In every team and department at Northwest Vista College, there are always great stories to tell that show faculty and staff going above and beyond.While it’s hard to capture every story, we hope to periodically share in this space some of the major accomplishments or projects that are taking place. Members of the executive team will write about important topics that they feel NVC employees should be made aware of.
Let us know about the positive things your area is doing to help students or improve processes by contacting myself or NVC Public Relations.
– Dr. Ric Baser, NVC President
Amy Whitworth
NVC Vice President for Academic Success
The purpose of the institutes is to provide guided pathways that can help students move seamlessly from high school to the community college and on to the completion of a bachelor’s degree or entry into the workforce.
Our work on the institutes at NVC will: clarify the path for students, help students choose and enter a path, help students stay on the path, and ensure that students are learning. This work will help our college become even more “student ready.” We want our students to make NVC their first choice because they know they will receive an incredible education which will prepare them well. I would like to share with you the excellent work that is being done this semester by our faculty.
There are six Alamo Institutes overall, five at NVC. The five institutes and institute team leads are:
- Science and Technology – Scott Walker
- Health and Biosciences – Terri Dimas
- Business and Entrepreneurship – Ralph Mendez and Mike Munoz
- Creative and Communication Arts – Viviane Marioneaux
- Public Service – Steve Philibrick and Jose Castillo.
Each institute team is composed of discipline and program leads for the pre-majors and workforce programs and certificates in that institute. In addition to the program/discipline leads, the institute teams include representatives from Academic Support, Student Activities, Experiential/Applied Learning, EDUC/SDEV, and Institutional Research. We are also in the process of working with Student Government Association to include a student on each institute as the student perspective in the implementation of the institutes is invaluable.
This fall, the institute teams have been building the Sequenced Advising Guides (SAGs) for the pre-majors and for Stackable Workforce programs. The SAGs are designed for a full-time student and provide the courses for two years using the 12 – 12 – 6 format (12 hours for the fall, 12 hours for the spring, and 6 hours in the summer).
The SAG is for the student who comes to NVC and has already chosen a major and a transfer institution. For example, they want to major in biology and then transfer to UTSA. SAGs have been built for the 12 most popular pre-majors and for all the concentrations previously in our catalog.
The next step this fall is to fine tune the SAG. Institute team leads, chairs and deans will work together in November reviewing the SAGs: to ensure that all prerequisites are included, challenging courses are distributed across multiple semesters, Math and ENGL 1301/1302 requirements are included in the first year, summer courses are appropriate for shorter parts of term, milestone courses are indicated in the first two semesters, specific information about the degree and transfer is included, and all courses that transfer are included.
During the spring of 2017, institute teams will be working on the Pre-major Maps and the Institute Default Maps. Pre-major Maps are for students who come to us knowing their major but not sure what transfer institution they will attend. Institute Default Maps are for students who have not chosen a specific major but have an area of interest.