The Navajo County Community College District Governing Board held its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, May 15. Among the agenda items were awarding Outstanding Alumnus for the Spring 2018, the annual Strategic Planning and Accreditation Steering Committee (SPASC) report and updates by NPC Friends and Family and on the Automotive and welding programs.
Faculty in welding and Co-chair of SPASC Randy Hoskins presented the annual SPASC report to the board. One major focus over the past year of SPASC was identifying and removing barriers to improve the success of students. Another priority was to improve user experience with technology.
Some of the items that were accomplished the past year was the implementation of Success Coaches in all areas of the Proactive Advising for Student Success (PASS) program representing each course division, improved interaction with students via STARFISH software with a faculty usage rate of 75 percent, NPC website redesign, and enhanced faculty technology training.
“As we keep moving forward we have process surveys and different things that are implemented as that system is coming online, so I see nothing but a bright future for the PASS initiative and STARFISH,” said Hoskins.
Two other concerns that SPASC is trying to address are the need for childcare for students and transportation. “I am happy to report that as far as childcare goes we are in the process of communicating and partnering up with folks in the Show Low area and that is moving forward,” said Hoskins. To help meet transportation needs for students, fuel scholarships have been created and a pilot program allowing students to use NPC vehicles to go from one center to another is being implemented.
Another highlight of the meeting was the monthly report from NPC Friends and Family Director Betsyann Wilson. Wilson had nothing but positive items to report including the golf tournament held in April that raised $7,000 for scholarships. Wilson also reported changes to the Friends and Family board.
“I am very happy to announce that we have three new officers for the NPC Friends and Families board. It’s hard to believe that the first three officers have already served their three-year terms,” said Wilson. President Mary Koury, Vice President Terry Shobe and Secretary Claude Enfield were all elected to the board.
Wilson also revealed the implementation of scholarship workshops to help guide students through the process of applying for scholarships and how to search for scholarships. Wilson had current NPC student Amanda Hatch speak at the workshop to provide the student perspective and to speak about her success in applying for and being awarded scholarships.
“The nice thing about this was, I’m the old lady up there talking about how to write scholarship essays but this is a student talking to students,” said Wilson. This was a successful format and Wilson hopes to have other students present at these workshops in the future after Hatch moves on.
Frank Pinnell, faculty in welding, took to the podium to speak on the successes of the welding and automotive programs. “We just graduated 52 students with their national certifications on this last Thursday and we had 24 get their Associate degree last Saturday,” said Pinnell about the welding program. He went on to say, “Automotive just graduated 18 on Friday, we had a few Associate (degrees) on Saturday and out of those 18 I know 12 already have jobs.”
NPC alumni Dr. Chet Adams was in attendance to receive the Outstanding Alumnus Award for Spring 2018. Adams attended NPC from 2003-2004 while also working on his bachelor’s degree at Northern Arizona University. In 2016, Adams graduated from the Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health. NPC Recruitment Specialist Rebecca Hunt presented Adams with a plaque and NPC backpack filled with NPC logo items.
The next regular monthly Navajo County Community College District Governing Board will be at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 19, at the NPC Painted Desert Campus, located at 2251 Navajo Blvd. in Holbrook in the Tiponi Community Center.
