Innovations
The League for Innovation prides itself on recognizing innovation and excellence in the community college. Colleges and institutions across the U.S. and abroad demonstrate their dedication to students and communities, and the following awards attest to the League’s support for the daily efforts of faculty, staff, administrators, and students.
League Awards
2018 Riegelman Awards for Excellence in Public Health & Health Navigation Education in Community Colleges: Open through October 31, 2017
2017 John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Awards: Open through December 15, 2017
2017 Terry O’...
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It is a glaring truth. No matter how broad the scientific research or how far academia have reached to date, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields have been and remain a man’s world. Although there have been some changes in the last few decades, for the most part, women and minorities still face disparities (Office of Science and Technology Policy and Office of Personnel Management, 2016).
There are many negatives associated with women and minorities’ limited participation in STEM fields, such as repression of creativity, loss of true innovation (Del Giudice, 2014), lower...
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At 19, Dalton Sasin’s wizardry with a welding wand is taking him places. In July, he began a 20-week specialized welding training program in Port Arthur with Cheniere Energy, who recruited him right out of high school. “It’s extra training that’s going to help me down the road, so I’m looking forward to it,” said Sasin, who learned to weld in classes at Ingleside High School. “I’m glad I went into the program. Now I’m getting a career out of it.”
Once he completes the Cheniere training, which he said pays $23.50 per hour plus a $60 per diem, Sasin plans to complete his associate’s degree in...
September
2017
Play isn’t the first word you think of when you consider earning a college degree. This is serious business, people! Settle down and get to work. Put your nose to the grindstone (whatever that is), shoulder your burdens, gut it out, accept the yoke (again—what does this mean to our students who may not even know what an oxen team is let alone know how to yoke them together). We seem to throw out a lot of images and phrases that may or may not have encouraged us as students oh-so long ago when we pontificate to students about the intrinsic value of hard work. And while learning to work hard...
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August
2017
Performance funding certainly works in industry. Commission is a proven formula for motivating sales professionals to go out and establish new territories and secure and maintain customers. The bonus system works well in a manufacturing environment, too. Paying work crews additional money for a certain number of accident-free days or incentivizing early project completion can be a sound investment that motivates workers to increase productivity safely and share in the rewards of that efficiency.
The general concept of performance funding has been introduced into the higher education world by...
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August
2017
If any one leg-up boost could be bottled and sold to help new faculty become more comfortable in their roles in college teaching, the best seller would be mentoring. Receiving help—solicited or not—from a colleague who has already experienced what new faculty are encountering can be priceless. From the mundane to the critical, mentors can make the difference between faculty surviving and thriving. Between sticking it out only long enough to secure a better gig and digging in to become a staunch advocate for generations of students. Supporting faculty creates supported, successful students....
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Community College of Allegheny County’s Fire Volunteer Education, Service, and Training Scholarship (FireVEST) program is now in its eighth year. More than 330 Allegheny County volunteer firefighters have participated in this recruitment and retention program. These scholarship recipients serve in 136 of the county’s 187 volunteer fire departments. The only program of its kind in the state, FireVEST is a unique partnership between CCAC, the Allegheny County Executive, and the Allegheny County Fire Academy. Individuals enrolled in the program receive a full scholarship to any associate degree...
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August
2017
A fascinating part of working in an academic setting at San Jacinto College is that I am surrounded by incredibly intelligent, driven people. Faculty and administrators devoted years of their lives to formal study in their discipline; and students are motivated to emulate these intellectuals and chart their own course. In any given day, I may hear faculty, as subject matter experts seriously debating the current political climate, discussing the upcoming baseball season, explaining the chemical combinations of fast food, or considering the modern need for ancient philosophical treatises. All...
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August
2017
Initiatives are a way of life in education. In institutions run by thinkers and creative types, we jump at the chance to experiment and try new things. We’re the ones who liked playing school so much we stayed in as long as they would let us and then came back to spend our professional lives on a campus. It’s in our blood, and the constant movement of new faces, eager minds, and fascinating disciplines keep us charged up. At San Jacinto College, we realize that these are exciting times to be in education. We’re also careful not to over-extend our people. The possibility of initiative overload...
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Since the launch of the American Graduation Initiative in 2009, the call to increase college graduation rates and to create a better educated workforce for the jobs of the future has become nearly universal. According to Former President Obama, speaking at the University of Texas on August 9, 2010, “in a single generation, [the U.S. has] fallen from first place to 12th place in college graduation rates for young adults" (as cited in de Nies, 2010, para. 3). He advocated for America to “once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world” by 2020 (as cited in Fry, 2017,...
