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New president takes the reins at MCCC By ReBeKaH SCHrOeDer
RHS girls’ soccer player Kara Keating takes the ball upfield during a game against Princeton last year.
Keating creates chaos on the field for RHS girls’ soccer By RICH FISHer
In performing a search for the term “organized chaos” the definition that surfaces is “A complex situation or process that appears chaotic while still having enough order to achieve progress or goals.” Robbinsville High girls soccer coach Caitlin Curran reduces that meaning to just two words—Kara Keating.
“She’s so confident and so calm, cool, collected and in the same sense it’s chaotic,” Curran said. “There will be times where she will be all over the field running left, right, everywhere, and it seems chaotic. Yet there’s a calm at the same time; you’re not worried that she’s doing it because that’s how she does it well. “It’s organized chaos and she creates chaos for the other team because she doesn’t stop. If I had to
mark her, I’d be miserable.” The senior midfielder laughed when informed of that description. She first explained the chaos. “I think it’s just because of how much I love the game,” Keating said. “I get so passionate about it, and always want to be where the ball is, or getting the ball to a better position to score. I think that’s what makes me stay so chaotic.” See KEATING, Page 12
It was while teaching a writing class for college students who were almost the same age as she was that the 21-year-old Deborah Preston discovered not just her calling, but also plenty of use for her theater degree. Although she had changed her career path from acting to academia, the valuable stage skills she learned helped to shape her perspective in numerous leadership positions. Throughout more than 30 years of experience and service, Preston has studied the psychology of others’ motivations and frustrations as if preparing for a character. As she steps into a starring role as Mercer County Community College’s seventh president, she says she wants to figure out productive solutions for both the audience and the people behind the curtain. MCCC, which has campuses in West Windsor and Trenton, announced in April that Preston would be succeeding the nearly seven-year term of previous president, Dr. Jianping Wang. After starting on July 1, Preston sat down with U.S. 1 to talk about her background and goals. Prior to accepting the MCCC position, Preston was the provost and vice president of academic affairs at Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg. She also acted as the chief academic officer throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to MCCC, Preston was instrumental in the Access2Success project at RVCC, which “addressed the equity gap for students of color, first-generation students and lowincome students” as part of her commitment to the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion. She says she hopes to expand those same practices at MCCC, bringing to the position what she has learned from developing, managing and overseeing a range of initiatives in community colleges. Preston grew up in Georgia, spending most of her life in the south until she attended college and worked in other states. After being employed for 11 years at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, she came to New Jersey for RVCC. “It’s really an interesting migration for me,” Preston says. “I love it here. It’s been a much easier transition than I ever thought it would be.” Preston started out with aspirations of becoming an actress and earned a bachelor’s degree in theater from Florida State University. Although she “accidentally” finished in only three years, Preston no longer felt content painting sets or doing vocal exercises in the highly competitive atmosphere. She wanted to try another field, one that was steadier and more reliable. As a 21-year-old college graduate, Preston returned to FSU for a postgraduate degree as a way of “buySee PRESTON, Page 8
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