skip to main content
FacebookYouTubeInstagramLinkedInSnapchatSnapchatXX
Toggle mobile menu Mobile Toggle menu
Search
Search Button

NEWS & EVENTS

July 25, 2024

Dr. Monaco’s July 25, 2024 Report to the Board of Trustees

Dr. Pamela Monaco

Board Meeting Presentations

The reorganization of the College has allowed the Ocean County high school programs and OCC’s outreach to the school districts to be in one service area.  Under the leadership of Dr. Sheenah Hartigan, Assistant Vice President of Enrollment Services, and Dr. Meredith Riddle, Dean of Educational Resources, the College is speaking to our K-12 partners with one voice.  Mr. Tom Gialanella, Educational Partnerships Associate, attends the Superintendents’ Roundtable meetings, the College hosts the County Curriculum monthly meetings, and outreach is underway with each of OCC’s embedded high school programs to explain OCC’s new leadership and processes.

On the professional development front, offerings continue to be provided to our K-12 partners based on the needs of each school.  OCC is hosting several events on campus, including an Advanced Placement Seminar for AP teachers, the Teacher of the Year full-day program for all county schools, and a series of workshops on school policies and new regulations that affect the high schools.

At Thursday’s Board meeting, Mr. Gialanella will share additional information regarding the many ways the College is reaching out to the high schools to strengthen these partnerships.

Faculty and Staff Accomplishments, Presentations, and Projects

  • Katie Hueth has assumed the role of Associate Director of Counseling. She is now responsible for the Counseling Center’s grant programs (OSHE Mental Health Grant, Garrett Lee Smith Suicide Prevention, and Displaced Homemakers Program) and supervision of the grant staff.
  • On July 17, 2024, the Office of Human Resources issued Total Compensation Statements to all regularly scheduled employees. These statements are designed to give employees a comprehensive overview of the total value of their direct and indirect compensation at the College. With the numerous benefits the College offers, the Total Compensation Statements bring valuable insight to the employees beyond their direct pay.  Human Resources plans to deliver this statement annually at the beginning of each fiscal year.

Student Accomplishments, Honors, and Awards

  • Five students represented OCC at this year’s FBLA-Collegiate National Conference in Florida from June 24 to 27, 2024.  Throughout the week, OCC’s business students had the opportunity to network with other FBLA members from across the country.  They also took part in workshops and competed in two competitive events each.  Congratulations to the following OCC students on winning in their categories:
    • Foundations of Accounting:  Ryan Lechien – First Place
    • Business Communication:  Justin D’Amico – Sixth Place
    • Future Business Educator:  Keith Blaze – Eighth Place
    • Accounting Case:  Ryan Lechien and Tavish Mckelvey – Eighth Place
    • OCC Alumni Finance Case:  Ashley De La Rosa Hanlon and Thaddaeus Sayre (Kean Ocean) – Fifth Place
  • The Athletics Department proudly reports that OCC is back among the country’s top 15 two-year college athletics programs, based on participation at NJCAA Championships. The success of Ocean County College’s 2023-24 athletic programs was recently recognized by the National Alliance of Two-Year College Athletic Administrators (NATYCAA), as the Vikings placed 14th nationally (3rd in Region 19) among non-scholarship colleges in the prestigious organization’s NATYCAA Cup program.

Established in 2004, the NATYCAA Cup program recognizes excellence in two-year college athletics based on team success in national championship competitions.  The national postseason performance of Ocean’s women’s soccer and men’s and women’s tennis teams earned OCC 50.5 points in the Cup standings:

  • Men’s Tennis (Third Place):  18 points
  • Women’s Tennis (Fourth Place): 17 points
  • Women’s Soccer (Fifth Place tie): 15.5 points

