Howard Community College

The Candlelight Concert Society has presented so many chamber music groups that it's fitting that it has assembled a diverse roster of performers for its 40th anniversary gala on Saturday, May 18, from 3 to 6 p.m., at Howard Community College's Smith Theatre. "We're very proud of the variety and depth of our programming," says Candlelight artistic director Holly Thomas. She adds that the upcoming gala will be "celebrating what we've been doing to bring exciting and innovative works here.

The Candlelight Concert Society has presented so many chamber music groups that it's fitting that it has assembled a diverse roster of performers for its 40th anniversary gala on Saturday, May 18, from 3 to 6 p.m., at Howard Community College's Smith Theatre. "We're very proud of the variety and depth of our programming," says Candlelight artistic director Holly Thomas. She adds that the upcoming gala will be "celebrating what we've been doing to bring exciting and innovative works here.

Howard Community College was evacuated Thursday morning after someone called in a bomb threat to local police. Howard County police officials said they ordered all students out of the Columbia school before 10 a.m., after receiving a call stating there was a bomb on the college's property. After searching the school, police ruled the threat a hoax and allowed students to return to class before 11 a.m., officials said. Mike Scrivener, a college spokesman, said the buildings were evacuated for about 40 minutes and the disruption was minimal.

Spring Party The Columbia Foundation's annual Spring Party will be held beginning at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, at Howard Community College's Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway. Tickets are $100. Information: 410-730-7840. Blue Star ceremony The Howard County Garden Club will host a dedication ceremony for a Blue Star Memorial Marker honoring service men and women at 10 a.m. Friday, May 17, at the Howard County Welcome Center, 8267 Main St. in Ellicott City.

This might be a bad time to sell high-end real estate, but Howard Community College has hired an international real estate marketing firm that specializes in unique properties to help it sell Belmont, its 1738 historic Elkridge estate. Rising renovation and maintenance costs and tight fiscal times are forcing the school to sell the property, which had served as a conference and event center since the 1960s, and as a culinary arts and hospitality instructional center since the college began using it five years ago. The college board has chosen CB Richard Ellis to sell the estate, which includes 68 bucolic, secluded acres surrounded by woods and Patapsco State Park, plus a possible 13-acre adjunct tract with another house.

Howard Community College has earned the U.S. Senate Productivity Award, announced earlier this week by the University of Maryland and U.S. Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and Benjamin L. Cardin. The award, part of the university's Maryland Performance Excellence Awards Program, honors organizations for successfully implementing systematic processes for continuous improvement and achieving outstanding results. Award recipients are evaluated in seven areas: leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; work force focus; process management; and results.

Howard Community College has won a $350,000 award to develop a program that would allow students to learn science with the help of computers.The college was one of 500 schools that applied for a National Science Foundation grant and one of only 120 that won. One evaluator wrote that HCC's proposal addressed "head-on the key stumbling block for students in introductory science courses. [The college has] laid out well the problems and [has] provided convincing arguments."The college will use the award to develop a curriculum to teach students introductory chemistry, biology and physics through computer graphics and animation.

A select group of students at Howard Community College will be guaranteed admission and a scholarship to Dickinson College, a highly regarded liberal arts school in Pennsylvania, to earn their bachelor's degrees under a partnership to be announced by the colleges Wednesday. The deal represents a significant step beyond the standard transfer agreements that community colleges have with state universities. The HCC-Dickinson partnership will provide support and coaching so that students are academically ready, as well as financial aid so they can afford it. With the total annual costs at some private universities now exceeding $50,000, more families are looking to community colleges as affordable alternatives.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Howard County Holiday Commission recognized Howard Community College this week for its efforts to improve human relationships in the county. In a ceremony Sunday, the commission gave the school its annual Community Service Award. The award committee was impressed with the Mediation and Conflict Resolution Center, which is starting its third year as a department of HCC. The center offers trained mediators to help people resolve disagreements. "We think [the center]

A 29-year-old man sought in the stabbing of a security guard at Howard Community College in Columbia on Monday was arrested yesterday afternoon by Baltimore police after a short chase, authorities said. The suspect, Gilbert Lee Redmond Jr. of Baltimore, was spotted driving a burgundy Saturn sedan in Baltimore. Redmond fled when officers attempted a traffic stop, police said. The security guard, a 26-year-old woman, was stabbed several times in the head but suffered no life-threatening injuries, Howard County police said.

