Lt. Franklin graduates from prestigious FBI National Academy

Reynolds Community College Police Lieutenant Milton Franklin recently became the first police officer in the Virginia Community College System to graduate from the prestigious Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy. Franklin was part of an international group that participated in a 10-week leadership development course that is specialized for law enforcement executive officers. Participation is by invitation only and candidates are drawn from every state, from U.S. territories, and from over 160 international partner nations. 

“Even though we all were a little nervous the first day we got there, we quickly learned that we were there to meet and learn from each other and learn new ways of policing,” noted Franklin. “In the end the academy made us all smarter and stronger, in hopes, making our home units better.”  

At the academy, the students were provided with instruction and facilitation in the areas of leadership, strategic planning, legal issues, labor relations, media relations, social issues, and police programs. Participants had the opportunity to exchange plans, problems, and solutions with their peers; to develop new thoughts and ideas; and to share successes of their own units. 

Franklin, who has been at Reynolds for over six years, started most mornings with physical training, followed by six hours of class training – over time he participated in seven classes including his favorites “Officer involved in a shooting” and “Active shooter”.

“It is important to also be in very good physical shape,” said Franklin who played football at Virginia Tech from 1981-1984. 

Franklin’s physical fitness test of completing the “Yellow Brick Road” consisted of a 6.1-mile grueling run through a hilly, wooded trail where he was challenged to climb over walls, run through creeks, jump through simulated windows, scale rock faces with ropes, crawl under barbed wire in muddy water and  maneuver across a cargo net. 

“Less than 1% of law enforcement officers are able to attend the national academy,” said Franklin whose graduation class of 244 students represented 23 different countries including Italy, Indonesia and Finland. “When talking to other students I learned that we all are pretty much dealing with the same problems and now I have 244 different resources out there I can call directly and consult with. The academy taught us our peers are there for us to learn from.”  

“We are very proud of Lieutenant Franklin,” said Reynolds Police Chief Paul Ronca. “His selection to attend the academy was well-deserving and we look forward to using his experiences there to make the college’s police department even better for our students, staff and faculty.” 

The Reynolds Police Department in 2013 became the only Virginia Community College System institution to achieve accreditation status from the Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission for its commitment to law enforcement excellence and the successful completion of the certification process through the Virginia Law Enforcement Accreditation Program.   

“Personally, I have been trained by the best to be more professional, to have more self-confidence, to be more out spoken and am now better prepared for the next professional step,” exclaimed Franklin. “And hopefully with becoming a better law enforcement officer I make the Reynolds Police Department and Reynolds Community College even better.”

Reynolds Opticianry Program celebrates 40th Anniversary

 

An enthusiastic crowd of students, faculty, staff, alumni and guests gathered on the Downtown Campus on Friday, April 11 to mark the 40th anniversary of the Opticianry Program at Reynolds Community College.

The first class of Opticianry students at Reynolds began their studies in September of 1974 when the college was located in the former Sydnor and Hundley building on West Grace Street between East First and East Second Street.  The program was housed in the building’s basement and the office was in an old stock room.  The only door was a rolling door and the office also boasted an old coal chute on the wall. In spite of its humble beginnings, the program graduated its first class of three students in June of 1976. 

The initial program was as a diploma program, but it was upgraded to an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree program in the spring of 1977. This was critical as most states that had licensing only recognized graduates from AAS degree programs to sit for their licensing examinations. By 1980, the program received its first accreditation from the Commission on Opticianry Accreditation.

In 1981 when the Downtown Campus moved to its current location on Jackson Street a larger space allocated to the Opticianry Program allowed for surfacing, finishing, and dispensing labs, along with an on-campus eyeglass clinic dedicated to Joe Stewart, the program’s first director.  

The Opticianry program charted new territory in 2000 with the implementation of the online AAS Degree program. This program enabled students anywhere to take the program’s AAS degree via the Internet and remains the only opticianry degree program in the United States to offer the entire curriculum via distance learning. 

A total of 374 students have graduated from the program, and there have been awards along the way.  Reynolds Opticianry students have won the National Opticianry College Bowl, several students have received the NAO Beverly Myers Award for research paper submissions, grants for winning the Hoya E-Poster contests, scholarships from Transitions Optical and scholarships to attend national education conferences from the Contact Lens Society of America.  Students have also had papers published in professional journals and served as student representatives on the board of the Opticians Association of Virginia. 

The gathering on April 11 celebrated not just the 374 students who graduated from the program, but the remarkable and dedicated faculty and staff who worked to make the program a success and to build a strong foundation for continued growth of the Opticianry Program into the future.  Reynolds Community College….where outstanding opticians get started!

 

Student art work on display in the Gallery

At Reynolds Community College, each spring the walls of the Gallery in Georgiadis Hall on the Parham Road Campus become an art gallery for the Student Art Show, displaying many creative works in all shapes and sizes.

This year 68 individual works of art will be on display until April 24. Faculty, staff, students and the public are invited to stop by the Gallery to view the art whenever the Gallery is free of other activities. The artwork includes paintings, drawings, photographs, and digital art.

