34 pm central time. The path of the eclipse originates in Texas and Mexico and extends towards the northeast, eventually concluding in Maine. 

You are invited to a spectacular event where you can witness a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, on our campus. NVC will hold classes remotely on April 8 to ensure that everyone can enjoy this celestial phenomenon safely. The viewing party will be held over by the Cedar Elm STEM Center (CESC) building, where telescopes and other items will be displayed to enhance your viewing experience. The event will take place in lot 6, around the CESC, Huisache Hall, and Juniper buildings. Please feel free to bring lawn chairs to make yourself comfortable. We hope you will take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and join us for this unforgettable experience. 

See solar eclipse YouTube playlist from NVC faculty, Josh Alquiza.

By NVC Student Mary Taft

Thank You for Making Education a Priority

Posted on by NVC PR

Dear NVC Students,

Thank you for making education a priority. With so much happening around us right now in regards to the coronavirus, you may be wondering what the future holds.

As a parent and grandparent, who has two sons in college and a granddaughter in elementary school, education is important to me on a personal and professional level.

As your president, I want to assure you that Northwest Vista College is doing everything possible to keep our students, faculty and staff safe and to provide needed resources for remote learning as well as advocacy services such as how to obtain food, counseling, how to file for unemployment or speak to someone about domestic abuse and other resources.

Please continue to stay in college and reach out to your instructor or advisor if you need help with anything. You may also refer to this web page for resources:  https://www.alamo.edu/nvc/about-us/our-college/remote-learning/students/

Thank you.

Dr. Ric Baser
NVC President

 

Why I Chose to Attend a Community College

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As a high school senior, I felt pressured when I noticed my peers were applying to and planning to attend four year universities. But, I never felt obligated to follow the crowd and pursue something that I knew wasn’t for me. Going into college, I wasn’t sure about many things, but I was sure I wanted to attend a community college and I had my reasons.

  1. Affordability – Community colleges are known to be much cheaper than four year universities and the price variation is one of the biggest reasons why many students attend community colleges.
  2. Smaller classrooms- I’ve been accustomed to classrooms with no more than 30 students my entire life. I wanted to make sure that my transition from high school to college wasn’t too different because I didn’t want to overwhelm myself. Auditoriums with about 200 students sounded too overwhelming. I also like the idea of small classrooms because it allows for the students to establish a relationship with the professor which makes it easier to communicate about your school work.
  3. Staying local- Community colleges are meant to serve and be available to those in the same community. I was really fond of the idea that I didn’t have to drive far to attend my classes. It makes showing up to class so much easier.

At the end of the day, there is no certain medal or certificate that one gets for the school they attend. Instead it’s about being financially smart and responsible. No one’s accomplishments should be judged by the type of college they attend.

By NVC Student Haneen Rafati

NVC Student Researcher Determines there are no Sasquatch on Campus

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Over the summer NVC student Allie Sanchez used camera “traps”—motion-sensor cameras affixed to trees—to conduct an exploratory study of campus wildlife. Having been bitten by the “research bug” last year while studying, presenting, and publishing on students’ knowledge of climate change research alongside other NVC students, Allie embarked on a student-faculty, extracurricular study of her own design.

Allie worked with Dr. Scott Walker in Geography and Environmental Sustainability to plan out where to place three camera traps around wooded parts of our campus and to map their locations using geospatial technology. For eight weeks Allie checked the cameras and retrieved the photos to determine what wildlife roams NVC day and night. She discovered raccoons, whitetail deer, opossum, skunk, a sounder of six feral hogs, coyote, grey fox, and a black-crested titmouse—a small bird common to this area. She was unable to “capture” any wildcat images.

Allie said “all this experience alone is worth more than a four-year degree.” When asked exactly what that means, she stated that she learned “not to be intimidated by something that seems monumental by taking a big project and breaking it down into smaller pieces.” She learned how to plan research, do a literature review, conduct statistical analyses, work with her research colleagues to write a peer-reviewed journal article, and present at a professional academic conference alongside graduate students and faculty from research-one universities—schools like the University of Texas-Austin and Louisiana State University.