Howard Community College student Katie Dunklee won't name the four-year school - her top choice - that turned her down for admission out of high school, but nowadays she doesn't lament the rejection. In fact, to hear the Elkridge resident tell it, the snub, though disheartening at the time, has proved to be beneficial. Surely her performance at HCC bolsters that claim. She has a 4.0 grade-point average, has become a leader of her junior college honor society and last month was awarded two national scholarships for her academic achievements.

Howard Community College Cross country The HCC men's and women's cross country programs competed at the NJCAA National Division III Championships, Nov. 7-11, in Delhi, N.Y. The men placed fifth overall, while the women finished in seventh place. Filagot Dinku earned All-American status by placing third overall with a time of 28:10. Andrew Parlette was named second team All-American with his seventh-place run in 28:39. HCC's top two runners were followed by Ed Richardson (51st in 30:58)

Howard Community College was evacuated Thursday morning after someone called in a bomb threat to local police. Howard County police officials said they ordered all students out of the Columbia school before 10 a.m., after receiving a call stating there was a bomb on the college's property. After searching the school, police ruled the threat a hoax and allowed students to return to class before 11 a.m., officials said. Mike Scrivener, a college spokesman, said the buildings were evacuated for about 40 minutes and the disruption was minimal.

When Mark Chewning was a kid, he dreamed of being an artist. But at some point, the Baltimore resident's dream became all but dormant, giving way to about 27 years in the photograph-retouching business and a stint as supermarket deli clerk, as well as marriage, parenting, unemployment, divorce and self-doubt. Last week, Chewning, 54, was honored as the Student of the Year at Howard Community College. The single parent says his dream of becoming an artist will probably never come to fruition.

The Gallaghers still miss Betty White and wistfully recall how much the Silkie loved to be held. The hen, who was named after the 90-year-old celebrity because she was "ditsy and really out there" like many of the actress' TV characters, was killed by a fox last fall in the Glenelg family's backyard. "We normally don't name our chickens so we don't become too attached," said Karinna Gallagher, an IBM employee who works from home and who witnessed the attack but couldn't stop it. "But Betty White was such a flighty bird who didn't care about the pecking order.

After reading Kathleen Hetherington's letter ("Pension shift would hurt community colleges," March 6), I can offer a few suggestions. What about getting involved with the exorbitant cost of textbooks as a result of collusion between the schools and the publishing industry. Schools might ensure that the same text isn't just rearranged and considered a new book, and whether required books are even going to be used in the actual classes. If the publisher won't lower the prices, maybe college could put it out for bid outside of the "good 'ol boy network.

Rep Stage, the professional theater in residence at Howard Community College, will offer acting programs for preteens and teen-agers from June 21 through Aug. 13.Students may choose two- or three-week sessions. Preteen programs meet from 8: 30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; teen programs, from 1 p.m. to 4: 30 p.m.Both groups will end the session with a production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" held, in part, in the college's new outdoor Dreier Stage.Programs in photography and drawing and painting are also available July 6-16.

Kwadwo Asafo-Adjei came to Howard Community College hoping to be a doctor someday. But for now, he spends 14 hours a week repeating high school classes because he came unprepared for college-level work."

The viewers stand transfixed, leaning in again and again for a closer look as they inspect 32 panels of photographs that capture both the everyday and the celebratory moments in the lives of Howard County's early black families. Many pull out their cellphones and snap a shot of a relative or someone they know. The exhibit they scrutinize illustrates the tightly interwoven stories of African-Americans who settled in the county from the late 19th century to the mid-1900s, some as many as 90 years before Columbia had even begun to appear.

Turnout was lighter than in past years as County Executive Ken Ulman kicked off a budget-making process for next year that has officials cautiously optimistic that they can avoid painful cuts. Several people spoke before Ulman — who was flanked by budget director Raymond S. Wacks and chief administrative officer Lonnie Robbins — airing requests Wednesday for the next fiscal year at the George Howard Building in Ellicott City. County residents and officials spoke on behalf of groups that included the libraries and Howard Community College.