The chef in charge of CCC’s menu

Viet Hong standing with Johanna McNeil, one of his reliable staff members.

 

NADIA ALBIZU

 

Staff Writer

 

You eat it! Now meet the man behind it all. Cumberland County College’s food service director Viet Hoang was born in Vietnam and in 1982 moved to Mount Laurel, New Jersey, where an American family adopted him.  

Hoang graduated from Holy Cross High School, where he played tennis. After high school, he attended Camden County Community College for two years, and then transferred to the Academy of Culinary Arts in Mays Landing, New Jersey.

While Hoang was growing up, his parents owned a deli. There he learned to love food and as a young boy decided he wanted a career in hospitality.

 Hoang works for a contracting company based in West Virginia called Aladdin Food Service. Aladdin Food Service offers a catering service- ready to serve 200-350 guests breakfast, sit down dinners, and buffets. 

Hoang has a great team working beside him who are well trained, have great knowledge on everything that goes on in the cafeteria, and are very determined to keep the sanitation above average. 

Hoang is married to a therapist and has a two-year-old daughter. On his spare time he likes to play tennis, travel, and hang out with his family and friends. One day Hoang would like to take his daughter to his hometown in Vietnam. 

When asked, what his favorite meal served in the Cumberland County Café Hoang smiled and said, “Everything!” 

Hoang and his staff work very hard to serve the students at Cumberland County a tasty, healthy meal.

“It’s a small cafeteria with a lot of good business,” said Hoang. In the cafeteria they have a nutrition chart and pamphlets on how to stay healthy.

Hoang enjoys positive criticism because he is always striving to improve his talent.

“I really love the feedback students, faculty, and staff leave me.”

Dynamic and creative: a teacher with his own method

 

 

Professor Phillips giving advice to one of his students.

 

By BRITTANY WALDER

 

Staff Writer

Need a word to describe CCC Professor Frank Phillips? Try dynamic.

When Professor Phillips walks into a room, his presence is felt all around. He’s a towering figure with a powerful voice that permeates with an enthusiasm seldom felt from people in his profession. Five minutes in the room with him, and it is evident that he loves what he does. If his mere presence isn’t enough to make an impression, his philosophies on life are; he is remarkably grounded, funny, and more than willing to talk about, well, anything.

“My greatest joy as a professor,” he said, “is to give something. I want to challenge my students in a ‘dialogue of exploration.’ It’s a collective growth. It’s not about taking something static. It’s about learning to think critically. “

Professor Phillips began teaching at Cumberland County College thirty years ago, and has had many experiences that have contributed to his success as a teacher.  

He was raised in an environment where his family had an upper middle class view on life.  Despite being poor, he was raised to be responsible, hardworking, and to take nothing for granted.  

After volunteering to serve in Vietnam, Phillips was able to attend college on the GI Bill.  Even though he left home before graduating high school, he eventually got his GED through the Marine Corps and attended Rutgers College.  “I got into Rutgers initially as a business major,” he said. “I thought I was going to make all the money in the world.”

After two years at Rutgers, Phillips left to take a job as a store manager trainee. In less than a year, he was hired as a manger. “That was my goal. That was what I wanted,” he said, “and I was very successful at it. But I didn’t like myself. I didn’t like the way I had to treat people, being in a managerial position. I was able to do it, but I didn’t like firing people and treating people coldly—because that’s what you had to do. You couldn’t accept anything less than excellence.”

“I wanted to do something else, being around people, working with people. I saw the way that people treated people around the United States, and some of the social issues that were going on, and I wanted to have an impact. So I returned to Rutgers.” 

Within a year and a half, he got his bachelors in sociology.  

With his bachelor’s he was presented with the opportunity to help out with a program at Rutgers that gave disadvantaged kids the chance to sit in a classroom and hear a professor speak as a part of a learning environment. 

It was by helping a girl in one of his classes who had graduated from Cumberland County College that he was offered a job at CCC. 

“She said, ‘My professor’s leaving, and we have an opening. You should do it.’” 

At Cumberland County College, Professor Phillips succeeds in making the impact he once hoped to have.  His lectures are energetic and memorable. His voice is commanding. He has the ability to provoke thought on both sides of an issue. When Professor Frank Phillips is standing in front of a classroom, it’s incredibly difficult not to pay attention. 

He maintains, however, that being admired is not his primary concern.  

“The greatest thing I can give my students is the ability to think critically. If I can do nothing else over the course of a semester, I want them to be able to think about something and argue both sides of the issue. If you’re educated and learning, you’ll always have the ability to see it the other way.”

What does it take to teach Spanish?

Linda Lleres entering her office in the Fine and Performing Arts Building.

 

By JULIE FULLAM

Staff Writer

Professor Linda Lleres has made a significant impact on the way the Spanish language is spoken at Cumberland County College, not only in the students, but faculty and staff as well. 

 

Lleres grew up in Burlington Township, NJ with her parents Mary Jane and Kenneth Edward Phillips. Growing up in a small town, Lleres attended Burlington High where her parents, grandparents, and great- grandparents attended; and ironically had some of the same teachers. 

