News
April 28, 2016A Weekend of Celebration Marks Inauguration of Schenectady County Community College’s Seventh President, Dr. Steady H. Moono
Schenectady County Community College (SCCC) is preparing for a special weekend celebrating the Inauguration of Dr. Steady H. Moono as the College’s seventh President. The SCCC Board of Trustees invites the community to the Inauguration ceremony at historic Proctors in downtown Schenectady on Friday, May 13, at 3 p.m. The celebration will culminate with a dazzling Inaugural Ball, a garden party black tie event catered by Mazzone Hospitality, at the Schenectady Armory on Saturday, May 14, at 6 p.m. Proceeds from the Ball will benefit the new Minority Student Mentoring Initiative. Buzz about the Inauguration celebration has already started on social media with the lively #Ready4Steady.
The Inauguration ceremony on Friday, May 13, will be marked by the investiture and presentation of the insignia of office to Dr. Moono by Johanna Duncan-Poitier, Senior Vice Chancellor for Community Colleges and the Education Pipeline for the State University of New York; Ann Fleming Brown, Chair of the SCCC Board of Trustees; Paula Ohlhous, SCCC Chief of Staff; and Kelly Moono, CPA, Dr. Moono’s spouse.
The new Minority Student Mentoring Initiative offers students the opportunity to be paired with a mentor while at SCCC to help students stay in college and graduate. It’s a program that is dear to Dr. Moono’s heart and, in a way, connects the extraordinary work he accomplished in higher education before joining SCCC to the great strides he has already made since he assumed the role of President of SCCC on July 1, 2015.
Dr. Moono worked tirelessly to develop a similar, successful program at Montgomery County Community College (MCCC), in Pottstown, Penn., where he served for 10 years, most recently as Vice President of the West Campus before coming to SCCC. Initially started as the Minority Male Mentoring Program (MMMP), under his leadership the program was expanded to include African-American and Latina female students, forming the Minority Student Mentoring Initiative (MSMI). In January 2014, the program, one of three Student Success Initiatives by MCCC, received recognition by the White House, during a summit convened by President Barack Obama. The newly launched Minority Student Mentoring Initiative at Schenectady County Community College will connect participating students with caring mentors for guidance and support while providing opportunities for civic engagement, academic advisement, personal development and leadership development. The mentor will support the student in working to conquer any obstacles to complete his/her degree, and will challenge the student to develop the mental toughness, academic discipline and organizational skills necessary to succeed.
Tickets for the Inaugural Ball are $200 per individual and $125 per individual for current or retired SCCC faculty, staff, students and alumni. To RSVP for either the Inauguration or the Inaugural Ball, please visit sunysccc.edu/Inauguration. For more information, please call SCCC at (518) 381-1323 or e-mail Marcy Steiner, Vice President of Development and External Affairs, at steinemm@sunysccc.edu.
The College thanks the following sponsors:
Underwriters
Rivers Casino/Mohawk Harbor
KeyBank
Marshall & Sterling Insurance
MVP Health Care
The Schenectady Foundation
With Additional Support From:
Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP
Media Sponsor:
The Daily Gazette
About Steady H. Moono, Ed.D., Seventh President of Schenectady County Community College
Dr. Steady H. Moono came to the United States from Zambia in 1981 to get an education, and education has become his life’s work.
Dr. Moono earned a bachelor’s degree from Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Penn., where he says that before he found two mentors who helped him feel at home, he struggled as a “young, lost African kid struggling to make it work at a U.S. college.” That experience helped shape his educational philosophies, as he would later found and oversee a nationally recognized mentoring program for minority students during his nearly 10 years at Montgomery County Community College’s West Campus in Pottstown, Penn., where he most recently served as Vice President.
Dr. Moono’s work to establish the Minority Student Mentoring Initiative is widely recognized. He is the recipient of the Yaffe-Smith Civil Rights Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Education and was named “Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate” by the National Resource Center. He was awarded the 2011 Innovation of the Year Award at Montgomery County Community College. He and his wife are deeply involved in a non-profit project in Zambia that concentrates on rural drip-irrigation projects.
In 2009, Dr. Moono co-authored a textbook titled Thriving in the Community College and Beyond (Strategies for Academic Success and Personal Development). In 2013, he published Rules of the Road: The Tonga Proverbs, with the goal of sharing with his children and others the traditions and rituals that he experienced growing up in southern Zambia.
Dr. Moono earned his Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership from Immaculata University, an M.A. in Counseling and Theology from the Biblical Theological Seminary, an M.A. in English from Arcadia University, and a B.A. in Education from Messiah College.
He began his tenure at Schenectady County Community College on July 1, 2015.
He and his wife Kelly have a son, Micah, and a daughter, Naomi.
