The Open Petal | 1

Johnson County Community CollegeNovember 2012

‘Rear Window’ takes a look back

StudentswelcomeCavaliermascot

NeW shoWs setfoR tV chaNNel

foundation honorsaudrey langworthy

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The

Open PetalNovember 2012

EditorDiane Carroll

Associate VP, Marketing CommunicationsJulie Haas

Senior Graphic DesignerRandy Breeden

PhotographerSusan McSpadden

WritersMelodee BlobaumAnne Christiansen-BullersTyler CundithJudi Reilly

Writer/EditorTim Curry

The Open Petal is published four times a year by Johnson County Community College, 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park, KS 66210-1299. It is produced by College Information and Publications and the Office of Document Services. To find the magazine online, go to jccc.edu and search for “The Open Petal.” To subscribe or to offer a comment, call 913-469-8500, ext. 3886.

Stay in touch with JCCC by visiting jccc.edu, or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JCCC411 or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/JCCCtweet.

Or you can connect by visiting jccc.edu and clicking on “Connect with JCCC,” where you can also subscribe to JCCC Update, an email newsletter sent twice a month.

When planning your estate, please remember Johnson County Community College. For more information, call the JCCC Foundation at 913-469-3835.

At the JCCC Foundation scholarship lunch each September, students have a chance

to thank donors who contribute to scholarships at JCCC. Future doctors and nurses,

graphic designers, teachers and entrepreneurs explain how they could not attend

college without the financial help they receive through contributions to scholarships at JCCC.

We hear again and again how much this financial support means to students and to their

families.

The JCCC Foundation is the fundraising arm of Johnson County Community College, a

separate tax-exempt organization established in 1971 to provide funding for student and

college needs that aren’t otherwise covered by tuition and tax revenues. The Foundation’s

mission is to help make college accessible to all students; advance excellence at JCCC through

the development of community leadership, business partnerships and financial support; and

promote cultural activities that enrich both JCCC and the community.

This issue of The Open Petal includes an article on Some Enchanted Evening, our annual gala

that for 26 years now has raised a total of $5 million to support student scholarships at JCCC.

At the event each year we honor the Johnson Countian of the Year. This year we’re pleased

to recognize Audrey Langworthy. And this year, for the first time, we’re honoring a corporate

partner, none other than BNSF Railway, with whom the college has had a long and valued

educational partnership. You’ll see in other issues throughout the year many of our other

events and activities that support students and programming at JCCC.

The JCCC Foundation owes its success to so many generous people in the community – both

in the county and on the campus. We don’t exist without our donors and volunteers, like

current Foundation President Steve Wilkinson. We join our students in thanking contributors

for their support of education at JCCC.

To learn more about the JCCC Foundation and how you can support scholarships and

programming or attend an event, visit our website at www.jccc.edu/foundation.

Sincerely,

Kate Allen

Executive Director, Institutional Advancement, JCCC 

The View From Here

The open petal is a symbol of JCCC’s openness to new concepts and ideas as it strives to serve each member of the community.

Kate Allen

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8

24 10Features 4 Lights, cameras, action! Staffers morph into stars to tell college’s story.

7 From student to board chair Melody Rayl knows this place.

12 Film tells Code Talker’s story Navajos created a code that helped win a war.

14 What are you good at? A strengths assessment will let you know.

18 Addressing autism A conference tackles a range of issues.

22 Jazz Winterlude returns The festival features local, national musicians.

24 Gala draws hundreds Donors Marti and Tony Oppenheimer are honored.

In Every Issue

2 The View From Here

16 Alumni/Foundation The black-tie event honors Audrey Langworthy.

20 Center for Business and Technology A HITECH graduate attends a White House session.

26 Campus Life

28 Sports Basketball takes center stage.

30 The Rear Window

On the CoverVideographer Dain Hartwell works with Michael Rea for a show on recycling for JCCC’s cable TV station.

Photo by Susan McSpadden

C O n T E n T S

Get with the programJCCC TV updates, innovates for 21st-century media

Emily Behrmann interviews Michael Rea for a new TV series called JCCC Voices.

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“Locally produced” is a current selling point in the supermarket, one you’d expect to see on your lettuce and carrots as a sign of quality. It’s also a philosophy embraced by

the newly reorganized cable television station at Johnson County Community College.

The college’s cable station has started three new series with a local flavor. One takes an up-close look at each building on campus and the programs offered within it. Another focuses on the people of JCCC and their unique talents and credentials. A third series will offer practical advice on domestic matters from car repair to flower arranging to financial planning.

“That last one is a sort of JCCC take on the Home and Garden channel,” said Lin Knudson, dean, academic support, and co-chair of the video production advisory committee that helped point the station in its new, 21st-century direction.

“We’re looking at a total revamping of how we’re using the college’s television station. In the past, we’ve had this wonderful resource, and we haven’t used it to the extent that we could to help us get the word out about our programs, our facilities, our faculty and staff,” she said.

History JCCC TV plays on channel 17 on SureWest and Time Warner and on channel 22 for Comcast users.

The college started a television station 40 years ago, sharing its signal with Shawnee Mission School District. It aired telecourses, board of trustee meetings and occasional local efforts such as talk shows and public affairs programs.

“About 95 percent of the shows we aired were bought or leased through a separate entity,” said Rich Fisher, manager, video production, who began work at the station in 1989.

“Locally, we’d do a basketball game and political shows, and an eight-minute talk show that we’d run often, sometimes to fill gaps in programming,” he said.

When the Shawnee Mission School District received its own dedicated station in the mid-’90s, the college had even more airtime to fill, but not necessarily the staff to create many locally produced shows.

With the advent of the Internet, telecourses went the way of the card catalog. The content could be uploaded to a server, and students could watch the videos on their own schedule instead of plopping down in front of a TV at an appointed time.

The technology to create shows changed, too. Video cameras, once hefty, cumbersome bricks of technology, were lighter and easier to take outside. Editing was easier, too, as digital replaced tape. The possibility of creating locally produced shows to fill 24 hours a day, seven days a week, seemed difficult but not absurd.

Emily Behrmann interviews Michael Rea for a new TV series called JCCC Voices.

By Anne Christiansen-Bullers

Photo by Susan McSpadden

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Knudson decided to realign video production under the Educational Technology Center since both were pursuing video production.

Vincent Miller, director, Educational Technology Center, said ‘There was a good opportunity to share some knowledge and learn from each other. I think that’s been very successful.”

The showsThese shows are coming to JCCC TV.

JCCC Voices – An in-depth look at the people who make Johnson County Community College what it is today. Miller said shows that highlight local folks, like KCPT’s Kansas City Crossroads and KTWU’s Sunflower Journeys, are templates for what they’d like to share with Johnson County viewers.

“Any time you take the time to talk to somebody on this campus, you can hear their stories,” Miller said. “I think it would be fantastic for the community to hear some of those stories and not just know JCCC as an institution but to know some of the people who work here.”

Instead of shooting these shows in the studio in Billington Library, subjects will be captured on video in their natural environment.

Of course, the fieldwork brings with it some new challenges.

“Everything we do in the studio we do a lot quicker, but it’s also a little boring,” Fisher said. “It’s not as visually appealing, so we’re trying to do more outside. But there’s always problems when you shoot outside.”

For example, an interview with Michael Rea, sustainability project manager, about recycling on campus was disrupted three times. The first time, workers were mudjacking nearby and it proved too loud to hear anything. The second time, it rained. The third time, a skunk wandered into the shot in an apparent effort to steal the show.

Inside JCCC – An introduction to the college’s buildings and the programs and people housed within them. Knudson created the concept.

