LOWELL, Mass. – UMass Lowell honored alumni who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and commitment in their fields at the 2012 University Alumni Awards ceremony.

Formerly known as the Francis Cabot Lowell Awards, the honors paid tribute to one graduate from each of the university’s seven schools and colleges and recognized a recent graduate. The event – attended by university leaders, alumni, students, faculty, staff and members of the community – served as a fundraiser for student scholarships. It was held April 19 at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center.

“The University Alumni Awards celebrate the breadth and depth of talent evidenced in these distinguished individuals and recognize their contributions toward their communities,” said Chancellor Marty Meehan. “Their success underscores the university’s commitment to educating students who are ready to challenge themselves personally and professionally and to contribute to a diverse, evolving global economy. Through their innovation, dedication and compassion, these alumni are building a better future for each of us.”

“These awards are a great opportunity for UMass Lowell graduates and friends to honor some of our most prominent alumni who have made a great impact on society,” said Heather Makrez, director of alumni relations and a fellow UMass Lowell graduate.

This year’s awardees include:

• Rich Miner ’86, ’89, ’97, partner, Google Ventures. Ranked No. 10 in Boston Magazine’s “Boston’s 50 Most Powerful People” for 2012, Miner joined Google through the acquisition of Android, the mobile platforms company he co-founded. At Google, he helped lead the development of the Android platform and ecosystem. Consumers purchase more than 200,000 Android-based smartphones every day. Miner earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in computer science at UMass Lowell.

• Steven DiNoto ’94, ’97, manager of Global Security Operations Center, Apple Inc. In 2011, DiNoto was recruited to Apple to protect the technology giant’s people, property and ideas worldwide. He has more than 15 years of experience in law enforcement administration, analysis, operations, investigations, technology and project management. He created and directed the crime control strategy and analysis units of the Lawrence, Lowell and Malden police departments. With the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office, he assisted on serial violent and property crime task forces and regional high-technology crime investigations. He has also served as a faculty member in UMass Lowell’s criminal justice programs. DiNoto earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminal justice at UMass Lowell.

• Jim Regan ’88, president and chief executive officer, Digital Federal Credit Union. Regan, who leads the largest credit union in New England, says he has emulated his UMass Lowell professors’ open-door policy in his management style over his 23-year career. Regan joined DCU in 1992 as an internal auditor. He moved up through the ranks and was appointed chief executive officer in 2008. Once exclusively serving Digital Equipment Corp. employees, the credit union is a diversified institution with assets of more than $4 billion and 367,000 members in 50 states. Regan earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration at UMass Lowell.

• Alice Bonner ’89, director of the Division of Nursing Homes, Office for Clinical Standards and Quality, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A career nurse with more than 30 years of experience, Bonner is a fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners who worked in intensive-care units and emergency rooms and as a geriatric nurse practitioner for more than 20 years. Today, she works to improve nursing home quality and patient safety in health-care organizations. Bonner earned her master’s degree in nursing at UMass Lowell.

• Linda FitzPatrick ’68, retired senior vice president and national director, BNY Mellon. FitzPatrick’s career evolved from teaching elementary school and working with nonprofit agencies to tax and charitable trust work. At BNY Mellon, she was a manager in the Charitable Gift Services Group, drawing on her experience in planned giving, taxes, account administration and operations. A member of the UMass Lowell Chancellor’s External Advisory Board and the Graduate School of Education Advisory Board, she is the honorary chairwoman of the university’s Planned Giving Committee. Underscoring her commitment to the UMass Lowell, she established the FitzPatrick Family endowed Scholarship. FitzPatrick earned a dual bachelor’s degree in education and English, and a bachelor’s and master’s degree in accounting at UMass Lowell.

• Bob LeFort ’83, chief executive officer, Ember. At Ember, LeFort has helped the company become a leader in the growing ZigBee chip industry. Ember’s wireless technologies enable devices such as lights, thermostats, security sensors, smart meters and in-home displays to create safer, more sustainable and comfortable living environments. He was previously the president of Infineon Technologies North America Corp, responsible for all headquarters business activity and key customers for the automotive and industrial electronics semiconductor manufacturer. LeFort earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at UMass Lowell.

