NJ Community Colleges Acknowledge the Heroes in Our State

By Aaron R. Fichtner, Ph.D., President, New Jersey Council of County Colleges On Jun 8, 2020

The COVID-19 virus is having a significant impact on all New Jersey residents, on our economy, and on our state. New Jersey’s community colleges are proud to play a critical and lead role in responding to this emergency and to ensuring that our students, communities, and state can rebound from this crisis. New Jersey’s agile and innovative community colleges will lead in the recovery and secure a brighter future for all New Jerseyans.

New Jersey’s community colleges have served as testing centers, donated equipment, adapted their manufacturing labs to make face shields and other PPE, and have partnered with county governments during the response. Within days, the colleges executed an almost seamless transition to online learning, sustaining student momentum and making all support services available online. The past few months have been inspiring and once again New Jersey’s community colleges have proven how transformative and powerful they are.

A significant number of those who are on the frontlines of this crisis, in hospitals, as first responders received their education and training at a New Jersey community college. Community colleges have prepared a sizable share of the healthcare workforce, with more than 25,000 students currently enrolled in healthcare education and training programs across the state.

Throughout the past few months, New Jersey’s community colleges have saluted the current students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community members who are on the frontlines, or doing acts of courage and kindness in response to the COVID-19 outbreak through a #NJCCHeroes campaign. New Jersey community college trustees have saluted the efforts of the state’s community colleges to respond to this crisis through the #NJCCTrusteesProud campaign.
These stories of service, courage, and commitment are available on social media and summarized at https://www.njccc.org/njccheroes.

Here are a few of those stories:

Atlantic Cape Community College

“There’s a lot of uncertainty right now, but we’re all in this together, so it’s important that we support each other in every way we can, and do our part in this pandemic,” said Djaniella Dimayuga, an Atlantic Cape nursing program alumna, who is proud to be on the frontline fighting the battle against COVID-19 in the Neonatal ICU at Bellevuew Hospital, New York City. Read her powerful story here.

Raritan Valley Community College

“Raritan Valley Community College’s Advanced manufacturing and Engineering programs along with their Arts and Design Department, joined efforts with Somerset County Vo-Tech High School to produce 3D-printed face shields for front line hospital staffs, read the full story here.

Union County College

Andre Cordero is one of the many Union County College “Own Heroes” who is serving on the front lines during this crisis. Mr. Cordero is a current student at Union County College, an EMT, and volunteer at the Union County testing site. “We are transforming our community one student at a time,” said Dr. Margaret McMenamin, President, Union County College. View post here.

Warren County Community College

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Warren County Community College president Dr. Will Austin, Dr. Phil Linfante Board Chair as well as other trustees and staff take part in WCCC’s weekly donation program to “distribute “goodie bags” to people needing items such as paper towels, toilet paper and in some cases, $25 gift cards from ShopRite of Greenwich. This past week spaghetti dinners were included in the packages which have been distributed at the college’s Washington Township campus.” Inside Warren

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