Download THIS WEEK - Southern State Community College

Week of April 18, 2011
EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER
THIS
WEEK
at Southern State Community College
SSCC to host
Informational
sessions about
STRS, OPERS
offered April 29
National
Theatre of
the Deaf
10am & 1pm | April 29 | SSCC Central
Southern State Community
College will host two informational sessions on the State
Teachers Retirement System of
Ohio (STRS) and Ohio Public
Employees Retirement System
(OPERS) on Friday, April 29, in
Room 107 (lecture hall) of the
college’s Central Campus, 100
Hobart Drive, Hillsboro.
Both informational sessions
are free of charge and open to
the public.
The OPERS session will begin at 10 a.m. and provide information regarding OPERS benefits as well as legislative changes.
The STRS session will begin
at 1 p.m. and provide information regarding new legislative
changes.
For more information, please
contact Elizabeth Brennfleck,
SSCC Human Resources Office Associate, at ebrennfleck@
sscc.edu or 1-800-628-7722, ext.
2565.
To learn more about STRS
or OPERS seminars offered at
other locations or dates, please
visit www.strsoh.org or www.opers.org.
In addition to the session
offered at Southern State, the
OPERS website offers web and
video seminars, while the STRS
site lists alternate dates and locations for seminars.
130pm & 3pm | April 30 | SSCC Central
Actors with the National Theatre of the Deaf will present “Stories in My Pocket” 3 p.m. Saturday, April 30, at Southern State Community College’s Central Campus in Hillsboro. Prior to
the performance, they will present a 1:30 p.m. demonstration workshop.
The National Theatre of the
Deaf (NTD) will present a free
workshop and performance Saturday,
April 30, in the Edward K. Daniels
Auditorium on Southern State Community College’s Central Campus,
100 Hobart Drive, Hillsboro. The
workshop will begin at 1:30 p.m. and
the performance will begin at 3 p.m.
NTD/Cont’d on Page 2
Payton discusses Counseling Awareness Month
If ever there was a person destined to be a counselor, that person
just might be Tom Payton. Employed
as the Career Services Coordinator at
Southern State Community College,
Tom also works as a licensed mental
health counselor and an instructor in
the college’s human and social services program. Greater than the sum of
his experience and credentials, Tom is
kind, genuine and a self-proclaimed
goofball. In five words: he just wants
to help. In recognition of Counseling
Awareness Month, Tom was able to
take a short break from his duties and
stop by for an interview. It’s time now
for this writer to step back and let Mr.
Payton do the talking.
TOM PAYTON
“Counseling Awareness Month
is just a time to remind people that
counseling is available and broaden
In recognition of Counseling Awareness Month, Tom Payton (above), Career Services Coordinator
at Southern State Community College, discusses the free services available through the college.
their perspective of what exactly it
means to participate in a counseling session,” he said. “It’s a time for
people to really look at stressors in
their lives and have the tools to sort
through problems and have a fuller
experience of life.
“One of the benefits of counseling is to be able to go to somebody
who is not connected, can be objective, and really give you honest and
open feedback. The other part is being able to talk to someone and lay
out your story and not worry about
feeling judged or criticized.
“Sometimes you just need to be
heard because a lot of times when
PAYTON/Cont’d on Page 2
UPCOMING
EVENTS
IN THE NEWS
NTD/Cont’d from Page 1
Both events, sponsored by SSCC,
are free and open to the public.
“One does not need to know
sign language to fully enjoy this experience,” said NTD Tour Director
Betty Beekman . “A National Theatre
of the Deaf performance unfolds in
two languages, signed and spoken, appealing to all audiences. By combining
sign language with the spoken word,
the company created this dramatic
art form which speaks with voices of
beauty and power: one for the eye and
one for the ear.”
The NTD is based in Connecticut and is a professional acting company made up of deaf and hearing
actors. The theatre’s signature style, a
combination of American Sign Language and spoken words, expands the
boundaries of theatrical expression.
This double-sensory style enables
hearing audiences to see words as they
are spoken.
The one-hour workshop, which
begins at 1:30 p.m., is an animated
and informative look at the concept
and history of the NTD by the actors
of this unique style of visual theatre.
The NTD actors will demonstrate the
techniques they use in developing their
performance.
Following the workshop, at 3 p.m.
the actors will perform “Stories in My
Pocket,” a show that draws on the repertory of stories, fables, poems and
riddles the Little Theatre of the Deaf,
a division of NTD, has pocketed in its
40-year history. This performance is
geared toward audience members of
all ages.
Earlier in the day, students currently enrolled in the American Sign
Language program at Southern State
are invited to attend a workshop entitled “Creativity with Sign Language.”
The workshops and performance are
sponsored and hosted by Southern
State, and offered free to students and
the community.
“This is an awesome experience
for SSCC American Sign Language
students,” said Kathy Carroll, SSCC
instructor of American Sign Language.