“One of the things I hear all the time out in the community is, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you had this. I didn’t know you had that.’ We don’t want to be the best-kept secret, so my idea was to take each building and show not only the structure of the facility but show what’s in there, to showcase our equipment. We have a lot of fantastic stuff in there that other colleges don’t have or wouldn’t be able to have. We have great faculty, we have wonderful classrooms, and so this series just takes one building at a time and takes a look at the programs that are housed there.”

The shows begin with an overview of the building and then provide an examination of the people who work inside it.

Around the House – A series of how-to programs with practicality in mind. The college already has some of these programs in its repertoire, such as Cooking with Class and a recent flower-arranging addition. These offerings will

be expanded and skewed to audiences with little if any background on the topic.

Cooking shows can range from the very basic to the more complex. The new culinary building, due to open in August 2013, will contain a culinary theater with video equipment and a nearby production room so cooking demonstrations can be taped and broadcast on the cable channel.

“That new setup will make it great. We’re planning a lot more cooking shows,” Fisher said.

The next stepWhy continue to create work for a cable television station when YouTube allows 800 million users to see an uploaded video?

For one, YouTube may reach an international audience (70 percent of all YouTube traffic comes from outside the United States), but it doesn’t necessarily reach someone in Lenexa who just happens to be flipping through the channels.

“People stop after they’ve been zapping the channels,” Fisher said. “We get calls all the time from people wondering, ‘What aired last night at 7 p.m.?’ They want to know to watch it again, and they just stumbled across it at 7:15 or 7:30.”

To help remediate that problem, the station is attempting to create a programming schedule. Right now, the information listed in the newspaper and television guides and on the electronic information that runs next to the channel number simply says “educational programming.”

Specific show names at specific times will create more loyal viewers, Knudson said.

“There’s still a market for television,” Knudson said. “My generation isn’t as YouTube savvy as others, and we need to try to cover all media outlets as much as we possibly can. Additionally, we have such good penetration. Nearly every home in Johnson County has a television set. Not everybody goes and searches “JCCC” on YouTube.

“It’s a resource that a lot of colleges would kill for, and they don’t have it,” she said. “We need to take advantage of it, and leverage it so we can get the word out.”

JCCC TV starting three new seriesJCCC TV plays on channel 17 on SureWest and Time Warner and on channel 22 for Comcast users.

JCCC Voices is already on the air with two programs: Michael Rea on recycling and Mary Jean Billingsley on etiquette.

You can catch the recycling show at 4 a.m. Tuesdays, 2 p.m. Fridays and 8 p.m. Saturdays. The etiquette show airs at 8 p.m. Mondays, 3 a.m. Thursdays and 2 p.m. Thursdays.

A series called Around the House is slated to begin in January. And the series Inside JCCC is expected to begin in the fall.

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Melody Rayl became chair of the JCCC board of trustees in July 2012, but it’s only her most recent title at JCCC. Her full history of the institution goes

back decades, first as a student, then as faculty, and now as a part of the decision-making board of trustees. She said she sees her leadership role as a privilege.

“We have an incredibly talented board, and each and every one of the JCCC trustees truly has the best interests of our institution and our community at heart,” Rayl said. “With that in mind, I view my role as a facilitator, tasked with harnessing the collective wisdom and talents of our trustees to keep us moving in the right direction.”

Rayl has a 26-year history with JCCC. She graduated from the Regional Police Academy in 1986, and then continued at JCCC to earn her associate’s degree in administration of justice.

She began teaching as an adjunct instructor in the police academy in 1994 while she was an officer for the Overland Park Police Department.

In 2006, Rayl left OPPD to join JCCC as an assistant professor of criminal justice. She received her juris doctor from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School in 2007, and she became a practicing lawyer in 2008.

It might have meant a quiet end to Rayl’s relationship with JCCC had it not been for the 2008 retirement of long-time trustee Virginia Krebs. Rayl was selected to fill the seat vacated by Krebs, and in 2009, she kept the spot in the general election.

“I would never have dreamed 26 years ago when I first stepped foot on the campus of JCCC that I would one day be the chair of its governing body,” she said. “I believe it is a testament to the power of education and a belief that through learning, all things are possible.”

Former fellow trustee Don Weiss said of Rayl, “When the board was tasked with filling the unexpired term of retiring

trustee Virginia Krebs, Melody was an easy choice in spite of the very tough competition because of her professional background, former association with the college and dynamic personality. Melody is always there at a college function and she always invests the time to be well informed on the issues.”

Rayl said she considers the area’s economic recovery to be of “paramount interest as we move through the next year.”

Rayl said she believes the work of President Terry Calaway and the chairs who served before her have allowed JCCC to emerge from the economic downtown stronger and leaner.

“Our efforts to be fiscally responsible must continue so that the ground we gained is not given up. We are not out of the woods yet, and we must stay on task to ensure we are utilizing the most efficient means possible to achieve our goal – the success of our students,” she said.

Also on her to-do list as chair:

• Making sure JCCC is no longer “the best-kept secret” in Johnson County. “As an institution we continue to work to be the college of first choice rather than the college of last resort in Johnson County…Though changes occur on our campus every day – new buildings, new programs, new faculty initiatives – one thing remains steadfastly ingrained in everything we do as an institution: ‘Learning Comes First at JCCC.’”

• Making sure people vote in the spring board of trustees election, where four positions will appear on the ballot, including Rayl’s. “The outcome of that election will have a tremendous impact on the leadership of JCCC moving forward.”

Jon Stewart, trustee, said, “Rayl has a wonderful leadership style that encourages trustee input on the issues at hand. She is a strong leader and consensus builder. Her experience as an instructor brings a helpful perspective to the board.”

Rayl weaves role as chair into her years at the collegeBy Anne Christiansen-Bullers

Trustees chair Melody Rayl speaks to college staff in September during the annual State of the College address.

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A Knight in Kansas

In the mid-17th century, soldier/knights who supported the king in the English Civil War were known as Cavaliers.

What does that have to do with Johnson County Community College? In 1983, the students at JCCC chose the Cavalier as the college’s mascot. (The Cavalier beat the Cyclones, Kansans, Bulldogs and Brown Bears; although the Camels received the large number of write-in votes, it wasn’t enough to win.)

JCCC’s recent rebranding efforts revealed that students were not familiar with the college’s mascot – those who knew it was the Cavalier often weren’t sure what a Cavalier was. Therefore, the college resolved to pay better attention to its mascot and make a concerted effort to ensure students knew not only what a Cavalier was, but that they themselves were Cavaliers.

As a result, JCCC now has a living, breathing Cavalier on campus. The college’s Student Life and Leadership Development and Marketing Communications divisions purchased a Cavalier costume (in dark blue and gold, matching the college’s new official colors). After auditions, a student won the privilege of wearing the costume so the Cavalier can appear at college events and support the teams at games.

“We’re excited to have a strong icon to represent JCCC,” said Pam Vassar, assistant dean, Student Life. “We’re eager to make him visible and prominent both on campus and in our community.”

The knightly qualities of courage, loyalty and resolve make the Cavalier the perfect emblem for the college’s students and sports teams, especially now that he’s come to life.

By Julie Haas Jean Claude falls in step with Jonathan Borofsky’s Walking Man on the rooftop of the Commons Building.

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The legend of the JCCC Cavalier and the swordHow does an English soldier come to Kansas? Legend has it that a former history professor at JCCC owned a family heirloom – a sword that had once belonged to his ancestor, an English Cavalier, who had used it to defend his king in battle. Allegedly, years ago the professor lost the sword somewhere in the forested area on the college campus, and it hasn’t been seen since. There’s speculation that the ghost of the professor’s ancestor – the sword’s original owner – roams the woods searching for his missing blade. The Cavalier’s determined quest for his sword is reflected in the drive JCCC’s students and athletic teams show on the field, court and classroom.

