Bird is the Word. A Profile on Dr. David N. Bird

Bird is the word, if you have not already heard. In this case, I mean Dr. David Bird, a professor at Linn-Benton Community College. He teaches various classes, such as School-age/Adolescent development Contemporary Families in the U.S. and this summer term will be teaching childhood development (infancy-childhood) and violence and aggression for criminal justice

Emily, a student at LBCC who has taken Dr. Bird’s classes in the past, and is currently taking two more of his classes, had nothing but great things to say about Bird. “He is a great instructor to have, especially if you are considering getting a degree in education” she says. Her opinion of why he is a great instructor, “you can tell that he is very knowledgeable and experienced”.

            Developing that knowledge and experience took time and practice for Bird though. His GPA coming out of high school was a 1.22. Part of his problem was that he was dyslexic. Also, he identified himself more as an athlete rather than a scholar. Playing King Arthur of Camelot in his high school play changed his attitude in life. Anyone who has taken a class of his has probably heard the moving story. Bird ended up working his way through community college, then earned a master’s degree from BYU, and finally ended up with a Doctorate from Oregon State. His wife of 35 years, Sherri, has helped him out tremendously along the way. His focus has been family studies and human development. For years he was a counselor/therapist and ran a private practice. He also worked with police and the court system in high profile cases as a professional advisor.

            His true gift is that his motto in life is to positively impact/influence people, and that is usually apparent if you take the time to meet the man. “He is well aware of the challenges that life brings, and he is the type of professor who can genuinely help you improve your life and your education. Not only that, but make it so that you have the know-how to best raise current/future children you may have” stated another student whom has taken classes with Dr. Bird before.

            Go find out why Bird is the word at LBCC and sign up for one of his classes. His office is located over in Luckiamute building (LM-128).

http://cf.linnbenton.edu/wed/ed/birdd/web.cfm?pgID=5443

https://www.facebook.com/david.n.bird

birdd@linnbenton.edu

Student with a life

                By now, I’m sure that you’ve been asked how school is going or how you like your classes. Spring term 2013 is far enough along that you probably have a pretty good answer to that question. So, how is school going for you?

Like most students, you are probably feeling the stresses of being a student while you simultaneously balance your life outside of school.  If the term ended tomorrow, would you feel like you had gotten anything out of it? Would you be passing all of your classes? Maybe you are a typical straight "A" student, and don’t have much stress-sweating to do and have learned lots, so far, this term. Or, maybe your grades are hanging in the balance at this very moment.

For those of you who struggle, what are your obstacles? What is holding you back from being the best student that you can be? According to David Bird, a professor at LBCC and former counselor, being an effective student boils down to two things: environment and study groups. “Human beings are people of convenience, and will typically do what is most convenient for them.”

Is being a student convenient for you? When you are not at school, what does your environment look like? Some questions you need to ask yourself are: Who are the people around me? What are my priorities/roles in life? What activities am I doing outside of school? Are these conducive with being a student?

“I live in an environment where a bunch of us like to party. I end up chasing after alcohol and weed more than I do my books and assignments,” is what an LBCC student had to say about his term, so far. He is “not at all surprised” that his grades are not what he knows they should be. Maybe your school work suffers for another reason. One student said, “When my sister passed away in a car crash, I stopped attending classes for a while because of how depressed I was.”

Life happens, and each and every student brings their own life to campus each day. Regardless what your outside life may be, if you have chosen that being a student is what you need to be, then you should dedicate yourself to being a student, and you might as well achieve some decent grades, right?

                If you are one of those special cases that finds yourself holding yourself back in school, maybe you should try taking the “Dr. Bird” challenge….

Don’t try to get through school on your own.

 “People who not only get help, but also help out others in school have shown to do better in school”.

 Be aware of your environment and make changes if need be.

“If school is important to you, then you should surround yourself around people who feel the same way, and help each other through it. A good way to find people like that is to start study groups.”

