Student Success

I recently had the pleasure of recognizing some very special people here at WVC – the 76 students who finished winter quarter with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. Perfection in any endeavor is rare and this achievement is a great testament to their hard work, dedication and perseverance. Seeing students succeed in this way is a gratifying part of my job and it serves as a great reminder of why I enjoy coming to work each day. WVC is here to create an environment where all of our students can succeed to the best of their ability, both academically and in life and I’m proud to be part of that mission.

Our faculty is a key component in creating an educational environment that fosters success. They truly care about student achievement and work hard to create an atmosphere where students become successful. We’re currently deeply involved in our planning process for the next academic year. I’m happy to announce that we’ll be adding some new faculty positions to ensure we continue to meet the changing demands of our students. We’ve created new, full-time positions, among them positions in Chemistry, Mathematics, English and Physical Education as well as others and hope to fill those positions as soon as we can.

The Wenatchee Valley College Foundation has helped many students over the years ease the financial impact of higher education. In a few weeks, the Foundation will host a reception where the latest scholarship recipients and their families will have the opportunity to meet the community members who generously support our students through scholarship funds. This is an opportunity for both donors and students to get meet and to know each other. It is always a very emotional day for everyone, and I look forward to attending.

We can’t talk about an environment for success and leave out the exploits of our Knights baseball and softball teams on the diamond. The Knights softball team is celebrating their 25th year and played their 1000th game last month. Their 20-2 start to this year’s fastpitch season ties a school record set in 1985. On the baseball mound, the Knights are off to a great 14-2 overall and 3-1 in Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges East Division. Despite some unusual weather adversity – the game on March 29 was snowed out! – the team is showing great defensive and offensive momentum and we look forward to a strong finish.

Thanks for allowing me to share these thoughts with you. Please feel free to share your comments and ideas with me below, on how we at WVC can continue to improve our ability to provide our students with an environment that will foster success.

Failure - NOT An Option

Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.- Henry Ford

Are we at WVC failing our students? If 40% of WVC students drop out before the beginning of their second year, some of us claim that maybe those students simply weren’t prepared to have entered college.

What if a hospital said that if it lost a third of its patients, those patients never should have been admitted because they were too sick?

Faculty and teaching institutions like WVC face many impediments, just like physicians and their patients; the conditions and capabilities of our students are often unknown. But what if at WVC I was called every time a student failed?

This sounds crazy, I know, but that's just the point. We're too comfortable with our failures; we take them for granted. We even know how to tell people about them so that they don’t sound like failures. “She wasn’t ready for college.” “He had family problems.”

The good news is that we at WVC can do much better. We can “begin again more intelligently.” We know a great deal today about how to organize our institution and classrooms so that students not only stay but achieve at high levels, and research in the cognitive sciences and higher education provides grist for further improvements. What else can we do to help our students succeed? We need to explore every method we can to ensure our students’ success.

I know we lack the resources, the state policy support to adequately finance student support services, and the time. I know that many of the students we inherit come to us with significant problems. Nevertheless, we need to ask much more of ourselves. Education at Wenatchee Valley College is no place for modest ambitions - for our students or for us.

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you will help them become what they are capable of becoming. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Make a difference by serving on the Student Senate

The following message is from the 2006-2007 President of the Associated Students of Wenatchee Valley College on the Wenatchee campus:

Hello WVC students!

As you may have been hearing, it is time for student senate elections! This is an exciting time for all students and I hope you are considering a position on the senate for the 2007-2008 school year. If you would like an opportunity to make a difference, whether or not you have been involved in student government in the past, student senate is the place for you! The deadline to apply is April 20 at 5 p.m.. There are several positions for you to consider:

President
Vice President
Secretary
Athletics Treasurer
Activities Treasurer
Instruction/Academic Coordinator
Events Coordinator
Student Ambassadors

Please take a moment and read about all the opportunities and benefits of being a part of this awesome team. All of these have enriched my life as president of the Wenatchee Campus Associated Students of WVC.

Serving students: This is priority number one for the senate. If you have a desire to serve students in a practical and evident way, then this is a great way to do it. It is rewarding to see the work we do providing help in the lives of others.

Representing WVC: As a part of senate, you will be a voice and face for the college. We have had many opportunities to show the community as well as state representatives why WVC is so wonderful.

Developing talents: Every aspect of student government provides a learning opportunity for personal growth. There are many opportunities to be a leader and make vital decisions. You will develop skills and character qualities that will be important for the rest of your life.

Getting involved: There is so much that goes on behind the scenes so you can go to class each day. Senate provides an opportunity to learn what goes on and makes you thankful for the decisions that are made each day for your education. You will also always be up to speed on important dates, deadlines, scholarships, and events.

Seeing change: The decisions you make in student senate are rewarding because you see the effect they have in people’s lives. From the smaller decisions like club and senate events, to the larger ones like budgets, funding, and goals. Every decision is important and will benefit the college in both the short and long term.

I hope you are considering a position on the ASWVC senate! Come by the Student Programs office in Van Tassell and apply by April 20. We wish you a wonderful spring quarter!

On behalf of the ASWVC senate,

Marissa Thomas
ASWVC President

New Year Resolutions

As we begin a new year, we often make personal resolutions to improve ourselves. As WVC starts a new year, what can we look at to improve in 2007 and beyond? We can resolve to look at how we do things at WVC to become a world-class institution of higher education.

Be unique. WVC needs to find a niche where we stand out from the crowded college market and shine our light on the whole of what we do at the college. By being world-class educators, we will stand out with our unique, exceptional, and varied offerings for educating the citizens and responding to the needs of the communities of North Central Washington.