Since the name of the valiant Cavalier, however, was lost in the mists of time, the Student Life office sponsored a contest to name the Cavalier, who will now be known as Jean Claude.

Jean ClaudeTo read about Jean Claude’s birth and meet his parents, go to jccc.edu and search for “Mascot in the making.”

And to find out how the Cavalier is adjusting to his life on campus, visit his Facebook page at www.facebook.

com/JeanClaudeTheCavalier or his Twitter page at twitter.com/JCCCs_Cavalier

Chef Eddie helps build college’s culinary reputationBy Melodee Blobaum

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It’s hard to imagine Johnson County Community College without a culinary team.

The college’s student chefs have been competing in national competitions for years, winning bronze, silver and gold medals at regional, national and even international competitions.

But back when Edward Adel, assistant professor, hospitality management, was a JCCC student, there was no team.

Adel, who holds associate’s degrees in culinary arts and hotel and restaurant management from JCCC, was among the first of the college’s students to compete in culinary competitions, and it took a bit of arm-twisting to do it.

In 1990, several students approached Jerry Vincent, then head of the chef apprentice and hospitality management programs at JCCC. They’d competed individually at some food competitions, including Adel’s silver-medal-winning effort at a Missouri Restaurant Association competition. They wanted to try their hand as a team at a competition in Chicago.

After some discussion, Vincent agreed to the idea. JCCC provided a van, an instructor to drive the van, and the costs of hotel rooms. Students had to pay for their own meals during the trip and find businesses willing to buy food for the competition.

Adel and four others made the trip – and brought home two gold medals, two silver and one bronze.

“One of the judges called Jerry and told him that we’d won more medals and recorded higher scores than anyone,” Adel recalled.

Still, it would be two years before JCCC hired John Joyce, who pushed to have a student culinary team. The first team hit the competition kitchens in 1992.

By that time, though, Adel had moved on to a different kind of competition. He tried out for the 1990 Culinary Olympic

team, one of three JCCC student chefs to do so. He and another JCCC student, Russ Meuhlburger, made the team, earning the right to serve as apprentices to the master chefs in international competitions.

As an apprentice, Adel worked with Richard Burr, who at the time worked at the St. Joseph (Mo.) Country Club. Burr has since moved to Seattle.

“Every five weeks, I flew to Grand Rapids (Mich.) for three days” to assist the team, Adel said.

By 1993, when he earned his hotel and restaurant management degree, Chef Eddie was working at the Westin Crown Center, where he worked off and on for 17 years. He started in the Brasserie, then moved to Trader Vic’s. He left town to be chef at the Omni International in Cleveland, but was lured back to Kansas City’s Westin Hotel by executive chef Felix Sturmer, now a professor, hospitality management, and culinary team coach at JCCC.

In 2005, Adel left the Westin for a couple of other gigs, including running his own restaurant in Lee’s Summit for three years. It was a neighborhood bar and grill, specializing in comfort food.

In 2008, Adel returned to his roots at JCCC as an assistant professor in the hospitality management program. It’s a natural fit for a chef who felt he was constantly teaching in his kitchen.

“Working in a kitchen, you want to make sure that the food is good and the cooks are learning,” he said.

This semester, he’s teaching food management, American regional cuisine, and garde mange, designed for students who want to learn cold food production and charcuterie.

And he hasn’t given up competitions. This summer, Adel won the Galbani Mozzarella Caprese Challenge, a recipe and cooking competition held at the American Culinary Federation National Convention in Orlando, Fla.

Chef Eddie prepares a cranberry and goat cheese salad with walnuts.

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When Navajo Code Talker Samuel F. Sandoval visited Johnson County Community College in 2010, he was the featured speaker for Veteran’s Day

activities on campus.

What no one knew then was that the lives of Sandoval, his wife and select staff members of JCCC would be bound together for years thereafter in the making of a documentary on his life.

The Heart of a Warrior is a feature-length documentary about Sandoval, one of the 70 remaining World War II veterans who developed a special code for military communication using the Navajo language as its base.

The film will premiere at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, in Yardley Hall of the Carlsen Center as part of the 2012 Veteran’s Day activities. The event, which includes a 6:30 p.m. reception, is free and open to the public. It is part of the Polsky Series, educational presentations that are underwritten by the Norman and Elaine Polsky Family

Supporting Foundation within the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation in partnership with the college.

The film is told in chronological order, starting with Sandoval’s early days with his great-grandfather. It then tells the story of Sandoval as a child at the Indian mission boarding school run by the Methodist church. Students were taught English and were forbidden to speak the Navajo language. In an irony not lost on the filmmakers, this prohibited language a decade later was the basis for a code that ultimately helped the United States win the war.

The hour-long documentary includes interviews with Sandoval recorded at JCCC and at his home on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico. It also includes photos preserved by Sandoval’s wife, Malula, and re-enactments of historical events portrayed by the friends and family of Ed Smith, who works in JCCC’s Center for American Indian Studies, and other volunteers such as JCCC personnel and students from Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence.

‘The Heart of a Warrior’JCCC staff creates documentary of WWII Navajo Code Talker

By Anne Christiansen-Bullers

Paul Kyle goes over the script with narrator Tim Tallchief, an Osage Indian from Oklahoma.

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Paul Kyle, dean, student services and success, started the script’s story, and as it progressed, Smith and Sean Daley, associate professor, anthropology, and director of the Center for American Indian Studies, became co-writers. Kyle said he has written a few screenplays and made a hobby of studying World War II, so he had experience with the historical and literary aspects of the story.

It was Smith and Daley who helped with the cultural context. “There are some things you just can’t know if you aren’t a part of that culture,” Smith said.

“We haven’t made videos before, per se, but we do work with Natives every day in this office,” Daley said. “We wanted to put a product out there that would make Sam and the other Code Talkers proud.”

The video expertise came from Chris Horvat, senior videographer, and Barrett Beasley, video producer, video production at JCCC.

“This was a once-in-a-lifetime project,” Beasley said. “You are doing the things that made you want to get into the field of video production in the first place…and Sam was amazing. His default state is happy.”

Beasley, Horvat, Smith, Daley and Kyle, along with an interpreter, visited Sandoval in his home in July 2011. Each wall was a museum to the Code Talkers, full of photos of Sandoval.

They took Sandoval around the reservation and recorded his thoughts. Horvat said it was a little like taking someone’s grandpa to where he grew up. The stories flowed as the places filled with memories.

Smith even picked up a souvenir while the crew traipsed through the ruins of Sandoval’s childhood home: a small baby shoe Sandoval thinks might have been his nearly 90 years ago. The shoe sits in a bookshelf next to Smith’s desk.

“I think it was essential that we were there,” Daley said. “To see where someone grew up, to make that connection to where they’re from, that’s important for a project like this,” Daley said.

Kyle said he thinks that Sandoval will be proud of the film. “And it’s a story that needs to be told now. There are not very many (Code Talkers) alive still, and it’s an important story to tell.”

Film factsA few facts about The Heart of a Warrior, a documentary about Navajo Code Talker Samuel L. Sandoval created by the staff of JCCC:

Films, even low-budget ones, take money. This one was funded from alumni donations, the JCCC president’s special projects budget, small amounts from department budgets and hundreds of hours of volunteer labor.

