Austin, TX – June 23, 2008 –Austin Community College is hosting the Healthcare Training Success Conference at the Radisson North Hotel June 25-27.
The ACC Healthcare Professionals Institute, a nationally recognized leader in healthcare training, will provide conference attendees opportunities to share processes for success in meeting their healthcare training needs. (more…)
For immediate release: Thursday, February 21, 2008
Chelsea Clinton to visit ACC
Friday, February 22 at 9:45 a.m. ▪ ACC’s South Austin Campus ▪ 1820 W. Stassney Lane
Austin, TX— The Austin Community College District announces Chelsea Clinton will speak at ACC’s South Austin Campus on Friday, February 22 at 9:45 a.m. Ms. Clinton, in Austin for the Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama debate, will be visiting with ACC students, taking questions from the audience, and no doubt discussing the upcoming Texas primary. The event is free and open to the public.
“This is a good opportunity for our students and neighbors to participate in what will be remembered as an historic presidential campaign,” said Dr. Stephen B. Kinslow, ACC President/CEO.
Media parking is available in the SAC West Parking Lot on Manchaca. For directions to ACC’s South Austin Campus, visit: http://www.austincc.edu/locations/sac.php. For more information contact Brette Lea at (512) 223.7611 or 709.1141.
“College for a Day” offers classes, enrollment information and door prizes
Austin, TX – November 14, 2007 – The Adult Education Division at Austin Community College hosts “College for a Day” on Friday, November 16, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Eastview Campus, 3401 Webberville Road, in Building 8000’s Multipurpose Room.
Geared toward GED and English as a Second Language students, the event introduces them to the college and exposes them to hands-on classes, as well as the tools necessary to transition to college life. The students will meet ACC faculty, staff and students as well as receive information about financial aid, admissions and degree choices. They’ll attend interactive workshops and participate in College Connection enrollment activities, including the application process.
“We want these students to truly experience college life and show them higher education is attainable,” says Mary Harris, executive director of Adult Education.
ACC President/CEO Dr. Stephen Kinslow will welcome the students, and the Mobile Go Center will be available for tours. The event is free and features door prizes and lunch.
Austin, TX – October 2, 2007 - Fifteen students in Austin Community College’s Student Government Association (SGA) recently traveled to Washington, D.C., for the American Student Government Association National Conference. The students attended a variety of workshops and roundtable discussions, hearing speakers from across the nation.
The ACC students met with U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett and were able to share ideas and concerns with him and his deputy chief of staff. They also met with aides representing U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison and U.S. Rep. Mike Conway.
“We were extremely appreciative that Congressman Doggett took time out of his busy schedule to meet with us personally for over twenty minutes,” said Brad Burnett, SGA director of communications.
Over three days, the students learned techniques for improving voter turnout in student government elections; representing the student body more effectively; running meetings more efficiently; and improving communication with college administrators.
“Through the many activities that we did together, we became a closer, more cohesive group,” said Burnett. “Becoming a closer group will allow us to communicate more openly and problem-solve more completely, taking student government to new heights in representing the student body of Austin Community College.”
AUSTIN, Texas – Aug. 27, 2007 – Officials with the Seton Family of Hospitals, Austin Community College District (ACC) and the University of Texas Medical Branch- Austin Programs and The University of Texas at Austin, today welcomed the first 50 nursing students attending the Clinical Education Center at Brackenridge.
The Center, located in the former Children’s Hospital of Austin, will house ACC classes for as many as 100 new nursing students in the next academic year.
“For more than a century, Brackenridge Hospital has been a facility of firsts. Today, we are pleased to introduce the next ‘first’ for Central Texas health care,” said Charles Barnett, President and CEO, Seton Family of Hospitals. “This is an investment in our workforce, in academic opportunities and in the economic future of central Texas.”
Dr. Stephen B. Kinslow, President/CEO of the Austin Community College District said,” Finding talented people who want to be health care professionals and leaders is not our greatest challenge. The challenge we face is finding the additional instructional space, faculty and clinical access needed to shape tomorrow’s health care leaders. We are grateful for this partnership with Seton and believe this Center will dramatically improve our ability to address a critical workforce need in this region.”
The CEC is an innovative interdisciplinary center which provides unique learning opportunities. It is accessible to students and graduate trainees in medicine, nursing, public health, bioengineering, informatics, social work, pharmacy, law, psychology and public policy.
The Center features:
• Flexible instructional spaces equipped with multimedia technology;
• Simulation labs to support interdisciplinary team training;
• Medium to high-fidelity interactive mannequins that provide learners
with a safe error forgiving environment to practice interdisciplinary team approaches to patient care;
• Debriefing rooms to support the simulation labs;
• Skills Labs for learners to practice nursing and medical skills in a real life hospital setting;
• A standardized patient program that helps students understand both the clinical and the social causes of poor health;
• Computer lab and learning resource area.
