ON CAMPUS AT OCC:Timmins named Faculty Member of the Year

Terry L. Timmins, an Orange Coast College professor of sociology and anthropology for the past 35 years, has been named the college’s Faculty Member of the Year for 2006-07 by a vote of the faculty and staff.

The award is being given for the 16th year.

Timmins, 63, is an OCC graduate. He joined the faculty in 1971.

Timmins will be recognized on March 21, 2007 during a presentation in OCC’s Student Center lounge. He’ll deliver a 30-minute lecture that focuses on his philosophy of teaching. He’ll also be the featured speaker at the college’s 59th commencement ceremony on May 24.

“I’m deeply honored to have been selected for this award,” Timmins said. “We have some incredible teachers on this faculty. I’m in the twilight of my career, and I can say that this puts the cap on a wonderful stay at Orange Coast College.”

Timmins served for four years in the Marine Corps in the 1960s and worked on aircraft as an avionics technician. He was discharged at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and enrolled at OCC in 1965.

“I looked at a map and saw that Coast was the closest community college to my home. Little did I know that I would fall in love with the place and that I’d become a die-hard for Orange Coast College for the remainder of my life.”

Timmins graduated from OCC in 1967. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology at California State University at Fullerton and completed a doctorate in sociology at the Fielding Institute. Timmins returned to OCC as a sociology and anthropology instructor in the fall of 1971. Now in his 36th year at the college, he’s taught more than 20,000 students in his classes.

“I encourage my students to be active on campus — it makes for a much richer college experience,” Timmins said.

“I give them extra credit for taking part in club-sponsored activities. I tell them that this is a learning community and they need to be immersed in that community. I push them to get involved in academic pursuits, clubs, sports, fine arts — the whole gamut.”

Timmins has been a member of the college’s Academic Senate and has served as advisor to more than a dozen student clubs. He was the co-founder of OCC’s acclaimed Recycling Center.

Culinary students win seventh state title in eight years

Orange Coast College culinary students are the state champions for the seventh time in eight years after winning the California Hot Food Team Competition on Nov. 17.

OCC’s 2006-07 team will advance to the American Culinary Federation Western Regional Competition, scheduled for April 15-17, 2007 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The national championship will be held July 21-24, 2007 in Orlando.

OCC has won four regional titles over the past dozen years and captured the national championship in 2005.

Members of OCC’s 2006-07 state champion squad include Brodie Curtis of Newport Beach, Marissa Gerlach of Laguna Niguel, Cameron Hokanson of Anaheim, Brent Omeste of Orange Hills and Mona Webster of Huntington Beach. Team coaches are OCC culinary arts graduates Jeremy Peters of Anaheim and Keith Noriega of Monterey Park. Bill Barber of Aliso Viejo is the team’s coordinator and advisor.

The Professional Culinary Institute in the San Francisco Bay area finished second in the state competition. Los Angeles Mission College was third.

Fashion students lift holiday spirits of troops

OCC fashion students are generating Christmas cheer this holiday season for American troops in Iraq.

Students enrolled in two sections of the college’s “Beginning Construction Techniques” (Fashion 100) class have sent fitted sheets, personalized pillowcases and homemade greeting cards to a U.S. Army intelligence unit recently deployed to Iraq.

“Every semester our students involve themselves in a community service project,” said OCC fashion Professor Christina Amaral. “A student in my class — Nancy Edwards — told me a few weeks ago that her son, a U.S. Army staff sergeant, was redeploying with his unit to Iraq the day after Thanksgiving. We decided we should do something for the soldiers.”

“My son told me that the troops in Iraq sleep on twin cots,” Edwards said. “They only have access to flat sheets, which are a mess on cots. OCC’s students decided that they wanted to do something to help my son’s unit out.”

The students pooled their money and purchased 35 fitted sheets. They then made 40 pillowcases and created personalized greeting cards.

Each soldier will receive a packet that includes a fitted bed sheet, a handmade pillowcase and a card.

Edwards shipped the packets to her son’s unit immediately after Thanksgiving. They’re expected to arrive before Christmas.

“The guys will be thrilled,” she said.