The digital magazine for faculty, staff, students and friends of Pensacola State College
February 7, 2020
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Wilma Duncans-Burnett has always gone the extra mile for her students, even if that means letting them stick needles into her veins. Because Pensacola State College’s phlebotomy program coordinator hates needles. Hates them. But she’ll stick out her arm – “I have prominent veins,” she said – when it comes to students who need real skin and real veins to practice on. “I always pick the most timid student to draw my blood,” said Duncans-Burnett, who is coordinator for both the phlebotomy program and the electrocardiography program at PSC. “When you don’t like needles, it gives you a little respect for them and helps you teach the students the right way. I teach them procedures and techniques so that they hurt patients as little as possible.” Duncans-Burnett, who began her teaching career at Pensacola State College – then Pensacola Junior College – in August 1988, will teach her final class on Feb. 29. Maybe.
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So, you’ve been out of school for a few years now, but you’re only a few credit hours away from graduating. Well, Pensacola State College wants you to come back to finish what you started. Heck, even Florida Gov.
Ron DeSantis
wants you to come back. How bad do they want you back? Enough to let you return to school for free. PSC is one of the 28 Florida colleges participating in Gov. DeSantis’
“Last Mile College Completion Program,”
which offers free tuition to students close to finishing their degree.
Troy Moon
has all the details
and talks with folks who hope to take advantage of the program.
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Get free, expert help applying, registering and paying for college at Pensacola State College’s Financial Aid Day set for noon-3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16, at the Student Center, Building 5, on the Pensacola campus, 1000 College Blvd.
Admissions, Advising and Financial Aid counselors will be available to help new and returning students and their parents get started at Pensacola State College. Potential students can ask questions, use the Computer Lab for online forms and receive one-on-one assistance.
“Knowledgeable volunteers will be on hand to walk attendees through the entire process,” said Kathy Dutremble, Pensacola State’s dean of Student Services and Enrollment Services.
“And if potential students and parents are stumped by FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) forms, they can receive personal help filling out and submitting the FAFSA form. The FASFA form is a mandatory first step to receiving financial aid.”
To complete FAFSA, please bring:
- FSA ID – apply at https://fsaid.ed.gov/
- 2018 IRS Tax Transcript and W-2 statements (or Form 1099)
- Social Security Number
- Driver’s License or another valid photo ID
- Alien Registration card or Certificate of Naturalization
- Untaxed income records for 2018 (if applicable)
- Social Security benefits
- Veterans non-education benefits (disability compensation)
- Most recent Military LES (active-duty)
- DD214
- Value of 2018 child support received and/or paid
Attendees should enter the Student Center from Underwood Avenue.
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Artist Susan McCollough has exhibited in Paris, Florence and now PSC
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Being in a room full of
Susan N. McCollough paintings must be akin to what it’s like being in the middle of a jazz improvisation performed by the masters – graceful, yes, but imbued with a spirit of frantic kineticism and spellbinding abstractism that is both mesmerizing and provoking.
Awash in bold color and frantic movement, McCollough’s art seems alive, bursting with vibrant energy.
And all that boldness, all that color, all that vibrancy is on exhibit through May 1 at the
Anna Lamar Switzer Center for Visual Arts at Pensacola State College.
An opening reception was held on Jan. 30 in the Charles W. Lamar Studio at the Center for Visual Arts.
McCollough was named the 2017 Artist of the Year by the Florence-based Art Tour International Magazine, and her work has been featured in galleries in New York and Las Vegas, as well as European cities such as Florence, Paris, Monaco, Berlin, Palermo and many more.
Her studio is in Gulf Shores, Ala., where she lives with her husband,
Gaylon McCollough, a prominent plastic surgeon. She recently released a book featuring her work, “Living Masters: Susan N. McCollough – My Journey Through the Arts.”
“Her artwork really pops,” said PSC President
Ed Meadows. “There’s just so much color and energy.”
At the opening reception, a crowd of friends, supporters and art students and aficionados walked through the gallery, taking in the large-scale canvases on exhibit.
“I like it, she uses colors that are each distinct, but they tie together,” said New Orleans-based artist
Tara Campbell. “There’s a depth to her work. It makes you wonder around the process she went through to develop her style.”
A guiding principle was a quote from McCollough displayed in the gallery above the exhibit: “Most times I visualize realism in the abstract.”
The Bronx native, a University of Alabama graduate, explained her process:
“When I look at something, whether I’m looking out the window or just walking and see a landscape, I basically see realism like everyone else does,” she said. “But all of a sudden, my brain can function so I can see it as completely abstract…It morphs into something else.”
Want to visit?
The Switzer Center for Visual Arts Gallery Hours:
8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday.
For more information, including tours, call 850-484-2550.
