This year has been a good year for the college and the students, especially this quarter. Students have been turning out professional work and winning awards.

Forensics won a second regional championship on top of their national title for this year. This is an high accomlishment especially since the group is made up mostly of rookie debaters. In the regional championship, they held their title from last year, beating the host team, Clark by 45 points.

The Jazz Band and Genesis made it on the top-ten campus CD list in the Jazz Education Journal, a magazine for the International Association for Jazz Education. Besides getting into the top ten, the Jazz Band was the only community college band listed and Genesis was the only vocal group listed.

The Advocate received 14 Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association awards in the 2006 Oregon Collegiate Newspaper Contest, which was featured in the May 12 issue. Quoting that same article, “The Advocate’s 14 awards was more than any community college except Linn-Benton (15) and bettered the paper’s previous record of 11 awards in one year (accomplished twice).”

The Allied Health department also had a recent achievement. Eighteen dental hygiene students passed the national board exam. The test lasted a full day and the students did well.

Recent visitors to the Visual Arts Gallery would have seen amazing art done by the students here at MHCC.

All of these achievements happened since March. This is a great achievement and a great gift for the college, which is now 40 years old, and for the community. We should be all proud for the entire student body.