Grant focusing on filling positions, facilitating success
 

By RACHEL PRESSLEY
News Reporter

Last year, Henderson Community College received a Title III grant for $360,000 a year for the next five years. The grant, which is administered under the U.S. Department of Education, was one of only 51 awarded.

The initial goals of the grant were to increase student success, promote professional development, improve campus technology, and establish an endowment to provide scholarships.

Since then, HCC has made steady progress towards achieving its goals. Right now, project coordinator, Kim Conley, says the focus is on planning, development and research, “We are finding out what things will work for us here at HCC.”

One of the major goals at this time is to fill the positions of an advising coach, and a learning specialist. Conley hopes to have these positions filled by the end of April. She emphasizes how important it is to find the right people to fill these positions because they will be instrumental in implementing the grant.

The Title III grant has already provided the faculty with new Dell computers and sent several faculty members to professional development trainings in New York and Albuquerque.

Activities Director, Doris Cherry, attended both the League for Innovations and the National Association for Developmental Education, along with several other faculty members.

Cherry says the main purpose of both meetings was to develop ideas for student success, “The most important thing is how we can facilitate student success and student centered learning here at HCC.”

Some of the topics covered at the meetings were advising, technology, reading, study skills, and student support services. The meetings give the faculty a chance to meet with members of other schools and share ideas.
Cherry says the group she attended the meetings with split the sessions up amongst themselves in order to cover as much as possible, “We went in there with a plan to see and learn as much as possible.”

There are several projects in the works right now that Cherry says will hopefully be implemented by next fall. The Learning Skills Center and Career Services are both scheduled to be moved to the AD building, possibly over the summer. This will make student services easier to access as they will all be located in one building.

Cherry, and other reading faculty, will be working over the summer to redesign the reading courses for next fall. This will include reading courses 010 through 030.

Conley says students who would like to keep up to date on the Title III will be able to do so hopefully by April. The first newsletter will be emailed to students along with the web address. Conley states, “Students wanting to see what progress is being made can visit the website, which should be up by April 15.”