Be a bit dangerous. Go for the gold, so to speak. WVC needs to take some chances to attract the best students as well as the students who don’t think a “regular” college is for them. (See #1) WVC needs to ask students what they want in a college of first choice and respond and deliver.

Be memorable. Whether it be driving by on 5th street, surfing our web page, talking to an employee, seeing or listening to an ad, or hearing about us from a student, WVC’s excellence needs to stand out so that people think of WVC first as the/their education choice.

Be pure. Do what we do best and follow our mission. Two-year education. WVC needs to be known as the best community college in Washington – a world-class community college where students choose to come because we do what we do better than anyone else.

Be real. Don’t be something we are not, such as a four-year university; however, partner with the best so that they also begin to look at WVC as a partner that sends superior students to their university, and so that students see WVC as a superior place to study for those first two years or for that career. We should focus on our mission and do an exceptional job of what we do. WVC should be the best community college: period.

Be mysterious. Make people want to know more about what we do. Make them curious about how we produce such successful alumni. We need to be so good that other colleges look to WVC to learn how to be the best at educating our citizens for today’s and tomorrow’s world.

Be consistent. Offer world-class, leading edge education in all areas – transfer, workforce, ABE/ESL, on-line, and continuing education. Our reputation depends upon our consistent delivery of all of WVC’s educational choices at the highest level. We must work to be world class every day in everything we do.

Be humble. Our students are who will make us a success. Tell the world, but remember that WVC needs to be accessible, approachable, supportive, welcoming, as well as the best academically so we are able to make our students feel a part of something bigger than any one individual at WVC. We need to remember that every one of WVC’s employees contributes to the success of our students, and therefore, the college.

Be open (and supportive). To new ideas. To students. To new directions. To each other. To the communities we serve. To positive change. To success. To being the best.

Be great. Maybe the most important of the first 10 elements, particularly if WVC wants respect, admiration, and longevity. We need to deliver world-class education to be a world-class institution. We won’t get there by accident. We need to work hard to be the best. Even if we pull off Numbers 1-9, it won’t matter if we lack talented people with a passion for what they are doing. Remember, educating everyone…takes everyone!

Be REMARKABLE. Everything above supports the most important goal of being remarkable – being world class. WVC has been invisible long enough. Keep ‘em talking. As it is with marketing and successful companies (and rock bands!), it is with a thriving, world-class community college.

Diversity is part of our mission

Diversity is a topic that often comes up at the college and in discussions with friends of the college. We live in an area that is rich in diversity – something the college takes seriously, and something we celebrate. Our college mission statement mentions diversity several times:

In serving the cultural needs of its communities and residents,
In providing education to students of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds, and
In meeting the changing needs of our communities.

One of the Board of Trustees 10 Ends Policies by which they govern the college focuses on this topic: WVC will support an environment that values and encourages diversity, initiative, teamwork, creativity, and practices that treat all individuals with dignity and respect. As a part of this, the Trustees have recently re-affirmed their support of the WVC affirmative action goal that the ethnic make-up of our faculty and staff reflect our communities. We are also in the process of hiring a Latino Outreach Specialist to help people understand, prepare, and make the connections for the educational opportunities everyone deserves.

Why this emphasis on diversity? Our district’s general population is 20 percent Latino (including 33% of K-12 students in the district), yet only about 10 % of our liberal arts and sciences students and fewer than 8% of our faculty and staff members are Latino. Both our student population and our district population is 4% Native American, yet fewer than 2% of our faculty and staff members are Native American.

Niccolo Machiavelli (1940) wrote, “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of the new order of things.” Wenatchee Valley College must lead in celebrating diversity and acting on providing educational and employment opportunities for our communities. We are here to serve all members of all our communities, and we must make every effort to create the opportunities in education for all of our residents.

It’s the right thing to do.

--Jim

Honoring our adjunct and part-time faculty

Today, Oct. 30, 2006, has been declared Adjunct and Part-time Faculty Recognition Day by Governor Christine Gregoire. The proclamation states that adjunct and part-time faculty bring a multitude of talents, skills, and areas of expertise to their teaching, and allow institutions of higher learning great flexibility and variety in the courses they offer.


I truly appreciated the work of our adjunct and part-time faculty, and honor them for their contributions to Wenatchee Valley College. Many of these faculty members—such as Ruth Allan in ceramics and Peter Prehn in basic skills on the Wenatchee campus, and Dale Duchow in math on the Omak campus—have taught at WVC for many years. We are a stronger college because of them, and we simply couldn’t serve our students as well without these knowledgeable
professionals.


Please join me in honoring our adjunct and part-time faculty by sharing any thoughts or stories that illustrate their importance to our students.

Face of WVC Changing

The other day, a woman driving up Fifth Street toward the college thought she was on the wrong street. “The new parking lot and building startled me—I wondered for a moment where I was,” she said.

Every day, the face of Wenatchee Valley College is changing. Glass and bricks are being installed on the new, three-story allied health and sciences building; plenty of visitors’ parking is available in our new parking lot; and work progresses on the new clock tower and remodeling of the library. This week, we helped Central Washington University dedicate its new higher education center on the Wenatchee campus, and on Nov. 2 from 5 to 7 p.m., the WVC Foundation is hosting an open house at the new Music and Arts Center, the former Eagles building on Ninth Street.

The Omak campus is changing, too, with student services moving into the former behavioral health buildings across the street, the nursing program in the former alternative high school, and joint high school and college vocational classes held at Omak High School. An open house of the student services building and a dedication of the native plants garden and Mary Henrie Hall of Friendship donor wall will be held at 1 p.m. on Nov. 1.

Along with all these facility changes will come changes in classes and programs. As we continue with our visioning process, your thoughts about how best to meet the educational needs of the citizens of North Central Washington will be welcomed and appreciated.

--Jim Richardson