By Linda Missal
The end of the semester is here. For 317 RVCC students, that means graduation.
About 160 will walk in the May 16 ceremony in the Nash Theater.
The commencement address will be given by David Eisner, C.E.O. of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that oversees America’s service and volunteering programs. Casey Maliszewski will be the student speaker and Professor Aaron Merino will be the faculty speaker.
Merino says that one hope he has for the graduates is the desire to ask questions in an honest way and then be open to all possibilities. He believes that by doing this “individuals make powerful connections inside themselves, as well as with the world around them.”
So as graduates celebrate their accomplishments
together, individually, they reflect on how they arrived here and where their paths will take them next.
Here are a few of their stories:
Casey Maliszewski was elected International President of Phi Theta Kappa in April.
An honor society for two-year colleges, PTK has more than two million members in 1,200 chapters around the world. As international president, the 22-year-old Stockton resident will be the organization’s spokeswoman for 2007-08.
Maliszewski was home-schooled prior to entering RVCC in 2004 and has been a professional dancer and choreographer. Looking forward, she is considering international studies and law.
As president of PTK she’ll appear in public often on behalf of the organization. That appeals to her. “I love public speaking. I hope people are inspired by what I have to say.”
Coming full circle
Nicole Wowchuck, 20, started at RVCC in 1990 – she was three.
“My mom went to school here, and I went to the children’s campus while she was getting her Associate’s,” Wowchuck said. “We went to school together.”
She graduated from North Hunterdon High School in 2004, and began her college career that fall on the same campus where she had gone to preschool.
Except for finger painting at the children’s campus, Wowchuck had never taken an art course before. But when she took a two-dimensional design course here, she knew immediately that she wanted to pursue art as a career. “This college opened up a whole new field to me that I didn’t even know existed,” said Wowchuck. She is graduating with an A.F.A. in graphic design.
She plans to attend Kean University to study graphic design and earn a teaching certificate. “I want to teach art and be a volley ball coach at a high school.”
Reluctant student succeeds in spades
Kyle Bailey, 20, didn’t want to come to RVCC.
As a high school senior, Bailey planned to go to a four year university, but an offer from the NJSTARS program changed his plans. STARS offers free tuition to any in-state two-year college for N.J. students who graduate in the top 20 percent of their class, and Bailey was the perfect candidate.
He started pursuing a biotechnology degree in fall of 2005, and he immediately stood out. Biotech professor Melanie Lenahan has called Bailey, “one of my top students.”
Dr. Lenahan was not the only one to recognize Bailey’s potential. In addition to his NJSTARS scholarship, he is a Galileo scholar, a member of PTK, and has been awarded a summer internship at a biotech company called Hydromer, where he will conduct lab research.
At first, Bailey said, “I was upset that I was going to a community college. But going here for two years definitely changed my perspective. It was one of the best academic decisions of my life.”
He plans to continue his biotech studies at Rutgers.
From emotional pain to nursing others
Valerie Esock and Michael Strenko were childhood playmates. They remained close throughout high school, but went their separate ways after graduation - he to Seton Hall and she to the University of Delaware. Esock had nearly completed a degree in nursing when she learned Strenko had been killed – by a nurse.
On May 15, 2003, recovering from an operation to remove his spleen, Strenko was murdered by “killer nurse” Charles Cullen.
Esock was devastated. “He was 21 years old,” she said.
Combined with the stress of University of Delaware’s rigorous nursing program, the emotional shock was too much. “I couldn’t finish school.”
She left the program and instead pursued a B.A. in health sciences, graduating in 2004.
But Esock still wanted to be a nurse. Strenko’s murder, she said, “started a fire in me.” She wanted to show people that there were still good nurses out there. So in 2005 she enrolled in the RVCC nursing program.
But RVCC accepted none of her earlier nursing credits. “I got so far,” she said, “and I had to start all over again.”
Thinking of Strenko kept her going: “I keep his picture in my binder,” said Esock, “That gives me the strength to get through.”
Now she is graduating as a registered nurse but it’s not the end of her journey.
“I definitely want to go further,” she said. “Eventually, I do want to get my MSN (Masters of Science in Nursing).“
And she hopes to write a book in Strenko’s memory.
Graduate love story
Husband and wife Michelle Morales and Luis Acevedo are graduating together this semester from the registered nurse program. They met last fall in nursing class and often studied together. A romance began and they were married on Valentine’s day.
Graduation isn’t the only thing to congratulate them about: the couple is expecting a baby this November.
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