In Our Own Voices is a regular panel series that provides an opportunity to hear from individuals in our community about their journeys to and at GCC. This month, a panel of GCC students, faculty and staff share their stories of life after addiction. Space for questions and dialogue, and refreshments provided.

Janice Garret, Director of Consumer Protection Unit Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, and GCC’s information security specialist John Canon deliver a joint presentation regarding the recent Equifax data breach and identity theft.

To coincide with Banned Books Week, a national celebration of the freedom to read, the Nahman-Watson Library at Greenfield Community College is sponsoring a panel discussion of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale.

The American Library Association first began tracking book challenges and bans in 1982, and in the decades since, The Handmaid’s Tale has been one of the most frequently challenged and banned books in America for its controversial depictions of religion, rape, and gendered violence. The story has also garnered renewed interest in the past year as Hulu released a television adaptation and protestors around the country donned the book’s iconic red robes and white bonnets to protest funding cuts to Planned Parenthood and laws restricting abortion rights in Texas, Ohio, and Missouri.

Panelists will include faculty members from GCC’s English, Science, and Social Science departments, discussing the book and its relevance to today from their own disciplinary perspectives and encouraging audience questions and participation.

Free and open to the public; lunch provided.

Free viewing of the historical documentary “Valuing Lives: Wolf Wolfensberger and the Principle of Normalization” sponsored by The United Arc. Anyone with an interest in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities will find this film thought provoking and helpful in charting a beneficial course for loved ones, community members and those they work with.

“No one in the twentieth century has had such a profound impact on the languages, content, imagery, integrity, cadre training efforts or literature in the field of developmental disabilities as Wolf Wolfensberger.” — William Bronston, M.D.

The film will be followed by a discussion with Jack Yates. Jack worked to both learn from and teach with Dr. Wolfensberger who was his principle teacher for over forty years. He now works in staff development for Creating Our Common Wealth, a statewide project of the Department of Developmental Services. For several years Jack taught a graduate course at the Harvard Divinity School entitled “The Inclusive Community.”.

Join us for the first annual Dovi Afesi Lecture Series, featuring speaker David Lanoie, J.D. as he seeks to highlight the grossly disproportionate number of people of color, especially African-Americans, and the poor who are incarcerated pursuant to “tough-on-crime” and “drug war” policies in the United States.

Join us to learn…

• how to set up your calendar online and sync it with your phone
• tips for staying on top of your assignments and making time to relax
• how to use your course syllabi to plan ahead (for best results, bring them with you or be able to access them online)

Please know your GCC email login information before you come!

A searing, two-hour PBS Frontline investigation places America’s heroin crisis in a fresh and provocative light—telling the stories of individual addicts, but also illuminating the epidemic’s years-in-the-making social context, deeply examining shifts in U.S. drug policy, and exploring what happens when addiction is treated like a public health issue, not a crime.

Meet with college admissions and transfer reps from all over New England!

Past participants have included:

• Anna Maria College
• Assumption College
• Bay Path University
• Bridgewater State University
• Bryant University
• Clarkson University
• College of St. Rose
• Dean College
• Elms College
• Emerson College
• Fitchburg State University
• Framingham State University
• Hampshire college
• Johnson State College
• Keene State College
• Leslie College
• MCLA
• Paul Smith’s College of Arts and Sciences
• Prescott College
• Quinnipiac University
• Savannah College of Art & Design
• Springfield College
• Suffolk University
• UMass: Amherst, Dartmouth and Lowell
• University of New Hampshire
• University of St. Joseph
• Unity College (Maine)
• Western New England University
• Westfield State University
• Worcester State University

Got stress? Feeling anxious? Did you know that recent surveys of college students from across the country have identified stress and anxiety as factors that affected their academic performance? This workshop will:

• Explore how stress and anxiety impact mind and body
• Teach practical skills to help control stress and anxiety
• Engage you in strategies that will help in coping with the stressors that are part of the college experience

Part of our Senior Symposia program for people over 50. All workshops are $10. Online registration available!

On November 14, 1889, Nellie Bly, the crusading young reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s World newspaper, left New York City by steamship on a quest to break the record for the fastest trip around the world. Also departing from New York that day—and heading in the opposite direction by train—was a young journalist from The Cosmopolitan magazine, Elizabeth Bisland. Each woman was determined to outdo Jules Verne’s fictional hero Phileas Fogg and circle the globe in less than eighty days. Matthew Goodman will tell the dramatic story of the race that spanned 28,000 miles, captivated the nation and changed both competitors’ lives forever. Matthew Goodman is the New York Times-best-selling author of three works of non-fiction, including the award-winning Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World, which has been translated into eight languages. Goodman’s writing has appeared in The American Scholar, Harvard Review, Salon, and many other publications.

