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W
hen Nichole Golden was very
young, she was quite nervous
about visiting the dentist. Then, she
met a special dental assistant. “She
extended so much kindness and her
demeanor really helped me get over my
fears,” says Nichole. Years later, Nichole
decided that she too would become a
dental assistant.
Nichole began her studies at the New-
port News campus in January 2013
and has quickly established herself as a
leader. “She’s made a huge difference in
the Dental Assisting Club,” says Pro-
gram Director Maribeth Mojares. “When
she first joined the club, we only had five
or six members. Now, we have around
25 members. In class, she’s very dedi-
cated and always looking to help fellow
classmates.”
Nichole is President of both the Dental
Club and Phi Theta Kappa. Currently,
she is in the middle of her externship
and says that she is very excited to be
applying the skills she’s learned in the
classroom. “I love working with kids
and it’s just so rewarding to help them
relax when they’re scared,” she says.
“I try to show them all of our tools like
‘Mr. Thirsty’ – the saliva ejector – and
‘Mr. Squirt’ – the air-water syringe. I
love ECPI University and everything I’ve
learned here at Medical Careers Insti-
tute – but I am really looking forward to
graduation and beginning my career. The
last year or so has been such a positive
experience and everyone here has been
so supportive. I feel really good about
everything that I’ve done here and what
lies ahead!”
ECPI Students Win “Most Innovative” Award at Hackathon
A
team of three ECPI University students
from the Newport News and Virginia
Beach campuses has been honored with
the “Most Innovative Award” at Domin-
ion Enterprises’ 7th Annual Hackathon,
HACKU2. The two-day event, held at the
company’s headquarters in Norfolk, Vir-
ginia, is designed for students to gain real-
world software development experience
by collaborating and designing functional
games and apps. This year, teams were
tasked with designing and programming
working games, or game-themed apps
utilizing nationally recognized API’s (ap-
plication programming
interfaces).
Game and Simulation
students Kenneth Crim and
Adam Myers, along with
Web Development student
Justin Norman, developed a
new approach to authen-
ticating whether a user is
human or not. This has the
potential to replace the ex-
isting CAPTCHA (Complete-
ly Automated Public Turing
Test which tells Computer
and Humans
Apart) challenge-
response test method. Their
approach utilizes a smiley-
face, allowing the user to
select a particular image and
find its match on a scroll bar
to authenticate that they are
not a “bot” – thereby reducing
spam on a web site.
The Hackathon sponsor,
Dominion Enterprises, is a
leading marketing services and publishing
company serving the automotive,
recreational and commercial vehicle, real
estate, employment, parenting, and travel
industries. The company’s businesses
provide a comprehensive suite of technol-
ogy-based marketing solutions including
Internet advertising, lead generation, cus-
tomer relationship management, website
design and hosting, and data management
services.
Togba Liberty, Shawn Drake, Simon Bagreev, Justin Norman,
Adam Myers, Kenneth Crim
Nichole Golden: A Leader In and Out of the Classroom
Newport News Student Seeks to Make Dental Visits Less Scary