January 22, 2016
Community connections are an important part of our focus at
Virginia Wesleyan. In fact, meaningful connections with our greater community
are a priority in our strategic plan. We reach out to the community in a wide
variety of ways at the College. This morning, I share just two examples of the
ways our faculty are currently engaged in the greater community.
VWC’s Assistant
Professor of Education, Dr. William McConnell, and students in his EDUC 348
course, will host 20 students from the Bayside area on our campus tomorrow.
They will be participating in STEM activities as part of a Saturday STEM
Academy on January 23 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Dr. McConnell tells me that the Saturday STEM
Academy is a free program for Virginia Beach Public School students from grades
4-9 living in the Bayside community. This program provides quality STEM
learning experiences for students that do not typically have the means to attend
similar camps. Through the College’s partnership with the Western Bayside
Community, Dr. McConnell became connected to this program as a volunteer which
led him to invite the students to our campus. He and his students have planned
a fun-filled day of STEM activities for them during their visit. They will tour
the Virginia Wesleyan College campus through a scavenger hunt using GPS
technology and then complete a scientific investigation and an engineering
design challenge involving VWC's 3D printing technology.
In addition, over the past few weeks, Assistant Professor of
Music, Dr. Bryson Mortensen, has been conducting a group of 14 high school
singers as part of the Virginia Chorale’s Young Singers Project in preparation
for their concert this Sunday, January 24 at 4:00 p.m. The high school students go
through a rigorous audition process to be accepted into the program and then
are combined with a small group of professional singers who serve as mentors
during the project- teaching them vocal
technique and musicianship while also teaching them about the life and behavior
of a professional singer. The concert,
titled “Loss & Reconciliation” will be at Ohef Shalom Temple in Norfolk
(530 Raleigh Ave) this Sunday at 4:00 p.m.
I commend the efforts of Dr. McConnell and Dr. Mortensen for
being engaged in our greater community and for providing a connection to
Virginia Wesleyan College.
