International evening of music May 29 at St. John the Cross

LEMON GROVE -- The Grossmont Symphony Orchestra and Master Chorale will join flautist Suzanne Kennedy at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 29 at St. John of the Cross Catholic Church, 8086 Broadway, in a performance that will feature the works of German, Russian and American composers.

There is no admission charge, but freewill offerings will be accepted at the performance which will include Rimsky-Korsakov's "Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34;” Robert Schumann's "Symphony No. 4, Op. 120 in D minor" and Leonard Bernstein's "Halil for solo flute and orchestra" as well as symphonic dances from Bernstein's Westside Story.

Kennedy played flute and piccolo with the Orchestra Nova, and also serves as music director at St. John of the Cross Catholic Church.

Music Director Randall Tweed of the Grossmont Symphony Orchestra and Master Chorale said he anticipates the performance will be an "international evening of sweeping vistas, brooding emotions and Latin theatrical dance."  -- DHH

Grossmont College memorializes fallen U.S. service personnel

                                                   Symbolic 'Table for One'


EL CAJON, California —With flags, memorial walls, and a symbolic table for one, the Student Veteran Organization at Grossmont College this week has been actively remembering fallen comrades in advance of the upcoming Memorial Day Weekend.

Darron DeVillez, SVO president, urged his fellow students during a rally in the Main Quad to feel compassion for veterans of the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars who have committed suicide since returning home.  

He said that 6,500 veterans each year have taken their own lives, and that 14 percent of this total were veterans who since completing their military service had enrolled as students at college campuses throughout the nation.   A way to realize the extent of the ongoing tragedy, he said, is to remember that for every one serviceman killed on the battlefield, 25 veterans commit suicide.

Grossmont students wrote tributes, poems, and words of support for Americans who gave their lives in combat, or, who, suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, ended their lives.   They also wrote in marker on canvas some impromptu messages telling of the love and respect they have for the men and women who currently are under arms.

Flags of the various branches of the U.S. Military Service were festooned on a wall overlooking Grossmont College’s Main Quad.  A “Table for One” dedicated to service members missing in action (MIA) or prisoners of war (POWS), was set up in the Griffin Center, where a placard explained the meaning of the poignant display.  The placard read:
“It is set for one.  This table is our way of symbolizing that members of our profession of arms are missing from our midst. They are commonly called POW’s or MIA’s … we call them brothers.  They are unable to be with us this evening and so we remember them. 


“The table set for one is small…It symbolizes the frailty of one prisoner against his oppressors.

“The tablecloth is white – symbolizing the purity of their motives when answering the call to duty.

“The single red rose, displayed in a vase, reminds us of the life of each of the missing and the loved ones and friends of these Americans who keep the faith, awaiting answers.

“The vase is tied with a yellow ribbon, symbol of our continued determination to account for our missing. 

“A slice of lemon on the bread plate is to remind us of the bitter fate of those captured and missing in a foreign land.

“A pinch of salt symbolizes the tears endured by those missing and their families who seek answers.”

“The glass is inverted – to symbolize their inability to share this evening’s toast.

“The chair is empty—they are missing….”

Frankie Rojas, vice president of the Student Veteran Association, told students that veterans feel “a moral obligation to maintain awareness of the sacrifices our comrades have made.”   In so doing, he added,  SVO  seeks to remind students and the general community about the importance of Memorial Day.

It is “a day meant to remember all those who are lost in the line of duty, to stand up for the U.S., and to be willing to fight to make the U.S. a stronger and better country,”  Rojas said at a student-sponsored barbecue and band concert on Wednesday afternoon, May 22.

-DHH-

Grossmont College ‘pinning ‘ ceremony for nurses to include more men

EL CAJON—When nursing students participate in Grossmont College’s traditional “pinning” ceremony Tuesday afternoon, June 4, more of them will be men than ever before—a sign of changing societal attitudes towards what once was considered a profession for women only.

Debbie Yaddow, dean of Allied Health and Nursing, says eight men, or 20 percent of the graduating class of 40 students, are males, compared to what it was like just 30 years ago, when Yaddow graduated from Grossmont’s nursing school, and there were zero males in the class.

Yaddow credited the nursing profession’s efforts and its campaign to broaden nursing for the turnabout in men’s thinking.  She said that media campaigns such as one run by the Johnson Foundation, with posters and advertisements, help to  popularize the idea that nursing is a profession for both genders and for people of all ethnic backgrounds.

Grossmont College accepts 40 new nursing students per semester, with 80 potential graduates per year.  Regarding the increasing number of men in the program, she said, “we have guys who are second-career folks.  They are not just out of high school.  The medium age here is 35 and they have been former police, former firefighters, big tough kinds of jobs, but now they want to become nurses.  It is primarily because they want to help people and they came from some kind of helping profession.”

“Or,” she added, “they were in another kind of profession that they didn’t find satisfying.  We have had accountants who said all they did before was crunch numbers, and they felt they were more ‘people persons.’  And they came into nursing because of that.”

Dean Yaddow said salaries for beginning RNs are fairly good.  “You are not going to become rich as a nurse, that’s for sure.  But if you come in as a new graduate, and you are working nights, you will start at a salary of over $70,000, which isn’t bad for an entry-level nurse.” 

The campus is hosting a seminar about men in nursing on Saturday, June 1, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m in the Griffin Gate room at the back of Griffin center.  

Yaddow said that male nurses tend to like duty in the emergency room, or intensive care, or home nursing, but tend to shy away from work in obstetrics.. 

The June 4 pinning ceremony continues an old nursing tradition in which every nursing graduate must have her or his pin affixed by someone who is an active or retired nurse.  In this way, the new nurses are formally welcomed into the profession.

“Every year we have a tradition in the program where the students purchase a Grossmont College nursing pin and it has the Griffin (school mascot) on it and says “Grossmont School of Nursing,” said Yaddow.  “We’ve had some instances of students being pinned by their great grandmothers.  We had a grandmother in a wheelchair who pinned a student, which was so sweet.  Sometimes it is a nurse who has been out working in the field, perhaps someone who a student met during practical training in the last four weeks of the course.  Or it can be a faculty member, but whoever it is, it has to be a nurse who pins them.”

-DHH-

Grossmont College offers basketball camp for 3rd through 9th graders

EL CAJON, California -- Grossmont College is offering a four-day basketball camp Aug. 5-8  for boys and girls who will be entering 3rd through 9th grades in the fall.  The $75 fee includes T-shirts, contest prizes and other giveaways, according to Doug Weber, the college's men's basketball coach.

"Basketball is a great game that teaches life skills and is enjoyed by all ages," the Grossmont Griffins coach commented.  "At Grossmont College we will teach skills needed to play basketball successfully.  We emphasize the FUNdamentals in a positive and enthusiastic way.  We also teach about teamwork, sportsmanship, communication, goal setting and more."

Coach Weber said a typical day at camp will begin with check-in between 7:45 a.m. and 8 a.m., then proceed to a motivational thought or quote of the day.  At 8:15 students will warm up for 15 minutes, then move to various stations to practice basketball fundamental.  At 9:30 a.m., there will be individual and group contests, with 3-on-3 tournaments beginning at 10 a.m..   Finally, between 10:30 and noon, there will be team practice and team games.

"Daily instruction from college coaches and players will help kids learn new skills and perfect the ones they already have," Coach Weber said.  "Each day we will put our new skills to the test in group or individual contests."

Coach Weber said his staff will teach beginners as well as youth with basketball experience.

More information is available from Coach Weber at (619) 644-7878, or via email at Doug.Weber@gcccd.edu.  -- DHH