August
2017
Does unintentional plagiarism exist? In a college setting, this question is rather significant. Some purists would claim that it does not exist. Plagiarism is plagiarism. Period. It’s wrong. Everyone knows it’s wrong. As with horseshoes and grenades, there is no almost. As such, so claims this totalitarian approach, all instances of plagiarism must be punished severely.
I wholeheartedly agree with the wrong part. Intentionally taking the intellectual work of another and passing it off as your own is a crime akin to forgery, counterfeiting, and theft. And it is egregious. I do not accept...
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Today’s employers know that skilled workers don’t grow on trees. Sometimes, you have to grow your own talent.
With rapid advances in technology, job titles like Smartphone Application Developer and Patient Care Technician simply didn’t exist a decade ago, so qualified candidates are few.
Employers scrambling to find workers with the right stuff often turn to Norwalk Community College (NCC) in Norwalk, Connecticut. That’s because NCC tracks industry trends and readily deploys associate degree and certificate programs to produce workers who can hit the ground running.
Employers serve on the...
As part of the reaffirmation process of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, Wake Technical Community College launched a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) initiative based on best practices in eLearning. The goal of the eLearning Preparedness Initiative across the College (EPIC) is to remove learning barriers and better support online student learning, persistence, and success. A broad cross-functional and multidisciplinary team of faculty and staff developed and implemented eLearning Quality Standards, an online student orientation, and a faculty...
July
2017
Remember the story about the little girl who was tossing stranded starfish back into the ocean? She was frantically running and tossing when the allegedly wise adult tells her: “Look at this beach. You can’t begin to make a difference.” Undeterred, she picked up another, tossed it in, and said, “Made a difference to that one.”
We’re a bit like that little girl at San Jacinto College. We don’t heed the criticism of others who tell us we’re trying to save too many students or do too much, or trying too many new ways to help students succeed. In fact, we’d rather them get out of our way instead...
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July
2017
Flexibility is the new black, or so it seems. We want products and services when we want them—no matter when that is. Online shopping is a 24/7 endeavor. Instructions, forms, explanations, and often the ability to pay electronically are the norm for everything from federal taxes to hotel reservations. Higher education institutions are joining this limber game to make going to college as barrier free as possible.
One concept that is gaining much national attention is competency-based or personalized learning. Anyone who engaged in what used to be called an independent study course knows the...
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Communication faculty often have a unique opportunity to hear students’ own stories. These stories permeate the work of learning public speaking. Faculty members at Pellissippi State Community College recently launched In Our Words, a public forum in which students share their stories with audiences beyond the public speaking classroom. Public speaking generally benefits both speaker and audience, and In Our Words certainly does that. Benefits also extend to the Communication Studies department and other areas of the college.
Process
Pellissippi State has, for years, had a robust faculty...
June
2017
Clutter is a topic that divides people much as mustard on hot dogs or catsup on eggs. We have camps of believers who rarely even attempt to cross over to the other side to look for mutual ground. Some claim a cluttered office calms them and helps them think. And other see clutter as a mess that wastes both time and energy. I fall into the latter group—I’m sentimental about homemade gifts my grown children created as youths and a few old photographs, but even those are rather well organized.
I don’t do clutter, but I know a lot of faculty who do, and I’ve theorized as to why academics often...
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We live in a digital age, so we may assume that digital is always better. But that isn’t necessarily the case when it comes to audio recording. The new recording studio at Volunteer State Community College is state-of-the-art analog. Another room has home studio equipment. That may seem strange at a college with yet another studio that is fully digital and fully automated. The reason is simple: learning.
“The vision for our process is to have three different recording environments,” said Entertainment Media Production Director, Steve Bishir.
The original studio has a fully-digital, fully-...
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May
2017
Can you teach creativity? That question opens up many debates that resound throughout all levels of education. Some claim that individuals either are or are not creative and that no amount of exposure, practice, or direct instruction will make those nons more creative. In fact, it may frustrate them to the point of quitting all together.
Perhaps you’ve heard the possibly apocryphal stories that Einstein wasn’t brilliant in grammar school, Disney’s first drawings were rejected, and that McCartney wasn’t allowed to take music in school for an apparent lack of talent. So if these titans were...
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In 2012, the League established the John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Awards to celebrate outstanding contributions and leadership by community college faculty and staff. These awards are open to League Board and Alliance member institutions, and each year’s recipients are recognized in a series of activities and promotions, and honored at special events at the League's Innovations Conference each spring.
The 2016 Excellence Award recipients were recognized at the Innovations Conference in San Francisco, CA, March 12-15, 2017. Special events included an exclusive Excellence Awards...
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