New Faces in the Business Office! Kathy Mills introduces herself to Southwestern’s students

What’s new?
I am!
My name is Kathy Mills and I am the Default Manager.
What does this mean to you?
Southwestern College knows how confusing it can be when receiving information regarding the repayment of your student loans and the options that you may have to choose from.
As a value added service, from Southwestern College I am here to assist you with questions you may have in regards to repayment of your student loans. This service is available to all students.
I can assist you in regards to your current student loans or loans you may have received previously. Also, once you graduate, you can still contact me for assistance.
Please feel free to contact me, at 937-224-0061, ext 44828, or you can email me at KMills@swcollege.net. I am located in the Business Office on Monday, Wednesday and Friday’s.

‘Meet Gabby’ addresses the Concerns of Southwestern Students!

Dear Gabby—
I am a student at Southwestern College and I have 3 children.  I am not working right now and am dependent upon my family and monies/food stamps that I get from the department of human services every month to make it.  It is nearing the end of the month and I am out of food.  I do not have enough money to pay my rent for the next month.   I don’t know what to do!  I can’t even afford to pay for parking at school!  Can you help me?  I won’t get another stipend check from school until next month either!  Help!
 
Dear Gabby says:
I am so sorry to hear that times are tough for you!  Making ends meet while going to school, raising children, and trying to better yourself is tough.  Thankfully, you can go to your student services department at school and ask Maren and Debbie to help you with a referral to area agencies that can provide food pantry services among other things to help you get by until you receive your funds for the next month.  You can also contact 211 or call 225-3000 which is the United Way’s Helplink line for referrals to agencies that may be able to provide additional financial assistance to you.  Budget your stipend checks to help you with school expenses, like parking.  Remember, the stipend checks are meant to help you with school and are made available to you for this reason, primarily.  They are “educational loans”.  Perhaps looking for a part time job would be in order as well.  Talk to the ladies in student services.  They will be more than happy to help you plan for success!  Good Luck!
~Gabby

For more information on the ‘Ask Gabby’ column, contact the Librarian.

New in the Library: Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish Edition

Do you speak a second language? Would you like to learn? The Southwestern College Library now has the Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish edition available for use in the library. Rosetta Stone is the world’s number one language learning software.

This 26 CD-ROM set is one of the best electronic tools available for learning the Spanish language. It includes a headset with microphone that allows the language student to try out Spanish phrases and get feedback on pronunciation. Combining reading, listening and speaking, Rosetta Stone is a valuable tool. Employers in many fields (including those taught at Southwestern College) will value applicants and employees who are familiar with foreign languages. This free library resource is an excellent way to make yourself a more valuable employee. If you’ve ever been interested in learning a new language, this is the time!

This item cannot be checked out to be taken home; please ask the Librarian if you have any questions.

Which ones right for me? By Brianna Liming

One of the problems when getting a massage is that you do not know what to choose. There are at least 10 different options and you do not know the difference between any of them. If it is your first massage, it is important to first establish why it is you are going.

If you are in need of relaxing, your best choice would be a Swedish massage which is slow, light, and calming touch. Aromatherapy is when they add essential oils to your massage; it can be added to any of your massages. It enhances the experience while calming your nerves or boosting your self-esteem, whatever it may be that you need. If you are particularly sore all over, due to overuse of muscles, I would recommend a hot stone massage to help relax your muscles. This will help them to be more willing to be manipulated in such a manner that they have more of a potential to release most of the knots in them. A word of caution though, it can leave red marks from the heat and pressure of the rocks, but it is not painful.

Another massage you will find on the list is trigger point therapy. Trigger point therapy is used to relieve areas found in your muscles that have many nerves running through them; these nerves are irritated causing them to be painful when compressed. The trigger points tend to send pain to other parts of your body. For example you could have a trigger point in your gluteus maximus (buttocks), which will send a shooting pain down your thigh. “Similar to the ‘check engine’ light in a car, a trigger point is a warning of dysfunction and if left unchecked could represent very serious consequences,” says Fabian Fernandez in his book Deep Tissue Massage Treatment, “a trigger point is a very serious dysfunction and if left unchecked could represent very serious consequences.”

Last but not least, deep tissue therapy which is done really deep and can be painful. It is also done really slowly, which is why it can cost more than a Swedish massage. Deep tissue therapy is used to release knots found all over your body that can possibly be blocking some of your nerves and blood supply. According to Fernandez, “A knot is a combination of spastic and intertwined muscle fibers.” These knots do not send pain, like trigger points; they “hurt so good” when compressed. We are all familiar with muscle pain that feels good when someone is squeezing them.

Now that you know what the difference is, you can schedule a massage with confidence and get what will really benefit your body the most.

Time to quit smoking!

Would you like an extra $1460 this year? If you smoke a pack of cigarettes everyday, that is the amount that you could save in the next 12 months. We all know that it’s tough to quit smoking; here are some tips to improve your chances of success:

• Write down why you want to quit (the benefits of quitting): live longer, feel better, for your family, save money, smell better, find a mate more easily, etc. You know what's bad about smoking and you know what you'll get by quitting. Put it on paper and read it daily.


