In an HCC Commencement address to her classmates, Tiffany Cavanaugh ’19 explained how serving as president of the Students on the Autism Spectrum Club had taught her to be an advocate for herself and others. “I learned how to use my voice, and show others that their voices are just as important,” she said. Not long after graduating, she was hired as a peer inclusion consultant for the Office for Students with Disabilities and Deaf Services, where she continues to use her voice for the benefit of HCC students. In this role, she pushed for the creation of a sensory friendly space where students can “relax and recover” from the often-overstimulating environments a college campus presents. “I am neurodivergent,” said Cavanaugh. “I am openly autistic and have an anxiety disorder as well. Growing up, there weren’t a lot of inclusive, sensory spaces that I could go to. I thought it would be beneficial, not only for our neurodivergent and disabled students, but for all students.” The multiroom Sensory Space on the first floor of Frost has adjustable lighting, bubblers, white noise machines, weighted blankets, a variety of seating options, earplugs, noise cancelling headphones, fidgets, coloring sheets, crafts, board games, free snacks, and more. “Students come for a variety of reasons,” said Cavanaugh, whose office is inside. “Some students like to study. Some come for the social aspect. We’ve even had some staff come in. It’s for anyone.”
Tiffany Cavanaugh ’19 in HCC’s Sensory Space
Hearing the Future
Most people are used to seeing Music Professor Bob Ferrier ’77 with a guitar in his hand. Not so much with a crown on his head. But, during a spring celebration of his 40th year teaching jazz at HCC, he played along with the joke and reluctantly put one on at the behest of the students and colleagues who came to pay tribute to the man who literally brought jazz instruction to the college in the 1980s. “When you think of all the people who have studied with him and been influenced by him, and had a love of music engendered by him, it’s really something, isn’t it?” Music Department Chair Elissa Brill Pashkin said before introducing Ferrier and the jazz guitar ensemble during the spring ensemble concert. “Even just the number of people who have had the chance to hear him play and experience that joy.” Ferrier, who studied music himself at HCC in the mid-70s, has been playing guitar since he was about 10 years old and started teaching at a Springfield music store as a teenager. “A lot of people teach because they don’t have enough gigs,” he said. “Some cats, they settle for teaching, but I always loved it. I knew at 16½. I knew that this was deep, this teaching thing, and it never wore off. It’s just as satisfying as playing to me.” When I teach, he said, “I’m hearing the future. I have this thing for supporting and nurturing along the future of guitar playing. And I love it. I never got sick of it.” Music to our ears.
Bob Ferrier ’77, with HCC music student Amy Scott ’23, wears a crown marking his 40th year teaching music at HCC.
On the (Cold) Case
Alum and cold case investigator Lou Barry teaches a criminology class at HCC.
Although HCC alum and Criminal Justice Professor Lou Barry ’73 makes no boasts about his musical talent — “none whatsoever” — he did make it into the Dec. 21, 2023, issue of Rolling Stone magazine. Barry, an Agawam native and retired Granby police chief, was interviewed by Rolling Stone investigative journalist Caitlyn Flynn for the story, “Her Daughter Disappeared. That’s When the True-Crime Nightmare Began.” Barry, a cold case investigator and owner of Harris Mountain Investigations LLC, had looked into the disappearance of 21-year-old Sofia Mckenna at the request of her mother, four years after various agencies had failed to solve the mystery. (In 2018, Mckenna and a friend set off in a small rowboat off the Connecticut coast; neither made it back. The friend’s body was recovered, but hers was never found, fueling internet speculation that she might have been abducted or the victim of a violent crime.) Spoiler Alert: Barry ultimately concluded that Mckenna probably drowned, as had her friend, her body carried away by currents. “Due to the influence of some on social media and a few exploitive podcasters, the case was under constant bombardment of different theories, none of which had any basis in anything except baseless speculation,” Barry said. “Once everything was clarified for her (Mckenna’s mother), she was able to accept the reality of the situation.”
