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 each 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 from BC3 in May and then transfer to Indiana University of Pennsylvania to pursue a bachelor’s degree in interior design.

Ian Moore, 19, of Butler graduated from BC3 in December with an associate degree in business administration. He transferred in January to Slippery Rock University, 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.

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.

“Both are exceptional scholars,” said Amanda Fleming, primary adviser of Rho Phi and college business services specialist at BC3.

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 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.

Tinoco, a native of Miami, and her family moved when she was 6 months old to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.