If one needed encouragement to counter balance the negative daily news regarding the employment and the economic downturn, the Ernst Cultural Center Theater on the Annandale campus was the place to be on Wednesday, Feb. 24. Author, entrepreneur and public speaker Jonathan Sprinkles was the special guest speaker on that afternoon.

What’s better than playing video games at home, with all the lights off, just you and 5 million other people all connected by headsets? Playing with friends at school, that’s what. Video games have become more of a social past time than ever.
With such a drastic leap toward social gaming, why are some gamers still insisting on sitting alone in front of their consoles day after day, playing against opponents they don’t even know?

Photos from the Black Light Winter Dance at the Annandale campus. The dance was sponsored by the Annandale Student Government Association to welcome students back to the Spring semester on Jan. 29.

Dr. Terry Alford has received Virginia’s prestigious Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Just 12 faculty members out of 177 were chosen from Virginia’s public and private colleges for the state’s higher education award.

Alford routinely receives glowing teacher evaluations for his “enthusiasm, passion, energy and dynamic teaching style,” as Dr. William Kinsella, Assistant Dean of History noted. One student declared him the “best history teacher I have ever had,” while another applauded him for bringing “enthusiasm, wealth of knowledge and a fabulous sense of humor to his chosen subject.”

This year’s Homecoming Dance will take place during Spirit Week on Friday, Feb. 19 in the Annandale Campus CF Cafeteria from 8:00 p.m. – midnight. The cost for the event will be $3.00 in advance and $5.00 at the door. Tickets will be available at your local student activities office. All money collected from ticket sales will go to Haiti relief effort.

As usual NOVA kicked off the semester by organizing a NOVA Day at every campus. This day welcomes new and returning students by providing food, playing music and letting the student clubs recruit new members. Among these clubs were the Hispanic Student Union, Phi Theta Kappa, Vietnamese Student Association, the Visual and Performing Arts Association and others. All of these define a normal NOVA Day for the college.

Bright and early one recent morning, students from Northern Virginia Community College’s Annandale campus loaded onto a bus headed to Richmond, home of the Virginia Senate. Nervous, yet full of excitement, these students were able to dip their toes into politics and get a first-hand look at what really happens behind the scenes.

Tatanka Means, actor, stuntman, boxer and artist, was a guest speaker in the Ernst Cultural Center at the Annandale campus. Tatanka is the son of Russell Means, the 1970’s American Indian Movement activist and actor, known for his roles in such movies as Last of the Mohicans (1992), Natural Born Killers (1994), and Pathfinder (2007). Tatanka’s mother is a Navajo educator on the Navajo Reservation in Chinle, AZ.

At the Annandale campus, the Hispanic Club was celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by conducting a literary contest Oct. 15. The contest was for students who wanted to express their creativity by writing essays or poems in English or Spanish, with the judging done by several faculty advisors.

Every year, various campuses at Northern Virginia Community College hold an alcohol awareness week, which doesn’t sound like much fun from a college student’s point of view. But aside from the tables with fliers warning about the effects of alcohol and a trailer displaying a mangled car from a drunk-driving accident, mocktails were served to those willing to undergo an obstacle course while wearing beer goggles, much to the delight of onlookers.
Mocktails are non-alcoholic cocktails. And these beer goggles don’t make anyone look good, least of all the wearer. …