Innovations
It’s a pitch meeting on Music Row in Nashville, the center of the city’s music industry. Young people are presenting a complete package for a new rap artist, Malik Deshaun, known professionally as Vantage. They screen a video, show features of a website, discuss the social media pages they have created for the release, and run through a business plan. Then, it’s off to the listening room to play the tracks. The bass rumbles and the drum beats are sharp. Heads nod in the room in sync with the rhythm. But these aren’t Nashville music pros presenting—they’re students from Volunteer State...
Nearly 30 percent of high school juniors and seniors in Colorado participated in concurrent enrollment, ASCENT (Accelerating Students through Concurrent ENrollmenT), or other dual-enrollment programs during the 2014-2015 academic year.
Arapahoe Community College (ACC) served more students (3,614) than any other two-year institution in the state during that time. ACC’s concurrent enrollment program is designed for high school students looking for a challenging academic experience while simultaneously earning high school and college credit.
“Concurrent enrollment is a great way for students to...
As higher education evolves to accommodate new forms of learning and new workforce needs, skills are being assessed across an ever-widening range of activities within the learning landscape. Campus-based and online degree programs; professional certificates; competency-based education; open online courses; professional development initiatives; cocurricular and extracurricular activities; and programs in service learning, information literacy, and entrepreneurship are just some of the higher education settings in which competencies worth recognizing are demonstrated or observed. Digital badges...
Snead State Community College launched the College Completion Agenda in 2010 to encourage student success with the ultimate goal of earning an associate degree. The initiative became the one thing at the college that drives everything faculty and staff do to encourage student success.
Snead State was the first two-year college in Alabama to sign on to the College Completion Agenda, which developed out of a Call to Action signed by six key educational organizations: Phi Theta Kappa National Honor Society, American Association of Community College, Association of Community College Trustees,...
The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC), Maryland, is one of 20 community colleges nationally selected by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) to participate in the Right Signals Initiative designed “to identify and develop a national model for recognizable credentialing.”
According to the AACC announcement release,
The purpose of the Right Signals Initiative is to demonstrate a new credentialing model that recognizes multiple quality credentials to send “the right signals” to employers, students, and colleges about the meaning of these credentials. Key credentials...
Many studies have shown over the years, and leave little room for doubt, that increases in risk factors such as negative personal health practices (e.g., unhealthy eating, lack of exercise, sleep deprivation, drinking, smoking, coping with high levels of stress) have a direct correlation on workplace environment, productivity, absenteeism, and associated health care costs to a company (Shane & Kramer, 2004). SnowFit is a Snow College employee health and wellness program that combines the benefits of step counting and education on healthy lifestyle choices, with support at the workplace,...
San Jacinto College launched a collaborative course in the fall 2015 semester that incorporates algebra and English composition. The new course links college algebra and introductory composition, both gateway core courses for all students who plan to either earn associate degrees or transfer to universities.
“This is a novel concept at San Jacinto College,” commented Mark Johnson, North Campus language arts department chair.
The course explores the power of narrative in math and English. Give a person some facts and part of the brain lights up. Tell a person a story and the whole brain lights...
Students of color, males in particular, face significant challenges in higher education. African American male students, on average, are less successful than other racial/ethnic groups, including African American women. Compared to Asian/Pacific Islander or White/Non-Hispanic students, they are less likely to succeed in both developmental and college-level coursework and are more likely to drop out. Latino students are the least likely of all racial/ethnic groups to transfer. African American students and Latino males have the lowest persistence rates (Elgin Community College, 2010).
Students...
Tags:
Beginning with the spring 2016 semester, Mesa Community College (MCC) began offering an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Sustainable Agriculture—the first of its kind in Arizona.
The Sustainable Agriculture degree provides students with both the technical and small business skills needed to manage or develop a small farm or agricultural business. The program is focused on small scale and urban agriculture with an emphasis on natural practices and sustainability. Courses include Field Crop Production, Livestock Production, Aquaponics, Integrated Pest Management, and Agricultural...
Tags:
A number of promising interventions have potential to benefit previously incarcerated young men of color (Wimer & Bloom, 2014). Several studies have shown that proactive programs that help young men of color connect to and progress through postsecondary education and training, as well as interventions that focus on emotional well-being and interpersonal problem-solving, lead to lower rates of recidivism, higher completion rates, and greater levels of employment (Patel & Valenzuela, 2013; Scrivener & Weiss, 2013; Heller, Pollack, Ander, & Ludwig, 2013).
Thus, in conceptualizing...
