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When Michael Speach was growing up, life revolved around the family business. He couldn't wait to get as far away from that life as possible. "We didn't enjoy the holidays because those were our busiest times and we were exhausted. My view of life and holidays were very skewed. We didn't take a family vacation until I was 15. I told my parents I didn't want to have anything to do with the business."

• Major: Nursing
• High School: Cicero-North Syracuse, class of 1995

Jessica Montena found her second career while helping take care of a family member. Montena had spent 5 years teaching English at Cortland High School when she decided to home school their daughter. During the home schooling period, her husband's grandmother needed to be moved from Rochester to Syracuse.

Low-income student-parents who depend on child care while attending OCC received much needed support from Washington earlier this year when Congress increased the amount of funding to the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program by more than 230 percent, from approximately $15 million to $50 million. CCAMPIS provides additional assistance to student-parents pursuing college degrees. The sole federal program dedicated to assisting student-parents had not seen an increase in funding in a decade-and-a-half.

Professor Gerardo Tonatiuh Cummings Rendon, Ph.D. loves to share his full name with students and inspire them to think about their names. In his case, Gerardo is of European origin and it means "the man with the sword." Tonatiuh comes from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, and it means "God of the sun." Cummings is his father's last name and Rendon is his mother's last name. "Chapter 3 in the Spanish 101 textbook deals with family. It's very interesting to ask students where their last name comes from and make them realize their identity reflects their dad but not their mom.

Members of the OCC campus community came together to give back as part of the annual "Onondaga Day of Service." Students, faculty, and staff took advantage of opportunities to assist through both on-campus and off-campus projects. A total of 161 students and 35 employee volunteers participated! The list of accomplishments included:

Nicholas Roberts is an Alumni Face honoree for his professional achievements and contributions to the college and the community.

If you see one of the Casey triplets, the other two are probably nearby. They commute to OCC together, work identical hours at their part-time jobs, and always seem to be on the same page mentally. "If we didn't say anything to each other for an entire day we would know what the other was thinking. There's an unspoken bond," said Greg Casey. "We're different from each other physically, mentally and in our interests," added Eric Casey. "But we have each others back," said Greg Casey.