MWCC Associate Professor of English and Speech Provides a Lesson in Chasing Your Passions
By Elysian Alder | Assistant Editor
Photo by Kara Roche
Associate Professor of English and Speech Kara Roche has been working at the Mount since 2007, and although English and teaching are two of her greatest passions, it’s the people – the community – that fill her with so much love for the college. Reflecting back on the journey she’s had to get to this point, Roche said, “Now I get to teach my two loves here: English classes filled with poetry and Shakespeare and speech classes. How lucky am I? My road taken turned out pretty well.” read more
The Mount Observer Sits Down with Its Previous Faculty Adviser
By Isabelle Mascary | Editor-in-Chief
In her twenty years at MWCC, Sue Goldstein successfully re-started the student newspaper and became a beloved professor and mentor to many students. In 2022, she retired from MWCC, but her legacy remains. As a woman of many hats and a great contributor to the college, Goldstein still teaches online courses. “I’m still teaching a few classes, such as college writing one and college writing two online.”
It might come as a surprise to many that this popular professor didn’t even get into journalism until about 1977, and she began her teaching profession in 2003. “They were kind of two separate things. I never envisioned myself teaching,” she explained, continuing to state that she didn’t start teaching until she was in her forties.read more
Ran’D Shine Brings Wonder, and Laughs, to Gardner Campus
By Luke Guerin | Observer Contributor
On February 21, Magician and Comedian Ran’D Shine put on a magic show for students, their children, and all others interested in the Student Life Center at the MWCC Gardner campus.
“The purpose of the show is to allow students to relax, to take a break from academics,” said Kathy Matson, the head of Student Life. “There’s a reason this event was planned over February vacation.”
Kathy first met Ran’D Shine at the annual meeting of the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities (APCA) back in 2020. According to Ran’D, it took very little convincing to come out and perform at the Gardner campus.read more
Exploring the Shared Support Between MWCC and Leominster’s Spanish American Center
By Gabriel Velez | Observer Contributor
The Spanish American Center, located in Leominster, Massachusetts, is run by Neddy Latimer and provides a variety of services to all sorts of people in the state, such as domestic abuse programs, ESL classes, elder services, summer programs, food pantries, and others. They have a focus on bilingual services and help those with language barriers, particularly Spanish, Brazilian, and Portuguese speaking individuals, although they do recommend an interpreter join the person needing it. They are a non-profit organization that started in 1966 by members of the Catholic clergy who wanted to respond to the needs of the Spanish community. The center started as an outreach, information, and referral network. The center as we know it today wasn’t officially established until 1972. According to their website, “The Center is the only agency in Leominster specifically oriented towards the Spanish-speaking community, estimated at over 15,000. Today the Center offers multiple programs, has revenues in excess of $500,000, and is SOMWBA (State Office of Minority and Women Business Assistance) certified.”read more
Ann Reynolds is the Academic Disability Counselor and Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) advisor at the Mount. She works primarily with student-parents and students with disabilities. She also oversees the child watch program on campus. Prior to moving to the United States thirty years ago and joining the Mount Community, Reynolds lived in England.
Before college, Reynolds was a stay-at-home mom. “I was a substitute teacher in a very past life, pre-children. I used to decorate windows in England as well.”read more
Beginning on February 24th, the Theater at the Mount’s 2023 season kicked off to a promising start with the production of the five-time Tony Award-winning 1965 musical, Man of La Mancha.
Originally written by Dale Wasserman, Man of La Mancha is set in the late sixteenth century and tells the story of the failed poet, actor, and tax collector, Miguel de Cervantes (Chris Cenotti), who has been apprehended by the Spanish Inquisition and imprisoned in a dungeon for attempting to put a lien on a church monastery. Once imprisoned, Cervantes and his faithful manservant, Sancho Panza (Craig Cormier), find themselves at the mercy of a colorful cast of fellow prisoners who insist that Cervantes must partake in a mock trial before them all or risk losing the trunk of possessions he’s brought with him into the cell. Cervantes agrees, but only under the condition that he and Sancho be allowed to deliver their ‘defense’ in the form of a fantastical play, depicting the quest of a mind-addled gentleman named Alonso Quijano, who seeks adventure and dons the persona of a knight-errant, titling himself Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha, and making the devoted Sancho out to be his squire.read more
How MWCC’s “SOS” Program Aims to Provide Students with Access to Aid in Times of Hardship
By Elysian Alder | Assistant Editor
Research shows that offering peer mentoring programs within schools can lead to increased retention rates, decreased stress levels among students, and an improved rate of academic success.
Peer mentoring typically refers to a paired relationship between students, with one being a volunteer mentor and the other being a student in need of assistance. While many peer mentoring programs tend to focus on academic assistance alone, MWCC, however, takes it a necessary step further with the Students Serving Our Students program (‘SOS’ for short).read more
“Melissa’s Mental Health Minute” Videos Still Making the Rounds, Even After COVID Lockdown
By Alondra DeLeon Guimaraes | Observer Contributor
Destressing can be quite challenging sometimes. Sometimes it’s viewed as an inconvenience, another chore to add to the to do list, or it can feel too time consuming. This perspective is often observed among the students and faculty at Mount Wachusett Community College, but it’s actually easier than one would think. The Mount’s mental health counselor, Melissa Manzi, partnered with the Dean of Students, Jason Zelesky, and the marketing department to launch a vlog series on YouTube called Melissa’s Mental Health Minute for this very reason during the pandemic. “Our challenge was to find ways to connect to our students,” Dean Zelesky explained. “Having the remote infrastructure was not easy for our students especially during the COVID-19 shutdown.” read more
How Does MWCC Provide for its Prospering Community of Readers?
By Elysian Alder | Assistant Editor
Collections and Instructions Librarian, Matt Raymond, says that the Mount’s LaChance Library has recently purchased “over 800 new books,” adding to an already substantial inventory of “about 30,000 titles.”
The selection process is a meticulous and thoughtful one. Although Mount Wachusett Community College does not currently have student life organizations dedicated solely to literature or book clubs, there’s no shortage of avid readers willing to offer up suggestions or requests to the collections librarians like Raymond.read more
Students and Faculty Share Their Personal Methods for Destressing
By Alondra DeLeon Guimaraes | Observer Contributor
The end of the semester is the time more than ever to look for different strategies to succeed and finish strong which includes self-care. According to MWCC counselor Melissa Manzi, self-care is to help you get through the difficult things in life. “Does it help? I think yes!” she cheerfully emphasized. Luckily, some students and faculty were able to provide some insight on this method.
Yaneliz Montez
“Self- care is a time of reflection for me,” said Yaneliz Montez, a health sciences major student at MWCC. “In the midst of life, one tends to forget about themselves and feel disconnected. They can eventually lose themselves,” she reasoned further. When Montez is not studying or in class, she works as a bartender and is a single mom.read more
