In this issue...

Student Survey

Revised go-live dates for Resource 25 and SIS

Single Moms Network offers support to students at MCC

Community member becomes author thanks to MCC’s New Frontiers for Lifelong Learning

Music students to participate in Songwriter's Expo

AriZoni Awards Recognize MCC Performing Arts

Recognitions

Media Relations

MCC Event Calendar

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Mesa Community College

Community member becomes author thanks to MCC’s New Frontiers for Lifelong Learning

Shiela LeSueur

Retired nurse Sheila Le Sueur wandered into an open house for New Frontiers after seeing an ad in the Tribune newspaper. “The entire concept sounded interesting, this life-long learning, but I thought it was for old folks,” Sheila said. “I couldn’t have been more wrong.”

She was drawn to a booth on World War II and began talking to the facilitator, Millicent Salm. She was delighted to discover a connection – mutual friends from Sheila’s childhood home of Jersey, France, a small island off the coast of Normandy.

Sheila found that New Frontiers drew upon its members’ vast experience and skills to present many opportunities including a smorgasbord of classes, valuable social interactions, and a rich exchange of ideas.

“I happened to find my niche in history, politics and writing. It coincided with my earnest desire as a naturalized American to study American democracy. “

Around that time, Sheila began researching Alexis de Tocqueville, a historical figure whose journey to America and discovery of democracy at age 25 mirrored Sheila’s own journey to America at age 25.

C-SPAN had run a series on de Tocqueville that Sheila followed religiously and when they sponsored a national viewers’ competition on the impact of the series, Sheila was eager to enter. She ended up submitting a first place entry through the support of New Frontiers peers and technical assistance from MCC employees Ken Costello and Ron Rangel.

“I was seventy years old and for me the honor was as good as winning a gold medal in the Olympics. I told the world, called friends in Jersey.”

Opportunities continue to open up for Sheila through her classes and interactions with New Frontiers. Her research on de Tocqueville’s wife was recently included in renowned English historian Hugh Brogan's biography; and through encouragement by New Frontier’s Peers, NAU professor Marty Sommerness, and C-SPAN employees, she wrote her autobiography.  Her book, Two Flags, One Heart, is an account of growing up in the midst of the German occupation of her home off the coast of Normandy during World War II.

Sheila continues to be an active member of MCC’s New Frontiers.

New Frontiers is a sponsored membership organization for retirees to continue learning. They host peer-led and peer-taught courses, volunteer at MCC and award a student scholarship each year. Their community education courses enroll more than 1,500 individuals each semester.