GC Summit changing servers

GROSSMONT COLLEGE–To provide a more versatile format, the GC Summit is in the process of changing servers.   We have encountered some technical difficulties in making the move, but hope to have them fixed soon.  In the meantime, please keep two web addresses in mind.

The up-to-date Summit report may be found at the following web address: https://gcsummit.wordpress.com

The site to which we are moving, for which a new format is being selected, is www.gcsummit.com   Although the second site can now be accessed, it is neither up to date, nor does it appear as it will in the future.

Please bear with us as we make this transition.

Thank you,

Donald H. Harrison
Journalism Instructor
Grossmont College

Norris named Summit business manager

Chris Norris-Linton

Staff Report

GROSSMONT COLLEGE — Chris Norris-Linton, a double major in music industry studies and media communications, has been appointed business manager of the campus newspaper GC Summit, it was announced by Donald H. Harrison, faculty advisor.

Norris will sell advertisements for the monthly Summit magazine, with a particular emphasis on coupons from neighboring restaurants and businesses.

He may be contacted at chrisn@gcsummit.com

Instructor weighs formation of Jewish Student Union

GROSSMONT COLLEGE (Press Release) – Is there sufficient student interest to warrant forming a Jewish Student Union on this campus?

Media Communications 132 Instructor Donald H. Harrison, whose faculty responsibilities include overseeing the production of the GC Summit, wants to assess that question prior to next semester when the club would start up. 

Harrison requests any student interested in participating in on-campus Jewish cultural activities, beginning next Fall, to please contact him at donald.harrison@gcccd.edu 

Besides teaching here, Harrison serves as editor and publisher of the online publication, San Diego Jewish World (www.sdjewishworld.com ) and has extensive contacts within the local Jewish community.  He also is the author of the biography, Louis
Rose: San Diego’s First Jewish Settler and Entrepreneur.

“I’d envision the club sponsoring a variety of on-campus cultural activities to help de-mystify Jewish people to other segments of the
campus population,” Harrison said.  “Perhaps if other religious and ethnic student clubs are interested, we also could engage in dialogue to explore our common interests.”

He said there is a Jewish concept called “tikkun olam,” which literally means “repair of the world.”  The belief is that we all have the
responsibility to help make the world a better place not only for ourselves, but for our neighbors.  “Perhaps,” said Harrison, “members of
the Jewish Student Union would decide to participate in tikkun olam projects.”

*
Preceding was provided by Donald H. Harrison

Grossmont ESL classes create community, seek volunteers

By William Dudley

GROSSMONT COLLEGE—With seven hundred students, Grossmont College has one of the largest populations of English learners among local community colleges.

The population is divided almost equally into two categories: foreign students who came to the United States to pursue education and who will return to their home countries, and immigrants or refugees who are trying to build a new life and new home in the United States.

Challenges in learning English can differ greatly based on the person’s country of origin. For example, students from Russia have trouble with “a” and “the” — such articles do not exist in their native language. different backgrounds and cultures have different challenges in learning English. Native Arabic speakers, on the other hand, have trouble with capitalization.

These are some of the  tidbits of information out of many to be found in Donald H. Harrision’s reportage on Grossmont College’s English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) department, which was recently published in the online journal San Diego Jewish World.

International Club photos by Stephen Harvey

GROSSMONT COLLEGE — The International Club, according to its website (www.grossmont.edu/internationalclub), aims to “promote friendship and understanding among students from different cultures.” Further, among their goals is “to provide a more enjoyable stay for International Students, but our membership includes both American and International Students.” In the last months of 2010, Grossmont College photographer Stephen Harvey joined the Club on some of its outings.

International Club BBQ, 2010

International Club BBQ, 2010

Looking back on Fall 2010 with Stephen Harvey

GROSSMONT COLLEGE – The campus is photographer Stephen Harvey’s beat, and though his appointment book is always full, he never knows what the  day will bring as he patrols the campus with his ever-ready camera.

The GC Summit recently requested Harvey to share some of the photos he had taken over the Fall 2010 semester, so that we, in turn, could share them with you.

Here are a dozen from Stephen Harvey’s files.  Enjoy!

Campus artists

Culinary Arts students

Women's Volleyball players

Evening at Health and Science complex

Poet Ilya Kaminsky, guest lecturer

Modern Dance

Women's Water Polo teammates

Men's Water Polo

2010 Football team portrait

Women's Tennis jump

Banned books discussion

 

‘Tin’ has comforting message for elementary school students

By Donald H. Harrison

Donald H. Harrison

 

GROSSMONT COLLEGE–  Theatre Arts Prof. Jerry Hager wrote and directed Tin, an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s short story “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” that will be taken on tour at local elementary schools from now through Dec. 9.   Like many fairy tales, it has an important lesson.

