The Current Online

by Holly Sauerbrei

The MCC-Maple Woods Veterinary Technician Program is gearing up to put all of their cats and dogs up for adoption at the end of the semester.  The cats and dogs are patients in the program, and will be spayed or neutered, micro-chipped, fully vaccinated, have full dental cleanings, and are socialized before going to their forever homes.

“All of the procedures are done by vet tech students under instructor supervision,” says Natalie Short, the lab instructor in the program. “It gives the students the real-life experience that they will use in a veterinary clinic.”

Each student is paired with a dog or cat and acts as the animal’s advocate to ensure that they are adopted, but Short says that’s rarely problem.

At the beginning of each semester, dogs and cats from local shelters are taken into the program.  The only requirements are that they are not yet spayed, neutered, or micro-chipped; not too large or small; and not too young.  The program must also follow local laws that require an animal to be in the shelter long enough for their owners to claim them.

There are no fees to adopt a vet tech animal, which are available to adopt on a first-come first-served basis.  Adoptions will begin near the end of the semester.  For information, call (816)604-3235.

by Lindsey Moore

Go to Longview, knock out the gen eds, figure out a major, focus on that field, get an associate’s degree, continue on to a four- year university, graduate, get a job, be successful…and so on. That is the plan.

Every person has their reasons for the route they will take. MCC- Longview student Sally Rodas wants a leg up on the competition in the work force. The four-year route is the way for her, she says.

“I want a decent job,” Rodas said. “With a four-year (degree) I have a better chance to get a job over someone with an associate’s.” [...]

by Steven Coleman

For more than 100 years, Big Brothers Big Sisters has been America’s top youth-serving organization. Around 500 Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies nationwide “match” adult volunteers and children based on common interests and the child’s specific needs. Some girls and boys can be put in the organization because they need either a man or woman role model in their lives.  The organization has influenced the lives of over one million children in thousands of communities across the nation.

The program starts off by setting up a time for a recruiter to go to your house to talk to both the child and parent about their interests. Then with the information the recruiter collects and receives, he determines a match with a big brother or big sister. [...]

by Travis Leader

When trial lawyer Doug Horn met with a client of his several years ago, he had already spent a little over 20 years litigating in court on the behalf of those who had been injured or killed in vehicular and motor accidents. This client, a student at MCC-Blue River, expressed exasperation to Horn. Not content merely with receiving remuneration in her case, she wanted to know where the blame truly lay that had led her to Horn’s counsel. Realizing the salience of the student’s complaints to her and her peers, as well as the vast array of knowledge he had acquired in his career, Horn made a decision that day—he would make it his mission to discover the answers to those questions, and would share his findings with those who those findings most affected. [...]

by Travis Leader

A revolutionary new way of enrolling in developmental courses may be in progress on MCC campuses, but fundamental problems with the program may stymie the decision indefinitely.

Massive open online courses—or MOOCs—are a new concept in the field of higher education. Established in 2011 among the Ivy League universities, MOOCs are a series of online college courses rapidly gaining popularity for what sets them apart from other forms of online learning.

Using open-source software, MOOC platforms such as Coursera and Udacity offer potential students the opportunity to enroll in any cooperating course just by signing up on their website. Though not offered for credit, the courses are free, and all that is required of the student is access to the Internet and the desire to learn. The platforms are available worldwide, allowing for interaction between students from such diverse locations as India, France, and China, and can handle thousands of students in one class. Add to that the fact that top professors from universities as prestigious as Harvard and Princeton teach many of the courses, and it may seem too good to be true. For MCC students, it very well may be. [...]