FOOD DRIVE

The College Prep Department is sponsoring a food drive. We are donating the food to Haitian Generation 2.0, which is a nonprofit organization started by MDC students. The group feeds the homeless in downtown Miami. Please bring nonperishable items to room 6102 or 6104 by Nov. 24.

Professor Spence Wins Big

Professor Leighton Spence won a Dell laptop on Monday in a MDC North Campus United Way of Miami fundraising drawing. Donations to the United Way are being collected through campus departments. The North Campus is also sponsoring a Nov. 18 Miami International Sculpture Walk-A-Thon. The 1.34 mile walk begins at 11 a.m. To register and receive a pledge packet contact campus United Way representatives in the following rooms: 1315, 2258, and 9111. Congrats, Prof. Spence!

EEC Celebrates College Prep Day

Our North Campus students who take their College Prep classes closer to home and work, at the EEC, also participated in this month's College Prep Day. Students heard from faculty and staff about ways to manage college life.

College Prep Day: Keys to Success

North Campus College Prep students found answers to their questions about how to navigate a college campus and received tips on how to succeed in the classroom at Wednesday's College Prep Day. A highlight: faculty advice to neophyte college students delivered via wide screen TV.

Miami Book Fair International

If you have never attended the Miami Book Fair International, you're missing out on a book fair/street festival that rivals the best. I've lived in a number of big cities -- Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago -- and this book fair ranks at the top. There are inexpensive books for the money conscience, young adult literature for teens, and picture books for the youngest reader. My toddler sat mesmerized at a stage play put on by young thespians at last year's book fair in the Children's Alley. But, my favorite part of our local book fair is definitely the An Evening With series, where you get to listen to an author read from his or her latest novel and then ask questions. It's an intimate setting with you and the author (Ok, there are about 50 folks sometimes in the room, but it's still closer than most readers get to the author). Even if you don't consider yourself a "reader'' because you're not carrying around a book with another next to your bed and yet another on the kitchen table, you're still in for a treat. Like the title suggests, it's a fair/festival atmosphere with music and stage shows, too. The list of 120 authors makes my head spin! I can't believe so many people who we all adore because they make us laugh, think and cry will all be in our backyard this week. There is fiction, mystery, biography, poetry. We will get to see people like Elizabeth Alexander, an unknown to many before she delivered her poem -- Praise Song for the Day -- at President Barack Obama's inaugural ceremony. Or, Jeannette Walls, whose own story of heartache and pain moved her from the woman behind the racy stories about New York's elite to the woman whose own life of poverty shocked those same rich and famous people. The list of intriguing writers goes on and on: Liz Balmaseda, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Gwen Ifill. Let me also point out that College Prep Chair Geoffrey Philp will be reading from his book -- Who's Your Daddy and Other Stories -- at 2 p.m. on Saturday in room 3410.