From:                              BlueNotes

Sent:                               Tuesday, December 21, 2010 12:18 PM

To:                                   AllUsers

Subject:                          FW: Blue Notes - UM-Flint Campus News

 

 

 

 

BLUENOTES

 

UM-Flint Campus News from the Desk of Chancellor Ruth J. Person

bluenote

December 2010

Greetings, 


It is hard to believe that we are at the end of 2010 already.  The year has been filled with so much success, progress, and activity that it has literally flown by... and now we are on the countdown to 2011.  My BlueNotes for 2010 are a reflection of much of that progress, though it is impossible to represent every success or every new development.  Our biggest successes, of course, are our graduates -- and there are yet more of them as of December 12.

 

Joining us on stage as commencement speaker this December was Dr. Alranzo (Boh) Ruffin.  Dr. Ruffin is a 1995 UM-Flint graduate who now has a very successful career as a research scientist after completing a Master's degree and Ph.D. in Ann Arbor.  He serves as a commercial technology specialist for Corning's specialty materials business.

 

I invited Boh to be our speaker because I believe that his success is an inspiration to both current students and new graduates alike.  We have over 30,000 alumni and I know that there are many other examples of extraordinary success just waiting for our discovery.  We were so pleased to have Boh, his wife, and three children join us in celebration of our 2010 commencement. 

 

Happy Holidays,

 

Ruth J. Person

Chancellor

*COMPETE*

Tim Barden, Facilities Manager-Maintenance, has been selected to participate in the Business and Finance Leadership Academy sponsored by the UM-Ann Arbor Vice President for Business and Finance office. This year-long program has just been made available to our campus this year on a nomination basis and Tim's nomination was successful.  Congratulations, Tim!

 

 

*CONVENE*

Each year we have many students who complete our teacher education program and head off into the real world to become "student teachers." They are each supervised by an experienced teacher. These teachers serve us well and I believe that a proper "thank you" is in order. I hosted them all for a lunch at Ross House in early-December as a way of acknowledging their valuable work!

We convened our first (to my knowledge) all-campus retirement receiption to honor individuals who retired since July 1 or will be retiring at teh end of the term.  We'll be hosting a similar event in the Spring for January 1 - June 30 retirees.  Our retirees included Marie Angeluski, Dan Mitchell, Sharon Mittan, Connie Tambling, Dr. Betty Velthouse, and Becky Wood.  We wish them well in retirement.

 

 

*CONNECT*

One of our most important partnerships is with Hurley Medical Center.  Recently, we "connected with the community" in a unique way.  UM-Flint music students competed in a contest to produce jingles designed to fight childhood obesity.  Two winners were selected -- Katie Marden and Bruce Horn.  Congratulations to both -- what a unique way to partner!

 

Patrick Wardell, Katie Marden, Brian DiBlassio, and Michael Boucree  

I had a great opportunity to connect with our Roads Scholars staff as we selected the next group of travelers.  It happened that Richard Carter, who is part of the Scholars program, was celebrating his retirement that day, so I was able to attend.

 Richard Carter

Richard Carter

Quick Links

 

On My Calendar

 

December 1:
Alumni Town Hall
 

December 2:
Student Teacher Mentor's Lunch at Ross House 

Athena Awards

 

December 3:
CAC/BSP
SOM Honors Dinner

 

December 4:
Holiday Event at Ross House

 

December 5:
Woodlawn Park Drive Event

 

December 7:
Executive Officers (Ann Arbor)
Retirement Reception
 

December 8:
Campus Holiday Party

 

December 9:
Hurley Medical Staff Event
Staff Holiday Breakfast
SEHS Graduation Celebration
Jazz Ensemble Concert

 

December 10:
Lunch at UMHS

 

December 11:
Commencement Reception at Ross House
 

December 12:
Grad program Brunch
Commencement

 

December 14:
Executive Officers (Ann Arbor)
Governing Faculty    Reception for Christopher  Paul Curtis

 

December 15:
Roads Scholars Meeting, President's Dinner (Ann Arbor)

 

December 16:
Pescovitz Memorial     Service, Indianapolis

 

December 17:
Regents (Ann Arbor)
Retirement Party, Richard Carter

 

December 20:
Hurley Board of Managers

 

December 21:
Executive Officers (Ann Arbor)
Celebrate the Solstice

 

December 24-31:
Holiday Time!

 

*Person(ally) Speaking*

I had the most amazing Thanksgiving, with a dinner prepared by five young men who are students at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island.  We were celebrating at my friend Pat Wilson's home in Ann Arbor, and Thomas, her son, brought his four colleagues along.  Not only was the meal truly wonderful (no canned mushroom soup on the green beans for these guys), but what was really great was seeing how well the guys worked together, demonstrating both creativity and a great work ethic.  They'll be great employees in the hospitality industry!  Always wonderful to see our young people be successful. 

John, Ryan, Matt, Jason, Thomas

 

 

Thank you  for reading "BlueNotes!"  

 

Safe Unsubscribe

This email was sent to bluenotes@umflint.edu by scurrier@umflint.edu.

University of Michigan-Flint | 303 E. Kearsley Street | Flint | MI | 48502