Hollywood tried to tell the story of the Code Talkers in the 2002 movie Windtalkers starring Nicholas Cage. “You didn’t get a real sense of who these guys (the Code Talkers) were in that movie, though,” Kyle said.

In discussions with Sandoval, Horvat learned that Sandoval had served on the same island as Horvat’s grandfather – a South Pacific island called Bougainville. Although they were not there at the same time (Sandoval was there first as a Marine, then Horvat’s grandfather followed as a solider in the Army), Horvat found the personal connection interesting.

Taking photos or recording sacred places is prohibited in the Navajo culture, which proved challenging when making a documentary. Horvat and Barrett Beasley said they respected Sandoval’s wishes on what they could shoot.

Re-enactments were a family affair for Smith. All four of his children were used for scenes depicting Sandoval’s formative years, and his mother-in-law was drafted to play the schoolteacher.

The film was the first major “tapeless” shoot for the JCCC video production department. From their motel room in New Mexico, they transferred footage to backup hard drives each evening.

Kyle said he hopes to enter the film in some film festivals in order to introduce the documentary to a wider audience.

“This is not just Navajo history, it’s American history,” Smith said. “The role these men had in the war saved thousands of lives.”

The code developed by the Navajo Code Talkers was never broken. The U.S. government finally declassified the code after the Vietnam War, and examples of the code’s words and phrases are now on the Internet.

The crew films Sandoval near his home in New Mexico.

Samuel L. Sandoval

14 | The Open Petal

Finding your strengthsStudents partake in innovative program to help them in academics and life

By Anne Christiansen-Bullers

Think of “strengths training” for students at JCCC, and you might picture a weightlifting class in the gym. But one building over, a different sort of

“strengths training” is taking place.

From its second-floor locale in the Student Center, the Career Development Center is introducing students to the concept of identifying and maximizing their strengths as they embark on their academic and career paths.

The program’s curriculum is based on the best-selling Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath and the accompanying assessment developed by psychologist Donald O. Clifton. Called “the father of strengths-based psychology,” Clifton developed an assessment program that allowed individuals to identify their strengths, then build on them and integrate them into their daily lives.

Students sign up for the class, report to the Career Development Center at the appointed time and first learn the tenets of Clifton’s philosophy.

Crystal Stokes, career information specialist, said Clifton wanted to help people focus on what they do well instead of trying to fix their perceived shortcomings. That comes as a welcome relief for many students.

“Once the participants learn their strengths, they gain greater confidence to make their career and education decisions. They go away feeling motivated and inspired, thinking, ‘Wow, there is something that I’m good at,’” she said.

In the few days between the first and second sessions, students take an assessment that identifies their strengths. They bring the results back to the workshop, and they discuss with each other the validity of the strengths and how

Career specialist Crystal Stokes helps students figure out their top three strengths.

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How to discover your strengthsIf you’re interested in finding out your own strengths, JCCC has a way to help.

For students, stop by the Career Development Center or call 913-469-3870.

For other individuals, especially those seeking a strengths-related connection to the workplace, contact a business solutions director at the Center for Business and Technology at JCCC at 913-469-3845 for a fee-based program.

they’ve manifested throughout their lives.

They’re also given handouts that explain to them the ways that their specific strengths could be used in any classroom and while studying.

“A lot of our professors are incorporating strengths study in their curriculum, either in one or two class sessions or across the entire semester,” Stokes said.

One such instructor is Kit Gorrell-Frankenfield, who is an adjunct professor in English as well as career information specialist in the center.

In one of her composition classes, she assigned the students to take the assessment and write a reflection paper on their discoveries.

Ada Martinez-Medina was a student in that class. She works full-time during the day, takes classes at JCCC in the evening, and tries to find time to spend with her two children and her husband.

Martinez-Medina’s own childhood was not easy. She struggled to help her single mother take care of nine children. As the oldest, Ada had too many responsibilities to follow her dreams. She’s trying to follow them now, so she was excited to see what the assessment would say about her.

Her No. 1 strength was communication, which the workshop materials told her made her a good storyteller and a charismatic energizer of others.

“I took the test once, and I thought, ‘Is this really who I am?’ So I took the assessment again, and it was pretty much the same. So the answer is, ‘I guess so. This is who I am,’” she said.

Her additional strengths of consistency and adaptability have served her well as a working mom, she said, because she gets her homework done (consistency) but she’s not completely sidetracked by a child’s request (adaptability).

“I want to progress in life, but at first, I didn’t know enough about myself to know how to do that. I knew education was the key, but beyond that, I didn’t know,” she said. “Now I do.”

Stokes said that’s what she likes about the Strengths Finder assessment. “It really is transformative.”

Achiever Most engaged when staying busy; strong stamina; good work ethic.

Activator Great at getting projects started; turning thoughts into action.

Adaptability Doesn’t get riled up at sudden changes in plans; work wells under pressure.

Analytical Good at seeing all the factors that might affect a situation.

Arranger Can easily put things into logical order; very organized, but flexible.

Belief Takes firm stands on issues.Command Great at taking charge; comfortable making

decisions.Communication Can easily put thoughts into words.Competition Constant drive to be the best.Connectedness Can see links between all things.Consistency Always fair; good at setting rules and following

them.Context Can easily see how the past brought us to the

present.Deliberative Anticipates obstacles; thinks before leaping. Developer Motivated by others’ improvement.Discipline Works in an orderly fashion; great at following

directions.Empathy Good at sensing others’ emotions; easy to work with;

inoffensive.Focus Great at taking direction and following through.Futuristic Inspires others; can “see” the finished product.Harmony Seeks logical consensus; good at solving conflict.Ideation Can brainstorm like no other.Includer Ensures that everyone’s voice is heard.Individualization Easily sees unique qualities about everyone.Input Great at collecting and archiving information.Intellection Can tie together random ideas and facts.Learner Continuous and fast learner.Maximizer Constantly seeking to improve projects and

processes.Positivity Contagious enthusiasm; keeps everyone upbeat.Relator Great at building relationships and working with a

team.Responsibility Takes mental ownership of projects; always follows

through.Restorative Great problem-solving skills. Self-Assurance Comfortable taking command.Significance Very independent; doesn’t need a lot of assurance.Strategic Great with Plan B’s and finding patterns and back-

up plans quickly.Woo Great at meeting new people and breaking the ice..

The Strengths-Finder approach identifies a person’s top three strengths and encourages that person to build upon them. It is based on the 32 strengths below.

16 | The Open Petal

Audrey Langworthy has been named by the Johnson County Community College Foundation as the Johnson Countian of the Year for 2012. She will be

honored at the Foundation’s 26th annual Some Enchanted Evening gala on Nov. 10 at the Overland Park Marriott Hotel.

In addition, BNSF Railway will receive the Corporate Citizen Award. This will be the first time the JCCC Foundation has recognized a corporation at Some Enchanted Evening.

The Johnson Countian of the Year and the Corporate Citizen Award will be presented during the gala, a black-tie event that includes a gourmet dinner, entertainment and dancing. Proceeds from the event support student scholarships at JCCC. Over the past 26 years, the Foundation has raised more than $5 million for the college’s scholarship program through Some Enchanted Evening.

“The college is pleased to recognize both Audrey Langworthy and BNSF Railway in this way,” said Terry Calaway, JCCC president. “Sen. Langworthy has had a long and distinguished career serving Johnson County, the metropolitan area and the state of Kansas. And BNSF has been a major contributor to both the college and the county’s economy. We are a better and stronger community because of both their efforts.”