Instead of chasing the non-important things in life, chase after your education. It’s what you are paying for. LBCC provides plenty of services. Your first stop should be with your professors and adviser. Talk to them and ask any questions you might have. If they don’t know, I’m sure they can point you towards someone that does.

A Life Lost (Amanda Fewless)

Life can be gone in the blink of an eye. Nobody wakes up in the morning thinking that it will be their last day on earth. For thousands of people in the United States each and every day, that happens to be the case though.

                Amanda Fewless lived her last day on May 29^th 2013. She was a 22 year old honor student at LBCC. Her life ended within sight of the LBCC campus when she was involved in a three vehicle accident. The sound of the collisions could be heard from hundreds of yards away, and the accident drew the attention of many people in the immediate area.

                Police are still investigating the accident. Four people, all from Albany, were involved in the three vehicle accident; Mr. and Mrs. Vincent, Byron Martin, and Amanda Fewless.  Amanda died instantly; the other three involved are not in any sort of critical condition, but Mr. Vincent did go to the hospital for minor injuries.

The initial news reports can be seen here…

http://democratherald.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/lbcc-student-killed-in-crash-near-school/article_ceca86b0-c968-11e2-acf2-0019bb2963f4.html

http://democratherald.com/news/local/one-killed-two-injured-in-hwy-crash/article_29ad662c-c8d5-11e2-b0af-0019bb2963f4.html

                I was outside my apartment when I heard the sound of collisions and tire screeching on asphalt. It was obvious that something serious had just happened. The sound was so loud, that it immediately drew me towards the closest intersection by my apartment. I did not see anything, so I rounded the other corner towards Pacific Blvd./Hwy 99. From a distance I could tell that something had happened almost right in front of the bark dust place. The fact that more and more people were gathering around the area made it even more obvious that something had indeed occurred.

                I quickly walked towards the scene of the crash in case somebody needed immediate assistance. As I got closer, I noticed that nobody was frantically moving around the scene of the accident. My heart-rate briefly relaxed because I thought that nobody had seriously gotten injured,  but as I got closer, I could make out the form of one of the vehicles involved, and judging by the damage, I knew that someone was probably dead or seriously injured. I asked the first two people that were standing on a sidewalk in the vicinity of the scene if everyone was ok. They told me no, and that “a lady was still inside the vehicle”. I walked over to where the demolished Geo was and looked inside and around the vehicle. I could only see parts of Amanda, her body laid reclined far backwards and to the right. Most of her body had been covered by a blanket that had obviously been draped over her by initial responders to the accident. I could still see parts of her, and knew that she was more than likely gone, but I was curious if there still wasn't a chance, if maybe someone had covered her up prematurely. I could see her blonde hair hung down towards the ground, and a dangling, lifeless arm could be seen. Blood had begun pooling and continued dripping on the pavement below. Even though I was pretty sure she was no longer of this world, I walked over to the opposite side of the road closer to where a group of people stood and asked if someone had tried feeling for a pulse. The dazed looking man I had asked told me that he had seen her, and that she was “gone”.

                At that moment, I realized that there was nothing I could do. Nobody else seemed to be badly injured, and paramedics/police started arriving on the scene. My instincts made it so that I wanted to try and help out somehow...but I knew that emergency officials had work to do and did not need me in the way.

  Everybody who had gathered around stood in shock as news spread that a young lady had just died. Feeling pretty useless and like a gawker, I walked away back towards my apartment. I prayed for the unknown girl and her loved ones and then my mind started going to work as I started thinking about all sorts of things. For whatever reason, my first reactions were to call my sister and then write Rob (my LBCC journalism instructor) and let him know what had just happened.

                After about fifteen minutes, my “journalist hat” came on, and I wanted to go find out exactly what had happened. I was mostly curious about who the young lady was who had just lost her life on that Wednesday afternoon around 6 p.m. 

