July 1, 2013 (El Cajon) – The day before she was to meet the Grossmont College search committee that would interview her for the job as vice president for academic affairs, Dr. Katrina VanderWoude, vice provost at Rochester College in Michigan, decided to do some interviewing of her own. Visiting the Grossmont College campus incognito, she struck up conversations with students over lunch in Griffin Center, and elsewhere on the campus, to see if she could get a feel for the place at which she later accepted the job.
June 25, 2013 (El Cajon) – Grossmont College will offer a “family-friendly” schedule of theater productions in the 2013-2014 season, starting Oct. 3-12 with Pygmalion, the George Bernard Shaw play that was converted into the musical My Fair Lady, and ending May 8-17 with “a new spin” on Alice in Wonderland, according to Beth Duggan, chair of the Theatre Arts Department.
In between those two offerings, students will also act in, design costumes and build sets for such productions as To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday by Michael Brady (Nov. 14-23); Follow Me by artist Dominic Pangborn (Dec. 6-7, followed by a tour of local elementary schools); Inside the Actors Process by Grossmont faculty member Jerry Hager (Feb. 7 and 8, followed by a tour of local high schools); and You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown (March 13-22).
June 12, 2013 (El Cajon)- Over 400 students received degrees at Grossmont Community College’s commencement ceremony on Thursday. Commencement speakers included student Derrick Torrence, a Marine Corps veteran who graduated with his daughter, as well as Reverend Eric Smith, a Navy veteran who also wrote his memoir From Crack to Clergy: Provoking Thoughts published in 2011.
June 3, 2013 (El Cajon) – When nursing students participate in Grossmont College’s traditional “pinning” ceremony Tuesday afternoon, June 4, more of them will be men than ever before—a sign of changing societal attitudes towards what once was considered a profession for women only.
Debbie Yaddow, dean of Allied Health and Nursing, says eight men, or 20 percent of the graduating class of 40 students, are males, compared to what it was like just 30 years ago, when Yaddow graduated from Grossmont’s nursing school, and there were zero males in the class.
Some graduates celebrate triumph over adversity; Iraq war veteran to graduate with daughter
May 30, 2013 (El Cajon) – A campaign to improve student success is paying off at Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges, where more than 1,700 graduates will receive a record number of degrees and certificates at commencements in early June.
New programs and services helping students achieve academic goals, along with voters’ approval last fall of a tax plan tempering years of debilitating budget cuts, are credited for the strong numbers.
With many graduates earning multiple credentials, Grossmont College will award more than 2,100 degrees and certificates at its commencement ceremony June 5. The following day, Cuyamaca College will confer 830 of the hard-earned associate degrees and certificates at its commencement.
May 24 2013 (Lemon Grove) -- The Grossmont Symphony Orchestra and Master Chorale will join flautist Suzanne Kennedy at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 29 at St. John of the Cross Catholic Church, 8086 Broadway, in a performance that will feature the works of German, Russian and American composers.
May 24, 2013 (El Cajon)--Grossmont College student Thirada Kingphuang has received from the San Diego Police Foundation a Rita Olsen Memorial scholarship of $2,500 awarded to women pursuing an education preparatory to a career in law enforcement.
Kingphuang left her family and everyone she knew in the rural, teak-forest-covered Uttaradit province of northern Thailand in 2009 to pursue a career in forensic science in California.
May 16, 2013 (El Cajon) – Grossmont College is an official pit stop for “Bike to Work Day 2013,” a nationally recognized event celebrated on the third Friday of May.
Some 50 to 60 riders are expected from 6 to 9 a.m. May 17, in parking lot No. 1 at the intersection of Highwood Drive and Grossmont College Drive on the Grossmont College campus.
Refreshments and support will be available, along with free T-shirts for the first 30 riders. Cyclists needing a break can ride free on any transit system operated by the Metropolitan Transit System or the North County Transit District if space is available. For more information, go to icommutesd.com
May 7, 2013 (El Cajon) – A woman of a certain age contemplates suicide when the phone rings in her San Diego apartment. The caller, believing she is contacting an analyst she read about in a health magazine, launches into her own tale of woe.
So begins “An Ordinary Day,” a one-act play by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, and directed by Martin Katz, a Grossmont College theater arts instructor. The lead character, Julia, finds herself trying to help the woman on the phone, in between encounters with her neighbors, the police and two flower-delivery men. As the tragic-comedy unfolds, it illuminates the themes of zealous commercialism, relationship stress, the notion of betrayal and the exhilaration of contributing to someone else’s life.
April 27, 2013 (El Cajon)--An award winning short-story writer and an Iraqi poet will headline Grossmont College’s Literary Arts Festival April 29 through May 2.
Tobias Wolff, a Stanford professor, won The Story Prize in 2008 for his collection of short stories, “Our Story Begins.” He has published several novels and memoirs, and his work regularly appears in magazines and literary journals, including “The New Yorker,” “The Atlantic” and “Harper’s.” Wolff will read and sign his books from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, May 1.
