News and Events > 2007-2008 > Foundation mimi grants

For immediate release- January 2, 2008

Asnuntuck Community College Foundation Awards Grants for Special Projects

Enfield, CT--Commenting, “I love awarding money to support exciting and innovative projects at Asnuntuck Community College,” Cheryl Turgeon, Chair of the Mini-Grant Committee of the Asnuntuck Community College Foundation announced five new grants today. Each supports some enhancement of College programs.

One award will help to send faculty and students of the class Self and Others: The Dynamics of Diversity, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Faculty will prepare academic materials for the experience, building on course work covering theories and examples of oppression, genocide, intolerance, resistance, allies and social change.

Another award will provide tee-shirts for participants in the student-run “Community Action Day,” an annual celebration of community and civic engagement. Students and staff of the college will help prepare Elsie’s House in Stafford Springs, a transition home for families in need of temporary housing.

One result of the multi-year Paul Robeson Tribute/Arts Festival at Asnuntuck Community College is a collection of visual memorabilia. With help from an Asnuntuck Community College Foundation grant, students will create a collage of selected items from this collection for public view.

Asnuntuck Community College’s nationally known poetry magazine, Freshwater, holds several Coffee Houses each semester. Faculty, staff and students read poetry and make music in recognition of a theme appropriate to the time. A College Foundation grant will sponsor three such events.

John Sheirer, a member of the Asnuntuck faculty hiked the same two-mile nature trail every day for a year, took many photos, and wrote a memoir soon to be published. He has developed a multi-media presentation on the hiking project exploring environmental awareness, land preservation, and related themes. A grant from the Asnuntuck Community College Foundation will purchase a viewer, enabling the show to travel to libraries, schools, and businesses.

Asnuntuck Community College Foundation chair, Karen Jarmoc, praised all applicants and recognized the work of the committee. “We received many wonderful proposals, each a terrific enhancement to the already great offerings at the college. It isn’t easy deciding how to allocate our scarce resources, since we can’t fund every request. Acting on behalf of our donors from throughout the community, the committee made some touch choices. I look forward to seeing the fruits of these projects during the spring semester.”

xxx