Total:  50.5 points

Student Support Services and Activities

  • Meredith Riddle, Dean of Educational Resources, and Mr. Brian Schillaci, Director of OCC Manahawkin (OCCM), met with guidance personnel and administrators at Barnegat High School on July 23, 2024, to introduce Dr. Riddle as she assumes her new role. They continued discussing Fall/Spring student visits to OCCM and other course/program opportunities.  Similar meetings are being planned with Lacey Township High School and Pinelands Regional High School during August, with the goal of offering more course opportunities to the student population in the southern part of Ocean County.
  • The Counseling Center is planning its 2024-25 Fall and Spring events. The Center will host OCC’s first Fresh Check Day on Tuesday, September 24, 2024, a campus mental health promotion and suicide prevention event designed to generate conversation about mental health in an engaging, fun, and supportive environment.  Fresh Check Day is a program of the Jordan Porco Foundation, which has provided tremendous resources to ensure OCC has a successful event.  A campus-wide campaign will be launched to recruit departments from all areas of the College to be part of the event by hosting activity booths; in fact, the President’s Office is the first to volunteer for one of the themed booths.  More details will be forthcoming.  Please consider participating in this important event.
  • Darra Stack, Student Intervention Specialist, and Ms. Katie Hueth, Counseling Associate Director, conducted Mental Health First Aid training for 14 Workforce and Professional Education ESL instructors on July 17 and 18, 2024. The Counseling Center offers training sessions for faculty and staff during the Fall and Spring semesters as part of the Garrett Lee Smith Suicide Prevention grant.  Training dates and registration for the training will be found on NeoEd.
  • The Advising Office is providing new students with multiple options for registration:
    • Students can register on a walk-in basis. They meet with advisors to discuss their goals, degree programs, and plans for transfer or employment.  Students then receive instruction on utilizing Student Planning and work with an advisor to create and register for their Fall schedules.
    • Students can schedule virtual appointments with advisors to plan their schedules and register for their Fall classes.
    • Students can complete the New Student Registration form online. Advisors create the students’ Fall schedules, and the students are notified when they have been registered.
  • Advising and the HUB are collaborating to ensure students can receive assistance while the College is remote on Fridays. If students call the HUB on Friday, they can come to the campus for walk-in advising Monday through Thursday, schedule a virtual appointment, or receive a call-back from an advisor.  If students request a call-back, advisors return the calls on the same day.
  • Nursing students will return to campus the week of August 26, 2024, for competency validation practice sessions. All returning students must demonstrate competency in previously learned skills before entering clinical agencies the first week of the semester.
  • The Nursing faculty selected a book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, by Anne Fadiman as the summer read for Nursing students.  This book focuses on the interactions between a Hmong family and the American healthcare system that clashes immensely with their cultural beliefs.  The information presented in the book was credited with inspiring cultural understanding strategies in the healthcare system.  The contents of this book will be incorporated throughout the curriculum as students discuss nursing practice, professionalism, ethics, patient care, teamwork, and diversity and inclusion within the healthcare system.
  • The HUB completed 666 in-person transactions in June. This includes a service wait of 1.71 minutes and a service duration averaging 2.37 minutes.
  • Enrollment Services has been working on several campaigns to assist with the Financial Aid delays and the associated delays in student registration this year. Examples include unlinked financial aid documents received by individuals not in OCC’s systems, stop-out students, pathway calls to move from non-credit to credit courses, class of 2024 calls, and students missing documents for financial aid or having financial aid issues.  The HUB team completed 3,829 outgoing calls, and over 5,800 outgoing calls were completed by the Success team.

Outreach to Students

  • On July 8 and 15, 2024, Dr. Patrick Beatty and Dr. Stephen Agresti, Criminal Justice College Lecturers, conducted a Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) Academy for middle school students between 10 and 14z. Through hands-on activities, this academy offered the opportunity to see what it is like to work in law enforcement.  The students had the chance to work in the College’s forensic and crime scene labs to investigate, report on, and solve mock crime scenes; experience a firearms simulation; and meet with local Ocean County law enforcement professionals to learn about current law practices, future studies, and careers in criminal justice.
  • The OCC Computer Science Department conducted a Cybersecurity camp on Friday, June 7, 2024. The “GenCyber (Generation of Cyber Stars)” camp is essential to the National Cybersecurity Education Ecosystem.  Approximately 20 students from Barnegat High School participated in the event.  The program has the following objectives:
    • To ignite the awareness of senior secondary school students on Cybersecurity and its career opportunities;
    • To increase student diversity in Cybersecurity and career readiness pathways at the secondary level; and
    • To facilitate teacher readiness to learn, develop, and deliver Cybersecurity content for secondary classrooms in collaboration with nationwide initiatives.