April 2, 2013 (El Cajon) – “The Anatomy of Hate; A Dialogue to Hope,” an award-winning documentary film directed by Michael Ramsdell and focusing on individual and collective ideologies of hate will be shown during a free screening and Q&A with the director at 3:30 p.m. April 3, in Building 26, Room 220 at Grossmont College.
The 90-minute film follows the director’s six-year journey with groups like the white supremacists and Palestinian militants, as well as U.S. embedded troops in the Middle East. It is juxtaposed with interviews from leading experts in sociology, psychology and neurology to reveal both the emotional and biological factors that make everyone susceptible to acts and ideologies of hate. At the same time, this film posits, these are the very same traits that enable people to rise above the negativity.
March 12 at Lincoln High, March 13 at Grossmont College
March 12, 2013 (San Diego) -- You’re invited to come feel the pounding of American Appalachian clogging, hear the melodies of Scottish highland song, and see the array of color in Indian dance with BYU’s International Folk Dance Ensemble. Brigham Young University’s critically acclaimed folk dance team brings the world’s cultures together in their energetic performance, The Gathering.
The show takes stage tonight at Lincoln High School Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. Dancers will also perform at Grossmont Community College on Wednesday, March 13 in the outside quad area to help enhance cultural awareness on campus.
March 1, 2013 (El Cajon) – The Hyde Art Gallery at Grossmont College presents “Works by Berning, Burkett and Wilson” a Ceramics exhibition by Trent Berning, Richard Burkett and Lana Wilson March 11-April 11. These ceramic works all share the concept of merging utilitarian forms with a personal vision and expression that goes beyond their utility.
Though some of their works may function to various degrees as a vase or platter or teapot, their use of additive elements, texture, image, color, theme and form take these pieces well beyond pure utility. These works are unique and individual pieces of art that express the artists interests and visions while still honoring their connection to utility.
Lutefisk - will it produce an Edvard Munch’s Norwegian scream out of you?
By Rebecca J. Williamson
February 16, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) -- “Strange, one of a kind, unique; a very different kind of food,” said a native Norwegian and former President of the House of Norway in Balboa Park—Eugenie King.
King, a Spring Valley resident, laid out the fundamentals of this Nordic delicacy. “It’s a fish, cod, which is soaked in lye.”
December 4, 2012 (El Cajon)--As a reviewer, I appreciate the fresh ways theatres keep coming up with to take care of housekeeping at the beginning of plays. The dos and don't of the theatre. In this case, the rules were read in French and then repeated by someone with a French accent, setting the tone of the play which takes place in the back of a store in Cayenne, French Guiana, on Christmas Eve 1910.
November 13, 2012 (El Cajon) – The Grossmont College English Department is holding a Write-A-Thon, an all day creative writing fundraiser for the Department’s Creative Writing Program. To participate you must raise a minimum of $50 in pledges to support literary arts programs and events. Check-in is at 9 a.m. at 8800 Grossmont College Drive, El Cajon.
October 15, 2012 (El Cajon) – Make plans to build a better future today! In partnership with the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, the Grossmont Union High School District is hosting its ninth annual Got Plans? Career & College Fair for high school students and parents on Saturday, October 20, 2012, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Grossmont College.
October 8, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – The San Diego County Taxpayers Association, a watchdog organization that looks out for citizens’ tax dollars, has given its support to Proposition V, the $398 million bond measure being sought on the Nov. 6 ballot by the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District.
Performances continue Oct. 5, 6, 11, 12 and 13 at the Stagecoach Theatre, Grossmont College
Reviewed by Kathy Carpenter
Directed by Alumni Stephen Schmitz
October 5, 2012 (El Cajon)--It's the errors that make them valuable: stamps and people. Five simple characters or not so simple. Mauritius is the story of two half-sisters whose mother recently passed away The plot and arguments revolve around a stamp collection.
Mauritius was originally produced in New York by the Manhattan Theatre Club.
September 24, 2012 (El Cajon) – The Grossmont College Theater Arts program will present "Mauritius" on Oct. 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13 at 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 6 and 13 at 2 p.m. at the Stagehouse Theater in Building 21, Room 247 at the college, 8800 Grossmont College Drive in El Cajon. General admission is $15 per person. Tickets are available at the door and online at the Theatre Arts Department website, www.grossmont.edu/theatrebrochure. The play features adult language and may not be suitable for young children. For more information, phone (619) 644-7234.
September 13, 2012 (El Cajon) – The Grossmont College Career Center will present “Doing What Matters to Find a Job,” a free informational workshop for job seekers, from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 19, at the Career Center on the El Cajon campus. Speaking will be Pamela Benge, Grossmont College student services specialist.
June 18, 2012 (El Cajon) -- Grossmont College women’s basketball coach Karen Caires will host a summer basketball camp for boys and girls, grades 1 through 8, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., June 25 to 28, at the Grossmont College gymnasium. Coach Caires’ camp, called C.A.M.P (Caring About Motivating People), is designed to teach the game of basketball to today’s youth, as well as incorporate valuable life skills, including hard work, determination, attitude and a passion to achieve.