• Michael Jarvis ’06, teacher, Lowell Public Schools. Jarvis teaches algebra and science at the Lowell High School Freshman Academy to students who have learning disabilities. Born and raised in Lowell, he attended Lowell High School, where he was active in athletics and the U.S. Air Force’s Junior ROTC program, earning the rank of lieutenant colonel. Honorably discharged from the Air Force in 2002, Jarvis attended UMass Lowell on a full Air Force scholarship. As an undergraduate, he was active on campus, including as a resident adviser. He remains active with the university, serving as director of annual events such as the Christopher Sullivan Memorial Race to benefit the Wounded Warriors Project. He also coaches the Lowell High School Air Force Junior ROTC Armed Exhibition Drill Team, which qualified for the national drill competition in March. He earned a dual bachelor’s degree in management and marketing at UMass Lowell.

Middlesex Community College is one of 10 community colleges from eight states selected by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and The Democracy Commitment to take the lead in a new initiative to promote civic learning through the humanities. Titled Bridging Cultures, this nationwide project is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

Middlesex and Mount Wachusett Community College were selected from Massachusetts, along with eight other community colleges from Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, New York, New Jersey and Texas, to play a leadership role in this three-year NEH curriculum and faculty-development project.

“Many Middlesex students are in the position of having to negotiate between two cultures – the culture of academia and their home cultures,” said Matthew Olson, MCC Dean of Humanities & Social Sciences. “Through this grant, we hope to provide students with the tools and support they need to make their unique voices heard, bringing the strengths of their communities to the greater world, and creating a stronger and richer dialogue about the very real issues we face as a democracy.”

As part of Bridging Cultures, teams of humanities faculty and administrators from the 10 colleges will infuse questions about difference, engaged community, and democratic thinking into transfer courses in the humanities; create a series of humanities-enriched professional development opportunities for community college faculty – especially adjunct faculty; and expand the project’s impact through collaboration with other community colleges and state humanities councils.

“The community colleges chosen for this project are poised to lead the way in developing curricular and co-curricular practices steeped in the humanities, to prepare students to be active participants in the democratic process,” said Brian Murphy, president of California’s De Anza College, one of the founders of The Democracy Commitment, and a co-director of the Bridging Cultures project.

AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. For additional information, visit: http://www.aacu.org/bridgingcultures.

The Democracy Commitment is a national initiative that provides a platform for the development and expansion of programs and projects aiming at engaging community college students in civic learning and democratic practice. For further information, visit: http://thedemocracycommitment.org.

For more information about MCC’s participation in the Bridging Cultures project, contact Matthew Olson, Dean of Humanities & Social Sciences, at olsonm@middlesex.mass.edu or 781-280-3715.

Commencement exercises for the approximately 1,150 members of the Middlesex Community College Class of 2012 will be held at 10 a.m., Thursday, May 24, in Lowell Memorial Auditorium, 50 E. Merrimack St. The processional will begin at 9:30 a.m. in front of MCC’s Lowell campus City Building, located diagonally across from the auditorium.

This year’s commencement speaker is Alex E. Ferrer, former police officer, attorney and Florida Circuit Court judge, and current host of “Judge Alex,” the nationally syndicated courtroom TV show.

The only television judge with extensive police, legal and judicial experience, Ferrer was born in Havana, Cuba. He and his family fled to the U.S. when he was a baby. Ferrer joined Florida’s Coral Gables Police Department at age 19. He served as a police officer while attending college and law school on a full-time basis.

Judge Ferrer received his law degree from the University of Miami School of Law. He practiced law in Miami, focusing on civil litigation. In 1995, at the age of 34, he was elected a Circuit Court Judge in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit.

Middlesex Community College is one of 15 community colleges in five states selected to participate in a collaborative project to develop Asian Studies curricula. Part of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Bridging Cultures initiative for community colleges, the three-year project is funded by a $360,000 NEH grant.

Coordinated by the East-West Center (EWC) in Honolulu, the project will identify a core group of 45 faculty and administrators from 15 community colleges in California, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The group will work with EWC’s Asian Studies Development Program to create new course syllabi, web resources and public outreach activities exploring how different Asian societies approach issues of cultural difference. Middlesex will serve as the project’s coordinating institution in Massachusetts, partnering with Bristol and Quinsigamond community colleges.

