2009 Innovation of the Year Award Winners

Author: 
League for Innovation
May
2009
Volume: 
4
Number: 
5
Innovation Showcase
Established 27 years ago, the League's Innovation of the Year Award was devised as a way to recognize significant innovations reflecting capstone achievements and the continuing renewal of the spirit of innovation and experimentation upon which the League was founded. The award is designed to recognize faculty, staff and administrators at member colleges who have designed and implemented a significant innovation. Granting this award provides a venue for showcasing these innovations and the dedicated community college educators who are working to create new programs, improve processes, and enhance the opportunities available in their communities.

Criteria

Selection of award recipients is based on the following criteria established by the League:

  • Quality. Students and/or staff agree that the innovation increases quality in the course, program, office, or institution.
  • Efficiency. The innovation contributes to more efficient processes.
  • Cost Effectiveness. The innovation adds value to the institution while containing or reducing costs.
  • Replication. The innovation is easy to replicate at other institutions.
  • Creativity. The innovation is original and creative.
  • Timeliness. The innovation is not more than five years old in the institution, allowing plenty of time for it to be tested.

Nomination

To begin the nomination process, each college announces the Innovation of the Year award competition at its institution. The individual college forms a local committee to establish college-specific criteria and select the college's award winner. The League encourages participating colleges to seek nominations from all areas of the college, including full- and part-time instructors, student services staff, administrators, and support personnel. The award celebrates the innovation as well as those who designed and implemented it; therefore, a single nomination will include both the innovation and the people who developed it.

Selection

Each participating college determines the selection process it will use and follows that process to select its Innovation of the Year award recipient. The college shares information about the winning innovation with the League, including a brief description of the innovation and the names, job titles, and a photograph of the personnel who developed the innovation. The League presents an Innovation of the Year award to each participating college's winning innovation.

Honoring Local Award Recipients

Participating colleges have a variety of ways to celebrate their local winners and further emphasize the value of innovation in community college education. Some colleges plan special award ceremonies, recognition programs, receptions, or dinners to honor and celebrate their award recipients. A number of colleges provide each member of the winning team with funding to attend a League conference. Participating colleges often issue news releases announcing the selection, and some publish pamphlets or booklets featuring the winning innovation.

2009 Innovation of the Year Award Winners

In 2009, 59 awards were granted in seven categories: (1) workforce preparation and development, (2) learning and teaching, (3) student services and activities, (4) research, assessment and accountability, (5) resource development, (6) basic skills and developmental education, and (7) leadership and organization. Click on the links below to learn more about the winning innovations in the 2009 Innovation of the Year competition. To learn more about the competition and how your college can participate, visit the Innovation of the Year Award Web page.

Anne Arundel Community College 

Department of Public Safety
Chief Gary Lyle, Major Cleveland Smith and the Department of Public Safety Personnel

Miami Dade College
The MDC Honors College Dual Language Program
Alexandria Holloway and Jennifer Bravo

Austin Community College
College Connection
Mary Hensley, Luanne Preston, Melissa Richardson, and the ACC/College Connection team members

Minnesota State Community and Technical College
Course Approval Process (CAP) Software
Eric Daeuber and Christopher Goltz

Baton Rouge Community College
BRCC Assessment Institute
Shana Corvers and Laci Talley

Mohawk College
Online Course Outline Application
Jim Cummings, Keri Carter, Ali Burke, Horatio Stewart, Rob McInnis, Lynda Morgan Murdoch, Ali Cheaib, Catharine Ozols, Lisa Pegg, Jaspreet Grewal, Bongi Dube, Maria Campos, Jacqueline Cowden-Scott, Margaret DiVincenzo, and Judy-Anne Sleep

Bow Valley College
Innovative Training Delivery Options for Child Care Practitioners
Russ Wilde, Linda O'Donoghue, Candace Cummings, Paula Wyne, Lona Tarney, and Becky Kelley