She stated this work has boosted her self-confidence and she now finds herself doing some literature review work at UT Health San Antonio where she works as a full-time administrative assistant. Allie is moving on to Texas A&M-San Antonio this semester to pursue a BS in Biology with a concentration in Ecology.

Students interested in doing student-faculty research in Geography and Environmental Sustainability as an extracurricular activity, or for GEOG 2389-Academic Cooperative (independent study) elective credit, contact Dr. Scott Walker, [email protected]. Dr. Walker can also update students on the new BS in Environmental Science Field of Study coming in 2020 and discuss transferring to UTSA’s upcoming Environmental Studies BA degree.

 

NVC Honor Society Sets Bar High for Success

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Are you destined to be a leader? Do you want to improve your self-esteem? Gain valuable networking skills? Or are looking for a motivating group of peers to help you achieve your goals?

Look no further than the National Society of Leadership & Success honor society at Northwest Vista College. This is the nation’s largest leadership honor society and the first honor society to become accredited as a leadership program by AdvancED. At the college level, the decade-old NVC chapter is the largest leadership organization on campus. Last year, members participated in over 3,800 hours of engagement on campus and over 1,000 hours of service in the community to earn the U.S. President’s Volunteer Service Award.

For the last three years, the NVC chapter was placed on the NSLS Founder’s List, one of the highest honors of NSLS’s Pillar Program. Based on the 10 best practices (pillars) of a healthy chapter, the National Office developed the program to help set up chapters for long-term success. This year, the NVC chapter earned an additional four pillars making their pillar total 14.

“We have an amazing group of dedicated student leaders. They have all graduated and are attending universities this fall,” said Kelly Blanco, NVC chapter advisor.

NSLS provides a step-by-step program for members to build their leadership skills. Upon completion of the program, members receive their leadership certificate and are able to list their affiliation on all statements of personal accomplishment, including their resume.

Membership is for life and provides access to benefits including scholarships and awards, employer recruitment through an online job bank, and discounts on computers, and much more.

Students are selected by their college for membership based on either academic standing or leadership potential.

For more information about the NVC chapter of NSLS, visit https://www.alamo.edu/nvc/experience-nvc/campus-life/student-life/honor-societies/

 

Developing the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

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The popular show “Shark Tank” has a simple premise: find a solution to a problem and if you can make money off of it, you may find yourself leaving the show with an investor.

This premise opened the eyes of Northwest Vista College students who put their Shark Tank skills to use last semester. The Northwest Vista College Discovery & Innovative Competition offered a platform for students to pursue an idea, innovation or discovery project they were passionate about. Working in collaboration with faculty mentors, students developed their idea over three rounds of training to create a written business proposal and then give a presentation in front of judges.

Instead of investors, four students received seed money from Alamo Colleges’ The Learning Company to execute their projects. The winners also received an opportunity to attend “The Future Festival” earlier in July in Philadelphia which focused on the development of ideas. In addition to The Learning Company, the NVC Student Activity fee provided prize money for the top four winners of the competition.

“The Future Festival gave us a unique opportunity to understand some of the biggest trends affecting our business, life, and the world. Before the conference, we knew that research helps us formulate our strategy for any project or decision,” said Calvin Fogle, assistant professor & program coordinator of the NVC Business & Entrepreneurship Institute. “But we did not know about the extent and efficiency of research that companies are able to do with data analytics.”

For the students involved in this project, some will never forget it, such as Analisa Rojas, who created Studipedia, which has the goal to create short college videos tailored to a specific course. She’s hoping to solve the problem that most study videos are too general. As part of the process, Analisa had to write a reflection of her experience:

“This phenomenal journey, that started with a concept idea and morphed into the incubation stage for my presentation, was an educational voyage that tested my motivational endurance, pushed me outside of my comfort zone, and taught me the value of entrepreneurship,” said Analisa who won the grand prize of $1,000 and will begin implementing her business with the help of the seed money.

Three other students won prize money provided by the NVC Student Activity Fee: Farhana Khan won the second-place prize of $900, Adrian Arevalo received the third-place prize of $800, and Shantal Rivera snagged the fourth-place prize of $700.

