For Immediate Release

Contact: Anthony Twyman
Public Relations Coordinator
Community College of Philadelphia
Office: (215) 751-8082
atwyman@ccp.edu

COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF PHILADELPHIA STUDENTS HONORED AS ALL-PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMIC TEAM MEMBERS

PHILADELPHIA, April 23, 2007 – Two students from Community College of Philadelphia will be honored by the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges at a ceremony today at the Harrisburg Hilton & Towers in Harrisburg, PA that recognizes the All-Pennsylvania Academic Team.

Each community college in Pennsylvania may nominate two students per campus to the All-Pennsylvania Academic Team. Students from the state are nominated to the All-Pennsylvania team and then one is chosen to represent Pennsylvania on the All-USA Academic Team.

Stacy Cleveland and Karen Raffaele, both of Philadelphia, are representing the College this year on the All-Pennsylvania Academic Team.

“These students are high achievers who represent through their accomplishments the high standards and ideals of two-year colleges,” said Community College of Philadelphia President Stephen M. Curtis.

Cleveland is an Early Childhood Education major who will graduate in May. A member of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, she was listed in the 2005 edition of Who’s Who Among Students in Junior Colleges and has been nominated for the 2007 edition. She is the founder and former president of the Christian Women’s Alliance at the College and served as president of the Community College Association for the Education of Young Children (CCAEYC). She plans to transfer and pursue a career in education.

Raffaele is a Music Performance/Composition major, who will graduate in May, 2007. A member of Phi Theta Kappa, she is also a founding member and president of “cre8” a new music club at the College.

She writes and performs her own music, represents the Philadelphia Songwriters Project, and is an active music tutor, and library and nursing home volunteer. She wants to transfer and earn an advanced degree, then pursue a career in the music industry. Raffaele credits the College and its music faculty for helping her evolve from a largely self-taught piano student into a full-fledged musician.

President Curtis and members of the College family joined the students in Harrisburg for the event.

In its thirteenth year, the All-State Academic Team program began as an outgrowth of the National All-USA Academic Team for Two-Year Colleges. Phi Theta Kappa, the national honor society for community college students, coordinates this competitive awards program with the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges and its member institutions. The Commission is a non-profit organization representing the interests of the 14 community colleges in Pennsylvania.

Academic Team students who choose to attend a state system of higher education institution upon graduation from a community college receive a full scholarship to that institution.