Captain Jeff Lewis has taught at Northern Virginia Community College since 2000 and has been a member of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department for the past 16 years. He wears the stress of such intense work well, and one would never guess that this young Emergency Medical Services worker is also the medical section coordinator of the elite Fairfax Urban Search and Rescue team known as Virginia Task Force One (VATF-1).

Born in the northeastern United States, Lewis’ family moved to the Fairfax County area when he was 13. It was as a George Mason University freshman that he experienced what he called an “epiphanous moment.” On the way home from classes at the medical education campus in Springfield he passed a car accident and stopped, though he did not know why.

The NOVA men’s lacrosse team waited until the last seconds to edge the University of Mary Washington’s lacrosse team 11-10 on Saturday afternoon, April 10 on the UMW campus in Fredericksburg.

With five seconds to go and the score tied 10-10, NOVA retained possession behind the UMW goal as a missed shot went out of bounds. NOVA’s Thuc Tran threw the ball in and found Pat Roche just behind the goal. He went around the right side of the goal and threw in a close-in unexpected shot over his right shoulder, scoring the winning goal as time ran out. This gave the amazing 11-10 win to NOVA. To cap it off, this was NOVA’s first lead of the day.

Urban Latin music, known as reggeatton, was blaring. Tables lined the room displaying native costumes, jewelry and other items from different nations. There was food that some students probably didn’t recognize.

The cafeteria of NOVA’s Alexandria campus was transformed for the 2010 International Festival on April 14. Anyone who walked in could instantly feel the energy in the room.

Dr. Terry Alford’s upcoming biography, Fortune’s Fools is about the life of John Wilkes Booth, the famous actor and infamous assassin of the 16th president of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln.

The Lincoln scholar has already written two books published by Oxford Press, made numerous television appearances, worked as a consultant for the 2007 film hit National Treasure 2, and helped found the NOVA Honors Program. He was recently awarded the 2010 Outstanding Faculty Award by the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is the only community college professor to ever receive the accolade.

Kevin Brosnan, 3-year-old Brooke Duncan of Alexandria and Brooke’s father, Ryan Duncan (with pink hair), smile with joy at the St. Baldrick’s Day fundraiser at Paddy’s Steakhouse & Pub in Stafford on March 14. One reason they are so happy is that, after being treated for neuroblastoma at Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children, Brooke has shown no signs if the disease for several months.

Brooke’s father used to be a NOVA student. The Duncans came to the event to “support to all those still battling.”

The event raised over $25,000 for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation to combat childhood cancer.

“Everything seemed to be going my way,” Regina Spiegel recently told the large audience at the theater at the NOVA Woodbridge campus. The Polish winter was her biggest complaint in life. The topic turned serious as the guest speaker talked of her experience as a survivor of the death camps of Treblinka and Auschwitz on April 8.

She remembered the exact date that the German army attacked her village in Radom, Poland: Sept. 1, 1939. The building shook with the force of the army. Spiegel ran from her home, where her mother, Brandla, was preparing a traditional Shabbat dinner, to see what was happening.

Canadian author Denise Chong spoke about her most recent book Egg on Mao at the Annandale campus on the afternoon of April 8.
Her book follows the life of one of three persons, who during the Tiananmen Square student sit-in in Beijing, China in 1989, threw eggs filled with paint at the giant portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong in the Square. They were subsequently arrested, termed vandals and counter-revolutionary reactionaries, and sentenced to various terms in prison, from 16 years to life.

A new report from NOVA gives the clearest picture yet of what happened on Dec. 8 when a student shot at a teacher on the Woodbridge campus.
The shooting occurred when a disgruntled student, Jason Hamilton, snuck a high-powered rifle hidden in a duffel bag into his math class. Hamilton fired two shots from a distance of no more than six feet at the professor. His shots missed. As he attempted to reload his rifle, it malfunctioned.

A recent job fair at the University of Mary Washington attracted more than 6,000 people and halted traffic on both U.S. 1 and Interstate 95 at the U.S. 17 exit.

Janet Giles of JobZone, which holds job fairs throughout much of Virginia, has reported an increase in the number of job fairs attendees and a decrease in the number of companies that exhibit. She also said she’s been seeing people who have never lost their job before.

When one thinks of Brazilian music the fervent samba drum beats of Carnival or the smooth sounds of bossa nova may come to mind. Whatever the style, one may not think of NOVA music major Mark Sawasky. Don’t let his Dearborn, Mich. roots fool you though. He plays as passionately and soulfully as any world musician. He is a true artist.
Sawasky got his start in a rock band in his hometown. When a two-stringed Albanian Lute musician wanted to record with the band, they took their music to the recording …