Micro-lecture series feature at WVC Community Celebration Oct. 11

Media Contact: Jennifer Korfiatis, 75th anniversary coordinator, or, Libby Siebens, community relations executive director, 509.682.6436 (Mon.-Thurs.)

A micro-lecture series featuring Wenatchee Valley College faculty and staff will take place during WVC's 75th anniversary community celebration on Saturday, Oct. 11. The series is free and open to the public.

English professor Derek Sheffield will begin the series with a poetry reading from 2 to 2:20 p.m. in The Grove Recital Hall, Music and Art Center. He will read from his own work, as well as work by fellow faculty members and creative writing students. Sheffield is the author of a book of poetry, Through the Second Skin, which is a finalist in the 2014 Washington State Book Awards.

Rob Fitch will present "Medicine and Marine Biology" from 2 to 2:20 p.m. in Wenatchi Hall room 2106. Fitch will explore how recent discoveries in marine biology research are now being used in medical treatments that are revolutionizing both fields of study—and how they may impact your life in the near future. Fitch is a biology faculty member at WVC.

Bob Gillespie will present "Pollinators of the Shrub-Steppe" in Batjer Hall room 8039 from 2:30 to 2:50 p.m. He will discuss some of the bees, wasps, flies, beetles and other insects that pollinate native plants in the region and the important ecosystem that they provide. Gillespie is an agriculture and natural resources faculty member.

WVC Chemical Dependency Studies Program Director Bev Warman will present "Impacts of Legalized Marijuana." She will discuss the legalization of marijuana in Washington state and issues that we are seeing or may expect to see in the community. Warman's presentation will take place from 3 to 3:20 p.m. in Wenatchi Hall room 2106.

Richard Brinkman, sociology faculty member, will present "The Sociological Imagination" from 3:30 to 3:50 p.m. in Wenatchi Hall room 2016. Brinkman will discuss how the language people speak, the values they hold and the norms they follow are not products of genetic programming, but of how their particular society is structured. The Sociological Imagination enables us to see individual problems such as poverty, divorce and racism in a much broader social and historical context in order to see them as, in the words of American sociologist C. Wright Mills, "Public Issues."

High school students and their parents will have the opportunity to learn more about getting ready for college through the College Prep Series. A Running Start session is offered in Wenatchi Hall room 2212 from 2:30 to 3 p.m. A Getting Started at WVC session will also take place from 3 to 3:30 p.m. in Wenatchi Hall 2212.

The community celebration includes campus tours and demonstrations, a barbecue and children's activities such as face painting and inflatables around the fountain area. The Wenatchee Swingin' Big Band will begin performing at 1:45 p.m.

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Wenatchee Valley College enriches North Central Washington by serving educational and cultural needs of communities and residents throughout the service area. The college provides high-quality transfer, liberal arts, professional/technical, basic skills and continuing education for students of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds. Visit our website at www.wvc.edu.