• Set a quit date. Decide what day you will extinguish your cigarettes forever. Write it down. Plan for it. Prepare your mind for the "first day of the rest of your life".


• Talk with your doctor about quitting. Support and guidance from a physician is a proven way to better your chances to quit.


• Begin an exercise program. Exercise is simply incompatible with smoking. Exercise relieves stress and helps your body recover from years of damage from cigarettes. If necessary, start slow, with a short walk once or twice per day.


• Do some deep breathing each day for 3 to 5 minutes. Breathe in through your nose very slowly, hold the breath for a few seconds, and exhale very slowly through your mouth.

Find another smoker who is trying to quit, and help each other with positive words and by lending an ear when quitting becomes difficult.
Would you like more advice on quitting? Check smokefree.gov for resources from the United States government.

Summer Movie Preview

The start of May always brings with it the beginning action-packed summer movie season and this year is no exception. 2010 is shaping up the be the year of the sequel, with several of the most anticipated releases being sequels to previous blockbuster. This year’s movie summer got off to an impressive start with the first big movie of the season, Iron Man 2, bringing in almost $130 million dollars in its first weekend. Courtesy of Yahoo! Movies, Here are some more movies which are sure to make a splash this summer.

Summer of Sequels

Shrek Forever After (May 21)
He has everything an ogre could want -- true love, good friends, a happily-ever-after life -- but Shrek longs to feel his mojo again, even for a day. An ill-advised deal with Rumpelstiltskin grants that wish, thrusting Shrek into a "Lost"-like alternate world where Donkey doesn't know him, witches rule the skies, and Puss in Boots has packed on the pounds. And Fiona? Having never met Shrek, she now leads a band of ogre outlaws. Can Shrek save Far Far Away and win back his true love?


Sex and the City 2 (May 27)
Get your Manolos ready! It has been two years since we last sipped Cosmos with the gals of "Sex and the City," and so much has happened: Carrie and Big's passion has fizzled, Charlotte and Harry are overwhelmed by the stresses of parenthood with a new baby in the house, Miranda and Steve are working hard on their relationship in Brooklyn, and Samantha, well, is still Samantha... sultry, single, and still trying desperately to hang on to what is left of her youth. Always on the quest for excitement, the ladies travel to Abu Dhabi in style, and Carrie's relationship is called into question when she unexpectedly runs into former fiance Aiden. Uh oh! Will this pose big problems for Mr. and Mrs. Big?

Toy Story 3 (June 18)
With Andy grown and college-bound, Woody, Buzz and the gang find themselves donated to a preschool. Woody stands alone in his belief that Andy would never have abandoned them -- and when things turn dark at Sunnyside, the others join him in a quest to return to Andy's room. When Andy discovers their absence, the wheels are set in motion for an emotional roller coaster for everyone who ever loved a toy.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (June 30)
In the third and latest installment of the "Twilight Saga," "Eclipse" finds our heroine Bella Swan romantically torn between her brooding vampire fiancee Edward Cullen and her hunky werewolf best friend Jacob Black. Meanwhile, an evil threat in the form of fiery vampire Victoria looms ever-closer to Forks. Still reeling from the death of her partner James in the first movie, Victoria is full of vengeance and dead-set on killing Bella with her army of newborn vamps.

Synopses and photos: Yahoo! Movies
Other movies to look for this summer:
The A-Team, The Karate Kid (June 11)
Despicable Me, Predators (July 9)
Inception (July 16)
Salt, Ramona and Beezus (July 23)
The Expendables, Eat Pray Love (Aug. 13)

In Memory of Mr. Donald Abbott

Donald Abbott worked at Southwestern College from 2000 until this February. He died on May 10 of complications from lymphoma. During his years at Southwestern, Mr. Abbott taught a variety of classes, including psychology, government, and GED preparation. American Government was probably his favorite subject, and he was known as a caring and knowledgeable instructor. Former students’ comments at Ratemyprof.com are enthusiastic, saying, “Mr. Abbott knows more in his little pinkie than any other professor here at SWC!” and “The man knows his Gov! … He’s very open to discussion and answers questions thoroughly.” He was always eager to increase his knowledge: during his last days at Southwestern, he spent his spare time reading The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World’s Government.

Mr. Abbott was in charge of the library when it was located across the hall in the current GED classroom and in fact personally assembled many of the library’s current bookshelves. For the last two years, he helped students with computer and reference questions, kept usage statistics, and created a subject guide for GED resources. His former colleague, Medical Instructor Carole Bretcher, says, “I remember Mr. Abbott as a very private person of high intelligence and integrity. He cared deeply for all people over himself. He loved his students even though they, at times, exasperated him as all of us teachers know they can. He may have led an obscure life, but he touched the hearts of many as he touched mine.”

At Kent State University, Mr. Abbott was a football standout, playing defensive end on the All-MAC (Mid-Atlantic Conference) team in 1966 and 1967. In the above photo, he is #81. He was also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Later, he earned an MS in education from Northern Kentucky University, and he was working toward a PhD when he became ill. Before coming to Southwestern, he taught in the Dayton Public Schools. He is survived by his son, Donald, Jr., of Concord Township, Ohio, and two grandsons.

The library is collecting money to buy books on American government in Mr. Abbott’s honor and welcomes donations.