FNC Student Services

Worlds connect @ your library: celebrate National Library Week at Florida National College Library & Resource Room, April 12-18, 2009
It’s National Library Week, a time to celebrate the contributions of libraries, librarians and library workers in schools, campuses and communities nationwide – and the perfect time to discover how worlds connect @ your library.

The FNC Library & Resource Room is celebrating National Library Week!

Every day, libraries in big cities and small towns, colleges and universities, in schools and in businesses help transform their communities. At our library, people of all backgrounds come together for community meetings, lectures and programs, to do research with the assistance of a trained professional, to get help finding a job or to find homework help.

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April.

For more information, visit the Library & Resource Room at Florida National College, or online visit My FNC Library in the My FNC campus portal.

Contact information and hours are listed below:

Hialeah Campus Library
Phone: (305) 821-3333 ext. 1020
Email: hllibrary@mm.fnc.edu
Hours:
Mon – Thurs 8:00 AM – 9:50 PM
Friday 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM

South Campus Resource Room
Phone: (305) 226-9999 ext. 1320
Email: cslibrary@mm.fnc.edu
Hours:
Mon – Thurs 8:00 AM – 9:50 PM
Friday 8:30 AM – 8:00 PM

I’m a big believer in personal empowerment. I feel we humans have limitless potential, although we don’t always see it in ourselves, or each other. Believing is often the first hurdle. Empowerment usually requires two believers, yourself and someone who believes in you.

That is where a good mentor comes in. I’ve had some wonderful mentors. Some probably never suspected they were mentors. Some of their lessons took years to sink in, but I am grateful to all of them. So, I do my best to honor them by being a mentor myself. That’s why I enjoy working with student organizations.

With student organizations, I get to teach them more than just textbook skills, like where to put a comma. When I serve as an advisor for a student organization like the FNC Student Government Association, I have the opportunity to really mentor.

Mentoring is a very delicate balancing act, though. As a mentor, those looking up to you are expecting guidance and I do my best to provide them with developmental opportunities. At the same time, empowerment requires room to grow: a safe environment to test these new skills. So at times, I make myself a little scarce, giving them the chance to figure it out for themselves. After all, that’s the true purpose of student organizations—to give students the opportunity to develop skills outside of the  classroom, to allow students to explore their own leadership abilities, and to inspire other students to do the same.

What are you passionate about? Here’s a hint, when you’re engage in something you’re passionate about, you loose track of time. When I write, hours pass like minutes. The intensity of focus is almost a trance like state.

I’m equally passionate about art (sketching, painting, pottery, graphic design), but writing has always come easier than the rest—perhaps because I read so much or perhaps because it requires so little. Anyone with a keyboard or even a pen and paper can write. It takes practice to write well, but no special equipment. So I write, where ever I go, whatever I do.

It’s important to identify your passions. The lure of material gain is so sweet. Many students think of dollars per hour and projected job markets when considering future career choices, but rarely consider their passions. Those sizable paychecks are never big enough if you spend your days dreading the time clock.

Let’s face it, after you graduate, you will spend the majority of your waking hours at work. What will work be like for you? A frustrating interruption of your real  life? Or an opportunity to flourish and grow?

I’m not saying that everyone should opt for a life as a modern bohemian. Even I have a job. I commute through traffic. I pay my bills . . . and I write. It’s a small part of my job, but there are other parts of it that I am passionate about as well, so all in all, I enjoy what I do.

During a recent conversation with one of our students, I described the peace and serenity I experience when I walk onto a college campus.  She thought for a moment and replied, “I get it. I feel the same way when I walk into a dentist’s office.”

Yes, I had the same astounded reaction . . . a dentist’s office? However, this student was a member of the Dental Program so I just smiled, “then you’re studying exactly what you should be studying.”