Maricopa Center increasing its stable of talented professors, educational offerings

One of the more brutal commutes in Arizona occurs daily along the stretch of SR 347 from the City of Maricopa in to Interstate 10.

While many people have to travel along this corridor to reach job locations in Tempe, Phoenix, Chandler, Mesa and Gilbert on a daily basis, students seeking a college education don’t need to look any further than their own backyard.

Central Arizona College’s Maricopa Center has been providing an opportunity for area residents to secure credits toward an associate’s degree without having to slog for more than an hour through gnarled traffic.

And the college has now bolstered its starting lineup of academia persona with tutors and teachers geared toward helping students.

“We now have a volunteer tutor at our center Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6 – 9 p.m. helping students in math,” Barbara Meyer, the program director for the Maricopa Center, said. “Students are making appointments and have been very enthusiastic about the advent of tutoring in Maricopa.”

The tutor is Lowell Samples, a retired physicist who previously worked for the CIA. He has been tutoring math and science at Maricopa High School, as well as several other educational institutions around the state, before coming to Central Arizona College.

In the spring the Maricopa Center will add a science class to its lab supplies with the initial offering of Chemistry 130, tentatively scheduled at Maricopa High School.

Dr. Murray Seigel has joined the Maricopa Center adjunct staff after recently moving to Maricopa. The professor of mathematics education will be teaching classes at both Central’s Maricopa Center and the Corporate Center in Casa Grande.

Seigel and his wife Sharon, who also holds a doctorate in mathematics, are looking forward to a productive and lasting relationship with the college, according to Meyer.

Siegel recently retired from teaching at South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics, while his wife retired from Francis Marion University in South Carolina.

Included in this stellar lineup is Dr. Jolanta Macek, a professor of social sciences, history and political science.

“Dr. Macek will be teaching United States history at the Maricopa Center on Fridays this spring,” Meyer said. “She comes to us from the Midwest where she taught at several institutions.”

Macek has served as a professor at Rochester College, Baker College, Siena Heights University in Michigan and Davenport University in Iowa. She is currently the museum director for the Casa Grande Historical Society.

“One more star in the Maricopa crown of faculty jewels is Horace Mayes who will be teaching accounting classes for us this spring,” Meyer said. “He comes to the college with years of accounting and accounting technology experience in the corporate sector.”

Mayes served as a vice president of finance for an accounting systems corporation before coming on board as an adjunct professor.

“From its beginnings, the Maricopa Center has enjoyed the privilege of hosting a cadre of qualified, caring and exceptional adjunct faculty who have chosen to extend their tenure with Central Arizona College this past year and beyond,” Meyer said. “To those faculty who have ventured out into the community and helped to make the Maricopa Center the success it is, our gratitude is never ending.”

Photo by Joyce Hollis