Monroe Community College
The Sixth Act
Maria Brandt, Gail Bouk, Jeffery Jones, Caren Pita, Paul D'Alessandris, Heather Fox, Jim Simmonds, Midge Marshall, Ann Tippett, and Robert Kashmer

Bucks County Community College
Strategic Alliance: Leveraging Technological Knowledge and Experience
Annette L. Conn, Maureen McCreadie, and Celeste Schwartz

Montgomery County Community College
Call Center
Barbara LeFevre and Erick Robinson

Central Community College
Mechatronics Education Center
Doug Pauley, Dan Davidchik, Sue Baer, David Vanderheiden, Allen Stenzel, and Justin Young

Moraine Valley Community College
2nd Annual Intern and Employer Meeting and Awards Ceremony
Lisa Kelsay, Joyce Daniel, Pamela Payne, and Cecillia Carothers

Central Piedmont Community College
Outreach to Part-Time Faculty
Debbie Bouton and the Professional Development Team

Mountain View College
CPA Starter Program
Michael Tydlaska and Angela LeBlanc

Century College
Digital Fabrication Lab
Larry Litecky

Nassau Community College
The Achilles Project
Carol Farber, Wendy Eisner, and Valerie Lagakis

Columbia College
Career Tools for Excellence
Randy Barton, Melissa Colon, Jeff Fitzwater, Patricia Harrelson, Ida Ponder, Katherine Schultz, Meryl Soto, Kathy Sullivan, Adrienne Webster, and Gene Womble

Northeast Iowa Community College
Agriscience Academy
T. Mueller, L. Mueller, B. Kamm, K. Stock, D. Lawstuen, C. Harvey, J. Green, N. Gebel, T. Schnieders, M. Adams, M. Lansing, D. Martin, R. Twedt, M. Luckstedt, D. Mohling, M. Enyar, N. Zuercher, D. Dexter, and J. Dillon

Community College of Baltimore County
The Accelerated Learning Project (ALP)    
R. Miller, S. Gearhart, S. Gilead, A. Roberts, M. Garcia, P. Adams, L. Berglie, S. Briggs, S. Grady, A. Nguyen, P. Rennie, P. Rogers, C. Scott, J. Scott, T. Nelson, M. Walker, A. Rusnak, and M. Berry

Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
Shell Manufacturing Center
Wanda Williams, Vincent Capri, Ryan Mussbacher, Mave Dhariwal, Dan Racette, and Neil Wenger

Community College of Philadelphia
Advanced Tech at College
Linda Hansell and Willette Whitaker

Northland Polytechnic
Ngawha Prison Reintegration Project
Shane Walden and Taina Savage

Cuyahoga Community College
Creative Parenting Skills Course/General Studies 1801
Barbara A. Taylor and Phyllis J. Dukes

Northwestern Michigan College
Innovation Mini Grants
"Winners" are the faculty, staff and students of Northwestern Michigan College

Delta College
Helen M. Nickless Dental Clinic Project
Pamela Smith, Leslie Myles Sanders, Mary Jo Miller, Judy Miller, Melissa Appold, Virginia Przygocki, and Carol Wieland

Ocean County College
Multiple Crime Scene Locations
Thomas Lesniak

Fanshawe College
Search Engine Marketing
Liz Gray

Olympic College
Cabinet (Executive Leadership) Learning Community
Joanne Munroe

Gateway Community and Technical College
Hybrid Library and Information Services
Charlene McGrath, Yin-Fen Pao, Jeremy Berberich, Sheila Gray, and Ian Fry

Paradise Valley Community College
Web-based Class Schedule
Sam Fraulino, Alicann Lunceford, Carol Myers, David Preston, Paul Golisch, George Mathew, Jason Pociask, and Corey Weidner

Greenville Technical College
Virtual Reality in Aviation Training
Carl P. Washburn

Pennsylvania Highlands Community College
One Book, One Community
Barbara Zaborowski