Tags:
May
2016
Arapahoe Community College (ACC), in conjunction with WorldDenver, hosted an 18-person panel of ambassadors from the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program on Friday, Oct. 9, 2015. This endeavor was sponsored by the ACC Foundation.
The ambassadors were on campus to examine the community college business model, and, in particular, ACC’s role in facilitating business and industry partnerships through the College's Business Department (initiative to provide website/social media assistance to Denver-based Mi Casa clients) and Automotive Service Technology Program (on-...
Tags:
Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC), Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, has been serving the firefighting community through its 14-week fire academy—the only open enrollment career fire academy in Pennsylvania—since 1989.
Fire departments from across Pennsylvania send their newly hired firefighters to the Sen. John J. Shumaker Public Safety Center (PSC) at HACC to train alongside pre-service cadets. HACC has conducted an average of two fire academies each year, resulting in almost 300 career firefighter graduates.
In June 2015, HACC celebrated the graduation of eight cadets in its...
Tags:
The Fast Track to Manufacturing Program at Indian River State College is just what its name implies: quick, efficient, and effective training for manufacturing jobs. The two-year-old program has proved to be a valuable resource for companies throughout Florida’s four-county Treasure Coast and individuals wanting to gear up for employment as manufacturing rebounds on Florida’s East Coast.
One reason for the program’s success is involvement of the college’s Manufacturing Advisory Council, composed of manufacturers sharing real-world experience. In addition, Career Source Research Coast, a...
Tags:
A drone zips through the air at up to 35 miles an hour, sounding a bit like a lawn trimmer, far above the Volunteer State Community College (Vol State) campus in Gallatin, Tennessee. Criminal Justice director, Kevin Cook, is giving students a hands-on example of how the technology could be used by the good guys and the bad guys.
“You could fly this over a correctional facility and deliver a gun to an inmate. You could use it for drug trafficking,” Cook tells the students. His point is that unless law officers know what can be done with new technology, it could be used to commit crimes in new...
Tags:
March
2016
Community colleges throughout the United States serve students from a variety of backgrounds. Many of these students need assistance to successfully navigate the course enrollment and financial aid processes, and to complete their chosen degree or certification programs. Strong academic advisement is essential to students’ abilities to navigate course requirements, financial aid requirements, and degree expectations (Strayhorn, 2015). Structuring and implementing a strong advisement process requires a multifaceted, collaborative approach that includes input from advisement staff and faculty,...
Tags:
Last September, Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC) was awarded a Latino Americans: 500 Years of History grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Library Association (ALA). As one of 203 grant recipients selected from across the country, CGCC received an award of $10,000 to produce public programming about Latino history and culture.
Beginning last fall, CGCC began hosting a variety of program activities to engage students and the community about the history and cultural impact of Latinos in the United States. Activities featured a Latino American art...
Tags:
March
2016
Community colleges throughout the United States serve students from a variety of backgrounds. Many of these students need assistance to successfully navigate the course enrollment and financial aid processes, and to complete their chosen degree or certification programs. Strong academic advisement is essential to students’ abilities to navigate course requirements, financial aid requirements, and degree expectations (Strayhorn, 2015). Structuring and implementing a strong advisement process requires a multifaceted, collaborative approach that includes input from advisement staff and faculty,...
Tags:
This fall, Joliet Junior College (JJC) was recognized for its efforts in sustainability and awarded a bronze rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) earlier this summer.
The college was scored in four specific categories: planning and administration, engagement, operations, and academics. More than 40 JJC faculty and staff on the college’s Sustainability Committee representing departments and offices across the college (including its extended campuses) worked to gather all the...
Tags:
Tyler Hill, a Sierra College Electro Mechanical Engineering major from Lincoln, CA, got a job working for NCR Corporation in part because of his participation in the Hacker Lab Startup Hustle, a boot camp for entrepreneurs held in fall 2015. Students and Sacramento area entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply for the next Startup Hustle by March 17. Sierra College students can join Hacker Lab for $12 per month and participate in Startup Hustle for free.
When Sierra College and the Center for Applied Competitive Technologies joined Hacker Lab in establishing a maker and co-working space, it was...
Tags:
March
2016
Community colleges throughout the United States serve students from a variety of backgrounds. Many of these students need assistance to successfully navigate the course enrollment and financial aid processes, and to complete their chosen degree or certification programs. Strong academic advisement is essential to students’ abilities to navigate course requirements, financial aid requirements, and degree expectations (Strayhorn, 2015). Structuring and implementing a strong advisement process requires a multifaceted, collaborative approach that includes input from advisement staff and faculty,...
Tags:
