News

It’s that time of year when all personnel can nominate deserving colleagues for the College’s Annual Employee Awards. The Awards Committee depends on you to provide a strong pool of nominees for four prestigious awards. Nominations are due by Thursday, April 21.  Get details about each award and enter your nominations at the following links.

When asked if she wanted to create a fresh, vegan smoothie recipe for Smoothie Stop Cafe's Hampton Grand Opening celebration and regular menu, Thomas Nelson Community College ChefsGO 2019 graduate Ruth Potter, didn't skip a beat.  "Absolutely!" Potter exclaimed.

Just a little more than one-third of the way through the season, Thomas Nelson baseball coach Todd Barker is confident his team is better than last year’s. “I just don’t know yet how much better we are,” he said, which is why he’s looking forward to the start of the conference season March 19. “When we start playing those conference games, I’ll get a better idea of where we are compared to some other teams.” The Gators were 9-8 heading into the weekend, which was spurred by a stretch of seven wins in eight games. “We’re playing good baseball,” Barker said.

Patricia Avila, a television producer and host in Hampton Roads, believes how you handle rejection determines your chance of success. She knows this firsthand. Despite being rejected a lot, she knew she would eventually get her chance. “It was tough,” she said. “But I never gave up.” She kept looking for that one “yes” after hearing “no” on too many occasions.

Being elected as a co-chair of a task force subcommittee often is considered a burden, but not to Sgt. Kathy Shannon of the Thomas Nelson campus police. “To have that opportunity to sit on that committee and then come up with ways on how to change that environment, that was a privilege to me,” she said in reference to being assigned to look into faculty diversity.

Army Spc. Amy Lugo, thinking about post-military life, is plotting a course for a career in the automotive industry. Male-dominated fields are those that have 25% or fewer women in the ranks. That’s according to Catalyst, a global organization dedicated to guiding companies to build workplaces that work for women.

Thomas Nelson Community College is gearing up for its 2022 commencement exercises set for 5 p.m. Monday, May 16 at Hampton’s Liberty Live Church on Big Bethel Road. This will be the College’s first in-person graduation ceremony since 2019, and the classes of 2020 and 2021 are invited to walk. The event is also the College's 53rd commencement and it will recognize the last graduating class of Thomas Nelson Community College, which is becoming Virginia Peninsula Community College. As a plus for those who cannot attend, the College plans to live stream the event.

Gain valuable insight that could potentially save lives when Thomas Nelson Police present Active Shooter Awareness Training March 8 in Hampton (Diggs Hall, room 156) and March 9 at the Historic Triangle campus (Room 222). Two sessions (9 - 11 a.m. and 1:30 - 3:30 p.m.) will take place at each campus.  All faculty and staff are invited. However, space is limited due to room sizes.

Coach Chris Moore and the men's basketball team were the center of attention at a celebration Thursday afternoon on the Hampton campus. In discussing his team’s success in the 2021-22 season, Thomas Nelson men’s basketball coach Chris Moore didn’t mention a single player.

David DiMattia did not envision college in his life plan but eventually grew to understand the value of higher education. A sergeant based in Newport News at Joint Base-Langley Eustis, DiMattia started taking college classes during his first two years in the Army, and enrolled at Thomas Nelson last year. With six years of military service to date, he is strategically plotting his future. Here, he discusses life and the student experience.

Cassandra Lewis was excited when Thomas Nelson President Dr. Towuanna Porter Brannon asked her to be on a panel discussing women in leadership. For one, it’s an important discussion, Lewis said. Secondly, the two are high school friends. “It’s a real special treat for me,” Lewis said. “It provided me the opportunity to share my story with someone who I remember when we were teenagers. And many, many years later having this opportunity to reflect on where we’ve been, and how our journey has led us to this part … it will be a really special moment for me.”

Monette Dutch delights in helping and being a resource. It’s how she approaches leadership in many ways. The director of TRiO Student Services at Thomas Nelson, Dutch values her team and takes great care to ensure that students are the top priority.  “I thoroughly enjoy working with this TRiO staff ... Though I am a firm believer that the leader is the first among equals, my role is to help staff develop to their full potential. That aspect about leadership, I find very striking,” said Dutch.

To celebrate Read Across America Day, the Peninsula Workforce Development Center at Thomas Nelson held readings at two Williamsburg-James City County elementary schools. “It was great,” said Dr. Adrienne E. Cosby, a coach and adviser in Workforce Development. Cosby arranged for several College faculty and staff members to perform virtual readings of nearly a dozen books to 14 classes at Stonehouse Elementary School and Clara Byrd Baker Elementary School.

Thomas Nelson psychology professor Shanda Jenkins, in discussing Black women in leadership positions in higher education, referenced an article by the Chronicle of Higher Education that asked who was missing. “We’re missing,” she said of Black women. A recent study of U.S. colleges by WomensPowerGap.org revealed just 5% of the 130 responding colleges have a Black woman president.