NCC Connect - November 2015

New Century College congratulates students and faculty on their achievements over the past month.

When Caitlin Lundquist (BA ’14, Environmental and Sustainability Studies) enrolled at George Mason University, she had no idea where her studies would lead. On her first day of her first class, however, her world shifted. In a classroom discussion of the environmental challenges facing the world, Lundquist found her passion, and now, five years later, has launched her career as Sodexo’s Sustainability and Marketing Coordinator at Mason.

When Amanda Malone was a senior at Chatham (Mass.) High School, she took a course that allowed her to be an assistant teacher in a first-grade class. Leaving the school each day and seeing the students waving goodbye through the windows was, she said, “one of those crucial points in my life,” because it reinforced what she already knew.

As her job titles suggest, Lisa Des Jardins fills many roles in her work as admissions coordinator for the Smithsonian Mason School of Conservation (SMSC) and academic advisor for the Environmental and Sustainability Studies (ESS) program, a joint degree between New Century College and the College of Science.

On the night of Oct. 14, a group of students came together to ask, “Right, Wrong or Different?” The theme of this semester’s discussion was the ethical issues surrounding the global treatment of displaced populations, commonly referred to as refugees.

New Century College students participated with Associate Professor Tom Wood in Conservation Science Day at the Smithsonian's National Zoo on September 12. Over 1,000 zoo visitors attended the event and learned about salamanders in the Piedmont, the migration of birds and Native American values toward nature.

Calling all students interested in gaining hands-on volunteer experience while earning course credit! Openings are still available in the Mason Service Corps program for spring 2016.

The Mason Honey Bee Initiative will make honey available to the public (in exchange for a donation to the GMU Foundation) at Kiosk D in the Johnson Center on November 17 and 18, between 11:00am and 3:00pm. The honey was harvested from the Mason apiary earlier this year. All proceeds will be deposited to the GMU Foundation in support of the Honey Bee Initiative.

On October 26, Associate Professor Lisa Gring-Pemble resigned from her position as associate dean of New Century College. Assistant Dean Kelly Dunne has been named interim associate dean by Deborah Boehm-Davis, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, which houses NCC.