May 2020
Coming to you from a remote location, it’s the last Hawkfeed of the Spring semester.
Highlights
Let's play (virtual) ball
Their seasons may have been cancelled but that hasn’t stopped Hawks athletes from making an impact on the field. But in this case, the field is the internet.
Heartland athletes teamed up with the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington-Normal to help local youth stay active through social media.
The Virtual Club Experience provides an outlet for BGA club members to keep active and involved while schools aren’t in regular session. Athletes from the Hawks Baseball, Softball, Soccer, and Volleyball teams filmed and edited short two-minute videos of themselves teaching a skill in their respective sport to share with the Boys and Girls Club.
No fish tanks, cars, or apartment furniture were harmed in the making of these videos.
New student faces in official places
Quarantine or no, the Student Government Association had an election. Hey, we’re not Wisconsin.
With the hard work of the outgoing SGA members and Student Engagement staff, a new student leadership group was elected.
2020-2021 SGA Officers:
Katie Boland, Student Trustee
Jessica M. Barnes, President
Elizabeth Mary LePage, Vice President
Jeremy Skeen, Vice President of Communication
Congrats to these student leaders!
Another new face in a virtual space
The Heartland Varsity Esports program will launch this fall with varsity athletes in a familiar place for students these days: in front of a video monitor.
You can’t have a varsity sports team without student competitors though. And you can’t have players without a coach to recruit them and, well, coach them. Perhaps you could. But what a mess that would be.
Gearing up for the job will be Head Coach Jarrod Rackauskas, who currently coaches esports at Normal West High School. Coach Rackauskas will lead the esports team as they play League of Legends this fall. A preview: his first lesson is shift + right click.
Level up
Speaking of developing skills, the Bloomington Normal Community Campus Committee (BNCCC), of which Heartland is a part, has organized two professional development opportunities you might want to check out.
Dr. Jason R. Kilmer from the University of Washington was supposed to present two talks at ISU, IWU, and HCC, but the Coronavirus had to be rude and get in the way.
The good news: we have the internet! So you can still check out Dr. Kilmer’s sessions:
Screening – Why Screening for Alcohol and Other Drug Use Matters So Much in College Health
May 19, 2:00 – 4:00 pm
Brief Intervention – Incorporating Brief Intervention Strategies Into Conversations with College Students
May 20, 1:00 – 4:00 pm
For more information and to register for these online events, click here. You have to register by May 15th to participate.
Don’t let COVID-19 get in the way of your PD!
Pandemic season is award season
It’s like the Oscars, only the trophies have been wiped down (conceptually).
Dr. Wayne Bass is the recipient of the 2020 Outstanding Full-Time Faculty Award.
Wayne teaches humanities and religious studies at Heartland and has collaborated with other faculty on program and curriculum design, and developed several new courses. Working with HCC librarians, he also has developed a specialized research guide for his courses.
In 2018, Wayne developed an online six-week version of Humanities 203: Non-Western Humanities. The course was well received by students and was presented at Heartland’s spring kick-off event as a successful model for future innovative delivery courses. We’re not sure if he had any inside knowledge of the coming pandemic at the time, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I mean, it’s suspicious. But, fine.
Dr. Janet Titus is the recipient of the 2020 Outstanding Part-Time Faculty Award.
Janet teaches Psychology at Heartland. She incorporates active learning, an emphasis on connecting course concepts to students’ real world experiences, high expectations supported by high support, and a healthy sense of humor to help her students navigate the fundamental principles of Psychology.
Noting Dr. Titus' sense of humor we should mention that when asked about how good of an instructor she was, her students gave her large amounts of praise when we rang a small bell.
Distinguished Alumni Awards
It’s not just students and staff being honored. The Heartland Community College Alumni Association has named Richard Casper and Dr. Seshanand Rao as recipients of the 2020 Distinguished Alumni award.
These Alums were so distinguished we couldn’t pick just one.
Richard Casper came to Heartland as a Marine combat vet hoping for a business degree. He credits Michael “Mac” McAvoy with helping him discover the healing powers of art and change the course of his life. He is now the co-founder and executive director of CreatiVets, a non-profit that provides art, music, and writing programs for combat veterans with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries.
Dr. Seshanand Rao came to Heartland looking to explore Health Sciences. In the Certified Nursing Assistant program he got his first experiences as a care giver. He advanced to get his M.D. and is now a physician and Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva, Illinois.
Hear more from Richard and Sheshand about how Heartland helped launch their impressive careers in our Random Acts of Knowledge podcast.
Waubonsee is he
VP of Business Services and Institutional Effectiveness Doug Minter will be departing Heartland this month for a position at Waubonsee College in Sugar Grove, Illinois.
To be honest, we’re still a little bitter about it. Sure, Doug says he’s going to Waubonsee so he and Terri can be closer to his family. But what about the Hawkfeed editors, Doug? Did you think of them?
Doug began his career at Heartland as an adjunct faculty member in 1991, when we were just hatchlings. Before becoming V.P. of Business Services, he served as the College’s Chief Information Officer from 1994 to 2014.
You may also not know this but Doug has portrayed Hunter Hawk for the last 8 years. Those will be some big talons to fill.
Thanks for everything, Doug.
Still to come...
The Commencement Channel
Don’t miss our celebration of the 2020 grads the Virtual Commencement beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 15.
Visit www.heartland.edu/graduation to view in real time and for a re-run afterwards.
Elevating Entrepreneurs
Four student entrepreneurs will partake in a Shark Tank-esque competition at Elevating Entrepreneurs.
On Friday, May 15 we’ll hold a virtual Elevating Entrepreneurs event 11:00 am to 1:00 pm where finalists will meet with judges, answer questions for the final round of the competition.
Check www.heartland.edu/elevating for details on how you can view the event.
mother•land (sort of) at Joe McCauley Gallery
The Joe McCauley Gallery presents mother•land, now online for your artistic pleasure. This exhibit of still images by Monica Estabrook is presented online at www.heartland.edu/artGallery.
Originally scheduled for presentation on Heartland’s campus, mother•land will now be viewable virtually, via digital images, videos, and accompanied by poetry written by local students.