Thank you for attending last week’s events on campus and at district in support of our new 2018-2019 academic year. For many of us, preparation began at the end of the spring semester or sometime in the summer as we hired new faculty and staff or realigned our services and processes to meet students’ needs.
I appreciate the hard work and all that has been accomplished in preparation for this coming year. Your dedication and passion for Northwest Vista College is evident in our new 2018-2023 Strategic Plan which was organically developed from feedback gathered this past year from students, faculty, staff and community members. Hats off to the Strategic Planning Team, spearheaded by Dr. Eliza Hernandez, Lydia Beaver, Minerva Muniz, Janie Scott and Denise Tolan, for taking us through this process. Over the next five years, the Institutional Effectiveness Team along with the NVC Cabinet, will hold us accountable for results.
Our Strategic Plan invites us to grow our culture of Care, Achievement and Distinction:
“Northwest Vista College will continue to focus its efforts on developing community-wide partnerships to improve access to education and the quality of life in San Antonio and its surrounding communities.”
This call to action directly aligns with the one presented to us by the Alamo Colleges’ Incoming Chancellor Dr. Mike Flores who in his May visit to NVC stressed the need to bridge the economic divide in our community (see La reVista article).
NVC faculty and staff excel in creating a culture of Care. Last year, we had 71 percent of employees (that’s 283 faculty and staff as well as adjunct faculty and part-time staff) participating in the NVC Cares campaign, where we raised $54,984 to fund scholarships, academic program support, the NVC Food Pantry and related Student Advocacy, transformational student experiences and academic program excellence.
This past Friday, at the NVC All College Convocation, NVC employees contributed additional $1,122 towards the Vista Food Pantry. That was achieved in less than four hours! Imagine what we can achieve this coming year and during the 2018 NVC Cares Annual Giving Campaign?
In the coming months and years, NVC will be creating the WIN (What I Need) Resources Center to consolidate all of our current student advocacy resources and develop additional services to support student success in a consolidated location.
We will also be increasing our outreach efforts in West San Antonio as we demonstrate to this underserved population that NVC is their College. Not only can we help more students be “College Ready,” we will be “Student Ready” as well.
Let’s #GoWestVISTA!
Have a great semester!