Outstanding Students Graduate from NHTI

Concord – NHTI, Concord's Community College, holds its 59th Commencement on Friday May 15th. Approximately 560 students will graduate Friday in 31 different academic disciplines. Many NHTI students earn their degrees while working, raising families, and struggling to make ends meet. All deserve congratulations for achieving their academic goals. Nonetheless, every year there are certain students who stand out among the crowd.

Alida Rwabalinda, a native of Rwanda, came to NHTI in May 2007 with many goals and a more-than-positive attitude toward all of her new challenges as a student from a different culture who spoke a different language. (Actually, three of them -- French, Kinyarwanda and Swahili!)

Alida joined the Cultural Exchange Club and was immediately voted president. As a direct result of her leadership skills, diplomacy, and warm receptive personality, student membership in the club increased dramatically, as did the number and variety of activities and projects presented by the club over the past two years.

On campus, Alida is a vital guide, both in the Cross-Cultural Education and ESOL Office, and in the Admissions Office, where she often works at the reception desk. She has been known to do verbal translations on the spot for prospective students, explain academic processes for new students, and encourage returning students in all aspects of campus life.

Off campus, Alida works as a medical interpreter for Lutheran Social Services. She is well-equipped to serve the community of newly-settled Americans from Rwanda and other parts of Africa. Always cheerful, always sensitive, Alida serves her campus and community with joy and understanding.

She recently attended a Community College System of New Hampshire (CCSNH) Board of Trustees meeting, where she was asked to describe her own experience of student engagement at NHTI. She was also our April "Wings of Knowledge" presenter, sharing where she comes from and what has surprised her most about her new environment. In both contexts she made us extremely proud.

Last month, Alida receive the Institute Leadership Team Award -- one of three major awards presented by the school each year, given to a student whose extraordinary contributions to the academic and social mission of NHTI have benefitted the campus community - in recognition of her unfailing and passionate efforts to help people on campus and in the community.

Stephan Roberts came to NHTI from Orlando, Florida, in the fall of 2007. He is an Early Childhood Education major, a star player on the men's basketball team, and always has a smile on his face. Stephan has always been willing to help out on campus; his nearly endless list of volunteer activities includes:

• Saturday morning basketball clinics for kids at NHTI
• the Charity Wiffleball Tournament, benefitting a young boy with severe disabilities
• planning, organizing, and assisting with the 5th Annual NHTI/Dental Road Race
• Campus Cleanup Day
• Orientations for new students
• charity basketball games, including the Jacob's Bridge through Autism Classic
• Open Houses for potential new students
• game management for soccer and volleyball
• activities at the Child & Family Development Center
• basketball clinics for kids in Littleton and Bow
• the 5th Annual Basketball Coaches Clinic
• Kids Night Out activities
• planning & development for NHTI's intramural program
• preparation and support of Campus Activities Board activities, including the Default concert, all-campus BBQs, and the Homeless Shelter project

Like Alida, Stephan also gave a presentation to the CCSNH Board of Trustees when they met at NHTI, speaking about his involvement on campus and the impact it has had on his educational and personal growth and development. Also like Alida, Stephan is the recipient of one of the school's three major annual awards -- the President's Award, presented for outstanding college citizenship.

Heather Searles of Henniker was not into sports in high school. Although she liked being "healthy and active," she never participated in organized athletics. She never even watched her school teams compete.

But in February 2006, Searles found herself in a freshman biochemistry class at NHTI, listening to her professor talk about the benefits of running. He also mentioned that there was a series of local 5K road races coming up in which students could participate.

Heather decided she wanted to try running the first race in the series, though she wasn't even sure what to wear. She ran the race in a respectable time, and was the 19th woman finisher. Encouraged, she ran the next race of the series, and finished a little faster. Her times improved with each subsequent race, and she finished a surprising fourth overall for women in the series.

Fast-forward to the fall of 2008, and Captain Heather Searles of the fledgling NHTI Women's Cross-country Team scores an upset victory in the USCAA National Competition in Virginia, becoming the first student in the school's history to win an individual national sports championship. Already nationally recognized as both an All-American and an Academic All-American (an Academic All-American must maintain at least a 3.5 GPA in addition to excelling in sports), Heather is arguably the most celebrated individual athlete in NHTI's history. College President Lynn Kilchenstein has declared November 14th "Heather Searles Day" in her honor.

"You only get to be a college athlete once," Heather says, and her only regret is that she didn't get started earlier. In fact, she is considering pursuing a more advanced degree after graduating from NHTI, in part because it would qualify her to compete in a tougher division.