Area Report for Board of Trustees
Enrollment Services – Veterans Affairs
Veterans Program Specialist Kendall Evans accompanied three Veteran students to the Student Veterans of America National Conference (NatCon). NatCon is the largest annual gathering of student Veterans and advocates in higher education. The conference featured keynote speakers and workshops on a variety of topics, and was well-received by the students who attended. One student commented: “The information and networking that NatCon provided is immeasurable. It brought back the feeling of camaraderie and of being part of something bigger than us. I am lucky to have had the opportunity to attend and will definitely benefit from everything we learned.”
Advising & High School Programs
Academic Advisors welcomed high school counselors to Highline College on December 4th for the annual High School Appreciation event held by Outreach. Advisors presented on the on-boarding and New Student Orientation process, requirements for Academic Standards and student success interventions, preparing for transfer to a university, and high school completion options including Running Start. This event is a great opportunity for advisors to connect with high schools to prepare students for a successful transition to college.
Women’s Programs/WorkFirst Services
The campus Emergency Fund Committee, chaired by WP/WF Director Deana Rader, is working with Instructional Technology to develop an online portal for students to submit Emergency Funds requests confidentially. Currently, students are referred to several departments across campus. The portal will create one entry point for students to make a request. The request will be received by an Emergency Funds Triage team, with members from several departments across campus. The team will determine which department can best meet the needs of the student and will forward the request to that department’s Emergency Fund designee for processing and communication with the student. The student will also be asked to schedule an appointment with a Financial Literacy advisor to receive financial guidance.
As chair of Highline’s Re-Entry Education Transition Pathway (RETP) task force, Deana Rader has been working with South Correctional Entity (SCORE) to provide educational outreach to inmates at the Des Moines jail. RETP task force members visit the jail every other Friday to provide information about Highline and other local community colleges. A request to SBCTC to use Highline WorkFirst performance funding to support the salary of a Re-Entry Specialist position at Highline was recently approved, and recruitment is currently underway.
Center for Leadership/Multicultural Affairs
With ISP now under Student Services, the International Leadership Student Consultant Team (ILSC) joins CLS and the larger Core Services Leadership Team. On January 30 ILSC will sponsor the first International Student Forum to provide a student centered space to inquire about the international student experience at Highline and offer peer advice, campus resource navigation support and connections to campus engagement opportunities.
Report submitted by Interim Vice President Sy Ear, Ed.D.