April 13, 2012 (El Cajon) -- El Cajon Police Department received a 911 call from a student of Grossmont College reporting an unresponsive male subject in a parked vehicle at 12:40 p.m. yesterday. The vehicle was parked in the north-west lot of the campus. The student was returning from class and saw the subject in the driver’s seat motionless and unresponsive.
Grossmont College, as part of its free 50th Anniversary Community Open House, has announced the Guinness world’s record that will be attempted on Saturday, April 14. Previously, the college has kept undisclosed the nature of the record.
The attempted record to be broken will be the most individual contributions to a birthday card. Grossmont College hopes to break the current record of 1,468 people to sign a birthday card with their name and a greeting from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., which is the event timeframe for Grossmont College’s 50th Anniversary Open House on Saturday, April 14.
March 14, 2012 (El Cajon)--Students at Grossmont College may be surprised to see who's hanging out just off campus. ECM editor Miriam Raftery spotted these deer grazing on a sunny slope adjacent to the community college.
Freshman catcher Brian Lockey hits game-winning 3-run double in eighth inning
February 17, 2012 (San Diego’s East County)— On February 10, the count was three balls and two strikes. In the bottom of the eighth inning, the bases were loaded with two outs. With Grossmont College trailing Pasadena City College 8-6, freshman catcher Brian Lockey (Bonita Vista HS) dug into the batter’s box as he got ready for the pitch.
January 29, 2012, (La Mesa) -- The Grossmont College Theatre Arts Department kicks off 2012 with its production "Inside The Actor's Process: Readers Theatre - The Theatre of the Imagination." In this unique form of oral storytelling, space and time can stretch to create fantastic worlds and marvelous journeys that soar through the imagination.
January 17, 2011 (El Cajon) -- The Hyde Art Gallery at Grossmont College opens its spring semester with “Mmmultiplicy” Installation Works by Lea Anderson. This exhibition runs from January 23 to February 23, with an artist opening even on Tuesday, January 31 from 7-9 p.m.
December 1, 2011 (San Diego)—Leaping cossacks and flurries of snowflakes--See them all leap across the stage in the 22nd annual production of the Nutcracker by the San Diego Ballet Company Ballet.
Productions of the cherished holiday favorite by Peter Tchaikovsy will be presented Dec. 3-4 at the Birch North Park Theater in a co-production with the Grossmont College Symphony Orchestra and Master Chorale. Additional shows will be presented December 17-18 at the UCSD Mandeville Auditorium, directed and choreographed by Robin Sheretz-Morgan and Javier Velasco.
October 23, 2011 (El Cajon) – Dressed in mini-skirts, love beads, Letterman jackets and other nostalgic garb, approximately 300 guests turned out to celebrate Grossmont College’s 50th anniversary gala last night.
April 2, 2013 (El Cajon) – “The Anatomy of Hate; A Dialogue to Hope,” an award-winning documentary film directed by Michael Ramsdell and focusing on individual and collective ideologies of hate will be shown during a free screening and Q&A with the director at 3:30 p.m. April 3, in Building 26, Room 220 at Grossmont College.
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March 1, 2013 (El Cajon) – The Hyde Art Gallery at Grossmont College presents “Works by Berning, Burkett and Wilson” a Ceramics exhibition by Trent Berning, Richard Burkett and Lana Wilson March 11-April 11. These ceramic works all share the concept of merging utilitarian forms with a personal vision and expression that goes beyond their utility.
Lutefisk - will it produce an Edvard Munch’s Norwegian scream out of you? 
By Kathy Carpenter
November 13, 2012 (El Cajon) – The Grossmont College English Department is holding a Write-A-Thon, an all day creative writing fundraiser for the Department’s Creative Writing Program. To participate you must raise a minimum of $50 in pledges to support literary arts programs and events. Check-in is at 9 a.m. at 8800 Grossmont College Drive, El Cajon.
October 8, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – The San Diego County Taxpayers Association, a watchdog organization that looks out for citizens’ tax dollars, has given its support to Proposition V, the $398 million bond measure being sought on the Nov. 6 ballot by the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District.
Performances continue Oct. 5, 6, 11, 12 and 13 at the Stagecoach Theatre, Grossmont College
September 24, 2012 (El Cajon) – The Grossmont College Theater Arts program will present "Mauritius" on Oct. 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13 at 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 6 and 13 at 2 p.m. at the Stagehouse Theater in Building 21, Room 247 at the college, 8800 Grossmont College Drive in El Cajon. General admission is $15 per person. Tickets are available at the door and online at the Theatre Arts Department website, 
September 13, 2012 (El Cajon) – The Grossmont College Career Center will present “Doing What Matters to Find a Job,” a free informational workshop for job seekers, from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 19, at the Career Center on the El Cajon campus. Speaking will be Pamela Benge, Grossmont College student services specialist.
By Miriam Raftery
011 (El Cajon) – Dressed in mini-skirts, love beads, Letterman jackets and other nostalgic garb, approximately 300 guests turned out to celebrate Grossmont College’s 50th anniversary gala last night.
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