As the holiday season draws closer, many consumers will turn to online stores to shop, entering credit card numbers and other personal information in the process.

According to Forrester Research, Inc., online retail sales in the U.S. will reach nearly $52 billion this holiday season, a 16 percent increase over last year’s weak numbers.

A literature course built around living Oklahoma authors will be offered during the first half of the spring semester.

Taught by OCCC English Professor Bertha Wise, Contemporary Oklahoma Writers is being offered through the Oklahoma City Downtown College, said Director Gus Pekara.

This class will meet from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Thursday evenings in the Ronald J. Norick Library at 300 Park Ave. in downtown Oklahoma City.

Kelly Ramsey, Parent Information and Resource Center, said she has focused her career on working with parents to help educate their children. She spoke on campus Nov. 18 to a small crowd about the need to be a partner with the schools to get the best results.

“It is important for a parent to be involved with their children from cradle to college,” she said. There are several programs available to help children succeed in reading, writing and arithmetic, but without a parent’s involvement, the success rate of children drops dramatically.

Ramsey has 25 years of experience in the child development field.

Business major Andrée Duckworth, 30, is different, although by all appearances she’s just another OCCC student.

What separates Duckworth from most students on campus is she is homeless.

Unfortunately, Duckworth is not the only homeless student on campus or in the U.S., said Barbara Duffield, policy director for the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, in an e-mail interview with the Pioneer.

“There are not any statistics on the number of college students who experience homelessness,” Duffield wrote. “The only number we can share is the number of students who indicate a homeless status when they fill out the FAFSA (the federal financial aid form).”

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Norman rock band Scissor has but one goal, “Keep good music alive.”

For more than three years, singer Eric Welch and drummer Jacob Reynolds have been doing just that.

The two OCCC students, along with bandmates Tommy Grotts and Jon Smith, have already seen success in their quest for music’s immortality, winning The Wire student radio’s Battle of the Bands Nov. 12 at the University of Oklahoma.

Scissor’s definition of success, however, differs from the majority.

The students who have seen her on campus this semester know her as Camille Ford-Atkins.

But to the Oklahoma City community and surrounding areas, she is known by her roller derby alter ego, Camie-Kazee.

Ford-Atkins, a pre-nursing student, has just completed her rookie year in roller derby with the Oklahoma Victory Dolls. She said she loves the thrill of competition.

The next documentary project for Professor Greg Mellott and his students in the film and video program will begin shooting in the spring.

It will be based on the book “The Grand Energy Transition” by Robert A. Hefner III.

Hefner is a lifetime natural gas explorer, and the documentary will be about his life and his book.

Often times we wonder what our professors are like outside the classroom. What exactly do they do in their time off from teaching hundreds of students every day? One OCCC professor uses his time outside of the classroom just as he does in it, spreading knowledge.

Charles Jaronek, science and math adjunct professor at the college, is in the process of adding the final touches on his book “The Giving Trees.”

Jaronek’s book covers the contributions to society made by the many different minority groups within America.

The book delves into the history of each minority group.

African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Native-Americans are the main subjects of the book as he covers an extensive history of their influence in our society today.

“The Giving Trees” has been in the works for approximately two years, Jaronek said. However, the idea came to him about 20 years ago when he completed his dissertation over the perceptions of minority contributions.

OCCC choirs will help bring in the holiday spirit as they take the stage at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7, at Wilmont Place Baptist Church located at 6440 S Santa Fe Ave. The concert is free and open to the public, said music Professor Ron Staton.

The symphonic, concert, and chamber choirs will each have their own performance at the concert and the entire program will last between 60 and 90 minutes.