The White Falcon - 14.01.2004, Blaðsíða 10

------------ Year, from pg. 1
uct we can to our customers.”
The Commissary and Proctor and
Gamble also sponsored a Viking
Festival Art Contest last year in which
elementary and high school students
submitted their artwork and received
many prizes to include a Dell computer.
Another first, was the institution of the
Annual DeCA Safety Week with sup-
port from the Safety Office. The
Commissary here also fully supported
the DeCA Scholarship Program.
Looking ahead to the coming year,
Marino says the Commissary is going
to stay on track with the service they
have already been providing while
making some changes to benefit the
entire community.
“Our major project for the coming
year is to bring in a representative from
DeCA headquarters’ marketing busi-
ness and various commercial vendors
to reset our entire inventory,” said
Marino. “It’ll really help organize the
store and the new look will more accu-
rately depict what stores in the States
look like.”
The reset, scheduled for the end of
February, will include a product evalu-
ation in which slower moving items
will be replaced with new items,
changes in product placement, and the
installation of new shelving units. The
completion will be marked with a grand
reopening ceremony.
Other improvements the Commissary
hopes to make over the coming year,
are to continue to search out and intro-
duce new items, reduce logistical snags
so they can provide better quality prod-
ucts, especially produce, and to contin-
ue to support the Viking Festival Art
Contest and provide information about
the DeCA Scholarship.
“We try to take care of our military
community as well as we can because
we realize we are a big part of the qual-
ity of life here at NAS Keflavik,”
Marino said.
Navv College
The staff at the Navy College was
busy this year with enrollment increas-
es for many of their programs. Two
new team-members to the Navy
College, Embry Riddle University and
Central Texas College, saw a 20 per-
cent increases in their bachelor and
associate degree programs while
Keflavik’s University of Maryland
University College remained very high-
ly ranked for enrollment among other
UMUC campuses throughout the
European Theater. Master’s degree pro-
grams saw a 10 percent increase in
enrollment and the Navy College
Learning Center had an improvement
of 12 percent participation over the pre-
vious year. Increases were also noted in
the number of students taking CLEP
and other college credit examinations.
Karen Stanbery the director of the
Navy College here said, “We were very
pleased with the improvements we
made in our numbers of enrollment.
One of our main goals is to let people
know "what their options are in begin-
ning or continuing their education and
it’s wonderful to see people taking
advantage of those options.”
A very recent addition to the Navy
College was the installation of new
multi-media computers in the Navy
College Learning Center. The new
computers will allow students a wider
array of options to help them solidify
their basic skills or prepare for upcom-
ing tests or classes they wish to do well
in.
The major project the Navy College
is working on for the next year is to
improve the selection of classes.
“We’re trying to push for the univer-
sities to offer more core classes so that
students can more easily finish up their
majors and minors. The philosophy
behind it is that you can pick up elec-
tives almost anywhere, but the core
classes are more difficult to get and
often require more prerequisites. So if
we offer as many core classes as we
can, the students will have more
options in how to pursue their degree.”
More options are also on the way in
associate degree programs. The Navy
College is hoping to add paralegal and
emergency medical technician pro-
grams before the end of the year.
Stanbery said, “We want to totally
support the slogan for Navy education,
It’s for anytime, anywhere.”
FFSC
The past year was a year of renova-
tion and innovation at the Fleet and
Family Support Center.
Major renovations were done to the
main building which allowed the FFSC
to move the Loaner Locker, Women
Infants and Children (WIC) and Red
Cross offices under its roof.
A new class, CONSEP, a mid-career
Transition Assistance Program (TAP)
style class was offered for the first time
last year.
Tim Vohar, the transition assistance
program manager at the FFSC said the
CONSEP courses were very successful.
“Everyone seemed to love the CON-
SEP classes,” said Vohar. “Many of
them said that it really opened their
eyes to things they needed to start
working on now to be ready by the time
they exit the service.”
While they continued to provide their
mainstream services, the FFSC also
expanded some of their existing pro-
grams. One specific example is when
they expanded their Spouses of
Deployed Servicemembers program to
help spouses deal better with the 56^
Rescue Squadron’s deployment to
Liberia this past year.
Another highlight for the FFSC was
the Veteran’s Affairs representative
visit. Many people were able to sched-
ule appointments and get the informa-
tion they needed about their specific
concern.
Vohar said that the FFSC is looking
for alternative solutions to help them
accomplish their mission. One such
example is the increased use of com-
mand and financial specialists (CFS).
“We’re hoping to let our CFS’s have
an expanded role by screening the
clients so when they come here for an
appointment they know what questions
to ask and what their specific need is so
we can save some of our time to allow
The Whit
us to continue to increase the quality of
the programs we offer,” said Vohar.
