September 2011

Several of our new Residential Faculty

Meet new residential faculty Ilder Betancourt Lopez

Idler is originally from Los Angeles, California. He is an avid Los Angeles Lakers fan. He grew up in a predominantly Latino neighborhood called Sun Valley. Idler's father is from Mexico and his mother is from El Salvador. They are Idler's heroes.

Idler was blessed with the opportunity to attend Stanford University. There, he met his wife. He also earned a BA and a MA in Psychology. He entered the community college system there because he saw it as an opportunity to give back to communities like the one he grew up in. Joseph Bednorz is Ilder's Flame (FYRE mentor).

Meet new residential faculty Melinda Ornelas

Melinda is a native of Arizona, born and raised in the Yuma Valley. She is married to Vince Ornelas and they have four grown children and five grandchildren. Melinda and Vince are the firstborns and also come from families of four children. Her friends call her Mo!

Melinda Celebrates in September, 25 years with MCCD. She has been adjunct faculty since 1999 and has taught at GCC, SMCC & Gateway. I have a passion for teaching and counseling and believe in being a lifelong learner. I am teaching two courses online this semester. She has taught in three disciplines in her career at Maricopa. Louise So is Melinda's Flame (FYRE mentor).

Meet new residential faculty Laura Dodril

Laura teaches for the Counseling Department. She is an Air Force brat and credits the continual moving to her social adaptability. She has two older sisters- who live in Florida and New Mexico and a younger brother who also works here at GCC as a groundskeeper. They lost their parents in 1990 and 1994 so they are very close siblings. As Laura says "Family first!"

Her favorite book is The Secret and she lives by The Law of Attraction. Laura is a positive person and believes totally in karma. She lives with gratitude and says "thank you" every day for the things in her life.

Service Learning

Academic Affairs will be holding a Brown Bag Lunch and Learn on Service Learning on Tuesday, October 4th from 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. in SU-104E. Grab your lunch and join us for conversation and discussion on Service Learning. Raffle Prizes will be given away – you don’t want to miss this!! If you have any questions, please contact Rachelle Hall at 53231.

Teacher Talk

Teacher Talk is an informal meeting that is open to all teachers and allows them to discuss and share their ideas on the craft of teaching. The October meetings will Wednesdays in 05-142 from 12:00 to 12:50 (the day and location for our October meetings were selected by the faculty through a doodle poll). Additionally, you have requested several specific topics for several of these discussions.

Creating fair and accurate testsOctober 5th
Open discussion and sharingOctober 12th
Active learning ideasOctober 19th
Open discussion and sharingOctober 26th

Bring yourself, bring you lunch, bring your ideas and concerns and I will bring the popcorn.


The yearlong new residential faculty orientation program continues each month with our group meeting and online discussions in BlackBoard. In the September meeting Gay Garesche discussed the Faculty Association and shared some advice as a veteran faculty. Also, several case studies dealing with various teaching situations were analyzed and discussed.

The next FYRE meeting is Friday, October 7th. We will meet at Grounds for Thought in the Student Unions and have a tour of Admissions and Records and then have presentations from Admissions, Financial Aid and Alumni Affairs.

A.T.O.M.S.

    ATOMS - Acronyms Terms and Other Maricopa Stuff    
If you have been puzzled by the alphabet soup of acronyms that you hear and have wondered what a few of them might stand for, then A.T.O.M.S. is for you.

“Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength of the nation."
John F. Kennedy