Congratulations! MJC on National News!
Dear Colleagues,
Hope you are enjoying the long, warm days of Summer and rejuvenating yourself for the upcoming Fall semester. Those of you who are on campus physically or remotely are directly witnessing abundance of activities as we prepare to repopulate the campus in about six weeks. So far, our enrollments have been strong, contrary to the trend we are witnessing across the State. This has been possible by the collective work done by each one of you to bring our students back. We are offering over 700 face-to-face sections in Fall out of a total of over 1,650 sections. Additionally, there are several hybrid sections that will bring students to the campus as well. I am expecting at least 50% of students enrolled in Fall will come to the campus.
Last night, the Board of Trustees approved the transition from division to schools at MJC. Since 2017, Modesto Junior College has been working to redefine itself as a Guided Pathways College. Part of the process of streamlining the path for students is aligning the programs, degrees and certificates into clusters that make sense to students. Historically, our divisions were aligned based on operational needs, so in the examination of what makes sense to students, one piece of the reform was renaming divisions to Schools and realigning the programs within. This reorganization is the result of long-term, institution-wide collaboration and intention. Establishing this new Schools structure is the final piece in the institutional reorganization under Guided Pathways.
The significant work that all of you do are being noticed in the State and National Press. This morning, I received the communication that our Respiratory Care Program was featured in “20 Promising Practices to Advance Quality, Equity, and Success in Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) Degree Programs”! To be among top 20 Promising Practices nationwide is a great accomplishment! Congratulations! You can read the coverage at https://www.accbd.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/CCBA-Ebook.pdf.
MJC has also been pioneering the idea of bringing power of invention and spirit of entrepreneurship through a number of avenues. In the spirit of achieving our mission, Applied Creativity and Community Transformation (ACCT) Institute 2022 faculty fellows are working with MJC’s Innovation U, the i3/Lemelson-MIT/CCC State Chancellor’s Office project, Partners in Invention Education (PIE) and the Enovant Foundation to foster models of active, contextualized learning in programs across three MJC schools. Our faculty members shared their experience in ACCT at Massachusetts Institute of Technology earlier in Summer. It is not often that an ivy league institution such as MIT recognizes the work at a community college. We are proud of the work done by our faculty colleagues at ACCT. Yesterday, National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) released their latest podcast where I had the privilege to promote ACCT and how it is bringing MJC closer to the community. You can tune it to the podcast at https://www.buzzsprout.com/1589815/10949587.
Many of you may have seen that MJC was the Grand Marshall for the 4th of July Parade. It was my privilege to be with several of you, many of our students, and our trustees on the morning of 4th. This is the first time (at least in recent memory) that MJC participated in the parade with its own float – the Pirate Ship made by our folks at Art division was awesome!
Please mark your calendar for the upcoming Institute Day on August 27. I am looking forward to seeing all of you IN PERSON and sharing a cup of coffee!
Go Pirates!
