Vail local Pete Thompson will tell the true story of money – how to get it, how to get more of it, and how to keep it – in his “Financial Literacy” class at Colorado Mountain College in Edwards. The class will run on Mondays from 1/28-2/25, from 6-8 p.m. Call 970-569-2900 to register today!
by Aaron Cousineau
I’ve had a passion for cooking ever since I was old enough to chew my own food. Even as a child, I didn’t stray far from the kitchen and as I got older, I found that experimenting with food was just one of those things that I never stopped loving. When I decided to make a career out of cooking, I knew I had a lot options as far as where I chose to go to school, and I couldn’t be happier about choosing Colorado Mountain College. The training I received at the CMC Culinary Institute was thorough, innovative, energetic, and invaluable. It has paid off for me in ways unimaginable.
Throughout my schooling at CMC, I got hands-on experience working at upscale restaurants such as Beano’s Cabin in Beaver Creek, and Atwater on Gore Creek in Vail. I participated in special culinary events alongside renowned chefs such as Steve Topple, whom I assisted at the 2011 Grand Tasting at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, the Taste of Vail Culinary Festival, and the “Summertime in Piemonte” Chaine Culinary Fundraiser dinner in 2012. The amazing instruction I received at the Culinary Institute kept me inspired and motivated, and led me to win the Chaine des Rotisseurs Vail Bailliage Young Chefs Competition in Denver in 2011. All of these opportunities that were made available to me through the program helped me build up the credentials that got me invited to estage at restaurants like Daniel Boulud’s Daniel NYC and Mindy Seigel’s Hot Chocolate in Chicago.
Now, I’ve landed a coveted position at Thomas Keller”s Bouchon Bistro in Las Vegas. I’m working at what I love, every day, and learning more and more with every step I take. It’s the tools that I was given at the CMC Culinary Institute that helped build a solid foundation of knowledge, creativity, and confidence. I’ve had the spark in me my whole life, and my time in school is what really set the fire ablaze.
Aaron Cousineau got his training at CMC in Edwards.
The Edwards Winter Market will take place at Colorado Mountain College Edwards campus every Sunday from December 2nd – March 31st from 10:00-2:00 (with no market on December 30th).
We expect approximately 15-20 vendors per week with a wide variety of fresh vegetables, meats and cheese.
To participate as a vendor, please click here: EdwardsWinterMarketVendorApplication-1 .
As you begin the second half of the semester it is important to review your own testing and studying practices. This article from the University of Minnesota Duluth should help you stay on track. If you have questions don’t hesitate to ask for support. Your Disability Coordinator on the Edwards Campus is Bonnie Pottorff she is available to answer your questions and support your academic needs. bpottorff@coloradomtn.edu
Test Taking Strategies
Examinations are a fact of life in college. But the only time an exam should be a trial is when you aren’t prepared for it, and the best sign that you aren’t prepared is when you have to stay up all night to “cram.” Cramming won’t do very much for you (except make you so tired that when you take the exam you won’t be able to think clearly enough to answer the questions you DO know).
Here are some tips to help you develop test taking skills:
Before the Test
During the Test
There are also some things to keep in mind when you are TAKING the test.
After the Test
Darryl Kremer, a HERO Scholar at the CMC Edwards campus, shares her experiences as a student pursuing her goals a little later in life than some.
By Darryl Kremer –
Hello! I have been asked to share my “story” of what attending Colorado Mountain College (CMC) has meant to me as a student and a recipient of financial scholarship at the Edward’s Campus in this blog. I whole-heartedly accepted the request as I appreciate any opportunity to thank my HERO Scholarship benefactors (specifically The Wells Fargo Bank and The Cordillera Motorcycle Club), as well as the Foundation Scholarship Committee at CMC for sponsoring my studies. I would not be attending CMC without their fiscal support. I am extremely grateful to them, and hope they are aware of how much more they have gifted me in the process. This experience has not only validated who I am, it has allowed me to move forward, focus on who I may become, and has renewed my trust in people.
How is it that a community college can do all of that, you may ask? I believe it is because of the “community” I have experienced here on the Edwards campus…
– A strong campus community that really cares about the individual – from the smiling faces of administration to the smiling faces at the service desk; the campus staff behind the scenes in financial aid and bookkeeping departments; the support staff in the library, and tech departments; the caring individuals in student support services and counseling; my classmates (young as well as old of whom many I consider my friends), and particularly from the dedicated professors who set the standards high.
– And a generous local community that is willing to support the college as well as the students who aspire to make a difference in our world – not only has there been significant funding from the HERO and Foundation donors, I understand the Women in Philanthropy organization has just donated a substantial amount of money to quicken the pace in regards to the “still being studied” four year baccalaureate in teacher education, as mentioned in CMC’s September 10th E News (http://enews.coloradomtn.edu/ 2012/09/page/2/ ).
I have learned so very much because of all of you. I am not only filling in the gaps of my life-long learning process, I am thoroughly committed to continuing my formal education. Your encouragement and confidence in me evokes my very best. I genuinely thank you!
Good teachers will always be needed in the Valley, and physical “in the classroom” learning from professors and gifted mentors will always be valued. As CMC embarks upon their four-year baccalaureate degree offerings, if you support this degree program being offered on Edwards campus, it is time to speak up and advocate! “Teacher education is one of the degrees we’ve been studying for some time, based on initial interest from our local school districts,” said Dr. Brad Tyndall, senior vice president for academic affairs at the college…” ( http://enews. coloradomtn.edu/2012/09/page/2/ ). I believe that teacher education will always be of special interest to our community. Some things can be taught; others must be learned through experience. Great teaching is a combination of both. Learning to be an excellent teacher is a career-long undertaking. It begins in an educational environment that models high standards, and because a great teacher is never a finished product, but rather is always in the process of becoming, an effective teacher education program will continue to service its population and continue to be an asset.
So, my story…What brought me to CMC? Having recovered from health issues last year, and then losing my job in a local nursery school, I found myself deliberating as to how I was to continue to support myself while being on my own at this stage of my life. Over many years, I had raised a family, worked as a paraprofessional in various school systems, worked as a nanny and as an early childhood teacher – all careers I found rewarding and fulfilling – I was enormously successful in assisting the children in my care throughout my lifetime. Working with them kept me young and seeing their progress gave me hope for our future. Many of the families I developed relationships with are still very much a part of my life.
Most recently, I had been working as a toddler teacher in a local nursery school, where, for most of the children, it was their first school experience. In the role of teacher, I assisted them in becoming independent individuals who were self-motivated, and excited about learning (characteristics children are born with that need nurturing to continue to flourish). Separating from parents to go to school at age two is no easy task, and through my style of cherishing the individual, helping them to recognize what is inside each of them while fostering and facilitating learning in the play-based setting of my classroom, I was able to help them find the confidence within themselves to be able to challenge this milestone. I allowed them to discover their innate abilities and blossom.
Now, who would have thought that I would be the one needing to tackle a major milestone in my own life. I was not ready to retire, and options for competing for a new position in another pre-school were bleak with the new state requirements in Early Childhood Education. How was I to continue in a field that I was passionate about for many years without State certification? Not being “formally” educated put me in an extremely vulnerable position. Having no savings, a huge medical debt, no employment, and no educational degree, I was definitely challenged. I knew what needed to be done, and it needed to be done quickly, but I had no idea how I was going to do it. I was unemployed and scared.
The Colorado Work Force strongly encouraged me to return to school while on unemployment. I set up an appointment with Colorado Mountain College and was introduced to the requirements for a degree, and the Edward’s CMC HERO Scholarship. I am now working towards my Associate of Arts in Early Childhood Education, and it has been an amazing and rewarding experience for me. My own children are extremely proud of me, and I am proud of myself.
I am delighted to say that today, after attending CMC full time since the 2011 Fall semester, I have 61 college credits and 200 grade points, with a cumulative average of 4.0. Some of these credits were brought with me from my life-long studies, and some I have achieved as I toned and enhanced my skills here at CMC. I am officially Early Childhood Group Leader Certified, according to Colorado State Education Standards; I will be Director Qualified after the 2013 Spring semester; and I am eight courses away from an Associate’s Degree, four of which I am taking this semester. However, I do not intend to stop there. I plan to continue with a BA in Elementary Education (which I hope will be in place here on the Edwards campus soon). Regarding my future goals, I am encouraged that I will again be employed in a field I love, giving back to the community that has been so generous to me.
Reflecting on my experience this past year, I can unequivocally state: “Government and community support has indeed allowed me to move forward, and I am honored my life long education has been updated here at Colorado Mountain College.” With a little luck, it will continue to be. In any case, after completing my BA, I eventually plan to obtain a Master’s degree in Waldorf Education, a philosophy I firmly embrace. And, I would love to see a Waldorf school here in the Vail Valley!
