Skip to main content

After the Flood

Image
By
Skirball Cultural Center

Last weekend, Wylene and I traveled to Los Angeles to spend time with our three grandchildren, Annie (7), and twins Izzy and Sammy (4). We took them to their favorite museum, the Skirball Cultural Center, near their home in Westwood. The Skirball Center is an educational institution devoted to sustaining Jewish heritage and American democratic ideals. The Center, named after philanthropist-couple Jack H. Skirball and Audrey Skirball-Kenis, features a museum with regularly changing exhibitions, performances, comedy, and literary and cultural programs. The campus includes a museum, a performing arts center, conference halls, classrooms, libraries, courtyards, gardens, and a café. While there is an emphasis on Jewish culture, there are also many exhibits that are secular, of interest regardless of one's religious affiliation.

Annie, Izzy and Sammy

This is certainly true of the Noah's Ark exhibit, my grandchildren's favorite, inspired by the Biblical tale of Noah and the flood. This 8,000 square foot indoor playground includes over 400 life-size animal constructions, many of which are interactive. It is one of the most extraordinary children's exhibitions I have ever seen, and it includes many hands-on activities. It also features more than 100 arks created by artists from around the world.  It is easy to identify the background of many of the artists by the architecture and the way the animals are crafted. It gives one a sense of the universality of this exhibit and the story of the great flood.

Noah's Ark exhibit

Upon entering the Center, we were greeted by a very enthusiastic docent, who gave us a brief version of the story of Noah and the great flood. She emphasized that there are over 400 versions of this story from around the world. Almost all cultures have some sort of story about water covering the earth and representatives of all species being saved to create a better and new world.

As we begin the Fall semester at RCC, I think about the imagery of Noah's Ark and creatures from all corners of the earth coming together to create a better world. The Skirball Center presented the Ark as a symbol of human resilience. At Rockland Community College, students who enter our doors in Fall 2016 will come from a wide range of backgrounds, interests, experiences, and abilities. They are all very different, and yet they are all here to improve their status and to achieve new goals and a better quality of life.

During the last few weeks, after meeting in my office with a number of students with special issues and concerns, I realized the important role that RCC can play in their lives. I am very pleased that RCC has a wonderful new resource that will be very helpful to many of these students. This new resource, which is called The Connection Center, provides support to these students beyond traditional college services as they pursue their education.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Wood,


With heartfelt appreciation for the thoughtfulness you’ve shown. Thank you for everything you have done to memorialize our son’s legacy, including putting on this year’s 2016 Car Show.


Love,

The Amoros Family

Dr. Wood with Amoros Family



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Special Holiday Gift from the Riversville Foundation

By
On Tuesday, December 6, RCC and BOCES administrators gathered for a luncheon with this year's student recipients of the Riversville Foundation scholarship awards. The Riversville Foundation was founded in 2006 by Barton Biggs, a former partner at Morgan Stanley and founder of Traxis Partners, a hedge-fund based in Greenwich, CT.  Biggs, who died in 2012, believed in the power of education, and particularly the importance of a college degree. While Riversville has primarily worked with four-year institutions, beginning in 2014, the Riversville Foundation began a collaboration with Rockland Community College. This year, full one-year scholarships were awarded to 21 RCC students, a commitment of more than $95,000. Under the direction of the Riversville Foundation's Executive Director, Bruno Casolari, a former Director of Resource Development at RCC , the Foundation has awarded more than $135,000 in need-based scholarships to more than 25 Rockland Community College ...
Post a Comment
Read more

In Celebration of Scholarship

By
While I have always believed that community colleges are primarily teaching institutions and teaching is at the center of all we do, I also believe after almost fifty years in community college education that our best teachers are also actively involved in some kind of scholarship/professional activities. This engagement can be traditional research, creativity in the visual, performing or textual arts or active involvement in social, community or business activities. It is because of this belief that one of the first projects I initiated when I came to RCC was the establishment of The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) . I will forever be grateful to the extraordinary Libby Bay, former English Professor and Humanities Division Chair, who chaired the committee that developed the guidelines for CETL. The amazing work Professor Bay began continues today under the leadership of CETL Co-Directors, Professor Lynn Aaron and Dr. Elaine Padilla. These committed f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Honoring Distinguished Faculty

By
Retired Science Professors Phyllis Krasnow and George Krasilovsky with Dr. Cliff L. Wood at the Beta, Beta, Beta Induction Ceremonies Professors of Science Phyllis Krasnow and George Krasilovsky , PhD, were honored at the recent Beta Beta Beta induction for decades of dedicated service to the RCC Biology community. Both professors served as mentors to science students in the Sam Draper M/TS Honors Program . Professor Krasnow began teaching at RCC in 1969, and served as a mentor in the Honors Program from 1980-2000. She was known for her student-centered approach. Beyond her work in the classroom and with advisement, she founded the Biology Club, and created a Biology Scholarship offered through the RCC Foundation . She was instrumental in helping many students transfer to Cornell. Even after she retired and move to south New Jersey in 1998, she drove more than two hours each way to continue to teach and mentor part-time. She received the Chancellor’s Award for Exc...
Post a Comment
Read more