The online learning program continues to flourish at Allen Community College.
Regena Aye, dean for online learning, reported to board members that Spring 2017 showed an 81 percent success rate. Summer enrollment was stronger than expected with 1,166 students. Fall orientation opens July 21. In preparation for the fall semester the college has hired online adjunct instructors Valerie Jaffee and Penny Moylan.
Moylan is preparing to teach business law — a subject that appeals to pre-law students and business majors, she said.
She graduated from high school in Damascus, Md., and earned an undergraduate degree from Towson University. She moved to Topeka in 1982 to attend Washburn University, where she earned a law degree. Moylan has 17 years of private practice under her belt. For the last five years she has worked for the Kansas Supreme Court in the capacity of deputy disciplinary administrator. Litigation has brought Moylan to Iola in the past.
“It seems like a great town,” she said. “I like the location and it seems like a small town with big opportunities.”
ACC has presented Moylan with the opportunity to teach. That is a task she has never tackled before, although she has presented seminars throughout the state as part of the continuing education requirements of her profession.
“I am really excited about this opportunity,” she said. “I have heard a lot of great things about this college.”
Another first-time task Moylan is preparing for is an ultramarathon. She has run two marathons in Kansas City and numerous half-marathons in the past. She will run the the 50-mile race in 2018, the same year she turns 50. She is active in “Running Free,” a volunteer running program for inmates of the Topeka Correctional Facility. She also serves on the board of the Topeka Rescue Mission.
Moylan has a soft spot in her heart for the underprivileged, whether it be human or animal. She has both a rescue cat and a rescue dog. She also has a horse, but attributes that to her husband Dan, an investment manager.
“I am a city girl,” she said.
Topeka has offered her just the right mix of city and family values to keep her in Kansas for more than three decades.
“The quality of life is a lot better and the people are friendlier,” she said. “I was able to work part time when my (three) children were young, and I never would have been able to do that on the East Coast.”
IN CONTRAST, Valerie Jaffee grew up on the West Coast in a town 30 minutes southeast of San Francisco called Newark. She attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., where she earned two undergraduate degrees and a graduate degree. She holds a bachelor’s degree in aviation business administration and one in aeronautics. She holds a master’s degree in aviation.
She is a volunteer with the Civil Air Patrol.
“Volunteering with CAP is one of the most significant things I have done,” she said. “I joined as a young, shy 13-year-old and grew into a confident, assertive woman capable of leading groups of volunteers.”
Jaffee’s leadership experience will contribute to the human relations class that she will begin teaching in the fall.
She currently lives in Salina with her husband Ben, her son Alexander and her two dogs Jerry and Morgan. She is planning to visit Iola for the first time when she attends a professional development workshop at ACC next year.
