Sinclair Community College student Jeffery Gerken has been quite busy since his arrival in 2006.<\/p>\n
Gerken\u2019s hard work paid off last month when he was named to USA Today\u2019s 2010 All-USA Community College Academic Team. Administered by Phi Theta Kappa, more than 1,500 students from 856 community colleges were nominated. Twenty students were awarded based on \u201cleadership, service and academic excellence,\u201d according to USAToday.com.<\/p>\n
Along with winning a spot on the All-Academic team, Gerken, a 43-year-old Surgical Tech major, was one of 50 students around the country honored with the New Centuries Scholar award at the ceremony held in Seattle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis award is not reflective as to my personal accomplishments because none of it would be possible without the help of my advisors, fellow students, the faculty at Sinclair \u2026 every one who supports Phi Theta Kappa,\u201d he said. \u201cI look at that award that represents the Sinclair community and its overall achievements.\u201d<\/p>\n
As president of the Sinclair chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, Jeffery Gerken has led various community projects. When he joined Phi Theta Kappa in 2007, Gerken wanted to find a way to distinguish his time at the college.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to separate myself from these 20-something year olds I was going to graduate with,\u201d Gerken said. \u201cI figured if I had a designation on my transcript and a little seal on my diploma that would be something I could put on my resume.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn high school, I used to beat these kids up,\u201d Gerken joked.<\/p>\n
No colon, no problem<\/strong><\/p>\n In 2005, Gerken was diagnosed with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP). FAP is a rare condition characterized by the presence of more than hundreds or even thousands of benign polyps, or growths in the large intestine. After FAP was discovered, Gerken\u2019s colon was removed.<\/p>\n \u201cI was on an ostomy for seven months while everything healed,\u201d he said. \u201cThey connected the small intestine to the rectum and everything was hooked back up. That was a wild ride.\u201d<\/p>\n Gerken said the care that he received while in the hospital directed him toward the medical field.<\/p>\n \u201cFriendly, smiling faces no matter what was going on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n After recovering, he decided it was a perfect time to come back to Sinclair.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was at that point that if I ever got the opportunity to go back to school, I was going to get in some form of health care,\u201d Gerken said.<\/p>\n Back to class<\/strong><\/p>\n Gerken, who graduated from Carroll High School in 1985, enrolled at Sinclair in the fall of 2006 after recovering from FAP and has since earned a 3.74 grade point average.<\/p>\n \u201cI came (to Sinclair) with a fear of failure,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I graduated high school, I graduated with a 1.5 GPA. It was because I didn\u2019t apply myself. I knew what I didn\u2019t do in high school and I swore that I was going to do everything opposite of that when I came to college.\u201d<\/p>\n Gerken is set to graduate with an associate\u2019s degree in Surgical Technology this spring and plans to pursue a degree in Nursing when he moves on to a four-year university this summer. Gerkan said he has received offers from a number of schools, but he\u2019s not picky.<\/p>\n \u201cIf someone offers me a full ride in Kansas, I don\u2019t care,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve pretty much decided I\u2019d go anywhere right now if I can get a full ride.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sinclair Community College student Jeffery Gerken has been quite busy since his arrival in 2006. Gerken\u2019s hard work paid off last month when he was named to USA Today\u2019s 2010 All-USA Community College Academic Team. Administered by Phi Theta Kappa, more than 1,500 students from 856 community colleges were nominated. Twenty students were awarded based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[1178,1272,1181,1179,14,1180,1177],"class_list":["post-4904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-all-academic","tag-joseph-stueve","tag-kappa","tag-phi","tag-sinclair","tag-theta","tag-usa-today"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-1h6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4904"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4941,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4904\/revisions\/4941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}