Previewed on Saturday, Oct. 23 at Grossmont College’s Stagehouse Theatre before an appreciative matinee audience, the dramatic fairy tale imagines that an evil Jack-in-the-Box (Ryan Payne) has stolen the laughter from a little boy (Franceso Valenti), causing great worry for the boy’s father (Adrian Brown), and aunt (Angela Luevano). 

The plight of the family prompts the toys of the household to devise a plot for getting the laughter back.  The ballerina (Shay Tyler), with the help of a teddy bear (Kelly-Noelle Henry) and a music monkey (Andrea Gardner) decide to lure Jack out of his box to dance while the soldier Tin (Alonzo Jackson) breaks into the box to find the laughter.  The toymaker (Jade Wise), who serves as the narrator of the story, heightens the excitement by drafting the audience to provide the sound effects of a tenth character in the play: the trapped laughter.

The one-act play includes a brief recitation by the toymaker of the Hans Christian Andersen tale, familiar to anyone who watched the Disney animated movie Fantasia 2000, in which a tin soldier with only one leg falls in love with a ballerina standing on one foot, mistakenly thinking that she is like him.  Clearly this story is different than that one, as is demonstrated when our tin soldier comes onto the stage with both legs very much intact.  But as the play progresses, the issue of a one-legged soldier is revisited.

Campus Photo Diary … by Stephen Harvey

GROSSMONT COLLEGE–Stephen Harvey, the official campus photographer,  had a busy September with scheduled and unscheduled events.

An example of the former was the concert Sept. 10 featuring violinist Mikhail Dvoskin and pianist Ekaterina Petrosyan.

What better example of an unscheduled event than the rainbow Harvey spotted over the campus on Sept. 30?

In between these two photographic opportunities, there was plenty for Harvey to see, record and enjoy.   In sports, for example, the women’s volleyball posed for him before their Sept. 15  victory over Santa Ana in three straight games.

Grossmont through Stephen Harvey’s lens

Stephen Harvey

GROSSMONT COLLEGE, Sept. 9 — Professional photographer Stephen Harvey on a daily basis photographs events and people at Grossmont College.  His work winds up on college brochures, on posters, attached to news releases, in annual reports and in a variety of publications.  And now, Harvey has agreed to share his work with the GC Summit.  From time to time, we will present a collection of his photographs which, in the aggregate, paint a campus portrait.

We start with a faculty convocation that was held in the gym on August 16, one week before the start of classes.  Everyone was asked to wear soft-sole shoes in order not to scratch the floor. 

Grossmont College President Sunny Cooke and a number of  faculty members dressed up their sneakers to show their school spirit:

Convocation shoes

Faculty and staff at Aug. 16 convocation

Sunny Cooke, in soft-soled shoes, addresses convocation

A week later, on August 23, the crowds on campus for the first day of classes were unbelievably large, as Harvey’s photo attests.  News crews came out to campus to interview President Cooke about the fact that budget cuts had forced the cancellation of numerous classes, even though overall enrollment had increased.

First day of classes, August 23, at Grossmont College

Channel 5 news crew interviews President Cooke on first day of classes

At the end of the first week, if things weren’t hot enough, a small brush fire broke out about 300 yards north of the campus.  It was put out with the help of mutual aid fire trucks from jurisdictions throughout the east county and helicopters and airplanes that sprayed water and retardant on the 10-acre blaze.

Firefighting chopper over campus, Aug. 27

There’s nothing quite like Grossmont College football to get the blood pumping, and Harvey was at the Sept. 2 practice recording the excitement as the Griffins readied for San Diego Mesa College (whom they would defeat 36-7 in the season opener.)

Sept 2 football practice

Sept. 2 football practice

Sept. 2 football practice

On Friday, Sept. 3, Harvey accompanied the International Club on a field trip to Mission Beach for a barbecue.

International Club at Mission Beach for a barbecue, Sept. 3

Fun at the barbecue

International Club students at Mission Beach

On Sept. 8, Harvey covered the Grossmont Women’s Cross-Country team from an unusual angle:

Women's Cross Country team, Sept. 8

The GC Summit thanks photographer Stephen Harvey for sharing his work with our readers. We look forward to future installments of this column.