Tibetan Buddhist master Phakchok Rinpoche and meditation teacher Erric Solomon present Radically Happy: Transforming Your Life by Transforming Your Mind. Drawing on their own personal experience both as happiness practitioners and teachers, this seminar will benefit anyone who is struggling to keep a balance in life between work and family, coping with the fast pace of daily life, a career and at the same time aspiring to flourish and grow: intellectually, emotionally and spiritually.

Recognized by the Kagyu regents and ordained by the Dalai Lama, Phakchok Rinpoche has studied with a number of great lamas, including Khyentse Rinpoche, Dudjom Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Penor Rinpoche, Trulshik Rinpoche and Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche. An enthusiastic and vibrant young lama, his teachings are direct, accessible, and always fresh, opening up minds in a playful and inspiring way.

Have you been wondering how to get a paying summer job relating to your desired career path?  Former GCC and current Wellesley student Cassandra Smith presents her summer 2017 internship experience. Having participated in the Phenotypic Plasticity Research Experience for Community College Students, Cassandra spent 10 weeks at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign working with a current graduate student on a neuroscience project. Come hear about this invaluable experience and learn how to seek out similar opportunities for your chosen path!

Artist George Wardlaw discusses his work currently on exhibit October 9-November 9 in the South Gallery. Learn more at gcc.mass.edu/humanities.

Attorney Tahirah Amatul-Wadud of Springfield discusses the state of affairs for Muslims in America in light of policies being made in the current political climate.

Ms. Amatul-Wadud is an attorney with a practice in domestic relations law and civil rights. She is a graduate of Elms College in Chicopee and Western New England University School of Law, in Springfield where she resides. She’s a volunteer commissioner on the Mass. Commission on the Status of Women and a board member for the Massachusetts chapter for the Council on American Islamic Relations. She has recently been chosen to serve on the Family Advisory Council for Boston Children’s Hospital. Ms. Amatul-Wadud was named a Top Woman of Law for 2016 by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

Part of our Senior Symposia program for people over 50. All workshops are $10. Online registration available!

Presented by Robert Forrant. For over 150 years in a prosperous 200-mile industrial corridor along the Connecticut River between Bridgeport, Connecticut and Windsor, Vermont, hundreds of firms built the world’s metalworking, machinery, cutting tools and measuring and inspection devices. Other companies in the region purchased these machines and produced finished goods, including rifles, carriages, rail cars, ice skates, bicycles, motorcycles and automobiles. The Valley economy was vibrant and home to thousands of skilled workers. Things took a turn for the worse in the 1960s and 1970s as locally owned firms were purchased by outside investors and the industry was challenged by global competitors. Forrant will explain the remarkable rise and swift decline of industry in the region we call home. Robert Forrant is Professor of History at UMass Lowell. The author of books and articles on industrial history and deindustrialization, he worked for many years as a machinist at the American Bosch plant in Springfield before its 1986 closure. He was named UMass Lowell Distinguished University Professor in 2016.

Register online

A special info session presented by GCC’s Assistant Dean of Nursing. Come learn about our associate degree in nursing and our certificate in practical nursing, as well as opportunities to earn a bachelor’s degree right here on campus.

Join us to watch the PBS documentary Lives Worth Living about the disability rights movement in America.

Join the GCC Foundation for a fun night of trivia and a Bavarian buffet featuring ham and cheese sandwiches, German potato salad, pretzels and beer cheese sauce, apple strudel and a cash bar! Doors open at 6pm, trivia begins at 7pm with caller Rich Fahey. Entry fee of $30 per person with a max of 6 people per team. Bring your friends or we’ll match you up!

A PVI tour of Amherst’s museums. Price includes transportation to and from GCC.

Are you looking for a career path in manufacturing? Training to be a machinist? Want upskilling courses in engineering technology? Whether you are already in the manufacturing field ready to advance, or committed to learning a new trade, Greenfield Community College has FREE programs that you may qualify for. Veterans, women, unemployed, underemployed and other underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply. Learn about career opportunities and pathways, FREE programs offered and start the application process! RSVP online.