Police were still talking to the people involved and bystanders in hopes of piecing together what had just transpired. I skirted the accident scene and took in the destruction. Amanda’s Geo sat crushed in the left lane of the northbound side of the road. I walked south towards where the white Nissan of Byron Martin sat. Police were interviewing him, so I did not approach him; instead I briefly looked at his damaged vehicle and then made my way back south towards the scene of the accident. I could see police interviewing the man who had told me that the young lady was “gone”. Near him and the officer was a woman sitting inside a truck. I approached the woman, who happened to be one of the individuals involved in the accident. As I talked to her, you could see the sorrow in her eyes, and tell that she was still in a state of shock. Her concern went out to the family of the girl whose lifeless body continued to be pinned inside the vehicle that was in plain sight of the grieving lady. When I asked her what had happened, she wasn’t very sure. “It all happened very fast”, she said. At one point, she just remembers telling her husband to watch out for a vehicle that was coming into their lane. I stood there and continued talking to the lady until the police officer got done with the husband and made his way over to interview the lady I had been talking to.

                I approached the gentleman who happened to be the driver of the Dodge truck involved in the crash and also the man whom I had initially asked if anyone had taken a pulse when I had walked up to the scene of the accident. He continued to have a dazed look on his face. I began talking to him, and he recalled about as much as his wife did about the actual accident.

 I asked him again about the young lady in the Geo metro and the initial assessment made about her immediately after the accident. “You could tell she was just gone. There was just too much trauma to her head”, he said.

My “journalist cap” had come off when I saw the look on both their faces and after I had talked to them. I didn’t want to ask them for contact information or any other pressing questions. All I wanted to do was get away from the scene again and shut my brain off for a minute. As I walked off, I took in entire scene one last time. It was different from when I had first arrived. Vehicles had moved, emergency vehicles were all around, the whole road was shut down, more bystanders had gathered, but Amanda and her crushed vehicle remained exactly where they had been since the crash. A yellow plastic sheet was draped over her body, her lifeless arm still hung motionless and in sight. 

 

          I did not know Amanda, but I am sure that I passed her some day while on campus. Who knows where she was going or what she was doing when her life ended. It is sad to lose someone in the community, especially someone so young. My thoughts and prayers are with her family. May His smile be upon you. Farewell, Amanda Fewless.

Introduction to Dr. Bird

In case you haven’t heard, Bird’s the word. By that, I mean Dr. David Bird. If you have yet to meet the legend, I suggest that you go out of your way to do so. I would go so far as to say that it would be beneficial to any person at LBCC to take a class with Dr. Bird. 

This story of Dr. Bird starts back when he was just “Bird” back in high school. Bird is an only child. His father died when he was….His mother played a tremendous role in his life, and supported him every step of the way. It was not easy though.  In addition to being left fatherless, Bird also suffered from dyslexia and struggled in school. His identity was found mostly in sports. He excelled at wrestling, serving as a co-captain in high school. He also played for a losing football team, that was setting records for losing streaks. This life of athletics taught him about working hard, and in the case of the football team, never giving up….no matter how much you keep losing. On the other side, Birds academics suffered. He graduated high school with a 1.22 GPA. Before that happened though, Bird had a “King Arthur” moment. It happened when his high school had try outs for “Camelot”. For …..reason, Bird decided to try out. I wonder how many were surprised that the dyslexic jock won the role of king Arthur. He did though. That experience gave him confidence. It gave him confidence because even with his disability, he was still able to memorize lines…and then recite them in front of crowds. That experience for him was life changing. It convinced him that he had a brain and that he could use it. 

 I won’t go into the long version of how 1.22 GPA version Bird became Dr. Bird version, but it started with a community college in Idaho, and turned into BYU, a couple years in Australia, and finally a doctorates from Oregon State. Along the way, Bird found his calling in life. That calling is helping others. Dr. Bird has done that in plenty of ways. He is a master in teaching family studies. He worked for over 20 years as a therapist. To sum it up, he is a renowned man in this community. Hence the title, legend. 

