The TCC Connection

Podcast Director Sam Levrault talks with TCC's Fulbright Scholar-In-Residence, Dr. Kendra Reynolds. Dr. Reynolds is visiting from Northern Ireland and will teach a Composition II course in Spring 2020.

To learn more about the Fulbright Scholar-In-Residence Program, visit https://www.cies.org/program/fulbright-scholar-residence-program. 

You can follow Dr. Reynolds on Facebook, as @KendraReynoldsWriter, and Twitter, at @Dr_K_Reynolds.

Connection Conversations is an ongoing series by the TCC Connection, TCC's student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

Episode edited by Sam Levrault 

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Podcast Director Sam Levrault talks with Associate Professor of Italian, Pamela Chew about her experiences abroad, the World Languages Program, specifically the Italian courses and opportunities available to Tulsa Community College.

Connection Conversations is an ongoing series by the TCC Connection, TCC's student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Music by The Odyssey, "75 to Ramona" 

 

Episode edited by Sam Levrault 

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Podcast Host Sam Levrault talks with Alexis Onyango, also known as LEX, when she stopped by the TCC Connection office on Sept. 13, 2019. This episode features a full interview, as well as an inside look for and performance of her new original song, "Skin Off My Back" releasing on Sept. 20, 2019 under her new project and alias, LEX. She also shares about her upcoming plans, including her headline show at The Vanguard on September 20.

 

 

Follow Alexis!

 

Instagram: @alexisonyango 

Facebook:  @lexionyango

 

Check out her new project, LEX:

Instagram: @thisislex_

 

Watch the interview on our Youtube channel as well as exclusive videos featuring more performances.

 

 

 

Concert Connection is a series by the TCC Connection which focuses on local artists in the Tulsa Community College community with an emphasis on student musicians.

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

Produced by Sam Levrault

Edited by Sam Levrault

Podcast Host Sam Levrault talks with the Spotless Mind when they stopped by the TCC Connection office on Aug 1, 2019. This episode features a full interview, as well as an inside look for and performance of their original song, "Peachy" off their EP "A Matter of Opinion" (2019).

Formed by members Jake Bosch and Trenton Smothermon in 2015, Spotless Mind have seen a lot of change, in only a short amount of time. But whether it was a change of name, lineup, or the evolution of the songs themselves, Spotless Mind have always strived to give their all in live shows and in their songwriting. They released their debut self-titled EP in 2018 and followed it up with 2019’s “A Matter of Opinion”. This is just the beginning for this small band with big ambitions.

 

Jake Bosch - Vocals, Guitar

Trenton Smothermon - Vocals, Bass

Bryton Hill - Drums

Band's Instagram: @spotless_mind_band

Facebook: @spotlessmindtheband

 

Watch the interview on our Youtube channel as well as exclusive videos featuring more performances.

 

 

 

Concert Connection is a series by the TCC Connection which focuses on local artists in the Tulsa Community College community with an emphasis on student musicians.

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

Produced by Sam Levrault

Edited by Sam Levrault

Semester Sneak Peek is a new series that provides a preview of courses available at Tulsa Community College (TCC) this coming fall semester. 

As a series about upcoming classes, these episodes will feature interviews with many of the instructors tasked with teaching them. 

Today's episode features Jeff Smith, Recording Studio Instructor at TCC.

 

Edited by Sam Levrault

Music by The Odyssey, "75 to Ramona"

Transcript by Bethany Solomon

 

TCC CONNECTION PODCAST | SEMESTER SNEEK PEAK | FT. JEFF SMITH

Bethany: Welcome to semester sneak peak, our special summer series that provides a preview of courses available this coming fall semester. I am your host Bethany Solomon, associate editor of the north east campus here at the TCC connection.

Today we have a very special guest, Jeff Smith, he is a TCC adjunct professor, TCC signature symphony violist, and president of song smith records.

Jeff Smith: Hi! Good afternoon, how are ya?

B: Good, how are you?

J: I’m doing great.

B: Can you start off by telling us a little about yourself?

J: Sure. I was born and raised in Tulsa, OK. I started playing violin at 10 years old because my brother and sister played the violin. The summer of my 6th grade year my teacher came to me and said “you know you’re kinda beefy, husky boy, you need to play the viola.

I said, viola? It rhymes with granola, I don’t want to play the viola, I said what am I getting myself into here?

She said ‘Oh, no you’re not going to quit the violin, you’re going to learn how to double.

Double. It rhymes with trouble, she said ‘oh no, you’ll be fine.’

So, I got to take two instruments to school, the violin and the viola. Uh, learned how to play the both of them, not long after that the beetles were popular, and I got a guitar. I started going on in.

