The Current Online

by Gini Swartz

As long as you’re taking two courses, why not make it easier by taking them together?

Learning Community (LNCO) courses were introduced for students into the MCC-Maple Woods curricula in the 1990s, but became a requirement for the A.A. degree 10 years ago. According to the college’s explanation in the course guide, “LNCO courses are taught within a community to help focus your education, build motivation and give added meaning to a student’s college experience. These courses allow students to interact with a group of peers, while having multiple professors teach the course(s). The LNCO courses include lecture, small group work and reading/writing assignments.”

“The courses are connected by a common LNCO theme, which is used to integrate the content and learning outcomes of the two disciplines.  While we sometimes try to create LNCOs that combine courses needed for specific degree programs, often it is two faculty who want to teach together and share some common interests that drives the creation of the specific LNCO,” says William Young, history professor at Maple Woods and chair of the Social Sciences/Business Division. [...]

by Deirdre Ray

After nearly 20 years of singing and dancing, the Mighty Voices of Longview have gone silent.

The show choir is no longer being offered at MCC-Longview after director Cathy Hardy-Parcell, music department coordinator at Longview, said that “due to her own health issues” she would not be able to keep it going.  Longview still has a chancel choir, which is a strictly singing group with no choreography. [...]

Tonga and her students in the lab (Shanblissia Carter/The Current)

by Shanblissia Carter

by Ryan Witkowski

Mary Rogers-Grantham, an English instructor at MCC-Penn Valley, can add another accolade to her resume. Rogers-Grantham has recently had her poem “You Crashed My Innocence” published by Rougarou, an online literary journal.

This is not the first time Rogers-Grantham has been published. Her poetry has been featured in the Kansas City Star, Present magazine, And/Or, and Kansas City Voices. She has self-published two poetry compilations titled “It’s Okay: Poetic Memoirs” and “Clear Velvet,” and currently is working on a third titled “Under a White Moon.” [...]