The digital magazine for faculty, staff, students and friends of Pensacola State College
December 6, 2019
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“I’m a first-generation college student,” says
Jennifer Hill Faron. “I’m from Milton, born and raised in Milton. This campus has always meant a lot to this community.” Now in her early 30s, Faron Hill – a married mother of a 2-year-old daughter – is working to ensure her hometown campus is meeting the needs of its students and the community. She does this in the capacity of the campus’ interim dean, so named in August, and she continues to hold the Director of Student Affairs position at the campus as well – a position she has held since February 2018.
Troy Moon visits Hill Faron and learns about
the intense pride she has for the Milton campus.
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Projections of swirling snowflakes danced on the exterior brick wall, beckoning every visitor. Nearby, a handful of students and instructors huddled around a hardy campfire that crackled in heated rhythm.
If outside felt like winter, the inside of the
Johnson L.I.F.E. Center on
Pensacola State College’s Milton campus felt like a winter wonderland on Tuesday night.
Santa and Mrs. Claus greeted attendees at the door, and nearby student flautists serenaded guests clad in their seasonal best who had gathered for the annual
PSC Holiday Experience.
Held annually, the event is a major fundraiser for the college and helps provide scholarships for students in need as well as program additions/improvements.
Troy Moon attended The Holiday Experience, the theme of which was “A Starry Starry Night," and compiled
a complete report that you'd have to be a Scrooge or Grinch to pass up.
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At the press conference for the announcement of the
2020 PSC Athletics Hall of Fame
class, one of the inductees, WEAR-TV's sports director
Dan Shugart
couldn't shed his journalist's hat, asking questions from the dais of the other inductees. Shugart, at right in the above photos, joins fellow inductees
Doug Bates
, at left in photo, former PSC baseball player and president of the PSC Foundation;
Vicki Carson,
second from left, former Lady Pirates basketball coach;
Dr. Donn Peery
, center, former PSC athletic director; and
Brenda Pena
, fourth from left, former PSC softball player and softball coach. Shugart, Bates, Pena and Carson are seen at right with
Bill Hamilton
, PSC athletic director. We have
the rundown
and biographies of all the inductees, plus a look at the press conference itself.
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Act fast, tickets selling quickly for PSC Planetarium holiday shows
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Tickets are selling quickly for the
Pensacola State College Planetarium and Space Theater holiday shows.
Along with all-time favorite –
Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” this year’s holiday movies include
“Let It Snow,” and
“Season of Light,” which are showing on select dates and times through Friday, Dec. 13.
Tickets range in price from $4 to $6, and group scheduling is available. Shows are free for Pensacola State students, faculty and staff with current College ID.
The Planetarium seats 97, and moviegoers this year will be treated to an updated facility with reconfigured new seating, computerized LED lighting, a state-of-the-art surround sound system, carpeting and computerized control console.
“It’s pretty much a new planetarium ─ from the very top to the walls and flooring,” said
Billy Jackson, the College’s planetarium specialist. “The renovations started in 2017 and we finished everything this past summer.”
The most obvious updates to the facility will be the color scheme change to dark blue and gray from the 1990s mauve theme. Also, when viewers look up, they will notice the repainted 40-foot diameter dome, he added.
Housed in the Baroco Center for Advanced Technology, Building 21, on the Pensacola campus, the planetarium opened in 1993.
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Movies and show times
Monday, Dec. 9, “Let it Snow,”
2 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 11, “Let it Snow,” 11:30 a.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 11, “Season of Light,” 2 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 12, “Let it Snow, Noon
Friday, Dec. 13, “Season of Light,” 11:30 a.m.
Tickets can be purchased at the Ashmore Auditorium (Building 8) Ticket Office or by calling 850-484-1847. For more information about the shows or tickets, visit
pensacolastate.edu/community/planetarium.
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“
Phi Theta Kappa
is an honor society for high-achieving students who dedicate themselves to learning," says
Jeff Wooters
, adviser of the PTK Theta Chi chapter on the Pensacola campus. “Scholarship is a big thing we work on, as well as community service, leadership skills and just getting to know everything happening here at the school and the community.”
Students in Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for state colleges and community colleges, take that commitment to school and community seriously, as
Troy Moon
found out when
he spoke with
members on both the Pensacola and Milton campuses.