Audrey LangworthyLangworthy served in the Kansas State Senate from 1984 through 2001; she served as chairman of the assessment and taxation committee from 1992 through 2000. She was also on the National Conference of State Legislators, serving on the executive committee from 1997 through 2000. She also served on the Prairie Village City Council, 1981-1983.

A former teacher in the Shawnee Mission School District, Langworthy, a graduate of the University of Kansas, was named to KU’s Women’s Hall of Fame in 2008. The JCCC Foundation’s Board of Directors Leadership Scholarship was named in her honor in 2005. In 2004, she won the Patron Award from the Shawnee Mission Education Foundation and was also named Volunteer of the Year by the Volunteer Center of Johnson County. She received the Regional Leadership Award from the Mid-America Regional Council in 1999, the Kansas City Spirit Award in 1996, the Prairie Village Distinguished Public Service Award in 1995, and recognition as a Consensus Achiever from Kansas City Consensus in 1993 for her leadership in passing the Bistate Cultural District legislation, which made possible the restoration of Union Station.

Among many other organizations, Langworthy worked with

Audrey Langworthy, BnSF Railway honored at JCCC’s Some Enchanted EveningAudrey Langworthy’s contributions have benefited Johnson County, the Kansas City area and Kansas.

By Julie Haas

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the United Way of Greater Kansas City and served as chair of the 2011 committee. She is a member of the Advancement Board of the University of Kansas Medical Center and the Muriel I. Kauffman Women’s Heart Center Advisory Council at St. Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, and she is on the University of Kansas Edwards Campus Board of Advisers, the St. Luke’s South Hospital Board, and the JCCC Foundation Board, serving on the Some Enchanted Evening Committee from 2002 through 2010.

Langworthy has served on two national boards – the Youth Volunteer Corp of America and the National Board of Governors of the American Red Cross. On the Red Cross board she helped the former president of the Red Cross, former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, reorganize Red Cross Blood Services in response to the HIV (AIDS) crisis.

Langworthy has also served on the Community Foundation of Johnson County board of directors; the Kansas State Historical Society Board; the Heart of America United Way board of directors; the Reach Healthcare Foundation advisory board; Governor Kathleen Sebelius’ Governor’s Education Policy Team; the Shawnee Mission Medical Center Foundation board of directors; the Junior League of Kansas City (president 1976-1977); the Kansas City Eye Bank (president 1980-1982); the Committee for Excellence in Shawnee Mission Schools; and on the PTAs of Shawnee Mission East High School, Indian Hills Junior High School and Highlands Grade School.

BNSF RailwayJCCC first entered into partnership discussions with BNSF Railway in 1986. The result is now the largest railroad training facility in the country, founded on the college campus. Originally intended to train only BNSF employees, the training center over the years has come to serve other railroads as well. As many as 14,000 railroad employees come to JCCC each year for training from the United States and Mexico.

As part of its agreement with BNSF and the city of Overland Park, JCCC built the Industrial Training Center on campus (dedicated in 1988) to house the railroad’s national training programs and provide additional office and classroom space for the college. An expansion to the ITC that opened in 1993 provided more space for both BNSF and JCCC.

The college was awarded a presidential citation by Vice President George Bush in 1987, recognizing the partnership as a successful model of cooperation between education and industry.

In 1993-94, the college and BNSF established the National Academy of Railroad Sciences (NARS) at JCCC, leading to the first associate degree programs in railroad operations in the nation. Approximately 500 students are enrolled each year in credit programs leading to associate of applied science degrees and vocational certificates in railroad electronics, railroad industrial technology and railroad operations.

The economic impact on the community and the city of Overland Park as a result of the partnership between JCCC and BNSF is about $60 million, created by the thousands of students who come to campus for training and who need to book hotel rooms, take their meals in restaurants and shop at local stores.

BNSF has supported the college in other ways as well. In 1986 the BNSF Foundation instituted a grant to support faculty awards for research and teaching excellence; five professors are honored each year. In 2004, JCCC received a gift of $750,000 from the BNSF Foundation. The gift, one of the largest the BNSF Foundation had ever given, was used to help construct the Regnier Center on the JCCC campus.

Through events like Some Enchanted Evening, the JCCC Foundation has helped thousands of students pursue their dreams of a college education. Students with exceptional needs, such as single parents and displaced workers, and talented students in all areas of study benefit from Foundation scholarships.

Former HonoreesPast Johnson Countians of the Year are David Wysong, 2010; Terry and Peggy Dunn, 2009; Fred Logan, 2008; Dick and Barbara Shull,

2007; Norman and Elaine Polsky, 2006; Ed Eilert, 2005; Robert D. Regnier, 2004; Walter Hiersteiner, 2003; Mary Birch, 2002;

Drue Jennings, 2001; Betty Keim, 2000; Steve Rose, 1999; Charles J. Carlsen, 1998; George and Floriene Lieberman, 1997;

Dick Bond, 1996; William Dunn, 1995; Adele Hall, 1994; SuEllen Fried, 1993; James P. Sunderland, 1992; Stan and Shirley Rose, 1991;

John H. Robinson, 1990; Paul H. Henson, 1989; Ben Craig, 1988; and Robert H. Meneilly, 1987. All previous Johnson Countians of the

Year were honored in 2011 for the 25th anniversary of Some Enchanted Evening.

Connect with Alumni/FoundationFor more alumni stories and to find out about events sponsored by the JCCC Foundation, visit jccc.edu/foundation.

18 | The Open Petal

With autism diagnoses increasing exponentially, parents, teachers and health professionals who work with children and adults with autism often

have more questions than answers.

At least some of their questions will be answered when “Beyond the Diagnosis: Autism Across the Lifespan” returns to Johnson County Community College for a fifth year on Friday, Nov. 30, and Saturday, Dec. 1.

The conference is co-sponsored by JCCC and the Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training (K-CART) at the University of Kansas and runs from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. both days at JCCC’s Regnier Center.

Some of the top researchers in the field of autism will be on

hand, leading sessions that get down to the nuts and bolts of diagnosing the disorder and then finding strategies to help people with autism succeed.

“This conference may be the only opportunity some families have to come in contact with researchers and experts in the field to ask questions one-on-one,” said Sean Swindler, director of community program development and evaluation for K-CART.

Not only that, the conference gives families the opportunity to compare notes, discover that they’re not alone in dealing with particular issues and learn what others have done to cope.

Friday’s keynote speaker will be Scott Bellini, who will talk

KU teams with JCCC

on conference

that examines

autism

By Melodee Blobaum

Michael John Carley

Scott Bellini

Scott Bellini will talk about social skills; Michael John Carley will address Asperger’s.

The Open Petal | 19

about building social relationships for youth with autism. Bellini, who will speak at 9 a.m., is the director of the Social Skills Research Clinic and a faculty member at Indiana University in Bloomington. Bellini also is the author of Building Social Relationships.

Saturday’s keynote speaker will be Michael John Carley. His address, at 9 a.m., will be about Asperger’s in the workplace.

Carley, author of Asperger’s From the Inside Out, is executive director of Asperger Syndrome Training and Employment Partnership. He and his then 4-year-old son were both diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in late 2000.

He will cover diversity and inclusion strategies of major corporations and initiatives created by ASTEP to assist companies with Asperger’s syndrome employees.

K-CART’s Swindler said adults with Asperger’s can be excellent employees with some accommodations. They excel at tasks that require keeping track of details, and they’re unfailingly honest. Building on those strengths may require accommodations like reducing noise and distractions in the workplace – which, Swindler said, can also help the employees around them be more productive and successful.

“With the accommodations, the company gains an employee they wouldn’t have had otherwise and strengthens their business or company,” he said.

