Local productions scene on Delta College Public Media are made possible with support from viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome to Dateline Delta, I'm Diane Middleton a member of the Delta College Board of Trustees.

On today's show we'll meet a Delta College professor who hosts his own radio show and learn about some changes coming with Delta's annual commencement ceremony.

We'll find out what Black History Month events are planned for the college and meet this year's recipient of The Spirit of MLK Junior Award.

Next, we'll hear how a student is finding their way the Delta Way, and take a closer look at Delta's dental hygiene program.

To wrap up the show.

We will get a blast from the past in honor of Delta's 65th year anniversary.

And finally, we'll learn how Delta's Honor students are making a difference in our community.

Delta College's staff is an educated and talented group of individuals.

Many instructors have outside interests they like to pursue.

One such example may be observed in Professor of Psychology David Baskind, as he hosts the new Delta College Public Media Radio segment called Mental Health Minutes.

Let's listen in.

Hello everyone, I'm Dr.

Dave Baskind, Psychology Professor at Delta College.

And this is Mental Health Minutes.

Do you have children?

When they were young, did you or your partner stay at home with them?

Or did you send them to daycare?

Although the first daycare center in the United States opened in New York in 1854, people really began to utilize these starting in the 1940s.

Mental Health Minutes is a program that started a couple of years ago.

I was asked by someone in broadcasting if I was interested in doing some kind of a radio show.

And given that I've been teaching psychology at Delta for more than 30 years, I thought it would be good to have a little opportunity to educate the public about psychology and our research and our terminology, and some influential figures in the history of our discipline.

Mental health is always a concern, and I think people have realized the importance of this more over the past couple of decades.

These days we have a lot more celebrities who are very public about their own mental health issues.

And the pandemic, I think, really caused a lot of people to question their own mental health, issues, especially in regard to anxiety and loneliness and depression and providing information to the public about topics like this and where to get help and what these terms actually mean.

I think it's more crucial than ever these days.

Deciding the subject matter of each show is definitely a bit of a challenge, because there are so many topics that psychology covers.

We talk about and study everything from addiction and mood disorders and memory and development and sexuality.

So choosing topics is without a doubt challenging.

So, when I first started thinking about doing this program, I made a list of some potential topics that I thought would work for little five minute pieces that I'm doing each time I record one.

And from there, I've definitely added topics to the list, and I just kind of go with whatever I feel inspired to talk about, for the next episode.

So the research for each show is really important because I want to be sure I'm giving accurate information and clear definitions of terminology that I'm using.

So once I've decided on a topic for that week's segment, I usually, start by looking into some of the text books that I've used for my classes, and I rely on my own knowledge about the subject, and I definitely spend a good bit of time researching things online.

So that I'm sure that my material is accurate and up to date.

For a couple of the episodes I've also reached out to other colleagues at the college to ensure that the information is appropriate, as well.

My hope is that the program continues to draw in listeners, and that I continue to tackle subjects that people are interested in hearing about.

I haven't really thought in terms of making big changes to what I've been doing so far, but I hope to continue to provide programing that's going to interest the public.

People can tune in every other Thursday at 6:45 and 8:45am on 90.1 Delta College Public Radio.

These are brief little opportunities for you to learn something about psychology, and maybe learn ways of improving the quality of your life.

And if you have any topics or suggestions for what I can do to make this show better, I would love to hear them.

For the last 64 years, Delta College has hosted a single commencement ceremony at the conclusion of its winter semester.

Due to a dramatic increase in attendance, Delta College is making a major adjustment to this annual event.

To learn more about this change, we talked to Shelly Raube, Vice President of Student Empowerment and Success.

Delta College is excited to announce that we are hosting two graduation ceremonies.

We put a lot of time and thinking about the experience our students are having as they walk across that stage, celebrating the great achievement that they have done.

And we realized we can make it a better experience by having more of their supporters be in the stands as they walk across that stage.

Therefore, we move to make the decision to have two graduation ceremonies starting this year.

The biggest influence to why we know we need two ceremonies is the amount of students that we want to help celebrate this great achievement.

And so over the last few years, we have more and more students wanting to walk across that stage to show their supporters look what I just did.

And so we found that because of our facilities, we had to limit how many of their supporters could actually be in attendance.

And so in order to host more supporters, we needed to have 2 ceremonies.

