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Government and Community Relations

Speeches and Presentations

MCC is growing incubator for community's leaders
R. Thomas Flynn
President, Monroe Community College
Democrat and Chronicle
12/10/2002

There’s a place in Rochester designed for trying on leadership. A place to test one’s leadership wings. That place is Monroe Community College, where thousands of area residents have come for an education and left with the experience and confidence to be leaders. And, to borrow Robert Frost’s words, “that has made all the difference.”

When a community college makes leadership development a priority, it can make “all the difference” for the local community. With the majority of our students coming from the Rochester area, MCC has had the privilege of helping to develop the leadership skills of hundreds of local leaders. And we’ve had the honor of watching their impact because they stay here.

Leadership development is on my mind now for two reasons. First, we are about to induct our 10th class into the MCC Alumni Hall of Fame. Noted for their professional successes and their community involvement, our four inductees have made and continue to make a significant difference in Greater Rochester.

Dennis Alongi ’69, CEO and president of SIGMA Marketing Group, is active in the Flower City Habitat for Humanity. Teresa Coykendall ’86, owner, co-founder and CEO of Teke Machine Corporation, is the first woman president of the Rochester Tooling and Machining Association Board of Directors. Betty Smith ’82, college counselor and professor, has dedicated herself to advising and counseling MCC students (perhaps some future local leaders among them). And professional golfer Jeff Sluman ’77 goes beyond extraordinary tee shots and leadership on the tour, to supporting the local Muscular Dystrophy Association and youth organizations in suburban Greece.

Over the last decade, we have honored other local leaders with induction in the MCC Alumni Hall of Fame. Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association and vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, is one of the nation’s leading education reformers. And he’s a graduate of Monroe Community College. So is Rochester Police Chief Robert Duffy, who has returned to campus many times to discuss leadership with current students. And Gary Mervis, chairman and founder of Camp Good Days and Special Times. How different Greater Rochester would be without these leaders.

Many of our alumni leaders aren’t well known. They don’t lead lives that place them in the public eye. They’re local news directors, firefighters and emergency medical technicians. They head nursing units, teach kindergarten and supervise manufacturing departments. They are leaders in their jobs and their communities.

Linda Haensch, principal at Florentine-Hendrick Elementary School in the North Rose-Wolcott School District, was an MCC student in the 1970’s. Today, she’s a leader. A few years ago, Claudia DelVecchio was a student in MCC’s Food, Hotel and Tourism program. Today, she is an enterprising business leader and creator of WellBean coffee.

Leadership development is also on my mind because we are creating more leadership opportunities for students.

The campus center and residence hall construction projects currently underway on our Brighton Campus will provide many new leadership experiences. If you lived on campus in your college days, you know the opportunities for leadership in residence halls¯from formal leadership roles for student residence hall assistants who develop programming and resolve issues to more informal roles in which leaders emerge from everyday residence hall life. I am excited by the new leadership opportunities for our future residential students; a significant number will be Monroe County residents.

Our campus center will be the kind of leadership laboratory Monroe County citizens deserve. Updated space for student clubs. More room for co-curricular programs. More opportunities for leaders-in-training to reflect on their experiences, which we ask them to do in our courses in community service leadership and college community leadership. Our campus center will be an energizing place, where students can plan and execute the hundreds of community service projects they undertake each year¯from raising money for the Make A Wish Foundation, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the American Cancer Society and many other charitable organizations to organizing reading campaigns for elementary school students and developing a lasting memorial to the victims of Sept. 11, 2001.

MCC is proud to play a part in preparing tomorrow’s local leaders. But it’s not about us. It’s about Greater Rochester, Monroe County and the region. We need more leaders—high profile and quiet community servants. We have an exciting and inspiring new crop in the MCC student body now. I look forward to watching them develop their leadership skills and grow into our community’s future leaders.

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