Community Service is Key Theme of New OCC Founders' Day Celebration

With the theme “A Tradition of Excellence,” OCC will observe its first annual Founders’ Day celebration on Tuesday, March 19.  The purpose of the event is to honor the public spirit and contributions of those who established the college and set it on the path the success it enjoys today.

A major feature of the month’s celebration will be a Community Service Competition for students and employees designed to honor OCC’s founders and their commitment to our community.  Participants will complete a minimum of 4 hours of community service, to be entered on a special Community Service Form.

The three top employee earners will be honored on Excellence Day, and the three top student earners at Honors Convocations.  Specially-designed pins will also be awarded for 4, 20 and 40 hours of service during the month of March.

 

Other planned activities include highlights of the lives of those who played critical roles in the college’s establishment, such as OCC “Founding Father” George Mosher (March 19 is Mr. Mosher’s birthday), Charter Board members Lila Johnson and Fred Chapman, and the college’s first president, John Tirrell.

 

Additional highlights include celebratory cakes at each campus on March 19, the airing of recorded interviews with personalities who played a role in the college’s establishment, displays and PowerPoint presentations.

Look for further details on InfoMart as Founders’ Day approaches, and start thinking about your community service projects now.

Fan Appreciation Day

Fan Appreciation Day – Saturday, February 16, Auburn Hills Health Buildings

The first 50 fans will receive a plain white tee shirt to make this the first Raider White Out Game!
25 tees will be given out prior to the women’s game, 25 prior to the men’s game.

Wear your white and cheer on your raiders!

Raider’s Men’s Basketball Team face the Mott Bears in a battle for the conference title.

Women’s game at 1 pm, Men’s game at 3 pm.

 

Say It With Chocolates

For Valentine’s Day, February 14, the Culinary Arts Department at OCC’s Orchard Ridge Campus is offering custom boxes of hand-made chocolates produced by advanced students under direction of OCC’s chocolatier, Chef Greg Stoker.  To reserve your box call 248.522.3700.

New Student Blog Introduced

The marketing department has established a new Student Blog to replace the former monthly Student Newsletter. 

As with the old newsletter, the new blog will feature useful information and pictures for students on such topics as upcoming lectures, sports news, scholarships and other items of interest.  The blog will be disseminated to all currently-enrolled students. 

Among the advantages of the new blog – material is no longer collected and sent out on a monthly basis.  Instead it will be issued on a “breaking news” basis as soon as the material is received by marketing, providing a more timely information source for students.

OCC Ice Carvers Off to Good Start this Year

The OCC Culinary Studies Institute Student Ice Carving Team has begun the new year with a string of victories at various events.
 

At the Holland Ice Show, January 4 and 5, Lindsey Wood took second place with her “Flying Fish,” Ryse Richards won third with “Chameleon,” Aaron Whitten took fifth with his “Dragonfly,” and Ken Mellott won eighth with “Wolf.”

 

At the Plymouth Ice Festival, January 18-20, Lindsey Wood took second place with “Flying Fish,” and Ryse Richards won third with “Chameleon.”

 

At the National Zehnder Ice Carving Competition in Frankenmuth, January 26-27, the team of Ryse Richards and Lindsey Wood won the gold medal for “Octopus,” while the team of Aaron Whitten and Conner Walling won the silver with “Rabbit Chasing Dog.”

 

On February 1 and 2 WWJ Newsradio will present the 10^th Annual Winter Survival Radiothon at Art Van Furniture in Warren benefitting the Heat and Warmth Fund (THAW).

 The OCC Student Ice Carving Team will create ice furniture for the event.  Visitors, including local celebrities, will be obliged to sit on the pieces until they can raise $250 for THAW and win their release from “the cold seat.”

THAW has been assisting Michigan residents, children, seniors and those with serious medical conditions, who face energy crisis emergencies for 26 years.

 

National champions Lindsey Wood (left) and Ryse Richards proudly show their Gold Medal Team Awards at the Zehnder Ice Carving Competition.  Behind them is their prize-winning “Octopus”

Sphinx CEO Aaron Dworkin Enthralls Audience at OCC MLK Convocation

 

The 2013 Martin Luther King, Jr., Convocation on January 30 opened with a welcome by Dean Sally Hanna, Chair of the College Wide Diversity and Inclusion Committee, which sponsored this year’s event at Orchard Ridge.

First on the program was a performance by 11 members of the Detroit Children’s Choir, a group established in 2006 and dedicated to bridging social gaps by bringing children in grades 3 to 8 together to gain self-confidence, social awareness and musical skills. Interspersing readings from the writings of Dr. King, the group performed a variety of numbers, including a stirring rendition of "We Shall Overcome."

In introducing the evening’s speaker, Aaron Dworkin, president and founder of the Sphinx Organization, Chancellor Tim Meyer characterized Dworkin as "an arts entrepreneur, performing artist, poet, film director, and youth advocate – a true Renaissance man."

Dworkin began his presentation by recounting his remarkable life story as the child of a Black Jehovah’s Witness father and a White Irish Catholic mother, adopted by a Jewish couple who were university professors – thus the title of his biography, A Black, White, Jewish, Jehovah’s Witness, Irish Catholic Adoptee’s Journey to Leadership." It was his adopted mother’s amateur violin playing and an early exposure to the work of violinist Isaac Stern that ignited his lifelong passion for music, Dworkin said.
Dworkin moved on to provide a historical overview of the role of Black classical performing artists and composers, citing the career of concert violinist Frederick Douglas’s, Jr., son of the great 19th century abolitionist and social reformer, who also was an accomplished violinist.

Looking at the contemporary scene, Dworkin analyzed the percentages and numbers of Black/Latino participants in classical music, including audiences, orchestra administrators and players – a figure ranging from two to four percent.

Dworkin closed with an overview of the mission of Sphinx, which features the only Black/Latin classical orchestra in the country, and works to widen the reach of music education, as well as significantly increase the role and numbers of Black and Latino artists in classical music.

Summing up his organization’s role, Dworkin observed, "Sphinx has been at the forefront of the battle to build diversity among young people."

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In recognition of Black History Month in February and parallel to Mr. Dworkin’s comments on diversity and inclusion, we share an article submitted by Dr. Tony Ingram, "The Origins of Black History Month."