We Know NOVA is Great, and the Statistics Agree!

Over the past two weeks, I had the chance to share NOVA’s story with the parents of graduating high school students across our region. Over four Zooms, that drew more than 1,600 RSVPs, I talked about NOVA’s quality and reminded attendees not to overlook the nationally-recognized higher education gem that is right in their own backyard. Each presentation included some “did you know” moments that underscored this message. Here are just a few of the facts I included in my comments:

• NOVA faculty have won the SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award, the highest teaching honor in the Commonwealth, more often than faculty from any other two- or four-year higher education institution in the state.
• NOVA powers the online courses at 19 of the 23 VCCS colleges.
• At one point, one of every five AWS employees in Virginia had attended NOVA.
• All of Virginia’s Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Transfer Scholarship honorees this year came from NOVA.
• NOVA Phi Theta Kappa students are regularly named to the national and state All-Academic teams.
• The NOVA Educational Foundation last year transferred almost $1.8M in scholarships to our students.

Every day reveals another remarkable aspect of our incredible college. For example, based on a parent question, OIR tracked down the success rate of NOVA transfers at William & Mary: in four of the past five years, at least 91% of our transfers have graduated within 4 years. Wow! (Even OIR was surprised—and they’re now researching the NOVA transfer grad rate at other universities.)

I’m hoping you’ll forward your own “Did you Know-VA” (couldn’t resist) fact or data point. Please send one or two this week to presidentsoffice@nvcc.edu, and I’ll compile the list for all of us to use in talking up why we are Boldly NOVA!