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Marla Magaha helps those who help the doctors
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Director for Medical Assisting Program trains these special caregivers
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Filed under “Facts You Probably Didn’t Know” is this little gem: You know those folks you see working at the doctor’s office, either behind the front desk or back in the exam rooms?
They’re not just employees hired by the doctor. Most likely they are trained medical assistants, who have studied hard to learn the ins and outs of both the administrative end – appointments, filing, referrals, etc. – and the clinical end – injections, vitals, even surgery assistance.
And most likely, particularly if they’re in offices within the Northwest Florida area, they’ve been trained by
Marla Magaha.
Magaha is the program director, and currently the only full-time instructor, for medical assisting at Pensacola State College.
“When they leave this program, they are able to go into an office and handle both front office and clinical needs,” Magaha says. “Sometimes we get physicians who call who want someone able to float and do it all, but sometimes they’re looking for someone specifically for the front, sometimes specifically for the clinical, but it’s nice that they have someone that can do it all, so they can fill in whenever needed.”
The Medical Assisting Vocational Certificate Program is a year-long, three-semester endeavor, beginning in the fall and limited to 25 students.
Magaha says there’s not a lot of difference between a medical assistant and a licensed practical nurse, except that “medical assistants do not work in inpatient facilities like hospitals or long-term health care facilities. Our students work in ambulatory offices, which would be your walk-in clinics, your doctor’s offices, like that. LPNs don’t learn any of the front-office procedures.”
Another difference is that medical assistants tend to work the normal hours of a doctor’s office and not the shift work, nights and weekends worked by LPNs.
“A good medical assistant is someone who really wants to help others, who is interested in and understands the medical field and knows what is required on a personal level to give in the field,” Magaha says. “Someone who understands professionalism and ethics. That’s what we push, that’s one of the things we really try to get into their heads.”
A Pensacola native, Magaha graduated from Pine Forest High School and received her nursing degree from PSC. She started work in the health care field as a doula at a birthing center, then went on to other nursing positions, often in pediatric care.
She received her bachelor’s degree from Chamberlain University and currently is completing her master’s degree from Aspen University.
“When you’re a nurse you’re a teacher,” she says. “You’re an instructor and you have to enjoy that part of it. Even as I worked as a nurse on the floor, I started teaching the childbirth education classes for the hospital. I began getting more into the teaching side of it and I really wanted to expand that part of it.”
Magaha started at PSC as an adjunct nursing instructor in 2016, then applied for the program director position when it came open.
“I came full circle,” she says.
Magaha now lives in Lillian, Alabama, with her husband of 42 years. The couple has six children and four grandchildren, whom they often entertain on their 27-foot pontoon boat.
“We love the outdoors, love the water, and we love this area,” she says. “I can’t imagine living anywhere else. You get that white sand in your shoes and you’re kind of hooked.”
Occasionally she will hear from former students, some of whom have gone on to other areas of the health care profession.
“Being a medical assistant is a gateway to other medical jobs for many of these students,” Magaha says.
While the program does not do job placement per se, Magaha says she often fields calls from local offices looking for eager assistants.
“When you think of just Pensacola alone, all the doctors’ offices that we have here in this town, when you think of the large medical centers, with hundreds of doctors, they all have medical assistants, so we get calls quite often, sometimes desperate calls: ‘I just had an MA quit, I need somebody yesterday.’”
The program includes 180 hours of practicum in a doctor’s office. “So, when they graduate, they have that experience. A lot of times, by the time they have completed their practicum, they have a job.”
The PSC program is much appreciated in the local health care community, Magaha says.
“We’ve been told many times by physicians’ offices that our students are set apart,” she says. “The offices know that our students have received a better education, and we take pride in that, knowing that our students can leave this program and walk into an office and do a good job.”
-- Mike Suchcicki
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Try a new fitness activity on for size with PSC's FITT & WELL Club
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Taking a cue from Monty Python's Flying Circus, the folks at
PSC's FITT & WELL Club
have a message for all students: "And now for something completely different."
With its regular
"Tuesdays @ 2 - Try Something New"
fitness program, FITT & WELL features different activities each week to give attendees an opportunity to experience and learn the proper and safe techniques of a new physical exercise. For instance, the Feb. 4 session offered instruction in Tai Chi, while Feb. 11 will highlight cha-cha dance instruction.
"Every Tuesday we do something different," says club adviser
Paul Swanson
. "So, one Tuesday it might be aerobic dance, one Tuesday it might be kickboxing. We're just trying to get students and faculty to get active and be fit."
The FITT & WELL Club -- FITT stands for Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type -- hopes that once attendees try a particular activity, they'll want to continue it on a regular basis.
Here's the spring meeting and activity schedule. Except for the Feb. 18 Pool Aerobics session, which takes place in the PSC Pool in Building 3, all activities take place at 2 p.m. in the Student Center, Building 5.
- Feb. 11 - Cha-Cha Dance Instruction
- Feb. 18 - Pool Aerobics (PSC Pool, Building 3)
- Feb. 25 - Yoga for Beginners
- March 3 - Functional Strength Exercises
- March 10 - NIA (Expressive Cardio)
- March 24 - STRONG by Zumba
- March 31 - ZUMBA - Dance
- April 7 - Krav Maga (Self Defense)
- April 14 - NIA (Expressive Cardio)
- April 21 - Hip-Hop for Beginners
In addition, the FITT & WELL Club will set up shop at the PSC Basketball game at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22, at the PSC Gym, Building 3; the Lumberjack Festival, 10 a.m. Saturday, March 28, at the Milton Campus; and the Pirate Fest, with free health screenings, at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 11, at the PSC Track.
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Three PSC
Career and Technical Education (CTE) student organizations are showcasing their achievements and services during February’s National CTE Month. All three groups –
SkillsUSA, National Technical Honor Society, HOSA-Future Health Professionals — have been setting up booths and offering information and assorted goodies to interested students throughout the week.
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The fun will be flying when PSC sets up its new disc golf course
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Sometime this spring, the discs will be flying across open fields on Pensacola State College’s Pensacola campus.
Intramurals coordinator
Doug Rogers
and staff will soon install six disc golf baskets on campus at various locations near the track, and behind the softball field. Rogers said that though there are only six baskets, there will be different tee areas set up so as to make three different six-basket courses. (Think of the basket the way you think of a “hole” or “cup” in traditional golf, or what disc golf players call “ball golf.”)
Pensacola State also has two disc golf courses, mostly wooded, on the Milton campus. Both maintained by the
Emerald Coast Disc Golf Club.
“There won’t be a lot of trees to work though,” Rogers said of the new course, which will feature tee pads as well as the Innova DISCather chain baskets. “It’s going to be all Par 3 holes. But people will have an opportunity to come out and throw, practice and maybe learn the game.”
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PSC KICKS OFF UNITED WAY CAMPAIGN: Laura Gilliam, president and CEO of
United Way of West Florida, addresses the gathering at the Hagler Auditorium on Thursday, Feb. 6, as PSC kicked off its annual United Way campaign.
Melonie Miner, PSC's campaign chair, says that pledge forms and additional information will be distributed throughout the campuses and centers soon. PSC campus/center coordinators are Miner and
Miriam Fagerstrom for the Pensacola Campus and Downtown Center;
Butch Branch for the Milton Campus;
Edith Fox for the Warrington Campus;
John Artinger for the Century Center; and
Karen McCabe for the South Santa Rosa Center. For nearly 95 years, United Way of West Florida has been serving our communities. Ninety-eight percent of all dollars raised are spent locally; your donations are used for food, clothing, shelter, and utility assistance, as well as providing for individual, family, and community programs.
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PSC smartphone app adds bold, new upgrades to maps, course search
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When Pensacola State College web administrator
Frank Asprer
first compiled the official PSC smartphone app back in the fall of 2019, he already had plans for an update.
The maps section, for instance, brought visitors to the various PSC campuses and centers, but stopped there.
“We need to make it turn-to-turn to specific buildings,” he said at the app’s original release. “That will make it a lot easier to get around.”
The thing about coders: Usually they can’t help but tweak and think of the next expansion. So Asprer immediately got to work on the existing app, adding features, refining navigation and streamlining procedures.
The result was an all-new version of the iPhone app, which should already have updated for the more than 500 users who have downloaded it since the August 2019 launch.
Those who haven’t opened the app in a while will notice that the basic cosmetics are the same – it opens with a beautiful photo of the
M.J. Menge Bell Tower
– and the basic button navigation structure hasn’t changed, with access to Spyglass, eLearning, PirateMail, news, calendars, student services and more.
But a deeper dive shows that Asprer has achieved some of his update goals. For instance, the Maps button (down on the new, revised bottom navigation strip) takes the user to a more detailed array of maps of the six PSC campuses and centers. Click on the Pensacola campus, for instance (labeled as “Main Campus”), and the map appears (borrowed from Apple Maps), festooned with a pattern of numbered red pins upon the various buildings. By tapping on a pin, the user is taken to detailed walking and/or driving instructions, which means there’s little chance a user can get lost, regardless of the campus.
The other major improvement is a more robust course search, allowing the user to search by instructor name, course number or section number. A student can see, via the individual results, the number of available seats in a class.
“What I’m hoping to add in the next version is a way for the user to add the class to a favorites list, which will help them when they’re compiling their schedules,” Asprer says.
As before, the app includes campus tours, a QR scanner and a simple to-do list function.
The app currently is available only in an iOS version, but an Android version is in the future, Asprer says.
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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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There's never an idle moment at Pensacola State College, whether you're into art, athletics, drama, music, science, technology, engineering, dance, movies, books or just plain socializing. Make plans to make plans with
our online Calendar
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