Fontana Contributes to Journal of Men’s Health Broward College’s Dr. Leonard Fontana has authored an article on the subject of living with HIV/AIDS that will appear in the December issue of Journal of Men’s Health magazine. A senior professor in the social/behavioral sciences department of the college, Fontana has overseen a research project for the last four years sponsored by the Broward Regional Health Planning Council. “The focus is on HIV/AIDS as a chronic illness and on the access to health care providers and adherence to treatment,” he explained in a telephone interview. Broward County is at the “epicenter” of the crisis, Fonatana said, and has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the country. Fontana describes himself as a medical sociologist. He holds a Ph.D. from the State University of N.Y. and has spent half his teaching career at research universities. He brings ideas from his research into the classroom at Broward College during discussions of, for example, “health as a social problem, and research about minorities.” With his research colleague Dr. Adela Beckerman of Florida Memorial University, he has presented workshops to community agencies in Broward County that provide services to people living with HIV/AIDS, addressing ways to improve care, Fontana said.

Dr. Leonard Fontana

Broward College Presents “The Colors of Hispanic Culture”

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, a group art exhibit is being presented at the Broward College Administrative Artspace at the Willis Holcombe Center in downtown Fort Lauderdale, 111 E. Las Olas Blvdd, 12th floor. The event, which opened with a festive reception on Sept. 25, is co-sponsored by the Broward College District Board of Trustees, President J. David Armstrong, Jr. and Viva Broward. A silent auction was held at the opening of “The Colors of Hispanic Culture” to benefit Aspira, a group dedicated to the empowerment of Latino and other minority youth. The show features works by eight artists and will run through Dec. 5. The artists are Luz Aponte, Urayoan “Yoa” Ruiz Paneque, Elizabeth Baez, who is also the show’s curator, Humberto Beritez, Alejandra Goldberg, Edin Guiterrez, Annie Maxwell and Samuel Navedo. Viva Broward’s Elaine Miceli-Vazquez and Dr. Irwin Vazquez thanked Broward College for supporting and displaying Hispanic art. For artist Luz Aponte the opening reception marked not only her professional debut – it was also her 27th birthday. In addition, Luz, who faces the challenges of significant disabilities and uses a wheelchair, launched her business, selling all-occasion, inspirational greeting cards illustrated with the original designs she paints with assistive technology. For more information about Aponte’s cards visit www.LUZenith.com. For information about viewing the exhibit call 954-201-7550.

Elizabeth Baez, curator of the exhibit and participating artist, with her acrylic painting of Puerto Rican dancers and musicians, "Orgullo, P.R."

Annie Maxwell incorporates tropical themes into her work

Mary Rivera, a former Aspira program participant and Broward College alumna now pursuing a higher degree, stands beside the organization's information table

Viva Broward's Elaine Miceli-Vazquez and her daughter Lisa Miceli Viva Broward was one of the exhibit's sponsors

Broward College District Board ofTrustees member Georgette Sosa Douglass, right, with her cousinsRodrigo and Sara DeLaguardia

The predominant themes in the paintings of Urayoan Ruiz Paneque, known as Yoa, are music, nature and love.

Artist Luz Aponte with her digital print on canvas, "Dreams"

Samuel Navedo

(Photos by Rick Leffel)