During her sophomore year in high school, Lleres “fell in love” with the Spanish language. Initially, Lleres went to college to major in French, but wound up changing it to Spanish after her freshman year. She received her bachelor’s from Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa, and went on to get her master’s at Glassboro State College . Not only did Lleres get both degrees, but she also pursued her education farther by attending the University of Madrid in Spain, and completing Graduate courses at Brown University, California State University at LA, Jersey City State College, and Rutgers University. 

Lleres didn’t start out teaching Spanish at Cumberland County College. It took ten years after her career began in the fall semester of ‘78 as a Bilingual Coordinator for the Special Services Program. 

After that, she took on responsibilities such as the ESL program, grant funding programs, and taught ESL and Bilingual Orientation Courses. Because of her knowledge of  Spanish, Lleres was offered to teach the Spanish classes at Cumberland County. She teaches four levels of Spanish, which includes seven courses every semester ( five traditional, one telecourse and one online). 

Little did Lleres know that knowing Spanish would change her career and  her personal life forever. While meeting up with a friend down in Atlantic City she was introduced to a gentleman and asked him “Hablas espanol?” He looked at her surprised and said “Si, y tu?” She has been with her loving husband Wilfrido William Lleres for 26 years. Lleres says that her favorite song is “ Linda Mujer” which is a song her husband wrote and sang to her while they were dating. 

In her spare time, Lleres loves to cook, spend time with her family, read, and travel. Lleres has been to Puerto Rico many times, as well as Spain, Mexico and Madrid. Lleres has one son by the name of Juan Francisco Arocho who is 33, two stepsons, and five step-grandchildren. Lleres said that “ Spanish has affected my life in so many incredible ways! My husband and I speak Spanish and English to each other every day, we listen to all kinds of Spanish music as well as T.V. programs. We subscribed to several Spanish magazines, we look up Spanish information on the web, and we cook rice and beans at least once a week!”  Lleres plans on retiring in the near future, traveling to see family and friends in Puerto Rico and Spain. “ When I began working at CCC I never imagined that I would spend the next thirty years here! When I  started teaching Spanish 20 years ago, I realized this is what I want to do for the rest of my life,” Lleres said.

Valerie Gouse: Just a Librarian?

 

Valerie Gouse making sure the library is in order.

 

By ALI KURECZKA

 

Staff Writer

Valerie Gouse is more than just your average librarian.  She helps students do research, teaches information literacy classes and effective speech classes, she catalogs books and puts them into the library system so students can use them for research, and she even has a side band with her husband just to name a few.  

 

Valerie Gouse went to Vineland High School and then to Ithaca College in New York.  She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications.

Valerie didn’t always want to be a librarian. 

“Oh it’s every girl’s dream, right?” said Gouse.

Her mother would take her to the Vineland Public Library but Valerie was always reluctant to go.  Her reason for choosing this field was actually her work-study program at Ithaca College.

“The only jobs that were available on campus for freshmen were in the dining hall.  So for a month I suffered by working in the dining hall at Ithaca College. It was horrible. So I quit and I wandered into the library and I saw a sign.  It was just the right time and right place. So for the four years I was at Ithaca I worked at the library,” said Gouse.

Once Valerie was ready to graduate, the director that she worked under asked if she ever thought of becoming a librarian. Valerie thought about it and then ended up getting her master’s degree in Library Science at Rutgers in New Brunswick. 

“So I guess I owe it to her.  She put the idea in my head,” added Gouse.

After getting her master’s degree, she was brought back to Vineland for a job opening  here at the college in 2002. 

“My mother sent me the job announcement and said, ‘Look at this, right in your home town,’’ said Gouse.

Outside of the library, Valerie enjoys skiing.  She’s gone on the school sponsored ski trips a few times.  She also enjoys playing the piano with her husband, who plays the violin.  They have their own side business where they play for weddings and parties.  

“We started in high school. It was just some random thing to make money. But it’s nice; we enjoy it.  We go to a lot of weddings,” added Gouse.

Recently, Valerie graduated with a second master’s degree in Communications, which has allowed her to teach communications classes.  So, in addition to working in the library she’s also an adjunct professor at the college.  One of the classes she teaches is the Effective Speech class on Mondays and Wednesdays.

“I really like the teaching aspect of my job.  I’m hoping that someday I may end up in the classroom fulltime as a professor. But I do love my job here [in the library]. I love my co-workers. We really work as a team,” said Gouse.

Valerie also teaches literacy information courses.  She teaches students how to use the library’s resources for research assignments in English 102 classes.  

“My motto is if you use the library’s resources, it makes doing your schoolwork a lot easier and quicker.  But students think that Google is the answer.  I’m all about opening their eyes to the better, more scholarly, credible sources,” said Gouse.

“We’re always here to help and answer questions.  Give us a chance. Come in and we’ll help answer any questions,” added Gouse.