By China Cassidy On Tuesday, July 14, Northland Pioneer College joined administrators from community colleges all over the state in a press conference to discuss the new opportunities being offered by Arizona community colleges. Following the conference, NPC discussed their newest integrated education and training program for certified nursing assistants and licensed nursing assistants. Also discussed was tuition reduction to help students meet their academic and economic goals, and help alleviate some of the financial strain that comes with obtaining a higher education. Associate Dean of Education and College and Career Preparedness Gail Campbell explained that NPC serves nine campuses throughout Navajo and Apache County. NPC offers training for various types of jobs such as welding, construction and nursing. One of the challenges that a lot of students that want to attend college in Navajo and Apache counties face is that they do not have a high school diploma or the equivalent, which prevents them from seeking higher education or obtaining well-paying jobs. Campbell stated, “Those folks are really in a situation now where they’re needing to obtain training quickly and be able to move up in a career ladder fairly rapidly in order to be able to provide for themselves and their families, and to move forward both economically and academically because we know that’s going to improve the quality of life for their children and themselves and their local community,” Campbell said that through NPC, students who qualify can now obtain training toward their careers while getting their GED through NPC’s Integrated Education and Training program (IET). NPC has already experienced success with the first IET program in construction and are looking forward to the outcome of their newest, which will be the nursing assistant program. Campbell offered, “The area that we’re expanding to next is the nursing assistant training. Those individuals will work towards either a CNA or an LNA, depending on what their individual goals are. This fall will be the first semester we will be offering those virtually and those classes will support those students moving in that direction and preparing them for a high school equivalency.” Those students can also get financial support through grants from the Arizona Department of Education. It was also noted that college board approved a discount tuition rate for both the fall and spring semesters. The rate per credit that is usually $79 per credit, was dropped to approximately $40. During the summer semester, NPC will offer a 50 percent rate reduction per their policy that will decrease the cost per credit from $40 to approximately $38 per credit. To offer lower summer rates would help students avoid having to delay their education a semester because Pell Grant funding is difficult to obtain during the summer semesters. President of NPC Mark Vest offered an explanation as to why the board decided to drop the tuition rates saying, “I think one of the things that the board recognized very quickly in this process was that this is just the latest in a series of economic blows that our region has taken and there is a real concern that with so many of our students on the financial edge having to do things like struggle to find childcare, potential job losses, being out of work during a lockdown or reduced economic activity. “A lot of our students even with federal financial assistance and college financial assistance, were simply not going to have the resources to be able to continue their education and we know if students drop out of school, that a significant percentage of them will not come back. Life is going to get in the way, things like that. So, the real intent of the board I think was to give every student who wanted the opportunity to continue their education through the pandemic and through the economic dislocation, to be able to do so. The board has set aside money in the operational reserve for these kinds of crisis, which is a wise financial decision by the board over the last 20 years.” Registration for the fall semester is open until Aug. 21. as offices will operate remotely during normal business hours and all campuses will remain closed until further notice. To register or get more information on the upcoming schedules, visit their website at npc.edu.