“For more than 20 years, Middlesex has been a regional center of the Asian Studies Development Program with a mission of promoting global awareness inside and outside the classroom through teaching, scholarship and learning,” said Dona Cady, MCC Associate Dean of Humanities. “As one of the five cohort leaders in the grant, we are strongly committed to the view that sharing languages, philosophies, histories, literatures and arts of different peoples is the most profound basis for building bridges and creating respect and civility among cultures.”

With a focus on China and Southeast Asia, the project will explore how the arts, literature, knowledge systems, religious traditions and trade serve as cultural bridges; how different conceptions of personhood and community affect issues of cultural plurality; and how Asian perspectives on cultural difference might complement those that are prevalent in American undergraduate classrooms.

“This Bridging Cultures project is part of our overall effort to ensure that every American college and university graduate has a working knowledge of Asian cultures and peoples, and their remarkable diversity,” said Asian Studies Development Program Coordinator Peter Hershock.

The NEH places considerable emphasis on the fact that the program is for community colleges, highlighting the fact that such institutions serve the broadest spectrum of Americans, including both college-age students and those returning to school later in life, often with an interest in developing new employment skills and knowledge.

Established by the U.S. Congress in 1960, the East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue.

The Middlesex Community College Law Center, working with the Lowell District Court and the Greater Lowell Bar Association, is providing free conciliation services for parties involved in civil cases in Lowell District Court.

Conciliation services are offered at the final pre-trial conference for those who wish to try conciliation before trial, as an alternative means of settling their case. The program operates under the auspices of the Middlesex Mediation & Conciliation Program, which has been working in cooperation with the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General in providing free mediation services to litigants in small claims cases since 1990.

Conciliation is a voluntary, confidential process in which the conciliator – a neutral third party – conducts a structured conversation session with both parties in an attempt to settle the case. A conciliator facilitates communication and helps parties assess the respective strengths and weaknesses of their case. By participating in conciliation, parties have the opportunity to determine the outcome of their dispute rather than having a decision imposed upon them by the court. In addition, if the parties come to an agreement during conciliation, they avoid the time and expense of going to trial.

Volunteer conciliators are experienced attorneys and members of the Greater Lowell Bar Association who have completed eight hours of training at Middlesex. This training meets the Supreme Judicial Court’s requirements for court-connected conciliator training, and was sponsored by the MCC Law Center and the Massachusetts Administrative Office of the Trial Court (AOTC).

Attorney Timothy Linnehan of AOTC led the training. Other presenters included Judge Mark Mason of the Springfield District Court, and attorney Israela Brill-Cass of the Boston Law Collaborative. Additional members of the training team included attorneys Eugene Nigro, Mark Regan, Mark Bamford, Linda Butterworth-Till, Michael Najjar and MCC Legal Studies Professor Kenneth Dunn, and Martha Wright of the MCC Law Center.

Conciliators who successfully completed the training are: attorneys Richard Ahern (Lowell), Cynthia Amirault (Lowell), Martha Barrett (Lowell), Karen Bolton (Lowell), Sandra Boulay (Lowell), Kevin Broderick (Lowell), Jenna Brownson (Lowell), Mark Darling (Worcester), Debra Dewitt (Lowell), Tami Dristiliaris (Dracut), George Dristiliaris (Dracut), Richard Fox (Chelmsford), Catherine Geary (Lowell), Stephen Hamilton (Chelmsford), William Hamilton (Lowell), Martha Howe (Lowell), Brian Leahey (Lowell), Dennis McHugh (Chelmsford), Peter Radulski (Lowell), Eric Schutzbank (Lowell), Kevin Shanahan (Lowell), David Singer (Lowell), Kevin Sullivan (Chelmsford), and Michael Tyner (Chelmsford). Conciliators also participated in an orientation session at Lowell District Court led by Judge Laurence Pierce.

For more information about the Middlesex Mediation & Conciliation Program, call the MCC Law Center at 978-656-3342.

2012 Model Your Town Contest

Google is currently running an international 3D modeling for Google Earth contest. 213 collections of 3D models were submitted by top 3D modelers from all over the world. The six finalists were announced yesterday, April 1. A collection of 258 models, created by Beryl Reid, a Lowell resident, is among the 6 finalists. The final winner will be determined by a public online vote, which will conclude on May 1, 2012. The winning town will be announced on May 15.