The event activities included the following speakers:

  • Joseph Brickley of the University of Delaware delivered a lecture on Career Opportunities in Cybersecurity;
  • College Lecturers in Computer Science Edmond Hong, Ken Michalek, and Olufemi Ajimoko all spoke with the students: Hong talked about Network Security, Mr. Michalek discussed the role of Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity, and Dr. Ajimoko addressed Cybersecurity Principles.

This event was quite successful, providing an excellent opportunity for senior students and their instructors to learn new updates on Cybersecurity and to be introduced to the various career opportunities available in this area.

Community Outreach

  • Ocean Pride actively represented OCC in the community during Pride Month in June. The students participated in Asbury Park Pride, Toms River Pride, BlueClaws Pride Night, and Seaside Pride.  Attending these pride events aims to spread awareness to the LGBTQ community about all the opportunities available at OCC.  The College is also a place where the students can find different LGBTQ resources that they may be unable to find elsewhere.  Their participation in community events helps them interact with others, with the hope of generating interest in attending Ocean County College.
  • In July, the Office of Disability Services organized multiple events, such as documentary viewing and group discussions, to celebrate Disability Pride Month. This month is a time to recognize the history, accomplishments, experiences, and challenges of the disability community.  It also commemorates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a crucial law signed in 1990 that helped to eliminate barriers to inclusion in society.
  • OCC Manahawkin’s new digital signboard is up and running. The sign provides the opportunity to showcase great opportunities offered at OCCM to our students and the surrounding community.
  • The Medical Residency Program at Community Medical Center, an RWJ Barnabas Health facility, continues to utilize the Simulation Center in the H. Hovnanian Health Sciences Building for a fourth year, beginning July 9, 2024. Medical Residents who have graduated from various medical programs complete simulation experiences and lectures in the Hovnanian Building monthly, under the direction of Attending Physicians.
  • Academic Advising, Enrollment Services, and Financial Aid are hosting an Express Enrollment Day on July 24, 2024, where students can be assisted with applications, registrations, and payment options.
  • The Alternate Route Educator’s Preparation Program landing page was revamped on July 1, 2024, and there were 125 new users within the first three days. The new email address and dedicated phone line have generated 28 leads for the program.
  • Starting with Toms River East High School on July 22, 2024, a pilot program began to train high school administrators and counselors to proctor the Accuplacer exam under the College Readiness Now (CRN) grant. Meredith Riddle, Assistant Director of Educational Resources Elaine Schardien, and Director of Testing Lorie Trachtenberg will administer the training for the high school staff.  The exam allows high schools to determine the students’ college readiness in Math and English and then, with support from the CRN grant, apply interventions to ensure success.

Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts

  • The Jay and Linda Grunin Center has announced the Fall 2025 season. Memberships are available now, and all tickets go on sale on July 25, 2024.
  • The Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts received a sponsorship from the New Jersey Council of the Humanities in support of the a cappella singing group Nobuntu, from Zimbabwe, who will visit our campus on October 16 and 17, 2024, for educational workshops and performances for students and the community.
  • The Grunin Center recently accepted a grant through the 2024-25 Performing Arts Global Exchange (PAGE) program to bring Las Guaracheras to OCC in Spring 2025. PAGE is a national grant program designed to increase the availability of international performing arts programming throughout the United States to promote greater cultural understanding through the performing arts.  Additional information about this opportunity is under the Grants Administration section below.
  • On July 12, 2024, the OCC Repertory Theater Company opened its summer musical, All Shook Up, for a two-week run on the Main Stage.
  • The Grunin Center’s Camps on Campus program offers week-long summer camps for students ages 8 to 18 in art, science, sports, and music. Faculty and staff receive tuition discounts.