B: Very cool, very cool, so how did you find your way into the education as far as like, your music. Did you study in undergrad, music specifically, or did you have a broad range of interests beyond music?

J: Oh, gosh. You look back on pivotal points in your life. One pivotal point in my life was, I guess I was in Jr high, early high school, and I had an electric guitar. Dad had come home with a Wollensak, as a German tape recorded. And it had an auxiliary input on it and I learned at a young age I could take the guitar output and plug it into the auxiliary input, crank it all the way up, play the guitar, turn its sound all the way up and it would sound something like:

[makes loud buzzing noises mimicking guitar sound]

Coolest sound I had every heard…. for about 13 seconds. I blew out the 8’ inch paper cone speakers and a couple of power tubes. Its kind of left a mark on me, like this is a cool sound, I gotta get into this.

I was going to be an aeronautical engineer, all through high school, my dad was a fighter pilot in world war II, he had 96 missions over France. My grandfather had his PHD in mechanical engineering and actually wrote the maintenance Manuel for the B25 Mitchel bomber. So, I was going to be an aeronautical engineer, until, calculus first hour happened. Kay, I had a morning paper out, and an evening paper out.

Okay! Take your XY X’s, translate it, rotate it, draw a hyperbola, spin the hyperbola, cut a hole in the hyperbola, and now find the volume and generate it. At that point I figured, you know, I’d rather play the wrong note, I couldn’t see myself designing something that will have someone else get killed because I misplaced a decimal point. But, all throughout high school I played in the youth symphony. My senior year, I audition Id and got first chair of the viola of the youth symphony. And I auditioned for the Tulsa Philharmonic. I guess they were desperate, and I turned pro when I was 17. Uh, went to the University of Kansas, was a Viola Major. A double major in Viola performance and music education. And at KU they had a computer music lab, and they had, we’re talking early-mid 1970’s. And they had an ARP 26 hardener. This is a synthesizer, analog

Semester Sneak Peek is a new series that provides a preview of courses available at Tulsa Community College (TCC) this coming fall semester. 

As a series about upcoming classes, these episodes will feature interviews with many of the instructors tasked with teaching them. 

Today's episode features Dr. Gay Phillips, Associate Professor at TCC.

 

Edited by Sam Levrault

Music by The Odyssey, "75 to Ramona"

Transcript: Bethany Solomon

 

 

Bethany: Welcome to Semester Sneak peak, a new series that highlights instructors that are tasked with teaching fall courses. We thought it would be best to highlight these courses to educate students! 

I am your host, Bethany Solomon, associate editor of the Northeast campus and today we have a special guest, Gay Phillips, who is teaching several interesting courses this upcoming semester. It is a pleasure to have you Ms. Phillips! 

Tell us about yourself. You may start with your childhood or educational experiences. 

Gay Phillips: Thank you!  

I grew up in west Texas, in the oil fields with my father. We traveled a lot. And that peaked my interest, traveling through the nation and getting to know different areas and different people. I was always interested in how we are similar as people, and how we are different. How culture gets created and shared. How we influence cultural changes, and why us humans do what we do. Those combined helped me fall in love with sociology. That is my primary discipline. 

We got to Oklahoma and it felt like we moved to a foreign country and looking back I know that is not the case, but when I was 10 years old that is what it felt like. 

B: [Laughs…] 

G: And we stayed in Oklahoma ever since. 

B: Very nice! I can see how that is the underlying inspiration for sociology and how it relates to even anthropology. Did you go from finding inspiration to sociology into finding interest in anthropology? Was that a later discovery? 

G: While I was studying sociology in my undergrad I had options of taking anthropology courses along with sociology, a lot on native studies and indigenous population. It extends what we study about culture a little bit into the anthropological theme 

B: Interesting! Let’s go to into your experiences prior to TCC as far as being in the workforce.  

G: Sure. After I completed my bachelor’s degree I went to work in social services. I thought I wanted to be a social worker, and discovered I was not adept to doing that. I worried about people too much. After working for five years in social services I made a change. I went into professional development for people who work in social services. Predominately, people who work with homeless youth who have been abused and neglected.  

That was the field I was in. I knew people and knew what the ongoing training needs were, so professional development 20/25 years doing lots of training workshops and all kinds of topics and how to deal with kids that live on the streets.  

How to teach people how to be trauma informed. Kids and families that go through trauma. We did hundreds of training workshops, and so that is what I did. While I was doing that I went back and got my master’s degree. I knew I did not want another direct service degree, so I continued with sociology to work with people in social structures and cultures. So, I did that and after several years I decided I really wanted to teach at the college university level. I went back and got my PHD and became a private consultant doing training, workshops, and program development. 