Authors Among Us: Roig and Thuma Publish Books Broward College has long been known and celebrated as a “literary” college, thanks to the achievements of its graduates including commercially successful writers such as Rita Mae Brown and Cherokee Paul McDonald, and a faculty that includes distinguished authors and poets such as Vicki Hendricks, Neil Plakcy, Christine Kling, Michael Cleary, Barbra Nightingale, Lourdes Rodriguez-Florio and Elisa Albo. But literary talent runs among administration and staff, too. Mattie Roig-Watnik, associate vice president for career and technical education, is the latest to join that group with a memoir of her early years entitled “Life As I See It” (Laisi Press, $10.95). “I’m sure it’s no Pulitzer winner, just something I wanted to do for myself and as a legacy for my children,” said Roig-Watnik, who married mathematics professor Steve Watnik in Sarasota on July 19. Roig-Watnik also reached another personal milestone when she received her doctorate from Walden University on August 17. The idea to write a book came during a discussion she had with her oldest son, Karl Cossio. As they reminisced about Cossio’s childhood, he turned to Roig-Watnik and asked “Well, what about you, Mom? What about your past? What makes you as you are now?” Roig-Watnik was born in Havana but left at age 7 for the United States during a time of great fear and turmoil in Cuba. Her father was an accountant/economist and her mother was a music teacher. She was an only child. “My kids didn’t know much about that part of my life,” Roig-Watnik said. After a week in Florida, the family settled in Newark, New Jersey, where Roig-Watnik grew up. There she attended Upsala College, in East Orange, and Rutgers University. Told in the voice and through the memories of herself as a young child, Roig-Watnik’s memoir touches on playful, painful and bittersweet moments of childhood at the start of Fidel Castro’s reign in Cuba and afterward, as she adapted to life in the United States. “The whole process of sitting down and writing the book was so much fun,” Roig-Watnik said. “I’m already working on my second one. The second one is written in the same kind of tone as the first.” The second book deals with her experiences as a parent, she said. Roig-Watnik is the mother of three; other than Karl, 27, a web designer and entrepreneur living in San Diego, California, Roig-Watnik also is parent to Tristan, 25, a PhD student in electrical engineering at the University of Florida and Irina, 23, a marketing student at Florida State University. Another DTC staffer, Cindy Thuma, coordinator of communications and publications, has just had her ninth book published. She wrote “Haunted Florida: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Sunshine State” (Stackpole Books, $10.95) with co-author Catherine Lower, marketing coordinator at Middle Tennessee State University. Both former newspaper reporters who now work in college public relations offices, Thuma and Lower investigated and reported on more than three dozen stories of ghosts, ghouls and the supernatural in Florida. This is the second book they have written together. A native of Fort Lauderdale, Thuma graduated from Broward before heading off to Florida State University, where she earned a degree in education. She also has earned a Master of Arts degree at Nova Southeastern University.

Excerpt from “Life As I See It”: An emotional part of Mattie Roig-Watnik’s memoir tells of the middle-of-the-night visits from Cuban militia, who searched the house for the young Mattie: “My hiding place. My refuge. It was a messy closet that momma had in my bedroom with lots of boxes and a huge pile of clothing and blankets. I was a small girl. When the raids would happen, I would run into the closet and hide under the pile of stuff. The first time, when they came in by surprise, momma threw me in there and told me that no matter what, I was not to make a sound. No matter who was there and no matter what they did. If they opened the closet door and if they prodded, I was not to make a sound. I didn’t understand.” Excerpt from “Haunted Florida: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Sunshine State”: A longstanding legend in Florida is that of small but intensely savage creatures called chupacabras: “…they’re out there, believers insist. They wait silently in the dark for the moment you open your door to let your dog or cat out at night. When you’re back in the house, they strike silently and swiftly. They’ll dine on your dogs, chomp on your chickens, and they’re guaranteed to get your goat. “Those who scoff at the possibility that chupacabras actually exist laughingly refer to them as Latin leprechauns. The name, translated from Spanish, means ‘goat sucker.’ Those few who report having seen them describe small, vicious animals with intense red eyes – creatures that can cause carnage, terror, and destruction in amounts far greater than their physical stature.”

Mattie Roig-Watnik. (Photo by Rick Leffel)

Spotlight on Records Management

With so many things to worry about during hurricane season it is reassuring to know that your paycheck is not one of them. When Hurricane Ike looked like it was going to threaten South Florida, Broward College employees were issued their Sept. 15th paychecks one week early, at the direction of President J. David Armstrong, Jr. This was done to ensure that there would be no problem in case the storm hit and caused power failures and disruptions in mail service. Getting paid early was also helpful for many people whose expenses were mounting because they needed to purchase hurricane supplies. What did it take to get the payroll out a week in advance? In addition to the efforts of the payroll staff, it also took around-the-clock work by one of the college’s little-known departments, records management in the human resources division. “They are the unsung heroes who process the transactions that drive payroll,” said Dr. Edna Chun, vice president of human resources and equity. Moreover, Chun added, the records management staff’s work is “of the highest quality, which speaks to their extensive experience and dedication.” Sandra Browne, records manager, has been with the college for 21 years and remembers when “everything was manual.” Now, with more than 3,000 employees, “there’s so much to do, it’s go, go, go,” said Browne. “In the month of August, for example, we reviewed and approved more than 7,600 transactions.” To meet their early, pre-hurricane deadline, the records management staff worked in the office until late every evening and also labored from home on Saturday and Sunday. “It’s like a pressure-cooker environment,” said Sheila Webster, lead human resources specialist, who has been with the college for 15 years. The responsibility of records management is to make sure everyone gets paid on time and gets paid correctly in coordination with the payroll office headed by Payroll Manager Shirley Hoefer. The synergy between the records management and payroll staff is extremely important. To facilitate this interaction, the records management staff integrates compensation data, reviews rank and credential changes, validates all calculations and oversees the maintenance of employee records, personnel status, updates and terminations. In addition to checking the part-time and full-time staff and faculty information, credentials, teaching load, and changes, records management also checks the data for student employees. “We have a certain work ethic and that carries us,” said Browne. “Above all, we have a commitment to Broward College’s employees.”

Front row: Senior HR specialists Zory Mocanu, left, Marcia Brown, and Patricia Sanchez. Back row: Sheila Webster, lead HR specialist; Sandra Browne, records management

supervisor/coordinator; Giselle Thomas, senior HR specialist; and Vinette Wright, HR assistant. (Photo by Rick Leffel)

Student-Centered Learning Workshops Presented at Broward College How does a college become learner-centered in order to help engage and retain students? That was the question asked and answered by acclaimed educator Dr. Vincent Tinto who presented two workshops recently to Broward College faculty, administrators and staff. The event was a Distinguished Scholar Lecture sponsored by the office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Judith Scherer. “What you do in the community college will shape our future, not what’s being done at Harvard and Yale,” said Tinto, noted scholar, author, speaker and professor at Syracuse University. Referring to the community college’s open-door policy, he asserted that, “If you provide access, you have a moral obligation to provide a real opportunity.” He explained that, “contextualized academic support matters most,” such as feedback from one class to the next, to promote student learning, provide an early warning system and prevent “mounting confusion and a momentum of discouragement….You have to stop asking ‘what do I teach my students,’ instead of ‘how do I help them learn?’” Another strategy Tinto recommended is “embedded advising” which means bringing advisers into the student success classes to make sure that the contact is made. Support should also be targeted to specific courses, he said. There were opportunities during the workshops and at the luncheon for questions and comments from participants, such as, “How do you suggest we partner with K-12 to improve college readiness?” Tinto mentioned legislation passed in Florida mandating that community colleges go into the high schools and give College Placement Tests (CPT) to 11th graders, and if the students need remediation, the classes are given in 12th grade. “My concern is how high schools will see the intervention of the college and whether in one course you can address the issues you have here,” he said. “Let’s be honest – when they come in with 5th grade reading and math you can’t expect the college to fix that.” The culmination of the day-long workshops was an exercise in which participants worked in groups to develop a list of initiatives to develop a more learner-centered college, and then prioritized them. “What matters,” Tinto said, “is what happens next.”

Dr. Vincent Tinto at Broward College’s A. Hugh Adams Central Campus.

The audience at Dr. Tinto’s workshops is extremely engaged.

(Photos by Masi James)

Dr. Xiao Wang Wrote the Book on Composition

Dr. Xiao Wang, an English professor at Broward College for 10 years, will make a presentation and chair a session at national conference in March, as she has every year for the past decade. “My proposal on ‘Using E-Folios in Freshman Composition Online Classes’ has been accepted for presentation at the 60th Convention on College Composition and Communication in San Francisco,” she said in an interview at her A. Hugh Adams Central Campus office in Davie. “I am also chairing the session entitled ‘Writing for Family and/or Community.’” Wang said that her research is informed by her teaching, since she teaches online as well as face-to-face classes in freshman composition. She is also the author of the textbook she uses, English Composition, published by Kendall/Hunt, which includes essays by her Broward College students. Winner of the 2007-2008 Adviser of the Year Award, Dr. Wang is also the founder of the Asian-American Club. On Sept. 15 the club hosted a Moon Festival gathering outside the library on Central Campus, serving moon cakes and fruits and admiring the full moon in the company of members and friends. “We held this Moon Festival in front of building 17,” said club President Annie Lee. “We enjoyed each other’s company and shared stories about what the festival is. We all had a great time.” Dr. Wang holds a Ph.D. in composition and rhetoric from Ball State University, an MA from St. Cloud University and a BA from Northwest Teachers’ University.

Dr. Xiao Wang and the textbook she authored.