Grantham Receives Cornerstone Award

On April 12th, Grantham University received a Cornerstone Award from the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) of Kansas City in recognition of its business expansion. Representing Grantham University, Jayne Ritzinger and Joseph McGrath attended the reception to accept the award from Mayor Kay Barnes. EDC established the Cornerstone Award more than 20 years ago to identify and honor economic development projects that contribute to the growth and stability of Kansas City’s economy.

“We’re thrilled to receive this award from the Economic Development Corporation,” said Tom Macon, Chairman of Grantham University. “We look forward to continuing our expansion and growth in Kansas City. By August 2007, we plan to have 335 employees and additional 5,000 square feet of office space.”

In addition to the ceremony, award winners including Grantham University were recognized at the annual awards luncheon on Friday, April 13th at the Marriott Muehlebach Hotel. More than 900 guests, including Mayor Kay Barnes, were in attendance.

Student Spotlight: Josh Schilling

Grantham University alum, Josh Schilling, is an employee of Nonin Medical Inc. where he serves as a Design Engineer. Some of his most important responsibilities include designing software and hardware for medical devices used in hospitals. Schilling was promoted to this position in November 2006, shortly after he was awarded his Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering Technology degree from Grantham University.

When Schilling realized that he would need more than an associates degree to accelerate his career, he decided to return to school and earn his bachelor’s degree. After speaking with several other employees at his company about distance learning, Schilling decided to pursue his degree at Grantham University. “I settled on Grantham because I wanted to take advantage of the well-rounded course offerings in software and hardware,” said Schilling.

Schilling enjoyed his distance learning experience because he could work at his own pace. Unlike conventional classrooms that penalize students who work too fast or too slow, he could complete his courses when it was convenient for him. He commented, “I go to school for myself and not someone else.”

When Schilling is not at work or completing class assignments, he enjoys designing products for friends and family. While working as a sound engineer for a local band, Schilling recently developed a preprogrammed selector footswitch for guitar players so they can switch between sounds that involve four or more selections with the click of a single switch.

“Grantham has helped me to better focus my efforts and sharpen my skills,” said Schilling. “Grantham let me be me.”

Reminder: Course Mailboxes Now Closed

For the last few weeks, we have sent several e-mails and posted a reminder on the student portal about the course mailbox closures. In case you missed our prior messages, the course mailboxes (example: EN361@grantham.edu), permanently closed on April 30, 2007. These mailboxes no longer exist and any email sent to them will bounce back to the sender.

Please make sure you are communicating with your instructor and submitting coursework using the online learning environment. If you have questions about this process, please contact your Student Progress Representative by calling 800-955-2527.

Thank you for your assistance with this transition!

Grantham Employees Raise over $1,300 in the Fight against AIDS

A team of Grantham staff, families and friends participated in the 19th Annual 2007 Kansas City AIDS Walk to benefit the AIDS Service Foundation on Saturday, April 28th, 2007. Collectively, Team Grantham raised over $1,300 to help women, men and children living with HIV/AIDS in the Kansas City community.

Team Grantham participants included the following employees: Adam Schneider, Deanne Murphy, LaTroya McKinley, Warren Jackson, Brian Korb, Ashli Turley-Salman, Nichole Harstad, Chad Haynie, Gabriel Estrada, Rachel Arganbright, Kim Thompson, and Kristen Hines.

Through corporate sponsors, generous donations from the community, and all of the participants, the 2007 Kansas City AIDS Walk raised $350,000.

The mission of the AIDS Service Foundation is to raise awareness and funding for local AIDS service organizations that provide nutrition, shelter, medical care and emergency services to the women, men and children living with HIV/AIDS in the Kansas City community.

Grantham Presents at USDLA Conference

On May 7th, Dr. Gregory Garcia, Academic Dean of Grantham University, will present a workshop at the 2007 Annual Conference of the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) entitled, “If You Build It for One, You Build It for All.” The workshop will focus on the current and future state of higher education, the growth and future of distance education, and how distance learning schools can foster more involvement in their students’ communities.