I had done quite a bit of programs for a lot of different organizations. I went back and got my PHD. I started as an adjunct. I was an adjunct at Rogers State, OSU, and now TCC. I have been involved with TCC since 2000, and a full-time position came open by 2012. 

B: Wow, quite the experience. With TCC specifically, I know you mentioned trauma evaluation, that is something currently being developed here at TCC. Mental Health Awareness and how trauma effects people

Local Tulsa bands, The Odyssey and Hoarseman (Hoarseman & The Heard), stop by the TCC Connection office at Tulsa Community College to talk about the local music scene, the challenges of creating an exciting and interesting atmosphere for audiences during stage performances, as well as provide a preview for their upcoming End of Summer Bash at The Vanguard in the Tulsa Arts District on August 9th.

The Odyssey (Cobey Brown & Derek Johnson) are an alternative blues band from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Hoarseman (Quinton Hoagland) is the frontman and founding member of Hoarseman and the Heard, an alternative art rock band based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Directed & Edited by: Sam LevraultSound: Sam Levrault

TCC Connection staff members Trent, Sam, and Joe gather to discuss the rising prominence of live service games.

 

The Gaming Connection is a TCC Connection Podcast series that centers on the game and entertainment industry.

 

 

Hosted By Trent Gleason

 

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

Episodes edited by Sam Levrault

Recorded on June 20, 2019

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Semester Sneak Peak is a new series that provides a preview of courses available at Tulsa Community College (TCC) this coming fall semester. 

As a series about upcoming classes, these episodes will feature interviews with many of the instructors tasked with teaching them. 

Today's episode features Jerry Goodwin, TCC Connection Advisor.

 

Edited by Sam Levrault

Music by The Odyssey, "75 to Ramona"

 

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

Transcript by: Bethany Solomon

 

Bethany: Welcome to semester Sneak Peek, a new series that provides a preview of courses that are provided this coming semester. I am your host, Bethany Solomon, associate editor of the Northeast Campus at the TCC connection.

Since this series is about upcoming courses, we thought it would be best to the interview instructors tasked with teaching them.

Today we have a special guest, our very own faculty advisor, Jerry Goodwin.

How are you Jerry Goodwin?

 

Jerry Goodwin: I’m doing great Ms. Solomon, how are you?

 

I’m good. Thank you for joining us today.

 

Thank you for the invitation.

 

We’re going to be learning a bit about your background, your history in one of Tulsa’s most historic communities, how you came to be involved in your field, TCC, and the classes and programs you are involved in this coming fall.

Let’s start with your background and earlier years in education that lead up to your professional pursuits and accomplishments.

 

I started in 2000, teaching as an adjunct at TCC. I had a partner teaching at TCC as an adjunct and recommended I consider applying or at least working at TCC and I did. I served as an adjunct for seven years and then an opportunity presented itself for me to apply for a full-time position.

Others reached out to me and let me know that this full-time position was available to teach in the journalism field. In 2007, I applied to serve as an assistant professor in journalism and mass communications.

If you take into consideration my adjunct years, next year, that would have been two decades. Prior to that I was working for my family’s business, the OK eagle newspaper, and I was with them for 15 years professionally. That was the foundation that lead me to pursuing what turned out to be a career in journalism and communications.

 

Okay. Good, so without that foundation do you believe you would have studied mass communications or journalism at all?

 

Perhaps not, I had aspired to go into law and have been involved with politics, and so it was blessing and what better opportunity to work in a field, and from those experience in the field, then go and teach the next generation of young people what you have learned. It was natural and it’s a blessing and I could not be any more pleased and excited with this trajectory and course I am on.

 

So you enjoy politics and just ran for city council. Can you tell us a little about your experience?

 

Yes I was not new to politics, fortunately in my early years, worked for a congress man so I truly appreciate the value of public service. That experience was eye opening in more ways than one. What I enjoyed the most about that experience is meeting and becoming acquainted with the individuals of the community. I did a lot of door to door knocking and ended up falling short of a three-person race and came in second. When we combined my results and the results of the person that came in third the outcome was 55% of the winner and 45% to the remaining two candidates. It had been determined the candidate, or at least the city counsel is vulnerable, so I am looking at here in the near future rerunning and just trying to put together the recipe of victory, what I can learn from this previous experience, and how I can use that to my benefit so that I will be more successful this next go around.

 

What can you tell us about The Connection and you leading as the facu

Semester Sneak Peek is a new series that provides a preview of courses available at Tulsa Community College (TCC) this coming fall semester. 

As a series about upcoming classes, these episodes will feature interviews with many of the instructors tasked with teaching them. 

Today's episode features Ethan Rolen, Video Services Supervisor.

 

Edited by Sam Levrault

Music by The Odyssey, "75 to Ramona"

 

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.