At the other end of the lifespan, Swindler said it’s now possible to diagnose autism when a child is as young as 18 months of age. Diagnosing autism earlier leads to dramatically improved outcomes for the child, he said.

About one in 88 children has been diagnosed with autism, and the growth in diagnoses makes it ever more imperative that families, schools and the health care industry work together to help the children succeed.

Once the child has been diagnosed, parents by necessity become active advocates for their child.

“It’s a hidden disability,” Swindler said. “They don’t look different, and it’s critical for parents to be active advocates or the child won’t get the treatment that’s needed.”

Research is identifying more and more ways to help people with autism succeed. But insurance doesn’t always cover such treatments and reduced state budgets for education and disabilities sometimes means that funding falls behind what research shows to be best practices.

Several sessions at the conference examine employment issues. Other tracks include behavioral supports and social skills, early childhood, community living, transition and research and information.

Registration is $20 for students for one or both days; $60 for individuals for one day or $90 for both days; and $140 for one day or $250 for both days for professionals with CEUs.

For more information about the conference, or to register, go to www.ksautismconference.org.

Session highlightsAmong the sessions being offered during the conference:

Friday, Nov. 30• Asperger’s Traits of Thomas Jefferson

• Autism Insurance Reform: Is Kansas Being Left Behind?

• CDDO Overview to Services in Johnson County for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

• Clinical Application of Functional Analysis Methodology

• Communicating with Augmentative and Alternative Communication: One Person’s Story

• Designed Especially for Her: Strategies for Girls with Autism

• Do It Yourself Autism Technology

• Eating Behaviors Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: What Happens When the “Beige Diet” Translates into Overweight

• Essential Components of a Positive Behavior Support Plan

• Examination of a Strategy to Enhance Learning using Visual Sentences (ELVS) to Teach Reading and Language Comprehension to Children with Autism

• Impact of a Contextual Intervention on Child Participation and Parental Competence among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

• Project RISE (Reaching for Independent Successful Employment)

• Resources on Effective Practices for Supporting Families of Young Children with Challenging Behavior

• Strategies for Supporting Persons With ASD

• Video Modeling as an Agent to Increase Access: Guidelines for Implementation

• Working Memory Problems in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders, ADHD and Disorders: A New Intervention

Saturday, Dec. 1• Creating Function-Based Behavior Intervention Plans as a Team:

What to Include and How to Work Together

• Developing Talents: Charting a Course for Employment

• Development and Evaluation of the Online and Applied System for Intervention Skills (OASIS) Training Program for Hispanic Parents of Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

• Growing up with Asperger’s Syndrome, from a Mother’s and Child’s Perspectives

• Sexual Assault and Autism Spectrum Disorder

• The Mission Project: A Unique and Growing Independent Living Option for Adults with Autism

• The Search for Biomarkers and Neurological Impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorders

• Tips and Tricks: Helping Kids Have Good Oral Health

20 | The Open Petal

It isn’t often that the White House asks for your help to further your profession. But that’s exactly what happened to Thomas Vincent, a recent graduate of the HITECH

program at JCCC, and he happily accepted.

Vincent traveled to Washington to attend a White House discussion on the future of electronic medical records. The goal was to provide feedback on how health information technology can help improve the quality of patient care and how that improved quality can lead to better patient health.

Vincent received his certificate from JCCC in Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) during the program’s first phase in 2010. Even though he already had a bachelor’s degree in computer systems and a master’s degree in management of information systems, he went back to JCCC to explore career

options in health care.

“I had been looking into health care for some time, and after doing some research, health care seemed to be the growing field,” Vincent said.

One reason for the field’s expansive growth is the HITECH Act of 2009. The act mandated that every American have an electronic medical record by 2014, and those records needed to maintain a “meaningful use” in the health care system.

Helping doctors in 78 different family practices achieve that “meaningful use” is now Vincent’s career. He was hired by the Kansas Foundation for Medical Care, a quality improvement organization with contracts from health care companies, the Department of Health and Human Services and the state of Kansas.

Making medical recordsHITECH alum gives his input at the White HouseBy Anne Christiansen-Bullers

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While the career switch to health care was deliberate for Vincent, “the road to the White House totally caught me off guard,” he said.

Deb Elder, HIT grant program director, nominated Vincent for the event. Organizers were looking for a former student who had been hired into health information technology (HIT) to represent the Midwest.

“I certainly felt excited, privileged and honored to be nominated,” Vincent said.

In Washington, participants heard Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services and former Kansas governor, speak of the successes and challenges of electronic medical records. Then they attended breakout sessions focusing on different aspects of health information.

The organizers asked the invited professionals to share what had worked and to provide suggestions on how the government might better be a resource for change.

“It was phenomenal. I heard doctors in urban communities [and] from rural areas talk about how they managed the challenge of not having the resources they needed” while

still accomplishing their goals, Vincent said.

Energized from the ideas, Vincent returned to work and suggested an in-service presented by a consultant specializing in change, paired with a physician who had successfully adopted the EMR process.

It was an idea he had considered before the D.C. trip, but one that became all the more plausible and necessary after his return.

“What makes electronic medical records successful is the human factor,” Vincent said. “We need to address that.”

He said he loves the empowerment the Kansas Foundation has given him to try out new ideas.

“It’s fun; it’s challenging; it’s a blank slate,” Vincent said. “We get to create and be the pioneers.”

Connect with CBTFor more stories and information about the Center for Business and Technology, visit www.centerforbusiness.org.

Thomas Vincent contributed to a discussion on the future of electronic medical records.

Jazz Winterlude features world-renowned artists,

top KC talent By Diane Carroll

Julian Lage

Deborah Brown

Eldar

22 | The Open Petal

Jazz Winterlude will make its annual return in January at Johnson County Community

College, again showcasing some of the best jazz musicians around Kansas City and beyond.

The two-day festival, which will take place in the Carlsen Center on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 18-19, features Julian Lage, a Grammy-nominated guitarist; Deborah Brown, a world-renowned vocalist and Eldar, a New York-based pianist. More than half a dozen area jazz artists and ensembles also will perform, including the David Basse Orchestra and the Megan Birdsall Quartet.

“For us, Jazz Winterlude is all about the music,” organizer Doreen Maronde said. “We want students to have the opportunity to work with professionals; we want the audience to sample new things as well as hear their favorites. And we think the strength of the Kansas City musical community gives us a unique opportunity to do this.”

The 2013 Jazz Winterlude will be free to audience members, thanks to contributions from community supporters. Seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The festival will open at 8:30 a.m. Friday, when students from area school bands will participate in day-long clinics and classes taught by local musicians. Selected school bands will perform from 4 to 5 p.m. in Yardley Hall.

Performing Friday evening will be Julian Lage and Deborah Brown. Eldar will perform Saturday evening.

Lage grew up in California and gained pivotal early exposure as a protégé of legendary vibraphonist Gary Burton. He was nominated for a Grammy for “Best Contemporary Jazz Album” for his debut Sounding Point. Lage’s follow-up effort, Gladwell, continued to reflect his wide-ranging talents. He has recorded or performed with Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Mark O’Connor and many others.

Deborah Brown is a Kansas City native who has performed at festivals and in concert halls throughout Europe. Growing up, she absorbed some of the famous jazz sounds in Kansas City before being invited to perform abroad. Her career took off in Europe and she eventually settled in the Netherlands. Her most recent CD, All Too Soon, was recorded in Kansas City. Brown just returned from a stint in Holland and from performances in Washington, D.C. and Seattle.