So it doesn't matter how many of our students want to walk across that stage, their supporters can, and family and friends could all be in attendance to watch them.

So our graduation application will remain the same.

And the students, they will submit that application just like they currently do.

Our communication on the back end will tell them which ceremony they will be attending.

So for our future ceremonies, our winter ceremony will be primarily for students who are graduating in a month between January and April.

Our fall ceremony moving forward will be those students who are graduating May through December.

And that's how we decided to support the students through.

And so there will be some delay for those who may have graduated this spring summer, but we feel the opportunity for them to walk in the summer is is a great opportunity.

So the way we're going to accomplish moving from one graduation ceremony to two graduation ceremonies is this year, we're going to use it as a transition.

So this April, at the conclusion of our winter semester, we will have one ceremony on Friday night which will primarily be our career technical trades programs.

And then we will have one ceremony on Saturday, which will be primarily our associate in science, our associates in arts.

So there are specific groupings of which students would participate in either the Friday or the Saturday commencement ceremony.

Moving forward, all students, all degrees, when we have that December ceremony and then the April ceremony will all be in that one ceremony.

So this year will be a transition, but we have a good plan in place to help all students feel confident and be able to walk across the stage.

The two ceremonies we feel there are going to be, you know, consistent moving forward this year.

Due to the timing of the decision, we will have both after the conclusion of the winter term.

However, moving forward, one will be in December and one will be at the end of the winter term in April.

We are excited to see these changes take place.

For somebody who gets to sit on the stage and watch all the graduates walk across.

It's going to be exciting that more students have the opportunity to have more of their parents there and we are so looking forward to it.

And I encourage all of our students to take the opportunity to apply and to actually choose to walk across that stage and to receive their diploma.

It's a great experience.

Each year, Delta College hosts community events throughout the month of February in recognition of the cultural influence and historical impacts of the black community.

To learn more about Delta's Black History Month events, we spoke with Chris DeEulis, Director of Belonging, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

As we continue our celebrations of Heritage Months, we're going to be centering Black History Month in February.

As we enter into the month, we're going to continue to celebrate the experiences of the black and African American community, centering on some of the experiences in our local community.

The first of those events is going to be on February 5th from 5 to 6:30.

We're going to have a keynote speaker, Dr.

April Baker-Bell is going to be talking about linguistic justice at the Downtown Saginaw Center.

On February 11th, we're going to have the African American poetry Read-in led by some of our English faculty, and that'll take place at the main campus.

On February 19th, we will have a journalism and justice session focused on the life and legacy of Ida B. Wells.

We will have a black oral tradition session where we're going to be inviting community members to share their stories and think about how we continue the oral tradition within the black and African-American community and celebrate that here at Delta College.

And then we will wrap up the month with a screening of, from the Drinking Gourd at the Planetarium that will be free and open to the community.

And the first ten families that arrive will get free books to be able to share what their children.

As we begin the celebration of Black History Month, we are excited to continue to partner with Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated for the 30th annual MLK luncheon.

On behalf of Delta College and the Black Faculty Staff Association, we would like to congratulate Darrin Johnson, Associate Director of Employee Recruitment Development, as the recipient of the 2026 Spirit of Dr.

Martin Luther King Junior Award.

Darren was selected for his dedication, commitment to equity across the campus.

He operates with integrity and respect, which embodies the true spirit of Dr.

King.

Through his selfless dedication to creating an inclusive and just environment for our Delta community.

On January 19th, the 30th Annual Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Unity Celebration was held.

Here are some highlights.

In my role, Im constantly reminded that is a profound privilege to be a steward of the values that Dr.

King gave his life for.

He left behind a legacy that is more than just a memory.

It is a living, breathing blueprint for how we must treat one another.

From opening doors to recruitment, to seeking peace and common ground and employee relations, or supporting the personal growth of colleagues through professional development, I am constantly reminded that these are not just administrative duties.

The indirect way to to steward Dr.

King's legacy within our institution.

I'd like to thank Delta College and the entire black faculty and staff for this great honor.

The next student feature is on Matthew Thomas, a presidential honor scholarship recipient and the current president of Delta's Phi Theta Kappa honor society chapter.

Matthew shares how a life altering car accident at age 17 inspired his decision to pursue a career in radiography.

I was in the hospital, after a car accident, and I had a lot of imaging and, a lot of it I wasn't awake for.