The art will be judged by an art instructor from another school, with the results announced at a public reception on Thursday, April 24. The reception will begin at 6:30 p.m. with light refreshments, followed by the award presentations.

The April 24 program is free and the community is invited to join in the celebration of the artistic accomplishments of Reynolds students.  A number of pieces will be offered for sale during the event.  

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Reynolds Celebrates Women’s History Month

Reynolds Community College recently recognized Women’s History Month with a celebration entitled “Empowerment: Connecting the Past, Present and Future” in the Workforce Development Conference Center located on the Parham Road Campus.

 

The celebration, sponsored by the college’s Multicultural Enrichment Council, featured established women from our community sharing their paths to success and young women from Virginia Union University, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Richmond and Reynolds Community College talking about their future plans and goals.

The program featured a luncheon with keynote speaker Del. Jennifer McClellan, Virginia House of Delegates.  Other event speakers included Christy Coleman, President and CEO of the American Civil War Center at Tredegar, Allison Bogdanovic, Executive Director, Virginia Supportive Housing, Patience Salgado, Social Impact Artist and Kindness Worker, Paula Peters and Tracy Gilpin of Reynolds Community College, Wanda Hernandez of Virginia Commonwealth University, Wei Kang of the University of Richmond, and Jasmin McKay of Virginia Union University. Reba Hollingsworth of “CBS 6 This Morning” served as mistress of ceremonies for the fifth year.

“Helping to carry my parents’ legacy is making sure every child in Virginia, whether they grow up in Gilpin Court, or Galax or Fairfax County, that they have access to a high quality and free public education and they have the resources and the confidence so they can be whomever they want to be,” noted McClellan. “Somewhere out there is a little girl that is just a nerdy as me, just as curious as me, that maybe does not have the same resources I had. My job is to give it to her.”

Another successful Around the World Through Books program

Dr. Christopher Thomas, Reynolds history professor, led a discussion on what it means to be a resistor and what it means to be a collaborator recently at the Around the World through Books program at Reynolds.

 

Using the context of women in the French resistance movement described in the book A Train in Winter, by Caroline Moorehead, Dr. Thomas invoked a solemn thoughtfulness among the audience as he described the death camp where 230 women were deported, the hierarchy of prisoners, and the underground activities that brought about their arrests. 



Cornelia Warmenhoeven (L)

But it was special guest Cornelia Warmenhoeven who captivated the listeners' feelings. Mrs. Warmenhoeven, now 89 and living in Midlothian, explained with quiet but intense simplicity the  duty and danger she felt as a young resistance worker in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. She told of saving men and boys who were hunted by the Nazis, of carrying them on her bicycle to places where they could hide in safety, and of escorting Allied soldiers through dark, patrolled fields at night to waiting rescuers. She told of her grief when things went wrong, and of her great relief when word came that an escaped soldier had gotten away safely.

World War II and German concentration camps may be relegated to history, but the ethical issues of compassion, compliance, and complicity will always be worth considering.

 Around the World through Books is sponsored by the Multicultural Enrichment Council.

Reynolds Celebrates 10th Annual Science Night

This year’s Science Night at Reynolds Community College entitled, “Back to Basics”, featured discussions on weird physics, autistic worms and glowing mice. The 10th anniversary celebration of Science Night took place on Wednesday, March 26 in the Massey Library Technology Center’s Lipman Auditorium, Parham Road Campus.

The program included the presentations: “Serendipity – The Case for Being at the Right Place at the Right Time” by Chemistry Professor Dr. Ann Sullivan, “Weird Physics” by Physics Professor Dr. John Ochab and “Autistic Worms and Glowing Mice: The Use of Model Organisms in Science” by Biology Professor Dr. Jerrod Hunter.

“Scientists are individuals who believe in a method of discovery that has led to exciting and great advances in medicine, electronics and many other fields,” noted Sullivan about her presentation. “However, there are many examples throughout history where an important discovery was not the actual vision of the research. Serendipity is the accidental discovery that results when minds are prepared to see beyond what is there.”

Thanks to Sullivan’s presentation, guests of Science Night were able find out why silly putty, microwave ovens and penicillin have a lot in common.

"There are many strange physical phenomena that nature presents to us,” explained Ochab. “Some phenomena appear simple in character, so we try to understand the basic mechanics involved.” Ochab also gave examples of such phenomena in the fields of mechanics, fluids, electrodynamics, and quantum mechanics.

“Scientists can be very bad at making the important work they do accessible to the community, and this is very true when it comes to explaining why we do things the way that we did them,” says Hunter.

During his presentation Hunter talked about why we care about fruit fly genetics, yeast chromosomes and the nematode C. elegans as well as why we study yeast to understand Down syndrome.

Science Night is always a popular event at the college, but this year rooms were packed to capacity. The event still maintained its informal that allowed the audience to get to know Reynolds Science faculty.

If you missed the event be sure to attend Science Night next spring!