Jayson Larson/TVCC Public Information
Business and community leaders got a glimpse of the best Trinity Valley Community College has to offer during the Athens Leadership Institute’s Education Day on Wednesday.
ALI – which aims to educate leaders about the community in which they live, invest, worship and work – got a tour of facilities and heard reports from a number of TVCC administrators. TVCC President Dr. Glendon Forgey talked about TVCC’s selection as one of the top community colleges in the nation by the Aspen Institute.
Aspen recognizes institutions for exceptional student outcomes in four areas: student learning, certificate and degree completion, employment and earnings, and high levels of access and success for minority and low-income students.
“It’s because of our administration, faculty and staff that we have received that honor three years running,” Forgey said.
Dr. Jay Kinzer, TVCC’s Vice President of Students Services, said that while the college has grabbed headlines for winning 19 NJCAA sports championships over the past 25 years, a number of academic statistics underscore the value of an education at any one of the system’s five campuses. TVCC – which is serving roughly 7,500 students this fall – has a higher retention rate, graduation rate and lower tuition and fees than the national and state averages. TVCC also awarded $25 million in financial aid and scholarships in the Spring 2013 and Fall 2014 semesters.
Students pay that assistance forward once on campus, Kinzer said. Thirty-one student organizations have accounted for 14,655 hours of community service to Athens and the surrounding communities. On Thursday night, a large group of students went door-to-door in the community to collect canned food items for the Athens Food Pantry.
Vice President of Instruction Dr. Jerry King said the college’s impact reaches deep into area high schools via its dual-credit program – which serves about 1,800 students in 28 independent school districts in the TVCC service area. Additionally, the Early College High School program serves around 100 students with 25 to 30 graduating each year.
“We’ve got students graduating with 26, 34 hours or more, and some are graduating with their associate degree at the same time they’re graduating high school,” King said. “It’s a win-win situation for everybody.”
ALI members also heard from Associate Vice President of Workforce Education David McAnally, who touched on the college’s Adult Education, Business and Computer Science and Career and Technology programs. McAnally said he is excited about a series of Information Technology courses — including A+, Network+ and Linux+ — that will prepare students to take certification exams from CompTIA, which offers worldwide-recognized certification credentials for professionals in the IT field. These courses were offered for the first time during the Fall 2014 semester.
The tour included a visit to the college’s Information Technology facilities, the Fine Arts Building (where the jazz band and Encore singers performed), Cardinal Hall – the newest campus dormitory – and Cardinal Gym, where the TVCC Cardettes performed. The Cardettes, along with the Cardinal Regiment band, will travel next week to perform in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade.