Our beautiful and vibrant community of San Antonio has been recently ranked as the third poorest among the nation’s ten most populated cities, according to American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau and reported by Texas Public Radio. Poverty exists in many San Antonio zip codes, including 78251.
These statistics are a reminder that Northwest Vista College and the Alamo Colleges District need to do more to lower poverty rates in our region. We have a new opportunity to provide quality, low-cost education at the baccalaureate level in the high-demand, high-wage field of cloud computing, as approved by the Alamo Colleges Board of Trustees in January 2023. This was made possible in 2017 by the 85th Texas Legislature which approved Senate Bill 2118 for qualified community colleges and programs to offer technical bachelor’s degrees in high-demand careers.
The costs associated with a bachelor’s degree have skyrocketed so much that many are questioning the value of a college education. As we expand our offerings to the bachelor’s degree level, I want to assure you that doing so is within our mission. Our district-wide mission of “Empowering Our Diverse Communities for Success” is about providing access to higher education and for many careers that require a bachelor’s degree. This fully aligns with NVC’s mission of “Creating opportunities for success by offering quality academic, technical, and life-long learning experiences to our diverse communities in a collaborative, student-centered, data-informed, and shared leadership environment.”
The first group of students who will be able to enroll in NVC’s Bachelor of Applied Technology (BAT) Degree program in Cloud Computing can expect to register as early as this spring for Fall 2024 enrollment. The BAT program, requiring 120 semester credit hours, will be 100% online to allow flexibility for students who may be working full-time. NVC will also be accepting prior learning toward the degree, including college coursework, certificates, and work experience.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the team that is working on creating the infrastructure for this program and for getting us to this point. There is a lot more that needs to be done including approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).
Our strength is that NVC already has excellent associate degree and certificate programs in Network Architecture and Cloud Computing. Our faculty are experts in these fields with advanced degrees, industry certifications, and teaching credentials. NVC is also a partner with Amazon, the largest cloud computing provider in the world, we are an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Academy, meaning we can teach our programs on the AWS Cloud Platform. NVC will offer complimentary access to the AWS educational curriculum that allows students to earn up to 16 micro-credentials while completing the BAT program.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the overall employment in computer and information technology occupations will grow much faster than the average for all occupations from 2022 to 2032. They further estimate an average of 377,500 job openings each year. These are jobs that pay family-sustaining wages and can help lift our community out of poverty. NVC graduates can expect job offers from large local employers including HEB, Lockheed Martin, Frost Bank, USAA, Accenture, Valero, Marathon Oil, NuStar Energy, iHeart Media, the US Military, and SWBC.
Please join me in celebrating this amazing opportunity for our students, their families, and our community!