Harford Community College
Continuing Education and Training (CET) Action Teams
Continuing Education and Training Division

Pitt Community College
Microsoft Producer: How to have your own production studio
Jeff Rorer

Henry Ford Community College
Henry Ford Early College
Lynne Hensel, Bill Barber, Marva Brooks, Ron Bodurka, Cyndi Scheuer, Paul Smith, and Bill Schramm

Polk Community College
Linking Developmental College Reading Students with Elementary Students through Technology and Nonfiction Literature
Lynda Wolverton

Hillsborough Community College
Service-Learning Veterans (Website) Project
Walt Ellis

SAIT Polytechnic
Conversion of Culinary Waste Oil Into Bio-diesel Fuel
Tom Bornhorst, Tran Ngo, Madeleine Ho, Reece Winter, Vita Martez, and Brad Rosenberger

Humber College
Stop/Look
Sabra Desai, Gina Antonacci, Donna O'Brien-Sokic, and Diana Belshaw

Salt Lake Community College
Special Studies ESL for Facilities and Food Services Personnel
Bob Askerlund, Lidya Gonzalez, Douglas New, and Sonia Parker

Indian River State College
Baccalaureate Implementation and Transition Committee
Baccalaureate Implementation and Transition Committee

Santa Fe College
Bachelor of Applied Sciences Programs
The BAS Cross-College Development Team

Institute of Technical Education
"iDe-LITE"
Beatrice Tan, Teo Pui Sing, Peh Wee Leng, and Alvin Toh

Shelton State Community College
Adult Education On-line Professional Development
Fran Turner, Philip Johnson, Curtis Coleman, Julia Chancey, and Kristen Peoples

Inver Hills Community College
Finish What You Start
Cheryl Frank, Kathy DeDeyn, and LeAnne Schmidt

Sinclair Community College
Center for Energy Education Laboratory
Robert B. Gilbert

Johnson County Community College
ScholarSpace@JCCC
Barry Bailey and Judith Guzzy

Snead State Community College
CISCO Technology in the Classroom
John Haney

Kirkwood Community College
Family Day
Doug Bannon

Southwest Wisconsin Technical College
100 Yard Tricycles Races Enhance Learning
Scott Swan

Lake-Sumter Community College
Intermediate Algebra Module Approach
Judith Hayes, Thom Kieft, Donna Matthews, Alissa Sustarsic, and Brett Taylor

St. Clair County Community College
Nursing Preadmission Scoring
Cindy Nicholson, Pete Lacey, and Mary Owen

Lane Community College
Agricultural Business Management Program
Shirl Meads, Gene Hamacher, and Ross Penhallegon

St. Cloud Technical College
Anatomy & Physiology Digital Textbooks
Deborah Roiger

Laramie County Community College
Creating and Implementing a Multimedia Electronic Textbook
Leif Swanson

St. Louis Community College--Meramec Campus
New Student Enrollment Orientation
Julie Massey, Kim Fitzgerald, Suzzie Huff, Klaudia Krygiel, Ray Eberle-Mayse and Barb Shadburne

Leeward Community College
In-Class Writing Consultants
Laurie Kuribayashi

Ventura College
Ventura College Promise
Ventura College Foundation

Manatee Community College
Revealing the Truth: Multidisciplinary Explorations into Crime Scene Investigations
Jane Pfeilsticker, Andy Swanson, David Friedenbach, Cindy Hunter, Daisy Vulovich, Brad Davis, and Dory Lock

Wallace State Community College
Improving the First Year of College: Sweet Success for Students in Transition
Beth Bownes-Johnson, Cheril Grimmett, Wes Rakestraw, Rob Metcalf, Renee Quick, Natalie Shearer, James Tidwell, Karon Welch, Donnie Rice, Cindy Mallard , Rebecca Reeves, Ricky Burks, Brandi Gindhart, Lisa Harris, and Jerome Ward