“Students spend a lot of hours in class
learning about the language and deaf
culture, but, unfortunately, there is little
exposure to the deaf world. It is exciting to see them finally have an opportunity to experience a small part of this
culture. It will give them an opportunity
to see this beautiful language in action.
I’m sure they will come away in wonder
of the experience.”
To learn more about the National
Theatre of the Deaf, please visit www.
ntd.org. Please contact Kris Cross,
SSCC Director of Public Relations, at
[email protected] or 1800-628-7722,
ext. 2676, for more information about
the April 30 event.
PAYTON/Cont’d from Page 1
you go to someone close to you, they’re
going to try to fix you, because they care
about you. And it’s not that a counselor
doesn’t care, they just care differently.
“Sometimes we kind of need to be
guided to think in a different way or at
least consider other options to reflect
on whether what we’re doing is helpful,
whether it’s working.
“The fact of the matter is, most
people who go to counseling are really
well adjusted and I’m not sure people really think about it that way. They might
think you have to be out of your mind,
and that’s really not what it’s about.
“I was talking to a class about counseling services and they looked at me
funny like, ‘I don’t need any of that.’ So
I asked, ‘How many of you are stressed
about school? How many of you think
you’ve got people in your lives who are
driving you crazy?’ and I got a lot of
hands going up. That’s the stuff you
talk about in counseling.
“My experiences of counseling
have been very positive. You’re in a safe
place where you can throw out ideas
and thoughts in a way that you don’t
have to worry about.
“Counseling also helps to deepen
relationships. You work on getting
rid of your own baggage that’s been
shoved in the way. And we all have
things that we carry, problems from
other relationships. Our experiences in
life sometimes get in the way and end
up like ghosts that appear in current relationships.
“I think people would be surprised
to find out the stuff we work on are the
nuts and bolts of life, everyday life, not
anything that exotic. Sometimes, however, it does have to deal with the big
questions. You feel stuck in life, you’re
asking, ‘Why am I here.’ I do deal with
a lot of people who are at midlife and
dealing with a lot of regrets.
“I was at a high school today and
they were taking some of this less than
seriously and I said, ‘You know what? I
know part of this is because of where
you are right now, I get that. But you’re
lucky to have this career class because
I talk to people every day who have
regrets because they didn’t choose differently when they were younger. It’s
really tough when you look at having
regrets, because you grieve those kinds
of things. And that pain is real.”
“We work on those kinds of questions: What do you want out of life? What
do you want from relationships? What do
you want from yourself? That may be the
most important question of all.
“As for career counseling and mental
health counseling, the fact that I am able
to do both is ideal for me. There really is
no separation between our work life and
our personal life, and I try to help people
open up to the thought that work is not
meant to be a punishment; it is meant
to be a part of our lives that fully engages and invigorates us. My clients and
my students are a gift to me. Hopefully,
I help them grow. They help me grow
every day.”
MORE INFORMATION
And, with that, Tom folded his
hands on the desk and smiled, leaving
the readers with a lot to think about.
Many of the counseling services Tom
provides through Southern State are
provided free of charge to students,
alumni, staff members and the community at large. Those services include
career counseling and benefits counseling (provided through the Ohio Benefit
Bank and includes tax help and other
assistance for Ohio’s children, seniors
and families). Mental health counseling
is offered free to currently enrolled students at SSCC.
“Watercolor Ohio” exhibit
April 4-27, 2011
Appalachian Gateway Center
South Campus, Fincastle
Meet the Artist:
Joanne Edwards
6-8pm, April 21, 2011
Learning Resources Center
South Campus, Fincastle
OPERS/STRS Info Sessions
Friday, April 29, 2011
10am: OPERS
1pm: STRS
Room 107 (lecture hall)
Central Campus, Hillsboro
National Theatre of the Deaf
workshops and performance
Saturday, April 30, 2011
130pm: Workshop
3pm: Performance
Edward K. Daniels Auditorium
Central Campus, Hillsboro
SPRING FLING!
May 9: North Campus
May 10: Central Campus
May 11: South Campus
May 12: Fayette Campus
Master Gardeners Lecture
on “Canning and Freezing”
6pm, May 19, 2011
Learning Resources Center
South Campus, Fincastle
SSCC Theatre: “Trifles”
June 1, 2011
Edward K. Daniels Auditorium
Central Campus, Hillsboro
American Sign Language Concert
“Red, White & Blue Country”
5:30pm, June 2, 2011
Edward K. Daniels Auditorium
Central Campus, Hillsboro
SSCC Theatre: “The Little Prince”
Aug. 5-7, 2011
Edward K. Daniels Auditorium
Central Campus, Hillsboro
Comments or submissions?
Contact Director of Public Relations
Kris Cross at [email protected]
or call 1-800-628-7722, ext. 2676.
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