But the the ones I was awake for, like, I was like, I got a whole tour of every department.

I had to go to every department besides, neurology thankfully.

It's all going to all the departments, I just talk to as many people as I could, just see what their job was like, because I figured I might as well use this as like, an opportunity to learn about every different health field.

The recovery process and everything, it really helped me really solidify, but think about not caring what you know, not caring too much what other people think because life is short and you know, there's so many people yesterday who had so many plans for today and they like those things never came to fruition.

You know, there's no guarantees like do not promised tomorrow.

So make the most of today, right?

Like be kind to everyone.

You never know what someone else is going through.

You know, we're all you know we all have things that no one knows about.

So just be kind to people and treat every day like it's your last.

I think it's like memento mori.

Remember that?

Like, that's something that's helped me.

You know, you never want to be on any extreme, but I just feel like, you know, remembering your mortality and remembering your, you know, the line of time we have on earth.

That really helps me because it gives value to everything.

I feel like it gives value to the time we have.

As long as you know, you know you have support, and as long as you have a plan and a vision, like, you know, stick with it.

You know, there's going to be ups and downs regardless of what you do.

So just stick with that and be confident.

You know, the end of the day if you can, you know, look in the mirror, you know, when you go to sleep, if you can be happy with the choices you've made, then I think that's all that matters.

Delta College offers over 140 programs designed to meet the needs of our students and area employers.

Today, we'll take a closer look at Delta's Dental Hygiene program, which provides students with hands on learning in immersive labs equipped with the latest advances in dental technology.

So a lot of people don't realize this, but the mouth is the gateway to the body.

So any sort of disease most of the time can be linked to the oral cavity.

Going and getting your teeth cleaned is so much more than just a dental hygienist scraping away plaque off your teeth.

So being able to recognize that we are part of the healthcare team.

It's important to have a good education and dental hygiene because you are dealing with live patients and you are accountable for them and their health.

And it could be dangerous if you're not thorough with your disinfection, if your instruments aren't clean and sterile and you don't want to put anyone at risk, including yourself, your coworkers, your patients.

On a scale from 1 to 10, I'd rate the quality of education at ten.

We are able to learn so much, and our instructors are very good about making sure that we're competent in every aspect of the dental hygiene field.

In the dental hygiene program, students can expect to learn how you need to be as a entry level dental hygienist going out into the workforce.

So we have a lot of different courses on infection control.

You'll dive deeper as you progress through the program into more complex cases and treating more difficult patients.

Here in the hygiene program, they are going to be exposed to all of the wonderful technology in the dental field.

They'll get firsthand experience with patients all the way from young children to more advanced cases in the older adult population.

Some things that I really look forward to every day is just being able to utilize what we have as far as the intraoral cameras, radiology, we have a CT machine, a panoramic machine.

A lot of the equipment is up to date, which is awesome to be able to work with that.

We have what's called GBT.

It's Guided Biofilm Therapy, and we're the only school in the state of Michigan that certified with that.

So that is huge.

To be able to go out and private practice and have that experience with those types of machines.

It's really great to have my patients because that's what you're going to be doing in the real world.

That's the only way to learn, really.

And everyone has different anatomy, and that's what we learn here.

We bring in different patients and learn new things, especially with radiology, X-rays are difficult.

You have to learn different techniques for different people.

There's a lot of variations in anatomy.

I always tell my students that they're spoiled.

They're not going to have all of these things all in one place in the real world.

So the fact that they're able to master techniques on such awesome technology and equipment really is going to set them up to be prepared when they are exposed to that in the real world.

Having done so with faculty by their side.

The reward after you graduate and you go into private practice and you are treating your patient, it is so worth it.

It is worth two years of your life to just be able to go out and to find this job that you can go to, and you can work, and it's not work because you love it and it doesn't feel like work.

I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it, and if I didn't love it here, I just I wouldn't.

2026 marks the start of Delta College's 65th anniversary.

Throughout the year will reflect on defining moments in the college's history and look ahead to the exciting initiatives underway.

Today, we'll listen in on the Board of Trustees first public meeting held in 1957, four years before the College opened.

In this meeting, leaders acknowledge the bold pursuit to become Michigan's first multi-county community college.

A groundbreaking endeavor that turned the eyes of the nation upon them.

I consider real honor to have been asked in this first meeting of the Tri-County College, Board of Trustees.