Forecasts show that Central Texas will need more than 600 new doctors by 2010 to keep pace with a growing population and to backfill retiring physicians. UTMB has had medical students in Austin since the 1950s, and recently signed an agreement with Seton establishing a 30-year partnership for the expansion of student and resident education, research and clinical programs. UTMB has more than 90 residents who do their clinical training in Austin.
“It’s imperative that we increase educational opportunities in this community and we couldn’t be happier that Seton is leading this effort. To have all of these institutions coming together to take advantage of a unique and rare opportunity is amazing,” said Dr. Sam Shomaker, Dean, University of Texas Medical Branch – Austin Programs. “Brackenridge has always been on the cutting edge of health care services being created in Central Texas. This is the next example of Brackenridge being a health care leader.
Dr. Bill Sage, Vice Provost for Health Affairs for the University of Texas at Austin said, “The Clinical Education Center shows the innovative power of the Austin community when we work together to improve health care. UT Austin is privileged to involve students and faculty from many disciplines in the CEC’s activities, and to support curricular design and evaluation at the CEC through UT Austin’s College of Education.”
Joyce Batcheller, Chief Nursing Officer, Seton Family of Hospitals, adds, “The expected growth of the Central Texas area will further increase the need for more nurses. In fact, we will need to hire about 300 more nurses this year to support our current growth. Without taking action, the need for nurses would far exceed the number of nurses produced by our local schools. To proactively meet this challenge, the Seton Family of Hospitals, will have some of their front-line nursing staff assist in teaching this generation of nurses.”
Jody Cross
August 10 was just an ordinary summer day here in Austin, Texas.
But in Anchorage, Alaska, Austin Community College student Jody Cross was celebrating the completion of The Texas 4000, a bicycle ride from Austin to Alaska to raise cancer awareness.
After more than two months on the road, Cross said she felt excited on the last day of the trip.
“The entire ride I just couldn’t stop smiling and laughing to myself,” she said.
University of Texas alumni and parents greeted the cyclists at the finish line and provided them with a barbecue and places to stay. Cross is now back in Central Texas, preparing for the fall semester at ACC.
After the grueling trip, it’s too early to think about doing it again, she said. But she doesn’t regret it for one second.
“The fact that I did it, and loved it, and helped people along the way makes this journey one of the most memorable and proud things I have ever done in my entire life.”
Foster care alumna Veronica Lockett and her daughter, Raney, visit the Rio Grande Campus.
When the “Survivor Independence ACTS 2007” conference is held at Austin Community College’s Eastview Campus on July 28, Veronica Lockett and Trista Miller will be there. But they won’t just be volunteering their time and services.
The ACTS – After Care Transitional Service – conference is of particular significance to the women. They both spent parts of their lives in foster care.
Lockett, 25, was 8 years old when Child Protective Services (CPS) came to her home and split up five of her brothers and sisters – two children in three different homes. Her two oldest siblings had already run away. Originally placed with her younger brother, Lockett lived with several foster families before ending up in a home by herself during her last three years of placement. During that time CPS gave her some good news - foster care children could attend college for free.
Foster care alumna Trista Miller.
Lockett began taking classes at ACC in 1999. “Going to college was my way of knowing I would have somewhere to go once I left foster care,” she said. Law requires foster children to leave placement after their 18th birthday.
Miller’s situation was a little different. Her “symbolic” parents – those who are not blood-related but take on a parental role – helped care for her since birth. When Miller, now 22, was placed in foster care a week before her 12th birthday, her symbolic parents began going through the process to become licensed foster parents. They moved to Nevada where, Miller says, “I got myself into some trouble.” When she was 14, she came back to Texas and lived in a group home.
Living in the group home was one reason Miller chose to take classes at ACC. “I did not want to live in a dorm,” she said. “I did not want to live with someone I didn’t choose to live with.”
Another reason she likes ACC is its flexible class schedule, and Lockett feels the same way. Taking college classes when you have a toddler to care for is not always an easy task, yet her ACC professors were accommodating, Lockett said.
“It was really helpful for me to have someone who was empathetic to my situation, instead of penalizing me for it,” she said.
Lockett is currently taking biology and Spanish classes during ACC’s summer session, while working toward a bachelor’s degree in social work at Texas State University-San Marcos. Miller is pursuing her associate degree in criminal justice at ACC.
Both will attend the ACTS conference later this month, though in different capacities. Lockett, along with other former foster care children, is starting a nonprofit called Foster Care Alumni of Austin. Miller, who works as a youth specialist for the state of Texas, serves as one of the state representatives for the conference and is helping to create ACC’s Foster Care Alumni website. She also is part of the planning committee for the conference, which caters to foster care children and their caregivers by offering sessions on career planning, financial aid, and more.
The Survivor Independence ACTS 2007 Conference is sponsored by Austin Community College’s Foster Care Alumni Program, LifeWorks, Casey Family Programs, and Preparation for Adult Living (PAL). It will be Saturday, July 28, from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at ACC’s Eastview Campus, 3401 Webberville Road, Room 8500. For more information or to register, email LifeWorks’ Leslie Gainesor call her at (512) 735.2421.
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