(Butler, PA) A Butler County Community College student who while living in Nicaragua helped to create an association that assists the deaf and their families, and a recent graduate who overcame communication difficulties to teach university hockey club players to skate will receive a full-tuition scholarship toward completing a bachelor’s degree at a Pennsylvania public four-year institution of their choice.
Keily Tinoco, 19, of Cranberry Township, is a general studies student who expects to graduate debt-free from BC3 in May. She plans to transfer to Indiana University of Pennsylvania to pursue a bachelor’s degree in interior design.
Ian Moore, 19, of Butler, graduated debt-free from BC3 in December with an associate degree in business administration. He transferred in January to Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, where he is a junior pursuing bachelor’s degrees in finance, and in health care administration and management with a concentration in financial management.
Tinoco and Moore will receive a full-tuition scholarship as members of Phi Theta Kappa’s 2022 All-Pennsylvania Academic Team. Phi Theta Kappa is an international academic honor society for two-year colleges and programs.
“Both are exceptional scholars”
Tinoco is vice president of BC3’s Rho Phi chapter of Phi Theta Kappa for BC3 @ Cranberry. Moore served as Rho Phi vice president for BC3’s main campus. He also earned 12 college credits through BC3’s college programming while a senior at Knoch High School.
“Both are exceptional scholars,” said Amanda Fleming, primary adviser of Rho Phi and college business services specialist at BC3.
Tinoco and Moore have been named at least twice to BC3’s president’s list or to its dean’s list.
The All-Pennsylvania Academic Team is composed of students who are members of Phi Theta Kappa and enrolled in transfer programs at a Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges institution such as BC3. Students must also have earned a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.5 while completing at least 36 credits.
Advisers for Phi Theta Kappa chapters at Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges institutions annually nominate top students to the All-Pennsylvania Academic Team based on the students’ excellence in the classroom and dedication to their community college and communities.
“This led me to ask myself, ‘What can I do so that my uncle and the other people born similar to him can have an enjoyable life?’”
Keily Tinoco, 2022 All-Pennsylvania Academic Team
“It was always an issue with communication”
Tinoco, a native of Miami, and her family moved when she was 6 months old to Managua, capital of Nicaragua.
Nicaragua’s estimated deaf population of 600,000 “far exceeds” the estimates in surrounding countries, according to Elizabeth Parks in “The Deaf People of Nicaragua,” published in 2012 by SIL International.
Tinoco was 10 when she began to understand why her uncle Felix Arguello’s inability to hear left him sitting alone at birthdays, Christmas and other celebrations.
“He would just go in the back, or not go at all, because he did not have someone to speak with,” Tinoco said. “This led me to ask myself, ‘What can I do so that my uncle and the other people born similar to him can have an enjoyable life?’”
Moore was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at an early age, which made communication with others a challenge. Because of his Asperger’s syndrome, Moore said, whenever he began to play ice hockey at age 8, “There was always an issue of being able to communicate with my teammates.”
While pursing 15 credits in his final semester at BC3 last fall, Moore helped teach skating to women who wanted to play on a Slippery Rock University women’s hockey club coached by his father, Larry. His father asked for the assistance, recognizing that he would not have the time during practices to teach the new players the fundamentals of skating.
Tinoco and Moore also assisted with BC3’s Pioneer Pantry, Fleming said. Tinoco serves as vice president of BC3 @ Cranberry’s community involvement club and is a BC3 student ambassador.
“Both are very giving students,” Fleming said. “The community college draws students who want that community feel. And that’s what we offer here. It’s a big family, and they can give back to their community while going to school.”
“My idea was to teach sign language”
While living in Managua, Tinoco met friends of her uncle and others who were also deaf.
“We decided to create an association dedicated to teaching Nicaraguan sign language to the deaf and their families and society,” Tinoco said. “My idea was to teach sign language, but I also wanted to develop projects that allow deaf people to access education, jobs or businesses and fulfill their aspirations.
“In general, these people are overlooked in their families, so they fall into depression many times.”
Tinoco learned sign language at 14 and helped to found the Missionary Association of the Deaf and Interpreters of Nicaragua, which today serves at least 50 deaf people and their families, she said.
Upon leaving her mother Kally Arguello and brother William Tinoco in Nicaragua at 16 to pursue education in the United States, Tinoco was named a goodwill ambassador for the association in Nicaragua.
"(BC3 faculty) gave me the confidence to be a leader.”
Ian Moore, 2022 All-Pennsylvania Academic Team
“I just love this place”
Tinoco lived with a host family in Florida and graduated from Santaluces Community High School in Lantana in 2020. That fall, she moved to live with a second host family, in Butler County, and enrolled at BC3 @ Cranberry.
“I just love this place,” Tinoco said. “They care. I feel like they care.”
BC3, Moore said, “has helped me in so many ways, whether it be teachers talking with me one-on-one about my career goals or just learning from their wonderful teaching. They gave me the confidence to be a leader.”
The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education has funded scholarships for Phi Theta Kappa’s selections to its All-Pennsylvania Academic Team since 2001.
Rho Phi was established at BC3 in 1968. Its new members must have a grade-point average of at least 3.5.
“You need to … keep on pushing forward”
BC3 students who have achieved a cumulative grade-point average of 3.75 or higher are named to the president’s list and those with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.5 to 3.74 are named to the dean’s list following completion of at least 12 semester hours or upon completion of degree requirements.
The Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges plans to recognize members of the 2022 All-Pennsylvania Academic Team by video in late April.
Moore first helped teach the five new players on the hockey club how to stand on the ice wearing skates, then progressing to learn the basics of skating forward and backward.
“Many of them were embarrassed when they fell,” Moore said. “I told them that this is a good life lesson. When you get knocked down … you need to get back up and keep on pushing forward.”
The players Moore helped learn to skate were part of a Slippery Rock University club that finished in first place with a 5-1 record during the regular season in the Delaware Valley College Hockey Conference Division III. The team lost 11-6 in the championship to St. Joseph’s University on Feb. 20 at the Delaware State Fairgrounds.