Two of the winning student proposals focused on reducing plastic waste and recycling, and the other business proposal is a digital application for the eye care industry.

Calvin said the competition was targeted to students in Institute of Health and Biosciences, Institute of Creative & Communication Arts, Institute of Science & Technology, and the Institute of Business & Entrepreneurial students.

He added students also received content-specific training and were shown how to prepare budgets, and how to manufacture and market a product. He said a huge thank you goes to the NVC Business Council, and The Learning Company, which is a collaboration between the Alamo Colleges and local business leaders to train the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators.

“We created the competition to support entrepreneurship and innovation in the classroom with a platform for students to pursue an idea they are passionate about,” Calvin added. “A lot of times we don’t see our impact, but reading the reflection papers by the students provided us some good feedback of our attempt to expand innovation and entrepreneurship.”

Contest winner Farhana Khan wrote in her reflection paper:

“When the Discovery and Innovation Competition was first announced earlier this spring at Northwest Vista College, I was sure not to participate in it. I assumed that competitions like that are for scientists or business-oriented people. However, during the spring 2019 Faculty and Student Mixer, Professor (Ralph) Mendez asked a simple question, ‘Do you see a problem around you?’ That question made a lot of students start sharing ideas during the event. I took out my pen and paper and started writing the issues that I always wanted to fix. Within a week, I had six to seven problems and possible solutions for them.

Still, I was not sure how far I would go. But I knew that there is a 100% chance of failure if I don’t try. The experience of going through the idea formation and business plan, although painful at times, is well worth the effort. It conditions the participants to be solution finders, not whiners.”

NVC faculty are already preparing for the next competition, which will have sign up dates of Aug. 26 to Sept. 15. Winners will travel to an entrepreneurship conference in New Orleans in January. For questions, email Calvin Fogle at [email protected]

Northwest Vista Singers Snag Wins at South Texas Competition

Posted on by NVC PR
National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) South Texas Chapter Spring Audition was very successful for Northwest Vista College on April 6 at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi.

Ten singers from Northwest Vista College competed against singers from colleges and universities in our chapter. NVC was recognized with four finalists and one semi-finalist:

  • Hector Tobar and Luis Gonzalez in Second Year College Men (Classical Division)
  • Lorena Del Angel and Ana Delaney in Upper College Musical Theater Women, and
  • Natalia Jasso in First Year College Women (Classical Division) as a semi-finalist.

NVC Instructor Dr. Minkyung Lee said “I am very thrilled to share this wonderful news with Northwest Vista College, and it’s such a great honor to be recognized myself as a teacher for these outstanding singers. I am so proud of all their hard work and amazing attitudes to support each other and special bonding to be proud of singers who represented Northwest Vista College.”Congratulations to all winners and participants:

  • Luis Gonzalez – 1st Place in Second Year College Men (Classical Division)
  • Ana Delaney – 1st Place in Upper College Musical Theater Women
  • Hector Tobar – 3rd Place in Second Year College Men (Classical Division)
  • Lorena Del Angel – 3rd Place in Upper College Musical Theater Women
  • Natalia Jasso – Semi-finalist in First Year College Women (Classical Division)
  • Serena Hernandez, Thalia Moreno, Kristin DeGennaro, Ashley Rodriguez, Elizabeth Potts were also recognized with high scores and only a few points away from being semi-finalists.
Dr. Lee added that “this incredibly fine day of singing couldn’t have happen without the following supporters: Special thanks to our amazing pianist, Bogum Park from the University of Texas at Austin for her fabulous performance on the piano to add artistic touchups for beautiful performances with the NVC singers. Also, we are very thankful to NVC Music Coordinator, Daniel Smith and Chair of FAPK, Karla Ellis, for a great deal of support and encouragement during this audition preparation.

NVC Psychology Students Present Original Research in New Mexico

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More than a dozen current and former Northwest Vista College psychology students, along with NVC psychology faculty, Anna-Marie Evans, Jen Fox, and Don Lucas attended the annual meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association (SWPA) from April 5-7 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Established in 1953, SWPA represents American Psychological Association members living in Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. SWPA promotes and strengthens psychology’s scientific, professional and educational facets.

