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Quinsigamond Community College: 50 Years of Educating Worcester's Guardian Protectors T hey are your nurses. They are your firefighters. They are your political leaders. They are your teachers. They are your friends, neighbors and co-workers. They are graduates of Quinsigamond Community College. As part of its 50th anniversary celebration, QCC is honoring 50 Guardians—men and women who were educated at QCC and now make Worcester, and the world, a better place. Named in honor of the College's mythical mascot, the Wyvern, who was the guardian protector of Worcester, England, the initiative has already identified 10 Guard- ians. These Guardians come from all walks of life and arrived at QCC with an array of goals and challenges. Some were already working full time and needed a flex- ible college environment. Some faced financial hurdles and needed an affordable alternative. Some took ad- vantage of English as a Second Language or Adult Ba- sic Education offerings as a means of entry. Still others weren't sure what sort of career they wanted, so start- ing out with just a couple classes at QCC provided the perfect testing ground. Today, they are all QCC alumni, with careers as di- verse as their backgrounds. Among them are an occupational therapist in the Worcester Public Schools, a youth librarian at the Worcester Public Library, the vice president of a medi- cal services company, a Massachusetts State Senator, a care coordinator in the emergency room at UMass Memorial Medical Center, an officer in the Worcester Police Department who is also a leader in Worcester's Latino community, the YWCA of Central Massachusetts' director of Women's Economic Empowerment Pro- gram, a business and office technology teacher at Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School, and a program officer for the Global Health, Discovery & Translational Sciences program at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. By year's end QCC will have honored 50 Guardians to symbolize 50 years of educating your nurses, firefight- ers, political leaders, teachers, friends, neighbors and co-workers to be "guardian protectors" of the city of Worcester, the Central Massachusetts area, and the world. Read their stories and make your own guardian nomination at 50Guardians.com.