Connecting Community College Students to

Completion:Engagement, Commitment &

Institutional PlanningPresented in Partnership by:

Phi Theta Kappa & The New Jersey Council of County Colleges Center for Student

Success

Our Presentation Team

Lou VenturelliAssistant Director

NJ Center for Student Success

Jennifer L. Blalock

Chief Student Support Officer

Phi Theta Kappa

Cassie BryantSpecial

Initiatives CoordinatorPhi Theta

Kappa

Jake FarbmanDirector of

Communications

New Jersey Council of

County Colleges

Our Leadership Vision

“To return our nation to economic prominence, which will require producing 5 million more adults with 21st Century workforce credentials — certificates and associate degrees or higher — we must completely transform how our colleges operate, what and how they teach, how they are funded and incented, how they work with other education institutions, and how they engage with industry.”

---Dr. Rod A. Risley, Executive Director & CEO of Phi Theta Kappa

A Call to Action: Community College Completion as a

National Initiative

• Democracy’s Colleges Call to Action

• The President’s 2020 Challenge

• The Completion Challenge

Our Shared Challenges

• Student Success Rates• Employment & industry needs gap• Increase in underprepared college

students• Rapidly changing enrollment

demographics • Reduction in college funding • Declining enrollments

The Community College Completion Corps

The Community College Completion Corps is a:• Student-Led Initiative• Increase student

awareness• Promote benefits of

completion• Engage campus &

community stakeholders• Faculty• Staff• Administrators

Students Commit To Complete

• Planning for completion• Career planning• Advisement on course selection &

degree progress• Role model in class participation

& preparation• Each one help one

Faculty & Staff Commit To Complete

• Completion Champion Pledge• Identify two specific, measurable

action items to promote completion

• Data and research driven initiatives & programming

• Culture of completion• Emphasis on student success• Mentoring, coaching, & guiding toward completion

NJ Council of County Colleges

• State association for all 19 community colleges

• Statewide Center for Student Success, funded by Kresge Foundation

• Provides technical support to NJ’s community college administrators

• Convenings, collaborations, coherence, change, & communication

Introduction

NJ Council of County Colleges

Establishing

Interest: Digitally Survey

Chapters for Statewide Interest

Awareness: Hold Statewide

Conference Calls with PTK Advisors and Student Leaders

Commitment: Distribute Chapter

Commitment Form

Inventory: Distribute

Chapter Event Form

Launch: Visit colleges, hire

videographer and promote program.

Roadmap: New Jersey Community College Completion Challenge

NJ Council of County Colleges

Tips for Success

1. First thing’s first: partner with your PTK Regional Coordinator on the front end – they have star power

2. Identify a statewide C4 Advisory Board

3. Hold numerous conference calls with chapter advisors and student presidents – facilitate exchange of ideas

4. Engage other student organizations in the program

5. Communicate your plans with statewide leadership including deans of students, chief academic officers and college presidents

6. Engage distance education students through the online pledge

7. Fundraise through state organizations for chapter programmatic support

8. Capture and tell your story

• Partnership with New Jersey Education Association

• NJEA represents 90,000 K-12 stakeholders

• Includes faculty & staff at NJ Community Colleges

• Advocates for community colleges as the NJEA’s New Jersey County Colleges Association

• Invested $15,000 in NJC4

• Funded local activities for all 19 chapters and statewide viral campaign

Funding

NJ Council of County Colleges

• Created #NJC4 and asked all community colleges to use it on social media – Facebook, Instagram & Twitter

• Created four viral news segments featuring campus events

• Publicized on NJCCC, Phi Theta Kappa & NJEA websites

• Media coverage in The Star-Ledger, Philadelphia Inquirer, Press of Atlantic City, Inside Higher Education, and others

• 30-minute feature on Caucus: New Jersey (PBS)

NJ Council of County Colleges

Promoting

Social Media

News Media Coverage

Campus Spotlights

• Involve all levels of campus & community participation• Athletics, Instruction, Staff, Student Organizations &

leadership, Student Activities, Orientation, Career Services, Alumni, Business & Industry

• Introduce additional partnerships for sustainability including 4-years

• Promote the Completion Corps’ Online Pledge• Measuring, comparing, and evaluating impact of student

participation

• Establish a Spring Semester Completion Celebration Day

• Identify a Completion Challenge Theme

Expanding

Expanding

“Each One, Help One.”

• Goal-setting• Monitor

progress• Personal and

academic milestones

• Next steps and forward thinking

• Connect to two-year and four-year resources

Getting Started

• Survey of engagement & investment of campus stakeholders

• Student leadership, ownership, and implementation

• Collaboration • Showcasing and integrating on-campus

resources• Showcasing and integrating off-campus

resources and partners

The Challenge Continues

o Federal national community college agenda for funded two-year tuitiono Increased access & enrollmento Impact on student

demographics & motivationo State community college

initiativeso Department of Education College

scorecard and rating system

Q&A