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.”