Robin Kalish, a veteran park ranger and Hocking College alumnus, was named Superintendent of Hanging Rock State Park in North Carolina in February 2013.
 
"Robin brings solid ranger experience and a profound affection for our natural resources to the job as superintendent at Hanging Rock State Park," Lewis Ledford, State Parks Director said. "She is a good choice to lead one of our oldest and most beloved state parks as it meets future challenges."

Her job responsibilities as a superintendent include staffing, training, law enforcement, visitor services, natural resource protection and environmental education. As the superintendent, she is the chief of operations and administration at Hanging Rock State Park.

In 1998, Kalish graduated from Hocking College with an Associate's of Ranger Services.

Her previous employment included several jobs in the Ohio State Parks System, Hocking County Sherriff's Department and seasonal staffing at Jordan Lake. Kalish holds certifications in environmental education and intermediate law enforcement and credits her success to her education at Hocking College.

Regarding her new position, Kalish said, "I love Hocking College and I want the students to see what they can do with their career if they stick to it!"

Landscape Management and Heavy Equipment students began the first phase of developing the SSG Curtis "Moose" Oakes Veterans' Memorial Garden expansion in front of John Light Hall.

Several large trees were planted, including two 25 feet tall Green Pillar Oaks.  Check out this time lapsed video shot by the Broadcast students of the tree planting.

Tree Planting for Veterans' Memorial Expansion

Students in the Hocking College School of Music are creating a new series of videos entitled "Robbins Crossing" for their Music Business Synthesis class. The project requires students to create a music video series showcasing artists in a unique way.

Similar to "Black Cab Sessions," a video series based in London where artists performed an original song while cruising the streets of the city in a black taxi-cab, the students will create a sequence of videos showcasing artists in a regional setting. The series will feature five episodes, each with different touring artists performing four to five songs in the nineteenth century historic settlement of Robbins Crossing on the Hocking College Campus.

The artists scheduled to participate in season one of the Robbins Crossing web series are City Lights, Schematic, Squid the Whale, Envoi and Adam Remnant of Southeast Engine. Each artist is a regionally and/or nationally touring act with a strong fan base. The purpose of the project is to gain understanding of the music industry by participating in the production of a music video sequence that could possibly attract national appeal.

"I wanted students to realize they can utilize the surroundings that we have - a really cool unique village on campus - to develop something that can have regional and national traction," instructor Josh Antonuccio said.

For additional information, see the Athens Messenger article.

Cammie Brown, a Hocking College student studying Massage Therapy, is preparing for the grand opening celebration of Mytikas Spa and Wellness Incorporated at Jefferson Senior Center in Jefferson, Ohio.

Beginning the first weekend in May, Mytikas will be open on Fridays 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Saturdays 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. Call the Jefferson Senior Center to schedule an appointment at 440.576.3941.

"I'm hoping moms will drop their kids off at preschool and spend an hour in the spa to relax, or those who work in the community can come in for a half hour on their lunch break," she said. "We've been getting a lot of positive feedback."

Initially, Brown will only offer relaxation massages until her degree is completed. Eventually, she will be offering spa treatments including hot stone massage, therapeutic massage, deep tissue massage, trigger point therapy and aroma-therapy. For more information on Mytikas Spa and Wellness, read the Star Beacon article. 

Hocking College students from Jonathon Hutchinson's Basic Chainsaw Operations class helped clear three trees blocking the Trimble Township Community Forest walking path. The trees have been down since the Super Derecho storm that hit in the summer of 2012.

Joe Brehm of Rural Action realized this was not a job that could be done easily. He invited Hutchinson's class to utilize the work as a learning opportunity. The students cleared a 100-year-old white oak and two smaller red oaks.
 
Once the trees were clear, the students used the white oak to build a bench. It is now positioned on a hilltop overlooking the city of Glouster. For more information, please read the full article in the Logan Daily News. 

Sue Fletcher has been selected by the Memorial Library and the Holocaust Educators
Network to lead a 2013 Memorial Library Summer Satellite on Holocaust education.  The seminar will be held at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY June 10 - 15. Fletcher is one of 15 leaders from across the nation who was selected to participate in the summer seminars.

Fletcher will help facilitate the "Kentucky-Ohio Regional Holocaust and Social Justice
Seminar", along with two other Holocaust Educators Network colleagues. The seminar will familiarize educators with information about the Holocaust and relate it to recent genocides, focusing on those in African and Native American societies.

Its purpose is to introduce social justice issues, make connections between the past and present and to introduce educators to methods and materials to further their understanding and classroom learning.

Hocking College students Nicole Thompson, Haleigh Schultz and David Wright recently spoke at Ohio University's Gender, Media and Body Image Convocation on the OU Chillicothe campus. The Contemporary Issues class, instructed by Sue Fletcher, traveled to the convocation to hear their classmates present.

Thompson presented her research on Toddlers and Tiaras and the threat it poses to children. Schultz spoke on her paper, "Thinspiration," research she conducted on websites that promote anorexia and bulimia to young women. Finally, Wright led a group discussion on single dads, focusing on the myths about the ineptitude of fathers on television. 

Joe Shaw, a 2002 graduate of Hocking College's Recreation and Wildlife program, was recently appointed as Davey Recruiter-Trainer for the South-Southeast Region of The Davey Tree Expert Company. The company's global headquarters is located in Kent, Ohio.

With over 10 years of service with the company, Joe has been a lead Tree Surgery Foreman in the Nashville RC office since 2011. He joined the company in 2002 and worked for over eight years in Cincinnati as a Foreman.

Shaw has been a lead trainer during his field career, having completed Davey Institute of Tree Sciences in 2004, Advanced Arborist Training in 2003 and Davey Institute of Horticultural Sciences in 2012. Shaw is a certified pesticide applicator and is First Aid and CPR qualified instructor.

"Davey Tree values education and training as an intricate part of safety and retaining its employees," Mark Noark, Recruiter / Coordinator for The Davey Tree Expert Company, said. The Davey Institute of Tree Sciences is an intensive four-week educational program that was created by John Davey in 1909 and is currently the longest in-house educational system on record today.

Shaw, his wife and their two daughters live in Nashville, the location of the headquarters he will work out of. He will be responsible for the South-Southeastern states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.  

Phi Theta Kappa members Bobbi Burnside, Daemon Zen-Eagle and Albert Sims recently attended the Phi Theta Kappa International Convention in San Jose, California. Keynote speakers included Billie Jean King, a famous female athlete advocating social change and equality in athletics, and Geoff Colvin, Fortune magazine journalist and economic trend expert.

Burnside studies Computer Science and serves as the secretary of the Alpha Mu Delta chapter on the main campus. Zen-Eagle studies Business Management and Entrepreneurship and is vice president of scholarship for Alpha Mu Delta. Sims is an Addiction Studies student from the Beta Lambda Nu chapter on Perry Campus.

Phi Theta Kappa is the Honor Society of the two-year colleges. Their mission is to recognize outstanding students and provide them with opportunities to develop scholarship, leadership and service. For more information, contact advisor Julie Cohara.