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The
Theta Chi Chapter
of
Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society
at PSC, as part of its
Honors in Action
project, is trying to help young people in our area who have escaped the human trafficking trade. The chapter worked with the
PSC Foundation
to set up
The Transformation Through Education Scholarship,
designed to empower former victims of human trafficking by assisting them in completing a degree at PSC. The goal is $10,000. To contribute, go to
foundation.pensacolastate.edu/give-now/
. Indicate your gift amount and then select "Universal Scholarship" from the drop-down list. In the comment box, type "Transformation Through Education."
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Once known for bringing in some of the nation’s leading speakers and public figures, the
Panhandle Tiger Bay Club is no more, having merged with the University of West Florida Downtown Lecture Series in early November. But the club’s legacy – and that of one of its founders – will live on with a Pensacola State College scholarship totaling $5,000.
The John Broxson-Panhandle Tiger Bay Club Scholarship will preserve both legacies, said Pueschel Schneier, the last of the Tiger Bay Club presidents. The club was established in 1977 by Pensacola News Journal columnist Pat Lloyd and former Florida Sen. John Broxson.
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Shawn Jennings found her talent, her passion
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Former nurse now serves as instructor in Pensacola State's RN program
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Shawn Jennings is smiling brightly and brimming with anticipation as she takes a seat in her office in Building 3100 at the PSC Warrington campus.
"Actually I love to tell this story and I don't get to tell it very often, so ..."
"One Sunday morning in 2016 while sitting in church listening to the message delivered by my pastor, it felt as if he was speaking directly to me,” says Jennings, a mother of three who moved with her physician husband to Pensacola in 2008. He said, 'Find your passion, find your talent and go serve.' That's when it clicked with me."
Her passion: "I've always been in some sort of role involving education in my nursing career, teaching children, parents and families in almost every pediatric specialty role I’ve held throughout my nursing career. I was a pediatric oncology nurse for many years, and there is a lot of teaching in that role. I have always enjoyed the teaching aspect of nursing."
Her talent: "I had been a pediatric nurse for 23 years at that point in 2016, and I felt I had something to give back to students pursuing a career in the nursing profession. I felt like I had experience and knowledge to share, and the heart to care for and mentor new students."
Her service: "I like to serve. I'm a giving kind of person, so when my pastor said those few words, it resonated and gave me my path of service, not just personally, but now professionally."
The Pennsylvania native says she was originally drawn to nursing when, at 17, she drove her father, who had just suffered a heart attack, to the hospital. "Watching the nurses with him pretty much solidified my career path," she says. Her father recovered and has been healthy ever since.
While a seasoned veteran at nursing, however, she's completed only her first semester of teaching. She teaches in the associate degree program that produces registered nurses.
She's convinced she's found her calling, but says teaching is "very different than anything I've ever done. It's been a challenge. But I knew it would be hard. I had done lots of research on the role of a nursing educator. It carries a heavy workload."
While she draws heavily from her own experience as a nurse, Jennings says there's more to being a nursing educator.
"There's a lot to know, there's a big learning curve, and for me, and even bigger transition period."
She says she's learned a lot during this first semester.
"Actually I've learned mostly what I don't know. It's been a long time since I taught someone, say, how to take a blood pressure. It's been a lot of relearning, refreshing, so that I can be useful to the students."
Her former role of teaching in the pediatric world, mostly to children, is much different, she says, than her current role of teaching adult students.
"I have students of all ages, and with varied backgrounds prior to beginning their nursing education," Jennings says. "Instruction needs to be creative, active, and at the level that will be most effective for everyone."
As part of her path to becoming a nursing instructor, the University of Delaware and University of West Florida graduate did three semesters of practicum, which immersed her into the nurse educator role. Two of those practicum experiences were completed at PSC in the nursing department.
"I followed many of the educators who are now my colleagues," Jennings says. "In those two semesters of practicum, they took me in, and took me under wing. I felt enculturated into their world here, and now it really feels like home. I am grateful for the opportunity PSC has given me to follow my passion, share my talent, and serve my profession."
-- Mike Suchcicki
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H
ave a great PSC graduation story? We want to hear it!
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If yours is like most families that include Pensacola State College graduates, you have memories of great anecdotes or unique situations having to do with the graduation ceremony. Perhaps something fascinating or unusual happened at the event. Perhaps you have three generations of PSC grads in the same family. Perhaps your journey to a PSC diploma took a unusually circuitous route. If so, we would like to hear that history, those memories, those anecdotes. Share your tales with an email to
thepirate@pensacolastate.edu
. Be sure to include your full name and contact information (phone number or email). And thanks for sharing!
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