In addition to attending workshops, invited talks, research symposia, poster sessions, and research paper sessions — several students presented their original research to standing-room-only audiences!

Kiana Kelley, Diane Goguen, Tailar Matthews, and Kristelle Cefre presented their research titled, “Dispelling Sexual Myths with Higher and Virtual Education.”

Areayla Jeanpierre, Valerie Ortiz, and Marin McDaniel presented their research titled, “What is Your Sex IQ?”

Maimoona Palwala, Chris Lowell, and Kristina Martinez presented their research titled, “Sexual Language is implicitly More Offensive to Females than Males.”

Ethan Berry, Christian Salazar, Jacqueline Tucker, and Jacqueline Dominguez presented their research titled, “Does Childhood Adversity Affect Overall Well-Being?”

Summaries of their research can be found at:

https://www.xcdsystem.com/swpsych/program/hZV1oUP/index.cfm

Additionally, during the SWPA award ceremonies, Ethan Berry received national recognition from the American Psychological Association and was awarded for his services in the Northwest Vista College chapter of Psi Beta.

Several students have on-going research projects they plan to present at next year’s annual meet of the SWPA, which will be in Frisco, Texas.

 

Living on the Road and Studying

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I decided to take online classes since I am constantly on the move. You see, my husband and I decided to travel cross country via RV once our youngest daughter got into college. Once we moved her into her dorm, we packed up and put the house up for sale.

We are now full timers in our RV. I am enjoying all of the sightseeing. However, with us being on the road it is impossible for me to find temporary employment or attend classes on campus. My professional background is in the medical field. Since these positions aren’t easy to get into, especially for short term, I decided to look into something else.

There are many job opportunities that you can do online but there are many scams as well. I have come across many people that work online doing virtual assistant, blogging, social media management, websites, data entry, and much more. Unfortunately, these are areas I’m not too familiar with so my only option was to look into a degree plan that would allow me to study while on the road to be able to achieve a career with my current lifestyle.

This is my second semester taking all online classes. It can be very stressful and challenging at times. Living on the road in the RV, you have to make certain that you have good internet service, but prepared to hit a lot of dead spots. You definitely need to have a time management plan. Believe me, it is very easy to fall off track. This is something you have to train yourself on and stick to it.

Make it a habit to check on announcements, emails, and assignments daily. It was always my belief that all assignments were due on Sundays by midnight but that is not that case. Checking these sites daily will help you stay on top of your courses throughout the semester.

Also, if you have any questions or simply need clarification on assignments, you should contact your professor as soon as possible. They are there to help you, you just need to reach out.

By NVC Student Connie Miller

 

Studying Tips and Living Away from Home

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I have been attending college for about two years, and this is my first semester that I am taking courses for my degree. In the beginning of my college career, core classes were very easy to me. I could easily finish assignments and get good grades, which I though would be impossible with me living out of the house and having to work full time.

Now that I am starting to take courses for my degree, there is a noticeably different difficulty level to them. With a higher difficulty there is more time consumption attached, which is kind of hard due to the limited time I already have. But over these two years of living out of the house and attending college, I have picked up a few tips and tricks. When I first moved out, my roommate always had people over and I had too many distractions while trying to complete my homework and projects. I found that my room was a great quite and safe space from all of the distractions happening on the outside. Another thing I learned quickly was that finishing my school work first was more important than hanging out and working, this led to me finishing my work early in the week so I had more free time throughout the rest of the week. Putting your school work as your top priority really helps out in the long run so you do not have to rush in the end.

Learning to study was also another great trick I figured out. Previously in grade school, I never studied for anything, I just went with the punches. Studying became important when I entered college because I knew that I wanted to keep a good GPA. Unlike high school, I found that studying, even though it may be boring, really helped out in the long run. Studying kept the stress off while taking a test, and even made class work easier at times. There are a lot of tricks and tips to learn in college, and I hope these few help.

By NVC Student Ethan Wise