Asper McCown, computer science major, plants seeds to offer students visiting the Community Garden Club booth at the SGA Halloween Club Fair in October.
Asper McCown Begins TMCC Garden Club
Computer Science major Asper McCown plans to earn her degree at Truckee Meadows Community College and then transfer to the University of Nevada, Reno to work toward a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
While she is studying computer technologies at TMCC, she’d like to inspire the college community in gardening and start a campus fruit and vegetable garden that is also visually appealing.
“I’ve always loved gardening, to plant seeds and water—I love the beauty of it,” she said. “The best part is being able to walk outside and eat something from your own garden.”
This Fall, McCown established the official Student Government Association (SGA) Community Garden Club, together with club advisor Sidney Sullivan, Career Center Manager; co-advisor Jill Atkinson, Director of Equity and Inclusion; staff member Helen Scott, Administrative Assistant of New Student Services; and fellow green-thumbed students.
“You don’t have to be a gardener to join,” she said. “We want to share with people how to garden and we’ll garden together. We’ll pull weeds together. It’s for students who might live in a smaller area to get a chance to have their own plot to garden.”
The Club will manage a larger main plot of land near the wind turbines on Dandini Campus, pending approval by College officials, with adjacent smaller individual plots. For individual plots, students will need to apply for the space, sign the Club’s garden rules and a release waiver, and pay a small fee. She hopes the larger group garden produces surplus to donate to TMCC’s Wizard’s Warehouse food pantry.
“It’s just dirt there now—we want to make it beautiful,” McCown said.
The Club is planning a start-up event right before gardening season in the spring to dig, till, and set up raised gardening beds. They hosted a book fair on Nov. 1-2 in the V. James Eardley Student Center to raise funds for the raised beds and tools.
Radiologic Technology Program Recognized
The Community for Accredited Online Schools has recently released its ratings of the top 50 radiology programs, including TMCC in the select group.
“Our team at the Community for Accredited Online Schools has just released its fall rankings of the best campus and online programs across the country,” wrote Philip Francisco, Director of Community Outreach in an email to TMCC. “We’re pleased to announce that Truckee Meadows Community College has been recognized for excellence in Radiologic Technology education.”
The organization’s methodology includes the following categories:
- Cost and financial aid
- Number of programs and program offerings
- Student-teacher ratios
- Graduation rates
- Placement and support services offered
- Academic and career counseling services
- Employment services
The scores in each category are calculated to compare the cost of a program to the cost of other programs with similar scores, according to AccreditedSchoolsOnline.org. TMCC earned a score of 95.55, placing 31 in the U.S.
Warren Hejny, Radiography Program Coordinator sent his congratulations to the entire College staff.
“It is my understanding that they take into consideration the support areas of the college for this recognition,” he said. “So I would like to thank all who help prepare our students for the radiologic technology profession. This would include areas like the prerequisite and general education courses the students take as well as the support areas like counseling, financial aid, and the many other areas that make this college great.”
Architecture Students Participate in DICE
For local architects, DICE means Design is Innovation and Creativity creating Energy.
TMCC architecture majors took part in the DICE conference at Nevada Museum of Art on Sept. 30. Professional architects from each coast attended the conference.
“First and second year architectural students were invited to present their ideas on revitalizing the downtown core between Midtown and the University of Nevada, Reno,” said Kreg Mebust, Architecture Instructor. “They were joined by professional design thinkers from New York and San Francisco.”
Hillary Clark is last year’s DICE competition winner, topping student and professional architectural design entries. At this year’s DICE conference, she led a team of 10 students to form an innovative plan that focused on pedestrian and bicycle safety in Reno’s downtown core. The plan also featured a responsive approach to engage businesses along targeted routes.
“The student-driven design solutions for our downtown resonated with the local design community, and their ideas have the potential to influence national designers who attended the DICE conference,” Mebust said.
He is entirely proud of his student team.
“Their ideas are vibrant, contemporary and current with what is happening nationally,” he said.
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