FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Contact: Jack Hershey or Tom Walsh
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Association of Community Colleges (OACC) has established a leadership academy to encourage mid-level administrators and faculty to develop leadership skills and promote student success.
The OACC Leadership Academy for Student Success is spearheaded by the association’s Success Center for Ohio Community Colleges. The inaugural class of 47 fellows, representing all 23 colleges affiliated with the OACC, gathered this week for sessions focusing on the essential role of leadership in student success, completion and institutional effectiveness.
The fellows will meet six times over a year to participate in sessions designed to help them strengthen their college’s ability to accomplish its mission of sustaining pathways to student success.
The kickoff sessions are focused on the essential role of leadership in student success. Topics include the need to cultivate new leaders, the evolving definitions of student success, lessons learned from Ohio’s college reform movement, Ohio’s funding formula, higher education policy priorities and data and resources available to colleges.
Teams of fellows will spend the year working on institutional transformation projects drawing on lessons from the Pathways Project, a national initiative led by the American Association of Community Colleges to encourage community colleges to design and implement structured academic and career pathways for all students.
The curriculum was developed by Baldwin Consulting and OACC leadership, based upon the nationally recognized Aspen Presidential Fellowship for Community College Excellence and current state policies and practices.