It’s hard to believe that the fall semester is about to come to a close! We’ve had
a busy fall semester at RCC, and we have even more planned for the spring.
One of the last projects completed as part of the $72.5 million campus renovation was the upgrades to our STEM labs. These upgrades, made possible in part by a generous $3 million donation from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC), have significantly improved the laboratory experience for our students who study biotechnology, organic chemistry, environmental science and other STEM fields. You’ll read more about the upgrades, our student achievements in the field of STEM and our STEM faculty, throughout this edition of the Gazette.
In addition to opening our STEM labs, we’ve hosted numerous academic and community events on-campus over the past few months. For example, we’ve collaborated with government and community partners to host Latina Equal Pay Day, a reception for the photography exhibition “Faces of Faith: Celebrating Cancer Survivorship,” and a college fair with the Boston chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), to name a few. We look forward to continuing our work with community partners and co-hosting more of these events in the future.
While we’re proud of our work with community partners, we’re also impressed by the academic and informational events that are planned and hosted by RCC staff; these lead to learning outside of the classroom. For example, you’ll learn more about RCC’s longstanding commitment to celebrating Latinx and Indigenous Heritage later in this issue.
As you continue to read through this edition of the RCC Gazette, you’ll learn more about our programs, student community engagement efforts, and more; but don’t let your engagement end there. The best way to interact with the the RCC community is to spend time on-campus. I hope you’ll stop by for a tour or attend an event soon.
Dr. Valerie Roberson
President, Roxbury Community College