The Navajo County Community College Governing Board held their monthly meeting last week where Dr. Allison Landy, the faculty chair in Early Childhood Development, spoke about upcoming degree options for Northland Pioneer College (NPC).
“There is an ad-hoc group studying baccalaureate degrees for Northland Pioneer College. We are now allowed to offer bachelor’s degrees, thanks, in part to recent legislation, and we have found that it does match our college’s mission and vision.
She explained that right now they are just looking at the feasibility of the various degrees that they intend to offer and are communicating their recommendations to the different parts of the college. “As an update, our plan is to implement the first bachelor’s degree program in the fall of 2023. We made a recommendation that the degree would be a minimum of 120 total credits, and those would be upper division credits, three and four hundred level courses. This means, however, that our admissions requirements may face an issue. As a community college, we have an open admissions policy, anybody can come and join our classes. But a bachelor’s degree level is different. Do we want to maintain open admissions? Or should some programs require a higher level of admissions? We are making sure we are getting the right people at the table and asking all the questions that need to be answered.”
The first bachelor’s degree NPC is exploring is in early educational development, according to Landy. More information is available at each NPC campus and centers across Navajo and Apache counties.
Tuition cost is a large draw for most community college students. Because of that, NPC is dedicated to remaining affordable to the residents of Navajo and Apache counties.
Friends and Family Executive Director Betsyann Wilson also addressed the board regarding scholarships available for the upcoming fall 2022 semester.
She said, “I am going around not to just the NPC campuses but to the high school seniors about how to develop scholarship essays and how to apply for scholarships.”
She mentioned a pledge of $10,000 by Summit Healthcare CEO Shawn Morrow. That will equal 10 $1,000 scholarships to students in the nursing program. She also spoke about the Martia and Lewis Smith Memorial Art Scholarship of $3,000 to one currently enrolled NPC student. “You don’t need to be an art major, but you do have to take an art class. Applications will be based on essays and achievements at NPC and students will be asked to submit a portfolio of visual art.”
Scholarship applications for the fall semester will be due April 14. Wilson invited students and potential students to contact her with any questions pertaining to scholarship searches or application processes. She can be contacted at (928) 536-6245 or at the Snowflake/Taylor campus, located at 1611 Main St. in Snowflake.