The United States Distance Learning Association is a non-profit organization formed in 1987 and is located in Boston, Massachusetts. USDLA promotes the development and application of distance learning for education and training and serves the needs of the distance learning community by providing advocacy, information, networking and opportunity. Distance education and training constituencies served include pre-k-12 education, higher and continuing education, home schooling as well as business, corporate, military, government, and telehealth markets.

For more information, visit www.usdla.org.

DC/Metro Area Student Social

On May 17th, Grantham University will be hosting the DC/Metro Area Student Social at Dave & Buster’s in Bethesda, MD from 6:30 pm until 8:30 pm. The Student Social Event is a great forum for you to meet other Grantham students, sign up for study partners, share experiences and let us know how we can better serve you.

To RSVP for this event, please send your name and number of guests attending to mtc@granthameducation.com. We hope to see you there!

How to Catch Common Grammatical Errors in Your Resume

By Beverly West
Monster Contributing Writer

Business documents rife with typos can undermine your professional reputation, not to mention that of your company. That's why [you] should have a good working knowledge of grammar, spelling and punctuation, as well as the ability to catch mistakes before someone else does.

Catching your own errors can be challenging. But with a little practice, you can reduce your margin of error and ultimately help your company project an image of accuracy and professionalism.

Know What to Watch For

Christopher Simmons, president of Send2Press Newswire has been proofreading copy for more than 23 years on a daily basis. The most common mistakes he finds in business releases include:

• It's vs. Its: "It's" is short for "it is" or "it has" ("it's raining"), whereas "its" is a possessive pronoun, as in "its coat."
• You're vs. Your: "You're" is short for "you are" ("you're not going out like that"), whereas "your" is a possessive pronoun, as in "your coat."
• There vs. Their: "There" is a place ("let's go there"), whereas "their" is a plural possessive pronoun, as in "their coats."
• Insure vs. Ensure: The term "insure" is related to insurance, whereas "ensure" means "to make sure." So you would "ensure people make it to the office on time" rather than "insure" they get there.
• Punctuation and Quote Marks: Commas separating a direct quote from the rest of a sentence should be placed inside the quotation marks. The same is true for periods. Question marks should be inside quotes only if they are part of the quote. So for instance: "Sales in the Southeast will be favorable in the fourth quarter," he said. If the quote is a citation and immediately followed by a related parenthetical reference, the punctuation would follow the parentheses, but the end quote mark would stay with the actual quote. For example: "Sales in the Southeast will be favorable in the fourth quarter" (XYZ Report, pp. 67).
• Ellipses (...) vs. Em Dashes (--): Ellipses indicate something was removed from the text and should not be used to separate a thought -- that's a job for the em dash. Here, the em dash is used to set off text that defines the sentence's subject: "My boss -- the one who asked me to give this presentation -- is here today." In this sentence, the words "the one" were replaced by an ellipsis: "My boss...who asked me to give this presentation is here today."
  Proofread Your Work

Grammatical errors can be particularly difficult to catch, because spell-check might not flag them. This is why experts stress proofreading is still the best antidote. Simmons offers these tips for checking your work:

• View your document at 125 percent or 150 percent in Word so you can better see what you're reading and more easily spot errors.
• Switch your font to Courier, a mono-spaced font, to break the brain's typical pattern recognition. This makes it easier to catch mistakes, because it forces you to pay closer attention to the text.
• Don't just skim. Take the time to really read what you've written. When possible, read your work out loud. Your sense of hearing will help you spot errors you might not see.
• Print your document. You can often catch mistakes on paper that you'd miss on the monitor.

Get Another Pair of Eyes on Your Work

Kim Doi, an administrative assistant for a New-York based securities firm, tries to wait a few hours before checking her work to read it with fresh eyes. She also has a friend or co-worker double-check what she's written to make sure she hasn't missed anything.

Consult References

Don't go it alone. Good business writing resources should be staples on your bookshelf.

Upcoming Events

May 15th – Ft. Bliss – Luncheon for Grantham students from Noon until 2 pm

May 17th – DC Metro Area Student Social at Dave & Buster’s from 6:30 pm until 8:30 pm

May 24th – Andrew’s AFB Education Center from 11am until 2pm

June 1st – Mountain Home AFB – Dinner for Grantham students from 5:30 pm until 7:30 pm