Visual arts students receive Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation scholarships

The Edmonds Community College Visual Arts students who have received scholarships from the Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation (EAFF) are: Juan Valdez, Kelley Hefflinger, Jakob Faram and Benjamin Vanderwerff, Julie Zappone and Guillermo Zapata.

The EAFF annually provides university level visual arts scholarships to students living within the boundaries of the Edmonds School District as well as students in the Visual Arts program of Edmonds Community College. This year a total of $19,500 was awarded to 21 students.

Honey bees join the EdmondsSphere

Bees and Comb, by photographer Ray Pfortner (an ArtsNow instructor at Edmonds Community College)

Edmonds Community College welcomed two colonies of honey bees to campus as part of its Earth Month celebration. The two hives are located near the college’s vegetable garden.

The honey bees will be available to assist with research projects for the college’s biology department, provide service-learning opportunities, and will provide hands on experience for a new Beekeeping 101 class this summer.

Chemistry instructor Mary Whitfield, a hobbyist beekeeper at her home in Seattle where two hives are allowed per home within the city limits, helped bring the honey bees to campus.

“Declining bee populations and the potential impact on agriculture has been in the news, and more people are becoming interested in beekeeping,” she said. “Given that our college has recently adopted sustainability as part of its philosophy, I thought it was the right time to try this project on campus. So far the response has been very positive. The biology and horticulture departments are getting involved, and I hope to get a bee club started next year. We haven’t made plans for the honey yet, but I'm hoping that the Culinary Arts students will come up with some delicious new creations."

To learn more about the honey bees on campus, join the college for a screening of Tales From the Hive, 11:30 a.m., May 18, in Brier Hall 185. The NOVA film chronicles a year in the life of a honey bee colony.

Beekeeping 101, an Apprentice Washington State Beekeepers Association course, with hive-side, hands on experience will be held 6:30-8:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 12-Aug. 16 (except July 26) in Woodway Hall 105 at Edmonds Community College. $125. Beekeepers Jeff Thompson and Pete Wolcott teach the class. The labs will include hive side inspections and participants will have a chance to collect honey from the hive and help with extracting.

Learn more about honey bees: See The Buzz About Bees on NOVA’s Tales From the Hive site or see Honey Bee Facts from the American Beekeeping Federation.

Project Management students plan Wallingford Walks

Edmonds Community College Project Management students take on real life projects as they earn their certificates and refresh their skills.

Planning Wallingford Walks, neighborhood walks in the Wallingford area of Seattle aimed at promoting community, has been their latest project. The students are working with the Wallingford Community Senior Center and Sustainable Wallingford to organize the walks this year and provide tools to help volunteers keep the neighborhood tradition going.

The walks have been featured on Wallyhood.org and MyWallingford.com.

“The best part about this project is that it's real. This will have an impact on people in the Wallingford neighborhood for years to come and we will be able to say, ‘we played a part in keeping it alive,’” said project management student Daniel Pewtress.

The free walks, open to the public, take place the second Saturday of each month through September (with the exception of the July walk which takes place July 16) in Wallingford. They start 10 a.m. at Tully’s Coffee at N. 45th & Meridian Avenue N. For more information, call the Wallingford Community Senior Center at 206.461.7825.

Most students in project management classes at Edmonds CC are working professionals who have returned to the classroom to add project management to their skill sets. Past projects completed by project management students have included designing and selling bicycle jerseys, creating a student textbook exchange, running a bike to work station, and organizing the annual project management open house.

Start Edmonds Community College’s Project Management certificate this summer or fall in day, evening, or online classes. Summer classes run July 5-Aug. 26. Fall classes run Sept. 20-Dec. 9. Registration starts May 24.

Edmonds CC student is featured in Northwest Landscape Professional

Northwest Landscape Professional, the official publication of the Washington Association of Landscape Professionals, (WALP) featured Edmonds Community College student Keri DeTore in its student member profile. The article "Second Career Sparks Passion for Keri DeTore," tells how Keri, who earned her bachelor's degree in fine art at Central Washington University and had worked for a Seattle architectural firm has been able to retool her interests and skills by pursuing a horticulture degree at Edmonds CC.

DeTore was a recipient of a WALP Educational Foundation scholarship last year. She has done internships with Rock Solid Landscapes and People for Puget Sound.