{"id":9760,"date":"2014-03-10T09:39:13","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T14:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=9760"},"modified":"2014-03-10T09:39:13","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T14:39:13","slug":"tartan-alumni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2014\/03\/10\/tartan-alumni\/","title":{"rendered":"Tartan Alumni"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"71R-B1+GLeL\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sinclair Community College is the home of several alumni, some of which sought after higher education, while others went directly into the workforce. To recognize these individuals, the Clarion speaks with various graduates about their lives after Sinclair.<\/p>\n

Dan Baker and his wife Gwen Nalls are both Sinclair graduates, and have recently published a book called, \u201cBlood in the Streets \u2014 Racism, Riots and Murders in the Heartland of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said it is about the Dayton community during the civil rights movement.<\/p>\n

Baker said that Dayton has always been a segregated area with the river separating the west side from the rest of the city.<\/p>\n

When the city exploded into riot in 1966, it took 1,000 national guardsmen and 500 police officers patrolling an eight square mile area to keep things under control, according to Baker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what the story captures \u2014 it goes through the period of the turmoil of the riots and the desegregation efforts and its impacts on society \u2026 and against all this, there\u2019s a serial killer that goes on and on for years,\u201d Baker said. \u201cThe story is based on actual events and it\u2019s told in a novel format. It\u2019s not a textbook and it\u2019s not a history book, it\u2019s a story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baker graduated from the law enforcement program at Sinclair, pursued a bachelors degree from the University of Dayton, and later, a masters degree in counseling. He also pursued a license in mental health counseling. He worked on the Dayton Police Department for 25 years, commanded the Violent Crime Bureau and the Hostage Negotiation Team. He offered his insight as a police officer during the book-writing process, and acts as a character in the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt times, it\u2019s kind of a rough story,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s written from a police officer perspective through the riots and in those days when I was a young rookie police officer, we weren\u2019t really prepared or trained for what was about to happen in America. Nowhere was really prepared, quite honestly, in policing. It\u2019s kind of a rough and gritty story in some places. [However] the real message of the story is [that] there is redemption; the story moves through the coming together of people, so it\u2019s not just a negative police story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nalls studied securement and materials management at Sinclair. She pursued degrees from the University of Dayton, Central Michigan University and Salmon P. Chase College of Law, and earned her doctorate degree and license in law. Today she is a licensed attorney. She offers her insight as an African-American woman living in Dayton during the time period when the book takes place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is unique about this book is that it is coming from personal experiences; living through it, working through it, being educated in the whole scenario as it unfolded during the 1965 through 1975 era,\u201d Nalls said. \u201cIt talks about the cultural experiences of the black people in the community. It talks a lot about the churches [and] the meetings and discussions and rallies, and how black people communicated, what they were communicating, how they actually survived through the era.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Baker and Nalls agree that Sinclair set them up for success, and highly support the college in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI credit a lot of my background success to the education I received at Sinclair,\u201d Nalls said. \u201cIt was a very enjoyable experience for me because it catered to my ability to work during the day, go to school during the night and be taught by people who were professionals in the industry and could take [required courses] and bring them to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baker said Sinclair made a difference in his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad I not gone to Sinclair and gained my confidence there and learned like I did from the people who worked and taught, I would not have gone on,\u201d he said. \u201cIt made a huge difference in my life and it certainly made a big difference in my earning ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information about their book, visit forensicpublications.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sinclair Community College is the home of several alumni, some of which sought after higher education, while others went directly into the workforce. To recognize these individuals, the Clarion speaks with various graduates about their lives after Sinclair. Dan Baker and his wife Gwen Nalls are both Sinclair graduates, and have recently published a book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":[],"class_list":["post-9760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"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-2xq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9760","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9761,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9760\/revisions\/9761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}