Advocacy for Missouri's public two-year institutions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Zora Mulligan, MCCA Executive Director
(573) 230-9318 (mobile)
(573) 634-8787 (office)
zora.mulligan@mccatoday.org

Jefferson City, Missouri – May 16, 2013. Missouri’s manufacturing training consortium, MoManufacturingWINs, has been selected to participate in the Community College Transformative Change Initiative (CCTCI), a groundbreaking partnership between the Bill and Melinda Gates and Lumina Foundations, Achieving the Dream, the University of Illinois, and The Collaboratory, LLC. Missouri is one of only ten other TAACCCT consortia grantees chosen to participate in the initiative.

Led by the Missouri Community College Association (MCCA), MoManufacturingWINs is funded by a national grant that connects unemployed, underemployed, Trade Act-eligible, and low-skilled workers to manufacturing industry training at community colleges. The program cultivates multi-level strategic partnerships among two-year colleges, career centers, and employers to enable participants to earn industry-recognized credentials and high-quality certificates to boost their job competitiveness.

This is the second time a Missouri community college TAACCCT grant has been selected for this honor. Last November, MCCA announced that its healthcare training program, MoHealthWINs, was one of eight TAACCCT consortia grantees chosen to participate in CCTCI’s first experientially rich learning laboratory and collaborative network dedicated to advancing transformative change through community colleges.

On June 26-27, two representatives from Missouri’s consortium will participate in a “Scaling Forum” in Chicago where participants will share transformative policies, processes, and practices, work with experts on scaling implementation plans, and network with colleagues.

CCTCI says the knowledge, practices, policies and transformative innovations created across this national network “will advance the role that community colleges play today and tomorrow.”

MCCA Grant Director Dawn Busick credits the work done by consortium partners in recent years as the reason Missouri was selected. “We are already seeing real culture changes within the consortium institutions with these innovative and accelerated delivery models,” she said. “CCTCI provides the catalyst many of us have been waiting for to deploy educational advancements such as stackable credentials, credit for prior learning, and accelerated adult education across a broad statewide consortium of two-year colleges.”

The Missouri Community College Association is a statewide organization through which Missouri’s community colleges work together to advance common agendas. MCCA provides advocacy, education, information, and networking opportunities in service of the state’s 5,700 community college faculty, staff, administrators, and trustees.

# # #

Click HERE to read.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Zora Mulligan, MCCA Executive Director
(573) 230-9318 (mobile)
(573) 634-8787 (office)
zora.mulligan@mccatoday.org

Jefferson City, Missouri – May 3, 2013.  Outstanding students, educators, and employers were honored today with the “Breaking Traditions” award today in the Capitol Rotunda.  The Breaking Traditions program recognizes students who excel in career and technical education programs in which their gender comprises less than 25 percent of those employed in the field.  Student award winners receive scholarships from the Foundation for Missouri Women and are eligible to receive substantial scholarships at any of Missouri’s community colleges.

This year’s Breaking Traditions award recipients include several with close ties to community colleges.  Brandon Medlock, a student in the Northland Career Center’s culinary arts program, plans to attend Metropolitan Community College next fall.  He received the Secondary State Winner Award.  Malee Alway, recipient of the Spirit Award, is a student in St. Charles Community College’s computer aided drafting (CAD) program.  Courtney Pennel, owner of Monarch Children’s Academy, works with Ozarks Technical Community College’s Middle College Program and received the Employer State Winner award.

Zora Mulligan, Missouri Community College Association executive director and Foundation for Missouri Women board member, attended the event and congratulated the award winners.  Mulligan said, “These outstanding students are showing that community colleges not only change lives, they help change society.  Career and technical education programs prepare students for high-wage jobs in some of our state’s most important industries, and recognizing students through a program like this shows others that no doors are closed to them.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Zora Mulligan, MCCA Executive Director
(573) 230-9318 (mobile)
(573) 634-8787 (office)
zora.mulligan@mccatoday.org

Jefferson City, Missouri – May 1, 2013.  Three Rivers College honored Zora Mulligan, executive director of the Missouri Community College Association on April 26 for her outstanding contributions toward promoting and supporting the state’s public two-year institutions.  Mulligan was among four people who received the 2013 Vanguard award at the college’s annual ACE Awards banquet, which recognizes individuals and groups external to the college who helped the college achieve its vision of being the preeminent community of learners.

“I want to give this award to Zora Mulligan in appreciation of her advocacy, wise counsel, and unwavering support for the College” said Dr. Devin Stephenson, President of Three Rivers College.  “She has been amazing with her work in Jefferson City with the legislators.  There is not a better promoter of Community Colleges, or a stronger ally for us in the legislature, than Zora.”

“This award is truly a great honor,” said Ms. Mulligan.  “I am proud of the work we do in Jefferson City to support all of our colleges, especially schools like Three Rivers that are changing lives every day in the community they serve.”

According to a press release from Three Rivers, the college also recognized a number of other award winners, including awards for innovation in teaching, outstanding student engagement, community impact, and distinguished service among faculty, professional, and support staff.  The award ceremony also recognized those with extended histories of service to Three Rivers, including six employees with twenty years of service.

