The 48,000-square-foot Health & Wellness Center under construction at Bunker Hill Community College is a 2008 winner of the Green Design Concept Award from the Education Design Showcase, Mary L. Fifield, president of BHCC, announced today. The awards go to buildings under construction that will meet or exceed high standards of sustainability. DiNisco Design Partnership, Ltd. of Boston is the architect for the project.

Bunker Hill Community College was selected by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for its 2008 Community Engagement Classification. The College was specifically recognized for its community engagement achievements in the category of “Curricular Engagement and Outreach and Partnerships.”

The 20,000-circulation BHCC Magazine has won its second major quality award in as many years, Mary L. Fifield, BHCC President, announced today. CASE, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, gave the magazine a Gold award for Best Overall Magazine and a Silver award for Best Design for District 1, which includes northeastern United States and parts of Canada. CASE also gave BHCC a Silver award in the Best Poster category for a poster on sustainability.

The Corporation for National and Community Service honored Boston’s Bunker Hill Community College today with a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America’s communities. A total of 22 Massachusetts colleges and universities were recognized as Honor Roll members, including Boston College, College of the Holy Cross, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Bunker Hill Community College is striking back – preemptively – against women’s cardiovascular disease. BHCC held a series of events on National Wear Red Day – Friday, February 6th – to raise awareness that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women. Stickers with the red-dress motif – national symbol of this health campaign – were handed out to the entire College community, many of whom also sported red shirts, ties, jackets, and blouses as a sign of solidarity in the fight for women’s heart health.

BHCC culinary arts’ student Erik Powers won one of the most prestigious student awards in the world of haute cuisine: The S. Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef New England Competition. The other student competitors represented at the event came from some of the most renowned schools of culinary arts in the region, including: New England Culinary Institute, Johnson & Wales University and Cambridge School of Culinary Arts.

Gloria Steinem, renowned feminist, writer and lecturer will speak at Bunker Hill Community College on Tuesday, February 24th. Steinem will be this year’s second speaker in the College’s “Compelling Conversations” speaker series, which is free and open to the public.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst, Bunker Hill Community College and Families United in Educational Leadership (FUEL) will announce, on March 24th, a collaborative agreement to award 25 full yearly scholarships to high school seniors in Chelsea who participate in the FUEL College Savings Program.

Bunker Hill Community College has selected ZogoTech, a key player in the IT world of higher education, for its data warehousing and business intelligence solutions.

Dr. Gary L. Gottlieb, President of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, will be the keynote speaker at Bunker Hill Community College’s 35th commencement exercises, on Saturday, May 30, at 11:00 a.m. Dr. Gottlieb, a strong proponent of alleviating health care disparities, will receive the President’s Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his outstanding commitment and service to the College.

Truong Than, a 2007 graduate of Bunker Hill Community College, has won the Computer Science Alumni Award for Excellence in Software Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Boston. He received an Associate in Science degree in Computer Science at BHCC in June 2007. While at the College, Than was already a standout student in his field: he won both the Special Achievement and the Academic Excellence Awards from the Computer Science Department.

On Friday, March 13th, 24 Danish vocational students will complete two weeks of study at Bunker Hill Community College. The students, from the Handelsskolen Minerva Business Academy in Randers, Denmark, will have completed a two-week course of study designed to prepare them to succeed in the global economy. Areas of study include Business English, American business culture, marketing and personnel management.

To meet changing workforce needs and accommodate adult students working longer hours, Bunker Hill Community College will offer two popular courses beginning at 11:45 p.m. this fall. “Many people finish work late at night and must be up with their children first thing in the morning,” said John P. Reeves, chair of BHCC’s Behavioral Science Department. “This is the only time they can come to school.” The College will offer introductory psychology and College Writing I in the new late-night sections.

A Student Emergency Assistance Fund established by Bunker Hill Community College has resulted in a retention rate 15 percent higher than the College as a whole. BHCC President Mary L. Fifield established the program in January 2009 to ensure that the weak economy did not force students to drop out of school.

El Planeta, the largest circulating weekly Spanish language newspaper in Massachusetts, has named Bunker Hill Community College “Best Community College” in its annual “Best Of” survey. BHCC received the highest possible ranking: five stars.

The President’s Climate Commitment Committee submitted its Climate Action Plan to the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). The plan documents the College’s commitment to reducing campus greenhouse gas emissions and outlines initiatives designed to achieve an overall goal of climate neutrality.

Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the acclaimed bestseller on global warming, Field Notes from a Catastrophe, will give the keynote address at the Massachusetts Community College Conference on Teaching, Learning and Student Development at Bunker Hill Community College on April 9th, 2010.

Bunker Hill Community College President Mary Fifield called an emergency meeting of key staff yesterday when it became apparent that the College was at a breaking point due to the overwhelming student enrollments filling every available course.

Thomas P. Bogart, adjunct instructor in the Fire Protection and Safety Program at Bunker Hill Community College and a lieutenant in the Fire Department of Lynn, Massachusetts, received the prestigious Chief Fire Officer credentials from the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), Dr. Bogusia Wojciechowska, BHCC Dean of Professional Studies, announced today.

Event to Benefit The Greater Boston Food Bank

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent, author and neurosurgeon, will open the 2009-2010 Bunker Hill Community College “Compelling Conversations” speaker series. Gupta will speak at 1 p.m., Tuesday, October 27, 2009, in the A300 auditorium.

In a highly-competitive selection process, two Bunker Hill Community College faculty have been chosen to participate in the Global Skills for College Completion (GSCC) project. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the GSCC is a first-of its kind initiative designed to create new pedagogical standards for increasing pass rates in basic skills courses at community colleges.

The Community Center for Entrepreneurship (CCE) at Bunker Hill Community College has won a third grant from the Coleman Foundation in as many years. Founded with a Coleman grant in 2008, the CCE will use this 2010 grant for $7,500 to apply the social networking technologies of tweeting and blogging to strengthen ties with high school students seeking to study entrepreneurship in college.

Henry Nelson, President of the Bunker Hill Community College Student Government Association, has won the prestigious Dean Sullivan Award from the Community College Student Life Association, a statewide group representing the 15 Massachusetts Community Colleges. The award recognizes a student with outstanding achievements as a volunteer leader.

The new biotechnology curriculum at Bunker Hill Community College is one of the first in the state to win a Silver endorsement from the new Massachusetts Life Science Education Consortium. The Consortium’s endorsement of the College’s program acknowledges that it is successfully training students to work in biotechnology companies and allowing the state to keep a competitive edge.