Novins Planetarium

  • Associate Director Cara Muscio met with NJ Space Grant and University constituents to discuss piloting a program to put Space Grant-funded college interns at planetariums to learn about informal education careers in astronomy and space science.
  • The Novins Planetarium was recently selected for a prestigious NASA Team II Anchor Grant to provide STEM programming to underserved middle school students and their families and to enhance the Planetarium’s reputation as a science hub in the community. The program is called FOCUS (Families on Campus Using Science).

Professional Development

  • Marketing and Sales Coordinator Victoria Buczynski and Planetarium Office Coordinator Thomas Mellott attended a free professional development day at the Arts Reach organization in New York City. Ticketing, marketing, and best practices for sales were included in the workshops.
  • Linda Simmons, MSN, RN, CEN, CNE, CHSE, will begin her new position as Director of Nursing Skills Labs and Simulation Center effective July 24, 2024. Ms. Simmons joined the School of Nursing as a Skills Lab Coordinator in 2018 and has held a part-time faculty position since 2022.  As Director of the Nursing Skills Labs and Simulation Center, she will collaborate with the faculty to develop, implement, and evaluate strategies within the labs and simulation center that support the curriculum, facilitate student outcomes, and maintain regulatory standards.

Grants Administration

OCC was awarded the following grants:

  • Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation has funded a $165,930 SMILE Workforce grant to secure a significantly upgraded learning environment for Dental Assistant Certificate students by enhancing programming. The project period is from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2027, and the project manager is Mr. Christopher Britain, Operations Manager, Workforce and Professional Education.
  • Grant funding in the amount of $94,020 has been awarded by the New Jersey Business and Industry Association (NJBIA) and New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program, Inc. (NJMEP) as part of the New Jersey Manufacturing Initiative to support 15 learners in obtaining the Academic and Workforce Industrial Hygiene Certificate. The project manager is Mr. Lincoln Simmons, College Lecturer II in Biology, and the project period is July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025.
  • The Lumina Foundation awarded a $50,000 Instagram Challenge grant to support the execution of the College’s marketing and digital outreach strategy. Maureen Conlon, Associate Director of Web Services, is the project manager, and the project period is July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025.
  • The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded a 2023 Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions (TEAMIIANCHR) grant to OCC for $38,317.11.  Cara Muscio, Associate Director of the Planetarium, is the project manager, and the project period is July 1, 2024, through May 31, 2026.  This funding will be used for the Robert J. Novins Planetarium to implement Families on Campus Using Science (FOCUS) as a one-year project that will serve middle school students (grades 5-8) and their siblings across grades K-12 to increase their exposure to and interest in STEM subjects and to encourage traditionally underrepresented students to pursue STEM education and careers.
  • Mid-Atlantic Arts, in partnership with the National Endowment of the Arts, awarded a $2,800 grant through the 2024-25 Performing Arts Global Exchange (PAGE) program to support Las Guaracheras, an all-women salsa sextet from Cali, Columbia, at OCC. Over two days, they will present one ticketed evening public performance, one “pop-up” performance in the Student Center, one school matinee performance, and one student workshop.  The project manager is Ms. Jaclyn Wood, Assistant Director of Education and Community Engagement, and the project period is February 25 through March 28, 2025.

Workforce and Professional Education

  • The Workforce and Professional Education Department is excited to welcome Mr. Shawn Zaka as the new Executive Director of Workforce Education.
  • Workforce Education is collaborating with Student Services to expand OCC’s partnership with Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust. This program offers Kaiser Permanente employees a variety of certificate programs.  The course offerings have been increased this month from one course to six courses, with plans to continue to grow.
  • The Grow with Google Scholarship has been extended for the Workforce Education Department through December 2025. The scholarship enables OCC to offer asynchronous courses at a lower cost, including Google IT Automation with Python, Google UX, Google Data Analytics, Google Digital Marketing, and Google Cybersecurity.
Text Link