Tax season is rapidly approaching, and with it the stress of complicated tax laws. However, with free tax preparation workshops at NOVA and special tax credits for students, there are many ways to make the season easier.
There are several tax provisions that are designed to help students. One is the Hope Credit which can provide $2,500 for education expenses; the other is the Lifetime Learning Credit that affords a broad range of tax refunds for educational expenses.
The Hope Credit is available to students completing their first two years of college, …

Northern Virginia Community College students probably won’t see metal detectors installed anytime soon, but college officials are re-assessing security following a December shooting at the Woodbridge campus.

The college recently launched its Presidential Commission on Safety and Security and gave it until April 30 to review the adequacy of emergency resources put in place following the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre—the worst school shooting in the nation’s history.

Ever since last spring, one woman has stood out from the typical crop of campus leaders. Karima Ben Ayed has made a lasting impression on both the staff and students at Northern Virginia Community College’s Alexandria campus. Carrying the appellation of the most recent past-President of the International Club, Ben Ayed’s autograph covered many programs gathered by attendees at last year’s International Spring Festival.
The event was the most highly attended student-initiated function in recent NOVA history and was even more noteworthy because Ben Ayed raised the defunct International Club from a three-year-long period of inactivity to a juggernaut, able to mobilize the most creativity, curiosity and culinary expertise the student body may have ever seen.

NOVA student Roz Schaufele donates blood with the help of Red Cross worker Suzanne Fantigrossi at the Woodbridge campus blood drive February 4. NOVA holds several blood drives throughout the year, including an upcoming one at the Alexandria campus on February 24 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Appointments will be scheduled every 15 minutes and can be scheduled by contacting Syrous in the Student Activities Office at: student.activities.nova.al@gmail.com.

The most important aspect of communication is listening. This was the message a broadcast executive had for several NOVA communications classes. On a Jan. 26 visit to the Alexandria campus, Brian Lamb, founder and CEO of C-SPAN, shared his insights with students.

Lamb started the day visiting Professor Lucy Holsonbake’s communication class. He was greeted with the sounds of country music playing – a surprising contrast considering the rainbow of students present. The class had been thoroughly prepared for Lamb’s visit, remembering that he liked country music from a biography they had read on him.

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.

NOVA will be closed all day on Thursday as the region tries to dig out from Snowmageddon II, according to a text message alert. This will be the seventh straight day NOVA has been closed since its noon closing last Friday.

The DC region broke the all time historical record for snow, with 54.9 inches of snow fall this Winter at Ronald Reagan National Airport. The snow from the December 19th storm, and the February 5th storm contributed to the record, with a 9.8 inch dump in the past two days pushing up the record. The previous record snow was 54.4 inches from the Winter of 1898-99.

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.