The Missouri Community College Association is a statewide organization through which Missouri’s community colleges work together to advance common agendas. MCCA provides advocacy, education, information, and networking opportunities in service of the state’s 5,700 community college faculty, staff, administrators, and trustees.

# # #

Click HERE to read.

Click HERE to read.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Zora Mulligan, MCCA Executive Director
(573) 230-9318 (mobile)
(573) 634-8787 (office)
zora.mulligan@mccatoday.org

Jefferson City, Missouri – March 11, 2013. The long process for a policy that recognizes Missourians’ diverse learning experiences came to fulfillment on March 6, at a meeting of the Missouri Community College Association’s Presidents/Chancellors Council. The council adopted the state’s first statewide standard for awarding credit for prior learning, a model policy designed to help Missouri’s public two-year institutions meet the greatly increasing demand for skilled workers by accelerating adult learners’ progress in traditional educational delivery systems.

Community College Presidents and Chancellors Council chair Debbie Goodall said, “Today’s workers develop and demonstrate essential knowledge and skills through multiple avenues outside of formal postsecondary settings, such as on-the-job training, industry certifications, non-credit programs and apprenticeships. It’s critical that we validate and recognize this learning so that adult students don’t waste time and tuition dollars relearning what they already know.”

The impetus for the policy was two major training programs funded through a U.S. Department of Labor grant and administered by the Missouri Community College Association, MoHealthWINs and MoManufacturingWINs. Grant project director and team co-leader Dawn Busick said, “As adult students are being driven back to college to earn employable industry based skill certifications, credit for prior learning will serve to be a powerful motivator for them to engage further into advanced educational degree opportunities.”

While Missouri’s education agencies have been conscious of such policies for years, development of this statewide model policy for credit for prior learning began during the fall of 2010. Educational leaders, along with the support of Governor Jay Nixon’s office, the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the Division of Workforce Development, and industry partners committed to improve retention and achievement rates and/or reduce time to completion by developing standard practices on awarding credit for prior learning. Linn State Technical College co-led the credit for prior learning team. Linn Tech president Dr. Donald Claycomb said, “It is important to the state of Missouri that the community colleges and the state technical college work together on initiatives such as these designed to enhance the quality of life in our state while improving economic development.”

The national Council for Adult Experiential Learning (CAEL) trained Missouri two-year institution administrators and faculty in developing and implementing a credit for prior learning policy, while the work group benchmarked national best practices. The resultant draft policy was presented at the Missouri Community College Association’s annual convention in November 2012, as team representatives shared the policy with Missouri education officials and at an international learning conference in Washington, DC.

Now that the policy has received official endorsement, MCCA executive director Zora Mulligan says the next steps for the policy will be dissemination throughout the state’s public two-year institutions, and integration with college degree administration and graduation policies.

The Missouri Community College Association is a statewide organization through which Missouri’s community colleges work together to advance common agendas. MCCA provides advocacy, education, information, and networking opportunities in service of the state’s 5,700 community college faculty, staff, administrators, and trustees.

# # #

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Zora Mulligan, MCCA Executive Director
(573) 230-9318 (mobile)
(573) 634-8787 (office)
zora.mulligan@mccatoday.org

Jefferson City, Missouri – March 6, 2013. The Missouri Community College Association proudly acknowledges the following recipients of the 2013 Excellence in Teaching Awards.  Presented at a ceremony in Jefferson City yesterday, the award is given to the top community college teachers in the state each year and includes a proclamation from Missouri Governor Jay Nixon.

Photos from the ceremony are available on the Missouri Community College Association’s Facebook page.

1. Lisa Adams
2. Paulette Alexander
3. Nicole Bach
4. Linda Bell
5. Lynn Canaday
6. John Church
7. Ruby Curry
8. Randy Dunn
9. Layla Goushey
10. William Griffin
11. Amy Guthrie
12. Daniel Kopsas
13. Kimball Marsh
14. Roger McMillian
15. Vince Niehaus
16. Sally Polta
17. Denesia Sullivan
18. Andrea Vorwark
19. Amanda White

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Zora Mulligan
MCCA Executive Director
(573) 230-9318 (mobile)
(573) 634-8787 (office)
zora.mulligan@mccatoday.org

Jefferson City, Missouri – March 6, 2013. The Missouri Community College Association is proud to acknowledge the following colleges that had students named to the All-Missouri Academic Team, an honor bestowed on the state’s top community college students. The award ceremony was held yesterday in Jefferson City.

Representative Elijah Haahr, shown here, greeted the students and congratulated them on their achievements, and each student received a scholarship made possible by a donation from MOHELA, the state’s not-for-profit secondary market lender and servicer in the student loan industry.

Photos of the honorees receiving their awards are posted on the Missouri Community College Association’s Facebook page.

1. Cottey College
2. Crowder College
3. East Central College
4. Jefferson College
5. Linn State Community College
6. Metropolitan Community College
7. Mineral Area College
8. Moberly Area Community College
9. North Central Missouri College
10. Ozarks Technical Community College
11. State Fair Community College
12. St. Charles Community College
13. St. Louis Community College
14. Three Rivers College

02.15.2013 Grant Newsletter