The town that wins will recieve a $25,000.00 prize for their school system, international media attention and a big celebration, put on by Google. This model collection gives a 3D presence to Lowell in Google Earth. It includes most of the downtown area.

Every vote counts!

Please visit the following links for more information and a chance to vote. Note – on the voting page, you should click first on your choice of Town on the left, then select the “vote” button at the bottom.
2012 Model Your Town Contest and Vote Page
Video created by Google to showcase Lowell’s 3D models

Whitewater Rafting on the Concord River in Lowell, MA Beginning March 31st, running weekends through May.

Lowell, MA –If you’re looking for a high-adventure whitewater raft trip close to Greater Boston, the Concord River is the place to raft this April and May. Please join us for a special press day on the river scheduled for Saturday, March 31st at 1pm! Special guests include environmental hero, Marion Stoddart and Lisa Wong, Mayor of Fitchburg.

The Concord River trip is an unexpected whitewater gem that plunges over three major class III-IV rapids – Twisted Sister, Three Beauties, and Middlesex Dam. We run this section twice on each Concord River rafting trip which concludes with passage through a 1850s lock chamber that brings you right into the center of Lowell, Massachusetts.

The trip includes passage by Centennial Island, the location of the famed West End Gym (also known as Ramalho’s) where Micky Ward trained and The Fighter was filmed. Trips are run by Zoar Outdoor in conjunction the Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust on weekends during the months of April and May. Zoar Outdoor has been running commercial raft trips on the Deerfield River in western, Massachusetts since 1989 and offers a variety of other adventure trips. LP&CT has been running rafting and kayaking trips on the Concord since 1991.

A portion of Concord River whitewater rafting proceeds will support the work of the Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust to protect land along the Concord River, including the establishment of the Concord River Greenway Park (CRG). As a multi-use trail, the CRG will provide greater public access to Lowell’s “hidden jewel”, the Concord River. The northern and southern ends of the trail are now complete, including public art installations, multi-lingual wayside historic signage, and a new outdoor classroom. A $500,000 PARC grant from the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs was recently awarded to the city to continue construction of the CRG.

Please join us for an exciting experience on the Concord River – right in your backyard! Visit LP&CT at www.lowelllandtrust.org or
call (978) 934-0030 for more details.

LOWELL, Mass. – UMass Lowell was recently named to the 2012 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, a prestigious recognition for colleges or universities committed to volunteering, service-learning and community engagement that produces measurable results.

This honor – together with recognition as a community-engaged university from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and inclusion in the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for the two previous years – underscores UMass Lowell’s commitment to applying knowledge for the public good and supporting the development of community through teaching, research, scholarship and engagement.

“UMass Lowell is honored to receive this national recognition for its community engagement and service-learning activities,” said Chancellor Marty Meehan. “Our faculty, staff and students have a long tradition of working with local and global partners in ways that produce measurable, positive results.”

“Our students have doubled their recorded hours of academic and non-academic service in the community from 50,000 to more than 100,000 hours this past year. UMass Lowell’s expanded collaborative and academic efforts have provided many opportunities for students to serve locally and globally while completing their coursework. This is learning through experience at its best,” said Provost Ahmed Abdelal.

The Corporation for National and Community Service oversees the Honor Roll in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education and Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact and the American Council on Education.

“As members of the Class of 2012 cross the stage to pick up their diplomas, more and more will be going into the world with a commitment to public service and the knowledge they can make a difference in their communities and their own lives through service to others, thanks to the leadership of these institutions,” said Patrick A. Corvington, chief executive officer of CNCS. “Congratulations to UMass Lowell and its students for their dedication to service and commitment to improving their local communities. We salute all the Honor Roll awardees for embracing their civic mission and providing opportunities for their students to tackle tough national challenges through service.”

Three of UMass Lowell’s notable service projects over the last year that were considered by CNCS are the College of Engineering’s Village Empowerment Program; Bring Diversity to Nursing, a program of the School of Health and Environment; and the Department of Music’s Community Outreach and Service programs, part of the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

A total of 851 institutions applied for the 2011 Honor Roll, a 9 percent increase over last year, a sign of the growing interest by colleges and universities in highlighting their efforts to engage students in making a difference in the community. On campuses across the country, millions of college students are engaged in innovative projects to meet local needs, often using the skills learned in classrooms. In 2009, 3.2 million college students dedicated more than 307 million hours of service to communities across the country, service valued at more than $6.4 billion. Business and law students offer tax preparation and legal services, and college student volunteers provide meals, create parks, rebuild homes after disasters, conduct job training, run senior service programs, and much more.

