Business Council Helping Students Find Success Out of the Classroom

Contributed by Dr. Shelah Simmons, chair of NVC’s Business Council

During this time of COVID-19, the NVC President’s Office Business Council found innovative ways to work with Northwest Vista College while reaching its core goal of helping promote student success while students are accomplishing their academic dream. The Business Council are ambassadors for the college, helping create opportunities for success at Northwest Vista College through collaboration, partnerships, mentorship, marketing and financial support.

To strengthen membership and volunteerism numbers, the Business Council aligned its 4DX strategy with broadening membership participation. At a recent Alamo Colleges Board of Trustees meeting, we shared our achievements and “Wildly Important Goal” for next year – to increase the number of memberships to 50 by Aug. 1, 2021.

Business Council History of Accomplishments:  

• Increased community memberships from 0 to 33 from January 2014-January of 2019
• 8 Scholarships awarded to students from 2014-2018.
• At GM Financial, around 75% of their new hire employees are from NVC, and 35% of Nationwide Insurance employees are from NVC.
• Attended and provided speakers at 15 NVC student events annually
• Attended 8 employee events annually
• Hosted a minimum of 5 student events annually
• Volunteered at 3 community-wide campus events annually

Strategies to Reach Goal

• Augmenting a logo/graphic to rebrand, update website, & launch a social media campaign
• Diversifying the scholarship process, judges, and donors
• Reengaging an alliance with the Texas Workforce Commission and other community partners
• Assigning community members as an Ambassador to their respective AlamoINSTITUTE
• Creating opportunities for student job shadowing, student mentorship, scholarships,& enhance essential skills
• Applying for additional grants