HCC Receives Acceptance to the National Summer Institute on Learning Communities at Evergreen College

This summer a select group of HCC faculty and staff have been accepted and will be attending The National Summer Institute on Learning Communities at Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington. 

The National Summer Institute on Learning Communities is designed to help two-year and four-year campuses that are starting or expanding learning community programs, as well as institutions that are just beginning to explore the potential for learning communities on their campus. It draws on the wisdom of experienced learning community practitioners as well as the growing research on what makes learning communities an effective institutional change strategy for improving student learning, persistence, and graduation rates. 

The institute has been held annually since the mid-1990’s at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Teams from both public and independent institutions have found the institute invaluable in creating, expanding, and improving their learning community programs.

Colleges and universities selected for the institute are matched with resource faculty who are leaders in learning community work and other reform movements in higher education. The work of each team at the institute varies, depending on their institutional and program needs. Institutions starting or expanding their programs will leave the institute with a two-year action plan. Those considering learning communities will create a well-developed program proposal. Workshops and consultations are designed to support teams' work on proposals and plans relevant to their institution. Teams generally range in size from five to ten members.

The HCC Learning Communities mission statement is: “To provide HCC students an opportunity for interactions with faculty and peers in a vibrant, linked classroom experience; This educational space offers faculty partners  collaborative, intellectual collegiality, creating interdisciplinary intersections,  while students benefit from  a cohesive, transferrable, relevant view with increased interest in learning and perseverance.”