Innovations
April
2014
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April
2014
On the second floor of an otherwise unassuming office building in Bellevue, WA, Donna Hudson is leading a lecture on environment and community. It's the type of scene you'd expect to see in a movie depicting college life: The professor asks a question of the class and in short order, a lively discussion is underway that quite possibly brings up more questions than are asked. It's the kind of student-teacher rapport most of us rarely get to experience—let alone on a regular basis.
As class progresses, however, it becomes clear that this class is more than just a picture-perfect college...
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April
2014
From left: Brett Mellington, LEDA Manager, Business Development and LCTCS Board member; Bud Barrow, CEO, Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center; Kathy Bobbs, CEO, Regional Medical Center of Acadiana and Women's & Children's Hospital; Laurie Fontenot, Dean of Nursing, Allied Health, and Safety, SLCC; David Callecod, President/CEO, Lafayette General Health; Dr. Natalie Harder, Chancellor, SLCC
A new program at South Louisiana Community College (SLCC) will help fill a growing need within Acadiana's healthcare industry. SLCC administrators, along with the Lafayette Economic Development...
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April
2014
While many people dream of turning their good idea into a bestselling product, Colfax High School engineering and design students are off to a quick start because their Fast Forward ski sensor idea is going through the design process with Quirky. The New York based company makes invention accessible by reviewing as many as 4,000 ideas per week from inventors all over the world, and using a community selection and development process to bring the best ideas to market. A limited number of the ideas make it through the first stage so being chosen for evaluation by Quirky was a rare honor for...
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March
2014
In 2009, the Northwest College of Houston Community College (HCC) proposed the development of a Center for Entrepreneurship in response to local business leaders who requested assistance in reviving an economically declining area of town. The leaders sought ways to create jobs and revitalize the local business community. Seven key strategies were developed to address this challenge:
The creation of strategic partnerships with key economic drivers: management districts, chambers, Community Development Financial Institutions, Greater Houston Partnership, Houston Minority Supplier Development...
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March
2014
The energy and passion is palatable to anyone who tours Sacramento Hacker Lab, a place where entrepreneurs, hobbyists, students, artists, retirees, and corporate employees mix, inspire, and produce in incubator offices and hands-on fabricating space. Models, custom parts, video game characters, and aquaponics system components are being made on a professional level 3D printer thanks to the Sierra College Center for Applied Competitive Technology (CACT), based in Rocklin, CA.
The Sierra Community College District covers Placer, Nevada, and parts of Sacramento County, and stretches from...
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February
2014
As colleges strive to improve student success and completion, helping students delay pregnancy and parenting (or having additional children) means one less factor that can interfere with their college education. However, pregnancy planning and prevention is not something most community colleges have addressed. Free resources are now available for colleges, including three short and easy-to-use online lessons that have been shown to improve students' knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intent when it comes to preventing unplanned pregnancy.
Unplanned Pregnancy and College Completion
Unplanned...
2014
This document in the final report of the League for Innovation's Community Colleges and Public Health Project, published in fall 2014. It provides background on the role of community colleges in education for public health and provides two broad curricular models for community college certificate and degree programs, including "Public Health Generalist and Specializations" and "Health Navigators." The project was initiatied in partnership with the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) Framing the Future task force.
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2014
Beginning in fall 2011, as part of a three-year Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant-funded intervention, nine urban, small town, and rural U.S. community colleges were selected to adopt a Facebook-based application, known as Schools App, for limited use by invited students, staff, faculty, and administrators.
This report on the Getting Connected Project provides an overview of this research, which was the first longitudinal research study to use real-time data generated by the users of Schools App to examine how commuter-based community colleges attempt to use social media technology...
2014
Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC) recently celebrated the grand opening of the Coyote Center, a new multi-functional facility serving as the front door of CGCC's Pecos Campus. The new 74,859-square-foot center is one of just a few buildings in the nation to innovatively blend academics, athletics, enrollment services, and student affairs into one location.
The building was designed around a new model of student service that eliminates inefficiencies, like waiting in multiple lines. By combining most administrative resources under one roof and training staff to handle a broader range...
December
2013
Lone Star College System (LSCS) is joining colleges across Texas to encourage students to successfully complete their educational goals through participation in the Commit to Complete initiative. This initiative was created as part of Texas Completes, which brings together three community colleges and five community college systems—Alamo Colleges, Austin Community College, Dallas County Community College District, El Paso Community College, Kilgore College, Lone Star College System, Odessa College, and South Texas College—with a common vision to rethink college practices, transform community...
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December
2013
I don't blow a whistle, wear a jersey, or give pep talks in a locker room, but I am a coach--an instructional coach. The players are the teachers at a community college, the field is the classroom, and I help a team to practice teaching methods that engage students and improve academic success. Instructional coaches are on-site professional developers who work collaboratively with teachers, empowering them to incorporate research-based instructional methods into their classrooms (Knight, 2007). Interest in coaching has grown dramatically in the last ten years with school districts and states...
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December
2013
The Great Ideas for Teaching (GIFT) Center and the Teaching & eLearning Support (TeLS) team at Yavapai College recently ran a very unique professional development challenge that included Ben and Jerry's ice cream and generated over 300 pages of writing from faculty in just nine weeks!
In a nutshell, the two centers challenged the college faculty to write 25 sentences a week about teaching and learning for nine consecutive weeks. Out of about 300 possible full time and adjunct faculty, 17 rose to the challenge.
The faculty who signed up were asked to write the words online, where they...
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November
2013
The Centre of Excellence for Clean Energy Technology (Energy House) at the Dawson Creek Campus of Northern Lights College (NLC) in northeastern British Columbia has achieved LEED® Platinum certification by the Canada Green Building Council.
With the certification, Energy House becomes one of only a few dozen LEED Platinum buildings in the New Construction and Major Renovation category in Canada.
NLC Regional Facilities Manager, Murray Armstrong, andPresident and CEO, Laurie Rancourt, with LEED Platinum plaque.
According to the certification review report completed in June by the Canada Green...
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November
2013
The curtain rose in July on another Front Range Family Theatre production, and this year's production of Jackie and the Beanstalk at Front Range Community College (FRCC) brought total attendance to these summertime productions to nearly 20,000 children and adults since 2004.
Student Giovanni Martelli (Jackie) sells the family cow in a productionof Jackie and the Beanstalk.
Family theater is just one example of outreach activities central to the strategic priorities of FRCC, the largest community college in Colorado with campuses in Fort Collins, Longmont, and Westminster, and a learning...
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October
2013
Delta College, located in Central Michigan, is renovating its Health Professions Building with financial support from the State of Michigan and generous donors. The $20 million renovation will support new instructional methodologies and technologies by updating the facility that was built in the late 1970s. In keeping with its commitment to sustainability, Delta College is seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for the building.
"We are confident we'll achieve LEED silver certification of the renovation, but we're still striving for the higher gold...
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