In bringing “my story” to a close, I would like to share with you some excerpts from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Now, I understand that Longfellow has long been criticized not only for a lack of originality, but also for over-sentimentality. However, some of the words he shared at his 50th reunion for his alma mater Bowdoin College resonated with me, and gave me reassurance that I was on the right path in returning to school. He begins with many pages in traditional Longfellow style, eloquently speaking about classmates who have lived and died, and then goes on to address love of learning and one’s own worth. Then, in a few stanzas, he contemplates the idea of senior contribution to society. He says,
“Ah! Nothing is too late
Till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate;
Cato learned Greek at eighty;
Sophocles wrote his grand Oedipus, and Simonides
Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers
When each had numbered more than fourscore years,
And Theophrastes, at fourscore and ten,
Had but begun his characters of men;
Chaucer, at Woodstock with the nightingales,
At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales;
Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last,
Completed Faust when eighty years were past.
These are indeed exceptions; but they show
How far the gulf-stream of our youth may flow
Into the Arctic regions of our lives,
Where little else than life itself survives!”
(His homily continues and concludes with…)
“What then? Shall we sit idly down and say
The night hath come; it is no longer day?
The night hath not come; we are not quite
Cut off from labor by the failing light;
Something remains for us to do or dare;
Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear;
Not Oedipus Coloneus, or Greek Ode,
Or tales of pilgrims that one morning rode
Out of the Gateway of the Tabard Inn;
But older something, would we but begin;
For age is opportunity, no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress;
And as the evening twilight fades away,
The sky is filled with stars invisible by day.”
I thank the members of the Edwards campus community and Colorado Mountain College for giving me the opportunity to accomplish my “twilight” goals. I am filled with sincere appreciation. Thank you!
Todd Rymer, director of Sustainable Cuisine at Colorado Mountain College in Edwards, explains how to put your garden to bed for the winter. One tip: pull the weeds now so the seeds don’t drop and give you more weeds to pull in the spring! Watch the rest of Todd’s tips here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQCHAQnP-8g&feature=plcp&noredirect=1
We all know the difference one amazing professor, one life-changing class can have on our lives. Now is your chance to recognize your favorite instructor by nominating them for the Faculty of the Year Award. The Faculty of the Year awards are the highest honors bestowed upon faculty members at ColoradoMountainCollege. These awards are given to faculty members who have demonstrated excellence in one or more of the following areas:
– use of or enhancements to the LearningCollege principles
– exceptional IDEA assessments;
– setting and achieving high academic standards;
– envisioning the future;
– promoting student success (student-centered approaches, learning responsiveness, preparedness of students for subsequent classes; applying competencies, inspiring students, effective use of assessment tools);
– involvement in College and Community activities;
– providing successful leadership in campus or college wide initiatives
– exuding a positive attitude;
– looking for and finding ways to improve the quality of education;
– documented excellence in the prior year(s) of nomination
Any faculty member is eligible to apply or be nominated (full, part-time, adjunct). All you have to do is fill out the nomination form and submit it to the front desk at Colorado Mountain College in Edwards by November 1st. The link in this post will take you to the form.
We’ve got some spectacular intructors at CMC Edwards, and now is your chance to recognize them! Nominate your favorite instructor today!
Colorado Mountain College workshop promoted organic gardening
By Kristen Green
Organisms that are too small to be seen by the human eye carry the weight of all living things on their microscopic shoulders. Microbes form the foundation of the soil food web, helping the soil support plant life, which supports the rest of life as we know it. You definitely want them on your team.
Jeff Lowenfels, a prominent garden writer, teaches participants of a recent workshop about organic gardening utilizing the power of microbes.
It is estimated that in one teaspoon of living soil there are nearly 1 billion bacteria, up to 30 miles of fungal hyphae,
and up to 100,000 protozoa. The bacteria eat the simple carbohydrates the plants put out through their roots, which are then eaten by the protozoa, and then the waste from the protozoa acts as nutrition for growing plants. In addition, fungi protect plants from pathogens and harmful microbes, and create pathways in the soil that bring water and nutrients back to the plant. Both work together in decomposing organic material and making the nutrients available to the plant. It all works in balance – helping to keep organic gardens free from fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals.
Harnessing and encouraging this organic interplay was the lesson garden writer Jeff Lowenfels brought to Colorado Mountain College in Edwards for a weekend workshop called “Teaming with Microbes.” The workshop was a collaboration among the CMC Slow Food on Campus club, the Colorado Mountain College sustainable cuisine program and the Vail Symposium. Lowenfels co-wrote the nonfiction book “Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web.” He is considered a leader in the organic gardening movement. “Jeff is one of the leading experts in the world on microbes in soil and organic gardening,” said Alby Segall, president of the Vail Symposium. “CMC was the perfect partner because it offers academic credibility and an incredible venue, complete with a community garden and greenhouse.” “The workshop was very beneficial to me as a gardener and as the director of our college’s sustainable cuisine program,” said Todd Rymer, director of culinary education at Colorado Mountain College in Edwards. “It waswonderful to have the opportunity to ask Jeff questions I had after reading ‘Teaming with Microbes,’ and to learn more about the amazing complexity of the soil food web and the importance of relationships between microbes and plants. I also got some great tips when Jeff led a tour through our student gardens, pointing out what we were doing well and where we had opportunities to enhance the soil food web.” The hands-on workshop guided 50 participants through the process of preparing soil and garden beds, planting and maintaining an organic garden. “I hope participants learned that it is better to work with natural systems rather than attempting to create healthy plants by applying chemical fertilizers and pesticides which significantly reduce soil biodiversity and health, leading to a downward spiral of increased chemical use and plant disease,” Rymer said.
As complex as the interplay between microbes and plants is, implementing the concepts is simple. In fact, there are things gardeners can do today to create a better environment for microbes:
There are also ways for food industry professionals to implement and support the organic garden movement, including collaborating directly with a local grower– send them compostables and then buy the local, nutrient-dense food they grow.
In the end, just as the microbes support plant life, which supports all living things, organic gardening and the Slow Food movement is about sustainability.
“Our current agricultural system is heavily dependent on petrochemical inputs – everything from fertilizers to fuel for machines to pesticides,” Rymer said. “By adopting these growing principles, far less fertilizer and pesticides will be needed.
In addition to reducing energy inputs, no-till practices also reduce soil erosion, enhance water quality, build organic soil matter, improve tilth and help sequester carbon.”
This article appeared in the May 28th edition of the Vail Daily.
Madeleine Jacobs delivers the commencement address at the 2012 Colorado Mountain College graduation ceremony in Edwards.
Editor’s note: This is the full transcript for the commencement speech given by Madeleine Jacobs at Colorado Mountain College’s graduation earlier in the month.
Good evening. It is a privilege and a blessing to be here tonight. Tonight’s subject is something of real value, and it is something that concerns absolutely everyone here tonight.
Tonight’s subject knows no age or any other barrier because it is about that mystery behind dreams, behind achievement and behind everything good anyone ever does.
This subject has caused some extraordinary evolutions in the history of humanity, and it has been responsible for many smiles on a many faces. It is inspiration and the road to finding it.
The more I think about inspiration and how we all seek to be inspired by the world around us, the more I find I am thinking about love. More exactly: If there are any two things it seems that everyone is looking to find as they move through life, they are inspiration and love.
So I think about these two universal endlessly elusive ambitions being chased down by all of us everywhere we go. What I have come to realize is that both have a great deal less to do with what we are seeking than with what we are bringing to the pursuit.
Ask yourself about love. Ask yourself about that unmistakable feeling when a powerful personal connection happens.
Then ask yourself about inspiration, the things that touch your spirit and create in you desires to try to do, and to be. What do these achievements have in common? They both rely completely on what you are and what you yourself have to offer.
Being inspired and being in love cannot happen without the opening up of all that you are, to be ready and accepting of what it is that you need. They both require a soul that is curious and interested in that which is beyond itself and eager to share what it already has in its possession. They both demand a sincere and consistent ability of appreciation and an authentic impulse of true generosity.
Most importantly, they both demand not taking but giving.
I believe it is all too easy to miss this simple reality, as I believe that missing it is why so many of us stumble along thinking that if we are lucky, we will run into the inspiration we so badly want. The truth is that the inspiration cannot even be seen by us if we are not truly prepared to take it in.
God brings everything to us and sets it all before us, and His will is that we employ the will He gave to each of us. His gifts are many and vast, but they must be recognized first. Inspiration is the thing waiting to be done, the gift to be seized, and the spirit waiting to be felt. It cannot exist, really, until we meet with it and give it shape and direction.
My biggest source of inspiration is God because I have sensed His sweet presence, I have felt His gentle touch, I have seen His firm guidance, and on a daily basis I experience His unmistakable perfect love, peace and joy.
Somehow, and in a way for which I cannot properly account, it seems that this world surrounding me here at school is as inspiring as we hope the greater world outside it is.
Inspiration comes to me when I talk to fellow students, and sparks of their own spirits and interests touch my being. When I pass by a random act of kindness being committed, it inspires me to do the same.
The education guiding my course here offers avenue after avenue of fresh inspiration. To be a student is to be always ready to accept what is new to you, so inspiration awaits in every lesson. Then, even the ordinary daily efforts of the personnel here touch me in this way.
There is nothing sensational about investing every day the efforts needed to keep the school running as it should. At the same time, and taken in at the right moment, there is a simple beauty in this, as well.
Thank you for helping make our education at CMC such an unforgettable experience and for preparing us for the journey ahead.
To perceive inspiration as a flash of light or glorious burst of insight is to mistake the real quality of it. It is everywhere. It is in the books, in a stray sentence from a professor, in an overheard conversation in a hallway, and in the sunlight falling on the grass on campus. It is wherever I look, as long as I am prepared to see.
Like love, inspiration is all about discovery, and the willingness to be open to it. Like love, it will probably never show itself if we pursue it as a commodity we wish to capture. I do not believe that inspiration lies within ourselves, necessarily, but I firmly believe that we possess the powers that can identify it, give it meaning, and actually make it inspiration.
To those wanting to see inspiration, I say stop looking. Stop trying. Instead, see what is in front of you all the time and see what you can bring to it because this is where the magic of inspiration occurs. You will know you are inspired when you are the force within the inspiration itself.
Strangely, sometimes we run from the thing we have been seeking. In plain terms, we get afraid, and we usually invent excellent reasons for not moving forward.
Inspiration means something new, something not yet tried, and yet we turn our backs to it. Fearful, we retreat. Uncertain, we decide that nothing is worth risking that we already have.
Remember that something in you wanted that next step in your journey. You were waiting to be inspired, you made the effort to see the inspiration, and you must move forward because letting it pass you by does not translate to staying as you were. It means going backwards.
When we stay put, we fall behind because life keeps advancing all around us. This leads me to encourage you, beyond anything else, to realize that the inspiration sparking you is always a kind of a star. It asks only one thing from you: Follow. God sets stars before us for a very good reason. That we follow is, make no mistake, His will.
Our life’s journey does not end with graduation. We have the rest of our lives in front of us. Life is too precious to waste even one minute of it. There will usually always be options, sometimes too many of them. The importance of choosing wisely cannot, however, be stressed strongly enough.
We all have a past already, a past that will only enlarge. At some time, we may begin to wonder where life went. It seemed to have gone by in the twinkling of an eye. We realize we squandered our youth, having a good time and trying to be popular.
Then can come the wishing that we had done certain things and not done other things. The Lord can always turn our life around if we but ask Him. He transformed my life with His unfailing love and grace.
At any age, it is hoped that the past has taught us valuable lessons, but we cannot let it control our lives. Most things in our past have to, and should, stay there or else the past controls both the present and the future.
Try to remember Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quotation, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
If what lies within us is God’s love, then we can look at people the way God looks at them and go beyond the details of skin color, language, gender and age. We may stray once in awhile, but I believe that as we are falling, the Lord will either catch us or teach us to fly.
I was fortunate to have had parents who loved me, taught me values and how to make wise choices, although this was not always appreciated at the time. Today, however, I realize as never before what a gift they were and and with the help of God, gave me the courage to follow my dream, one that is grounded in the love of God.
To all the parents here tonight and the ones who cannot be here: Thank you!
At such times, I sometimes think of Wayne Dyer’s well-known quote: “The more you extend kindness and love to yourself, the more it will become your automatic response to others.” It is very difficult to love others if you do not love yourself.
Dear graduates, we have completed this phase of our education. We are about to go our separate ways. Has everybody here decided what the next step will be?
If you are allowing fears of the unknown to stop you from obtaining your goals, just know that it’s natural to be afraid. It has often been said that some of the bravest people were afraid. There are many ways to keep fear at bay, but none better than the love of family, friends, and God.
Every time you face a difficult challenge, remember that the day is coming when you will be the source of inspiration and hope to someone else.
Before I end my message, I want to leave you with a few lines from the “Sound of Music,” written by Richard Rodger and Oscar Hammerstein: “Climb every mountain, search high and low. Follow every byway, every path you know. Climb every mountain. Ford every stream. Follow every rainbow till you find your dream! A dream that will need all the love you can give, every day of your life for as long as you live.”
Bless you all and thank you!
Edwards Campus 