Eldar Djangirov also claims Kansas City as his musical home. As a 12-year-old, he appeared on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz show on National Public Radio and garnered praise from masters such as Dr. Billy Taylor and Dave Brubeck. Since then, he has forged a career playing festivals and concerts in North America, Europe and Asia. He has released four trio albums and, most recently, a solo album titled Three Stories.

January 18 and 19, 2013Free for 2013!!

Thank You, Community Donors!

Friday 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Clinics and classes 4-5 p.m. Performance of selected school bands with their clinicians 5-7 p.m. Dinner options 7-7:50 p.m. David Basse Orchestra ..................................... Yardley Hall 8-9 p.m. Julian Lage Duo ................................................ Yardley Hall 9:15-10:15 p.m. Deborah Brown ................................................. Yardley Hall

Saturday 1-1:50 p.m. Megan Birdsall Quartet .................................Polsky Theatre Michael O’Shiver (harp) ......................................Recital Hall 2-2:50 p.m. Everette DeVan/Chris Hazelton

Group (B3 organs) ........................................Polsky Theatre Alice Jenkins (vocal/piano) .................................Recital Hall 3-3:50 p.m. Diverse Quartet .............................................Polsky Theatre Candace Evans Trio ...........................................Recital Hall 4-4:50 p.m. New Red Onion Jazz Babies ........................Polsky Theatre Alaturka (Turkish jazz) ........................................Recital Hall 5-7 p.m. Dinner options 7-7:50 p.m. Killer Strayhorn ................................................. Yardley Hall 8-10 p.m. Eldar ................................................................. Yardley Hall

To learn more: www.jccc.edu/jazzwinterlude

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A c e l e b r a t i o n o f a r t

24 | The Open Petal

More than 500 people celebrated the growth of the college’s Oppenheimer art collection at a gala in September that

honored the couple who made it all happen.

The event recognized Marti and Tony Oppenheimer, who have donated more than 150 works of art to the college and its

Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art during the last 20 years. Much of the collection was on view that evening, including

15 new gifts that will be on exhibit through Feb. 3.

The Oppenheimers grew up in the Kansas City area and now live in Beverly Hills, Calif. Over the years, they teamed up with

Bruce Hartman, the museum’s executive director, to build the collection. It now is valued at well over $10 million.

Marti and Tony Oppenheimer with Nick Cave’s Soundsuit, 2005, and Cave’s Soundsuit, 2011.

The Open Petal | 25

Concert pianist Jung-Ja Kim and Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art architect Kyu Sung Woo with donors Marti and Tony Oppenheimer and Bruce Hartman, the museum’s executive director. In the background are Elizabeth Murray’s Landing, 1999, and Kerry James Marshall’s Untitled (Altgeld Garden), 1995.

Gala patrons Kanon and Rachael Cozad and Eileen Cohen in the atrium.

New York-based artists Ian Davis and Dana Schutz with David Cateforis, University of Kansas professor of American art, modern and contemporary art. The Oppenheimer Collection includes Schutz’s Swimming, Smoking, Crying, 2009, which landed on the cover of the November 2011 issue of Art in America.

Los Angeles-based artists Eric Yahnker and Allison Schulnik.

Quixotic Fusion, inventive artists from various disciplines, performed during the evening.

C A M P U S L I F EDatebookNov. 9-11 and Nov. 16-18, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, presented by the college’s theatre department. Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Polsky Theatre. Free

Nov. 10, Saturday, Some Enchanted Evening, annual black-tie fundraiser for JCCC Foundation, Overland Park Marriott. Tickets and info at jccc.edu/foundation.

Nov. 12, Monday, 11 a.m. in observance of Veterans Day, Taps performed by Ron Stinson, professor of music, on the hill outside the Student Center and followed by Soldier Boy, performed by Ed Smith, researcher with the college’s Center for American Indian Studies.

Nov. 13, Tuesday, 2 p.m., Veterans Speak Panel. Student veterans representing various branches of the military share their experiences, answer questions from audience. SCI 222

Nov. 14, Wednesday, 7 p.m., Polsky Series event. Premiere of The Heart of a Warrior, a documentary produced by JCCC staff on Navajo Code Talker Samuel Sandoval, a World War II veteran who helped develop a code for military communication based on the Navajo language. Preceded by 6:30 p.m. reception. Yardley Hall. Free

Nov. 30 to Dec. 1, Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Beyond the Diagnosis: Autism Across the Lifespan. Keynote speaker Michael John Carley addresses Asperger’s in the workplace. www.ksautismconference.org

Dec. 4, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., Swing Eighths Like Straight Eighths. The college’s Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble perform, Polsky Theatre. Free

Dec. 5, Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., Deck the Hall Choir Concert. The JCCC Chamber Choir and MadRegalia will perform. Polsky Theatre. Free

Dec. 7, Friday, 7 p.m., Polsky Series event, Windows on Culture, Doorways to Understanding: Viewing China through Architecture, by Jerome Silbergeld, professor of Chinese Art History, Princeton University. Preceded by 6:30 p.m. reception. Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Hudson Auditorium. Free

Jan. 18, Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 7 to 10:15 p.m., and Jan. 19, Saturday, from 1 to 4:50 p.m. and 7 to 10 p.m., Jazz Winterlude, local and national performers. Carlsen Center. Free

singer sara evans8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30Yardley Hall

Bowfire8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 15Yardley Hall

Moulin Rouge® 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27Yardley Hall

On stage

For tickets and information about these and other events sponsored by the Performing Arts Series, visit jccc.edu/TheSeries or call the college box office at 913-469-4445.

Brian Calvin(American, b. 1969)Pale Moonlight, 2000Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36”

At the NermanThese works will be on view at the museum through Feb. 3. They were among more than 15 new gifts unveiled Sept. 29 during a gala honoring donors Marti and Tony Oppenheimer.

26 | The Open Petal

Angel Otero(American, b. 1981) Let Water Run, 2010Oil on canvas 84 x 72”

Dana Schutz (American, b. 1976) Yawn 2, 2012 Oil on canvas, 23 x 20”

cinderella storyGladys Erude wore rags and often had nothing to eat as a child in Kenya; now she’s studying early childhood education.

Mary Pat spechtThe former standout player, who graduated last spring, is enjoying a full-ride basketball scholarship at Drake University in Des Moines.

Mayor and professorIn these tough economic times many people hold down a second job. Then there’s Ken Sissom. The JCCC associate professor of administration of justice also does a little admin-istrating elsewhere … as mayor of Merriam.

the right pathTaylor Sulgrove credits her professors for helping her figure out that she wants to be a teacher.

Matthew KellerThis interior design student started his own business before he graduated.

Online ExclusivesDid you miss one of these stories? No problem. Just go to jccc.edu, type in the search words highlighted below and click the top link.

Caffeine fixNow you’ve got another way to satisfy that caffeine craving. The Vibe coffee kiosk opened this semester on the second floor of the CLB. It’s open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and serves coffee, espresso drinks, pastries, cookies and sandwiches.

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Photo by Susan McSpadden

28 | The Open Petal

The women’s program, under the direction of Ben Conrad, has completed three straight 30-plus win seasons, accomplished by just one other coach in Kansas Jayhawk Conference history. The Lady Cavaliers have also won 13 consecutive Region VI titles and have nine NJCAA Tournament appearances, including each of the previous three seasons.

The JCCC men’s portfolio is just as impressive. Under the direction of Hall of Fame coach Mike Jeffers, his Cavaliers have appeared in 13 straight Region VI title games, winning seven times. He has also led four teams to the NJCAA Tournament, including last season, winning titles in 2001 and 2009. Johnson County is just one of five schools in NJCAA Division II men’s basketball to have captured two national championships.

