Cagers pile up wins

Sports >> Page 6

Hockey Club breeds success

Sports >> Page 7

Dec. 9, 2013 - Jan. 26, 2014

Volume 55, Issue 8 www.lcc.edu/lookout

thelookout
Lansing Community Colleges Independent Student Newspaper since 1959

A&E >> Page 8

Ensemble brings the energy

Silver Bells in the City delights

Scholarships still available

Jaimie Bozack Associate Editor It is almost the end of the 2013 fall semester, which means new scholarship opportunities will become available for students. Keeping up with the amount of scholarships students can apply for can be overwhelming. The application deadline is Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2014. According to Peggy Hellwig, Foundation Scholarship and Operations coordinator, in order to be considered for a scholarship, students must complete an online General Scholarship Application by the deadline. Were encouraging students to apply now because the sooner, the better, Hellwig said. According to Hellwig, there are a variety of different schol-

Photo by Suzanna Powers

Fireworks explode over the State Capitol during the 29th annual Silver Bells in the City in Downtown Lansing on Nov. 22. See story and photo essay on page 12.

arships available for students of all types, and some are specific to degrees. To apply for a scholarship, students can go to LCCs online homepage and click the scholarship link where it directs visitors to different scholarships. For students, its easy to do, everything is right online, said Hellwig. You just go online from your phone, tablet or laptop and have it down within a matter of minutes. According to Hellwig, for students to qualify for different scholarships, they must meet certain criteria, which is listed on the homepage. Most scholarships will require the students GPA, extracurricular activities and a reference letter. GPA is important but it isnt See Scholarship, page 2

LCC joins national initiative to foster success

Nathan Wilson Editor in Chief LCC became one of 12 founding institutions to the join the Gateways to Completion (G2C) initiative during fall 2013 in a national effort to boost student success. According to Martine Rife, faculty process liaison for the G2C project, this national pilot initiative is undertaken by the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education. Through LCCs participation in the projects first cohort, our college, along with other founding members, will take dramatic steps to improve our gateway courses, Rife said. Our work on this project will focus on five key courses, courses that are foundational, high-enrollment and high risk. These gateway courses include WRIT 121 Composition I, ACCG 210, Principles of Accounting I, HIST 212, U.S. History: 1877 to Present, MATH 112, Intermediate Algebra and BIOL 121. Through a robust evidencebased analysis, LCC will develop and implement action plans in five gateway courses in the following areas: academic success and excellence in learning, improved course completion, retention and graduation, upward social mobility and life satisfaction. Our goals are to closely study and analyze key courses that prevent barriers to student success, in order to design interventions and action plans, and implement those action plans with the ultimate goal of dramatically increasing student success, Rife said. First-year college composition and first-semester college math have been known to pose problems for particularly populations of students. No one has yet figured out exactly why these particular courses are a barrier, Rife said. National and local data further shows that such courses have a disproportionately high negative impact on students of color. Thus, in order to achieve our goal of serving a diverse community, and of maintaining a diverse student population, we at Lansing Community College are going to work with 11 other colleges at the cutting edge of this national student success initiative. Presently and through Monday, Dec. 16, the Student Learning Gain Assessment Survey is being administered in See G2C, page 2

Photo by Suzanna Powers

Many faculty members were present for the G2C webinar, which focused on preparation for the spring semester Nov. 26.

What are your plans for the holiday break?

Partying, working, tanning. Im going to my moms condo in Orlando, Florida. Festive things: decorating cookies and the Christmas tree, and sledding if it snows. Sleeping and enjoying not having to do schoolwork.

Brittany Swejkoski, 18, General Education

CAMPUSPERSPECTIVESCAMPUSPERSPECTIVESCAMPUSPERSPECTIVES

Amber Boid, 18, Music

Brooke Burns, 18, General Education

Steven Atkin, 18, Engineering