The Best Part

Join host Dan Baum as he speaks with Joyce Dawson about the collaborative design involved in building AACC, what makes it an exciting place to be and how her job is “like Legos for big girls.” 

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Transcript

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(gentle instrumental music)- Welcome to Redefine U, season five. I'm Dan Baum. Over the last few years, this podcast has been a place to share powerful stories of redefinition and lightning strike moments, and to learn and grow with one another through adversity and change, even through a global pandemic. This season to close out the college's 60th anniversary, we invited members of the community past and present, to join us in sharing their favorite AACC memories. Be sure to check out all of this season's episodes available now for your binge listening pleasure.(gentle instrumental music)- I'm Joyce Dawson, and I'm the Assistant Director for Facilities Planning and Construction here at the community college, and our mission is to design, plan, construct, all of the buildings for the campus, and also we do smaller projects too. It might be you just need to move your office, or reorganize your office, or redecorate your office suite. But whatever it has to do with design and construction, our department is supporting that.- Excellent, thank you. So what's your favorite AACC memory?- Well, I received my construction management certification through AACC, and later I was working as the college's owner's representative for the construction of the CALT building. One day a tour came through with the architect, engineer, and construction management faculty. So that was kind of a great surprise moment to see the people who had added to my education, coming through a building that I was acting as the owner's representative for construction management. So our joke between everyone was, I had better have been paying attention, and they better have taught me well.(Joyce laughs) So that was a great memory, to see the people that added to my education, actually get to see me doing something that was going to be meaningful for them.- That's excellent. I'm sure they were excited to see that you are putting what you learned to work. It has driven your career.- And it's still standing, Dan.(both laugh)- That's the best part.- The best part.- Yeah. Now, is there someone you met through AACC who made a big impact on you?- Well, as I thought about this, it was really all of my instructors that I had here. Each one of them impacted me in a very positive way. Everyone was so qualified, and gave so much personal attention as I was studying. The other thing that I noticed too is, how approachable all my instructors were. I never felt like if I had a question or a need, that I couldn't bother them, or couldn't talk to them. In fact, they were very clear that that was part of their job, is to make sure I learned what I needed to learn, and I rose to the level that they were trying to convey through that class. So I was just very impressed that I had such a great group of instructors, and a lot of people would say,"At a community college?" But yes, at a community college.- That's great. How has being part of the AACC community redefined you?- Well, this is my second career. I took some time off to raise a family, and then I came back into the workforce. So really coming here to refresh my credentials, and come back into the workforce, has really promoted my career and helped me do what I do today. It was only logical 14 years ago when I had the opportunity to join the staff here at the college to jump on that opportunity and take part in that. So here I am, I'm AACC educated, and I work for AACC, and it's wonderful to be here and just watch our campus grow and improve. And you know what we always say, we finish one thing, and it's always, "Well, what's next? What's next?" So it's an exciting place to be.- Well, next has been this Health and Life Sciences building. It must be exciting for you to see the fruits of your labor so clearly. You mentioned CALT, but the things that you do, there they are, they remain, they're still standing, that must be pretty exciting.- Well, it is a cool career,'cause we're there at the inception, working through the planning and the vision of what's to come. Then we work through the design of what's to come, and we begin to formulate what it takes to give us that educational experience, or administrative experience that we're looking for on this campus. So that's very exciting. And then that first teaspoon of soil comes out of the ground, and from there it's just a forward path of moving through our plans and reviewing. And the other thing that's wonderful here, is we're so collaborative. I don't think there's any department here that doesn't get touched at some point when we're building. We need opinions of faculty, staff, and students to guide decisions, and we need people to look at things as we're building, to be sure that we're hitting the mark."Is this what you expected? Would this be a surprise if you saw this, and would that be a good surprise, or a bad surprise," you know, kind of thing. So all of this talent comes in, that's right here within our campus, and we form this huge team that just works until we're successful. So when we walk and look at a building like HLSB, you think of all of the hands that have touched that project from within the campus, and it's something the whole campus can really be proud of. And it's so cool to go in and watch the students use the building, and feel the thrill of,"Oh look, they really do like the laptop bars." Or "Look, they are using the study rooms." Or "Look at this great setup they have to practice the skills of their profession." So anybody that knows me, knows I love my job. It's like Legos for big girls, and it just never ceases to be fun.(Dan laughs)- That's great. I love it. Well, thank you, Joyce. Appreciate you sharing, and the Health and Life Sciences building is gorgeous. CALT is also gorgeous, we have really, really lovely buildings.- Yeah, well, I tell you as a campus, we've been very, very fortunate with a very robust building and renovation schedule, and so, like I said, "What's next? We're ready."- All right, well thank you again. Appreciate you taking the time.- All right. Thank you all.(gentle instrumental music)- Thank you for joining us for this special season of Redefine U celebrating AACC'S 60th anniversary. We hope this season inspires you to think about your own favorite AACC moments. How is being a part of this community, near or abroad, as a student, faculty, or staff member, parent, or friend, redefine you.(gentle instrumental music)(upbeat instrumental music) Redefine U is a production of Anne Arundel Community College. Our executive producer is Allison Baumbusch and our producer is Jeremiah Prevatte. Others who help with this podcast include Amanda Behrens, Angie Hamlet, Ben Pierce, and Alicia Renehan. Special thanks to all our guests for sharing their stories. Subscribe, find show notes, and other extras on our website, aacc.edu/podcast. I'm your host and creator of this podcast, Dan Baum, thanks for listening.(upbeat instrumental music)