As the teams enter the 2012-2013 season the question facing both squads is: Can Johnson County live up to the high expectations and preseason hype and make a run at a national championship?

“Our expectations don’t change,” Conrad said. “We are going to work and prepare every single day, with a sense of urgency and purpose. We are going to focus on the process of daily improvement and on doing things the right way. If we take care of that, success will follow.”

Jeffers says his team also maintains the same ultimate goal, and that is to contend for a national championship.

“We have established a great culture of success, and we want to carry that into this season,” Jeffers said. “We expect to compete for championships. We have the talent and depth for this team to be good. Right now we just need to see if all the pieces to our puzzle fit. If we can play every game with our guys on the page, pulling for each other, then I like our chances.”

Another question facing both coaches each season is: How are they going to replace last year’s graduated star or stars?

For the Lady Cavaliers, it is not a replacing; it is a complete overhaul. Nine players from last year’s roster are now playing at the NCAA D-I or D-II programs, and four were

Basketball coaches have teams headed in right directionBy Tyler Cundith

Anticipation swirls around the Johnson County Community College basketball programs as both prepare to

begin the 2012-2013 campaigns, and fans have good reason to be excited. Both teams have built a tradition of success

rivaled by few programs in the country.

selected as All-America performers.

“We are basically starting from scratch, so there are more questions than answers as we prepare to begin the season,” Conrad said. “But there is talent. We’ve got some playmakers. We have high-character kids who will work and improve throughout the year. It is an exciting time for us because I am sure some people outside our program will doubt what type of team we can field after losing that much. We always like it when people doubt us.”

Conrad does have three true sophomores on his roster this year, and one redshirt freshman who was with the program all last year. All four will be key players this year.

Guard Kelsey Knox and forward Kathleen Brisbane return from last year. Both saw playing time as freshmen, but Conrad expects both to elevate their contribution this year. He says Knox is a natural leader, and Brisbane could be a dominant player.

Guard Juanita Robinson is the returner who redshirted last year rehabilitating an injury. Conrad said her attitude and approach during her redshirt year was impressive and really showed his staff a lot about her character. Robinson is also a talented and versatile player who could be one of

S P O R T S

Ben Conrad

Ben Conrad

Kathleen Brisbane

the best in the Conrad era.

Conrad also landed a key transfer from the University of Oklahoma in Dashawn Harden. Regarded as one of the top point guard prospects in the 2011 recruiting class, Harden returns home after helping the Sooners to a 21-13 record last season. A graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas, Harden was one of the top guard prospects following her senior year and was voted The Kansas City Star’s metro player of the year in 2011.

“Dashawn had some big moments for the Sooners last year, and she is just a tremendous talent,” Conrad said. “Her basketball IQ is off the charts, and she is fun to watch on the floor.”

Jeffers’ squad didn’t get hit as hard number-wise, but gone is one of the more impactful players to come through the program. Justin Leathers left for Texas-Pan American after becoming just the fourth player in JCCC history to score 1,000 points and collect more than 500 rebounds in a career. Five other players also graduated, leaving Jeffers with six returning players, including one redshirt. Eight newcomers have also been added, and Jeffers feels he has a roster that provides more flexibility than last season.

“Out of our 14 players, we only have two that are strictly a one position player, so we have interchangeable parts,” Jeffers said. “We are also more physical and better skilled at the guard position.”

Leading the way for the Cavaliers is Christian Hildebrandt, a 6-foot 3-inch guard/forward. Jeffers expects Hildebrandt to step up the way Leathers did last season and take over as the leader of this group.

“Christian will be asked to do a lot of things this year; hopefully he will have a breakout season,” Jeffers said.

Both Conrad and Jeffers know a lot must take place before they can talk of cutting down the nets next March, and each understands numerous challenges that stand between JCCC and another successful season. But both also know how to mold and lead championship teams. Both coaches will try to blend youth and experience together in an attempt to get their programs back to the NJCAA National Tournament. It’s a challenge both look forward to.

Follow the teams at jccc.edu/cavs.

Mike Jeffers

Christian Hildebrandt

Kent Shelley

Baseball coach shelley chosen for national hall of fame By Tyler Cundith

Johnson County Community College head baseball coach Kent Shelley will receive his profession’s highest honor, as he has been selected into the American Baseball Coaches Association Class of 2013 Hall of Fame, along with five others. Shelley is the first coach from the state of Kansas, at any level, to be inducted into the ABCA Hall of Fame.

Shelley, along with Bill Baker (Northern Kentucky), Dan Gallagher (Fordham), Woody Hunt (Cumberland), Ralph Rago (UC-Davis) and Joe Roberts (Armstrong Atlantic State), will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Friday, Jan. 4, during the ABCA/Diamond Hall of Fame/Coach of the Year Banquet held at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago.

“I am deeply humbled and grateful to receive such a tremendous honor,” Shelley said. “Being selected for induction into the ABCA Hall of Fame is the ultimate reward for all the people who have worked so hard to make our program what it is today.  I totally understand that this honor is not about me, but it is all about our players, alumni, assistant coaches, administration, parents, fans and my family.  These are the ones who have made tremendous sacrifices to ensure that our players receive the best education on and off the field.”

Shelley, who enters his 26th season as the Cavaliers skipper, is the winningest coach in JCCC history and one of the all-time leaders in the Kansas Jayhawk Conference. Shelley has an impressive 759-476-1 mark (.614), but win No. 599 might just be the most rewarding. That victory gave JCCC its first berth to the NJCAA JUCO World Series.

Included in his coaching career are two East Jayhawk Conference championships (2009 and 2011), four Eastern Sub-region titles (1989, 1990, 1992 and 1993), three Region VI championships (1990, 1993 and 2008) and one World Series appearance (2008). He has produced 15 teams that have surpassed 30 wins, and four of his five squads have topped the 40-win plateau.

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T H E R E A R W I n D O W

Photos by Susan McSpadden

Worth a look backSo much happens in one day. Most of us miss most of it. Photographer Susan McSpadden, however,

has made it her mission to preserve at least one image every day for the college’s Facebook page.

She’s been doing this (with an occasional assist from others) since the start of the school year. What

she has documented is our story so far this semester. Take a look – just in case you missed it.

30 | The Open Petal

The JCCC Golden Girls Dance Team poses for the first of three photo shoots for its annual fundraising calendar. The team dances and cheers at home basketball games.

Lenexa police officer Kelly Eads explains the technology contained in his police vehicle to JCCC student Jolas Capada. Police departments were taking part in the annual Criminal Justice Day on Sept. 21.

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For more photos, visit www.facebook.com/JCCC411. Or connect with Facebook by going to the college home page at jccc.edu and clicking on “Connect with JCCC.”

Kansas Supreme Court Justice Dan Biles, left, asks a question while the Kansas Supreme Court heard oral arguments in four cases at Johnson County Community College on Oct. 3. With him is Justice Eric Rosen.

The week of Oct. 15 opens with crisp temperatures and beautiful fall leaves.

Melody Caldwell, recipient of the President’s Scholarship, waves to President Terry Calaway on Sept. 26. With her is Vice President Dennis Day.

Hispanic Youth Day on Oct. 2 includes music.

The four stars of MTV’s The Buried Life speak to students on Sept. 20.

www.jccc.edu/TheSeries | 913-469-4445Performing Arts SeriesJohnson County Community College | NO ONLINE FEES | FREE PARKING

8 p.m., Sat., Feb. 23

n Oscar winnern Broadway starn PBS’ “Downton Abbey”

cast member

Shirley MacLaine

12345 COLLEGE BLVDOVERLAND PARK KS 66210-1299

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