The FFSC is also looking for volun-
teers to help them fill positions that
would free them up to be better able to
provide quality programs.
“By having volunteers man the front
desk or hand out items at the loaner
locker we can free ourselves up to meet
with more customers or spend more
time improving our programs,” said
Vohar. “It helps the volunteer by allow-
ing them to gain valuable work experi-
ence.”
Morale. Welfare. & Recreation
For MWR 2003 was a year of com-
pletion. Several major projects were
completed, such as the opening of
Service Central, renovations at
Andrews Theater, the Three Flags
Club, and The Top of the Rock Club
kitchen were all completed in 2003.
New athletic equipment was added to
the A.E. House Gymnasium and the
Arctic Circle Indoor Running Track
and improvements were made to the
youth outdoor activity field. Also
improvements were made to the main
offices at MWR.
While all of these projects were being
completed, youth, liberty and fitness
programs were expanded.
An ongoing project is improving the
internet service on base. MWR is plan-
ning on implementing ADSL service
sometime in the near future.
With the new year, MWR is working
with Commander, Navy Region Europe
and other MWR departments that fall
under their command to come up with
region wide strategies for success.
“A wide variety of topics and strate-
gies have occurred from discussions for
an MWR business plan,” said Dennis
Merkel, the director of NASKEF’s
MWR Department. “They are being
assembled into a set of loosely termed
‘business principles’ so that we can
reach our goal of establishing some
common approaches to issues so that
bases in the region can become more
alike in areas that it makes sense.”
Merkel added, “The entire MWR
team will be helping to achieve the type
of success that will benefit all of us. We
would like to ask that our patrons join
us in this effort by becoming open to
the idea of change.”
Some plans that are currently in the
works for MWR here is to work close-
ly with PWD again this year to create
some “in-house” improvements.
Possible expansions at the Teen Center,
Library, Bowling Center and Gym
weight room as well as the construc-
tion of a climbing complex at the run-
ning track are some of the things MWR
is hoping to accomplish this coming
year if their budget permits.
Merkel said he looks forward to serv-
ing the community and overcoming as
many obstacles as possible in the com-
ing years.
“Every challenge is an opportunity in
disguise,” said Merkel. “Our challenge
over the next few years will be to con-
tinue to offer the successful MWR pro-
grams on which our Sailors and their
families depend. They deserve no less
than our best!”
Falcon
DeCA offers
Scholarship
By Rebecca Eusey
As university tuition fees
increase, many high school stu-
dents and their parents feel pres-
sure to find alternate sources of
funding for university bills. The
college-bound students of NAS
Keflavik and military installations
worldwide have an opportunity to
take advantage of the financial
help offered by DeCA’s commis-
sary scholarship program.
Started in 2001 as a way for the
manufacturers and suppliers that
provide support for commissaries
worldwide to say thank you to
America’s military families, the
scholarship is wholly funded by
the industry and administered by
Fischer House, in association with
DeCA. An independent panel
examines the entries submitted by
high school seniors and current
college students and selects at least
one winner from each commissary
across the world. Last year seven
students from Keflavik applied.
The past winners from our com-
munity were: 2001-Aaron
Hendricks, 2002-Brandon Niles,
2003-John Andrew Anderson.
According to Commissary director
Maj. Gen. Michael R Wiedemer,
“At least 550 students will receive
a $1,500 scholarship.” The pro-
gram awarded 400 scholarships in
its first year and 520 in 2002.
For students at NASKEF that
spells a very good chance to be
awarded the scholarship since each
of the 276 commissaries must have
one winner. Students can pick up
an application at the commissary
or online at www.commissaries.-
com. The deadline for the applica-
tion package to be turned in at our
commissary is Wed., Feb. 18. The
package includes an essay compo-
nent on the topic “What aspect of
military life has had the greatest
impact on you”, a copy of the stu-
dent’s transcript and a recommen-
dation from a teacher, guidance
counsellor or principal. The schol-
arship is open to all dependent,
unmarried children under age 21
(23 if enrolled as a full-time stu-
dent at college) of active duty per-
sonnel, reserve/guard and retired
military members, or survivors of
deceased members. Families must
be enrolled in the Defence
Enrollment Eligibility Reporting
System (DEERS) and have current
ID cards. Applicants must be plan-
ning to attend or is attending a full
time, four-year accredited college
or university as of Fall, 2004.
As corporate donors give more
support to the program, the awards
given to the students increase. Last
year the scholarship winners were
--------- DeCA, pg. 15
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January 14,2004