I think that's a real tribute to the the community up here to have had such a a, group of persons elected to this board because I think as representing the state educational authority, which I am doing tonight.

I think that if we had a group of people of such community stature as we see seated around the table here, and there's those who are unable to be here tonight, we would have no problems of local public education in Michigan.

I mean that sincerely.

There is another thought I would like to venture here.

You perhaps do not know that you are now representing, as far as my knowledge, the only multi-county, community college or college district could exist in the United States.

And I think that in itself is a challenge.

It's a particular challenge because there are other localities, other counties, other regions and areas in the United States who are watching your here with a great deal of interest.

Because they want to know whether that same type of plan, organizational plan might work for them.

And so I think you have a responsibility in one sense that far exceeds your own local responsibility.

And I would like to say that as far as, the state educational authority and the staff members representing it, which I and one of the staff members, we will be more than pleased to offer any help that we, can and within our power, to offer.

Besides their commitment to exceptional academic achievement, the Delta College Honors Program students engage in leadership activities outside of the classroom.

To learn about their recent community services project, we talked to Maggie Zimmerman, Director of the Honors Program.

At Delta College we have an honors program.

And students based on their GPA will get an invitation to join Delta's honors program.

Currently, over 300 students participate.

One of the recent projects that we accomplished was we went to the Saginaw chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace and we built kids beds, who do not have beds.

and currently sleeping on the floor or anywhere else without a bed.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace is a national organization.

The Saginaw chapter is based here.

Once a month, we come together and build as a team.

The third Saturday of the month.

We get together and build about 50 to 60 beds.

And then over the course of the next four weeks, we take them out and deliver them to kids under 18.

Students had the opportunity to help build beds.

And it was like a conveyor system where some students were cutting boards, some were sanding boards, some were stamping boards.

And eventually those boards all went together to be assembled into what we know as a twin size wooden bed.

We had six students that came with us to help build.

We also had some other members from Delta that helped us build that day.

But I'm technically doing it because I'm part of the honors program, and this is one of our volunteer opportunities.

But everyone here is super excited because this is such a wonderful cause.

I can't tell you how nice it feels to actually get out in our community and work with people and meet new people and actually feel like we're making a real difference.

There's a, this has been such a wonderful experience.

I've met so many cool people that I'm excited to come back with my family and my friends in the future and do it even just outside of school.

It's nice to know that we're bringing some kids some more joy and that they'll be able to live better lives because of what we're doing today.

Students doing service projects.

Any type of volunteer work is crucial.

It shows their true character.

It shows that they're being selfless.

It shows that they are giving back to their community.

And that's very important to Delta's Honors Program.

These students were at 8 a.m.

on a Saturday morning getting ready to build beds, which shows a lot about their character.

During that time when we made the beds, we didn't just make the beds, but those beds are also getting delivered to these kids.

Many of these beds, there was 55 that we completed in that short period of time, which is quite impressive.

And by Christmas, they were supposed to be getting those beds delivered and assembled and so by Christmas, these kids were going to have beds, which is a great Christmas present.

This is a great event for anybody to do.

For more information about Delta's Honors Program, you can visit the link on the screen.

Thank you Maggie and all the members of the Delta College Honors program for all you're doing to help Delta College students succeed.

Now, let's see what's on the Dateline Delta Calendar of Events.

The Delta College Planetarium will be hosting a series of shows during the month of February.

For more information about these shows and events happening at the planetarium, visit their website at Delta.edu/Planetarium.

Every year, the Delta College Foundation supports hundreds of students through the generosity of donors who provide funding for scholarships.

Any Delta student can apply for a scholarship.

Application deadline is Wednesday, February 4th.

Delta College Public Media will be hosting a Bob Ross Painting Workshop on Friday, February 20th from 4 till 9 p.m.. You do not need to have any experience to attend.

Everyone is welcome.

For further information on these events or other campus activities, contact the Office of Marketing and Public Information at (989)686-9490 or visit our website at www.delta.edu Well, that wraps up our show.

Please join us again on February 22nd when we highlight what's happening here at Delta College.

One of America's leading community colleges.

Now, I leave you with the sights and sounds of Delta College.

For Dateline Delta, I'm Diane Middleton, thanks for watching.

Local production scene on Delta College Public Media are made possible with support from viewers like you.

Thank you.