Soul Exhaustion (and Care)
Sarah Gaer, after her fall 2023 presentation at HCC
The photos Sarah Gaer ’98 displays at the beginning of her presentations all show the same unhappy little girl, chin down, never smiling. Gaer understands this child’s sorrow and pain, because it’s her, born the daughter of a brilliant but violent and dangerous man who wound up in prison by the time she was 5. It wasn’t until years later, after graduating from HCC and earning a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling from Antioch New England University that she learned to describe the long-term effects of that trauma as “soul exhaustion.” Now, as a suicide preventionist, trauma responder, and author, Gaer travels the world talking about soul exhaustion as well as its remedy, “soul care.” “Soul Exhaustion takes a deeper exploration of life circumstances such as poverty, adverse childhood experiences, racism, trauma and loss, and burnout and the holistic impact it has on who we are,” she has written. Those experiences may be familiar to many community college students, she said last fall as the first guest in the HCC Alumni Association’s new Alumni Speaker Series. “I want to acknowledge that education is soul care,” she said during her talk. “Education is the opportunity for something better. Education is the opportunity to figure out the essence of who you are. Education allows you to make meaning out of the experiences you’ve had. If it wasn’t for Holyoke Community College, and later Antioch, I would never have been able to get out and fight for the things I fight for now.”
A MatchMade at HCC
They met as students, where they couldn’t help but get acquainted given their mutual interests and shared HCC activities — theater, Student Senate, Green Key Honor Society. He was a math major who went on to get his bachelor’s degree from UMass; she studied liberal arts and earned her bachelor’s from Hampshire College. On Oct. 1, 2023, Lucien Dalton’ 16 and Hannah Trobaugh ’16 got married. Lucien now works at HCC as a tutor in the Math Center and a supplemental math instructor, while pursuing his master’s degree. Hannah, daughter of HCC English professor Elizabeth Trobaugh, is at the University of Connecticut, working on her MFA in technical direction with a focus of engineering and puppetry. The couple officially started dating in the fall of 2016. “We bought a two-family house in South Hadley in March 2023,” Lucien reports. Many HCC-affiliated folks attended the nuptials, which were held at the Water’s Edge Resort and Spa in Westbrook, Conn., including, pictured below: the mother-of-the-bride (Professor Trobaugh); Kim Hicks, dean of Arts and Humanities; former students and alumni Aleeza Kropf, HCC simulation technician Andrew McMahon ’16, sister-of-the-bride Tess Trobaugh, brother-of-the-bride Gabe Trobaugh, Nina Devine, Lia Ashburn ’22, and Martha Whitting ’16 (formerly Martha King-Devine). That’s the bride in the yellow dress, third from the left, and the groom wearing the burgundy bow tie, far right.
Photo by Jefferson Apuzzo
Giving Voice to Untold Stories
The parents of Yanna Ok ’13 were part of the wave of Cambodian refugees who fled the Khmer Rouge genocide in the late 1970s and resettled in Amherst, Mass. With the help of local churches, schools, and the health department, the small college town rallied together to make the newcomers feel at home, providing resources and support. However, their harrowing stories of survival largely went untold publicly. As director of programming and digital content for Amherst Media, Oktook it upon herself to change that by spearheading a 2024 exhibit at the Amherst Historical Society. After securing grants, she interviewed elders and collected artifacts like traditional garments and her father’s intricate paintings. The result was “Cambodians in Amherst: A History of the Khmer Community,” an interactive multimedia experience that allows visitors to grasp the hardships and resilience of the Cambodian people. For Ok, who was recently promoted to interim executive director, the project held deeper meaning. While a student at HCC, she joined the Asian American Student Association, which helped her reconnect with her roots. “It made me fall in love with my culture even more,” she said.
Sokhen Mao, Joan Snowdon, Yanna Ok, Mick O’Connor, and Rebecca Fricke, all members of the exhibit committee, stand in front of the Amherst Historical Museum.