So how does Dr. Bird make a difference here at LBCC? The short answer is that he cares. His motto in life is to positively influence the people he meets in daily life. He does just that. I.....(To be continued)

Carol Raymundo Teacher of the Year Award

Say what you want to say about who you think the best teacher at Linn-Benton is, but the votes for best teacher of the year are already in. Ten awards were given out to teachers from different departments this year. One of these awards went to Mrs. Carol Raymundo. Mrs. Raymundo, whom prefers to be called Carol, teaches eight online classes at Linn-Benton Community College. She teaches Word 1,2 and 3, Excel 1,2, and 3, as well as power-point and Microsoft publisher.

Carol began working part-time in the career center back in 2000. When I asked Carol how it felt to have been awarded a teacher of the year award, she said that it was an "honor", but for the most part she humbly shrugged it off. It is obvious that she is not in teaching  for recognition, but recognition is what she has recieved by getting a teacher of the year award.

So what makes her an effective teacher? She mentions that knowing her students, knowing what they bring from the "outside", knowing what it is they need to learn, and how they learn best is very important. I would have to agree with Mrs. Raymundo. Even though I only have one year experience of being a teacher, I, too, saw the importance of knowing my students so that I knew how best to approach them. If you look at it from a student's perspective...is it not "more comfortable" to have a teacher/instructor whom you have somewhat of a relationship with? I've had teachers whom I have felt connected to, and then I've also had teachers that I felt no connection whatsoever towards. I've always done better when I've connected with my instructor.

My 15 Minutes of "Fame"

"Congratulations, you made front page news of the newspaper" my sister said, as she plopped the newspaper in front of me.

It was Veteran's Day, November 11th 2012.

Sure enough, as I looked down at the newspaper in front of me, a picture of a younger me stared right back.

It was one of my pictures that I took while out on foot patrol in a neighborhood of Baghdad. I remember that day. It was hot, my gear made it especially suffocating, and on top of that, someone had the bright idea of having me carry the heavy radio on my back.

I started reading through the article, feeling part excitement and part dread.

If I backed up two months, you would have found me in a living room, talking to a Ms. Jennifer Moody from the Democrat-Herald. It was September 12th...the day before my 30th birthday.

I had met Ms. Moody not long before. I attended a PTSD meeting one night just to see what they had to say. More than anything, to me, that meeting that night was just frustrating for different reasons. After the meeting, Ms. Moody approached me and told me that she was a writer for the Albany Democrat Herald, and that she was doing an article on PTSD. She asked if I would do an interview for the article, and I agreed.

Jennifer and I sat there for quite a while. Part of the time it felt like an interview, the other part, it just felt like I was having a conversation with someone who was interested in my life story. Although some of the topics I talked about were personal, I still felt comfortable telling her my life story.

Now that "life-story" (photos included) was a front page, two piece article that was on Sunday's page for both the Albany Democrat-Herald and Corvallis Gazette Times.

Wow!

After I read the article, I was proud to be on the front page on a day like Veteran's Day. It was not what I had bargained for when I did the interview. Back then I thought I would be a small piece of the article puzzle, not the whole thing.

I also felt nervous. With all this personal stuff about me out there for everyone to see...what were people going to think? How many people would I run into who were strangers to me, but knew intimate details about my life?

The next time I was back at school, I felt on alert. I kept sweeping for eyes looking back at mine, with knowing looks, or judgmental faces.

I had forgotten one huge thing....

Nobody my age and younger or even a bit older really reads the newspaper anymore.

I would even go so far as to use the stereotype that only old people read newspapers.

The whole article got very little buzz. A couple family friends called me the day it came out, and since then I have gotten only a handful of comments about the article.

I'm not bitter, though :)

Newspapers may someday die, because times are changing and people are getting their news from different sources.

I will have my "15 minutes of fame", and continue to be proud to have represented my country, and then my community on a day like Veteran's Day. I am proud to be a Veteran. I can only hope that my article will have done some good.

On a side note, I'd like to thank Ms. Jennifer Moody for writing the article. I was so shocked when it was front page news because I did not check my email in time to get back to her prior to the article being published. Although she did a great job, some of the content is inaccurate or had changed since the September interview.