CNCS partners with the nation’s colleges and universities in supporting community service and service-learning. Last year, CNCS provided more than $215 million in support to institutions of higher education, including grants to operate service programs and the Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards for college tuition and student loan repayment. CNCS is a catalyst for service-learning programs nationwide that connect community service with academic curricula. Through these programs, in classes, and in extracurricular activities, college students serve their communities while strengthening their academic and civic skills.

UMass Lowell is one of six institutions from Massachusetts that received this recognition. A total of 851 colleges and universities applied for the 2011 Honor Roll. Of that total, 513 were named to the Honor Roll, 110 received the recognition of Honor Roll with distinction, 14 were identified as finalists and five received the Presidential Award.

For a full list of recipients and descriptions of their service, visit www.NationalService.gov/HonorRoll.

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America programs, and leads President Barack Obama’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit www.NationalService.gov.

UMass Lowell is a comprehensive, national research university located on a high-energy campus in the heart of a global community. The university offers its 15,000 students bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, education, fine arts, health and environment, humanities, liberal arts, management, sciences and social sciences. UMass Lowell delivers high-quality educational programs, vigorous hands-on learning and personal attention from leading faculty and staff, all of which prepare graduates to be ready for work, for life and for all the world offers. www.uml.edu

Lowell, MA – Middlesex Community College’s Multicultural Center will host a series of Asian Cultural Celebrations during the month of April. Free and open the public, special events include:

Passport Program: South Korea – 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 4, Multicultural Center (City Building, ground floor), 33 Kearney Square, Lowell. MCC student Hwan Cho will share his perspective on South Korean society, history and culture.

Angkor Dance Troupe – 10:30 a.m. Thursday, April 5, Lowell Campus Cafeteria, 33 Kearney Square. The renowned Angkor Dance Troupe will perform traditional and classical Cambodian dances, and present a costume workshop. (Co-sponsored by Lowell National Historical Park)

Sayon Soeun: Survivor of the Khmer Rouge – 10:30 a.m. Thursday, April 12, MCC’s Federal Building Assembly Room, 50 Kearney Square, Lowell. Sayon Soeun will share his experiences as a child soldier of the Khmer Rouge, life in a refugee camp, and his journey to the U.S.

Cambodian Ceramics & Clay Workshop by Yary Livan – 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 18, Lowell Campus Cafeteria, 33 Kearney Square. A master ceramist, Yary Livan will present this hands-on ceramics and clay-sculpture demonstration illustrating traditional Cambodian techniques. Livan, one of only two surviving masters of Cambodian ceramics, is also participating in a community-based kiln project with Lowell National Historical Park.

For more information about Asian Cultural Celebrations, contact Tooch Van, MCC Multicultural Coordinator, at vant@middlesex.mass.edu  or 978-656-3254.

Lowell, Massachusetts.  The return of trolleys operating in downtown Lowell is a sure sign of spring as a visitor offering at Lowell National Historical Park. Students will be moving through downtown Lowell at scheduled intervals Monday through Friday in March.  Weekend service begins on March 17th at 10:15 am.  As part of Irish Cultural Week, David McKean, historian of St. Patrick Parish, offers a trolley and walking tour of sites of Lowell’s first Irish immigrants.  This tour will visit the acre of land originally allotted to Lowell’s Irish immigrants and tour historic Saint Patrick Church. The free tour begins at Lowell National Historical Park Visitor Center, 246 Market St, Lowell on the 17th at 10:00am.

The trolleys, replicas of the historic cars that ran in Lowell, operate from March through November annually.  Trolley operators, park staff in period uniforms, make stops at the Mack Plaza along Dutton Street, Boott Mills at the foot of John Street, and the Tremont Gatehouse near Wannalancit along French Street. Schedules are posted at the Boott Mills and Mack Plaza stops.

For further information about the trolleys opening day runs, please contact Phil Lupsiewicz at 978-275-1705 or phil_lupsiewicz@nps.gov.  Follow us on Twitter @ Lowell_NPS.

PLEASE NOTE:  Trolley operations can be cancelled or adjusted due to weather conditions.