NOVA Faculty Win Excellence in Education Awards
NOVA won in three out of the four categories in the VCCS Excellence in Education Awards Wednesday evening at the New Horizons Conference.
In the Beyond Ideas in Communication, Dr. Paul Fitzgerald (AN-Biology) and Dr. Cheri Spiegel (AN-English) won for their work as the founding coordinators of the Annandale Center for Contemplative Practice (ACCP). During Fall 2022, they produced seven original workshops, each grounded in its own unique co-written booklet. Three workshops introduced core concepts related to bringing compassion to the college, including offerings on self-compassion, the theory and practice of non-violent communication and boundary setting as self-compassion. Spiegel and Fitzgerald focus their efforts on college staff and faculty because they believe this to be the most effective way to positively impact as many students as possible. The ACCP offers employees a variety of resources to support sustainability, professional development and belonging. Their work is grounded in Fitzgerald‘s training in mindfulness meditation, Spiegel’s training in non-violent communication and their shared belief that compassion, curiosity and courage can transform our internal terrain and our institutional landscapes.
The quality of ACCP offerings is demonstrated through the active engagement of attendees and growing requests, and Drs. Spiegel and Fitzgerald have expanded and developed their work. To date, over 150 employees have attended a workshop or participated in a program offered by the ACCP. They have received invitations to speak and to offer workshops at each of the college campuses and strive to make themselves as available as possible, most recently expanding their video editing capabilities simply to meet the demand of the community.
Alicia Tucker (MA-History) won in Beyond Ideas in High Impact Practices categories for her ever-evolving use of technology in her classes. As a cultural historian, Tucker finds it essential to explore all parts of the past through a lens that includes people of all socio-economic classes, races, genders and abilities. This approach ensures that students regularly see their ancestors as central to American history and provides them with a new appreciation for the past. Knowing that history is more of an academic requirement than a passion for many of her students, her desire to provide transferrable skills in writing, research and critical thinking advances student engagement and success not only in her course, but in their other classes and in the workforce. Her use of technology throughout her course allows students to have regular support. Working with a colleague, she developed interactive websites so students have on-demand support for research and writing tools throughout the semester; they improved her students’ writing skills and their enthusiasm. She also incorporated a teaching model utilized at George Mason University, so students are prepared for the next course levels. To provide affordable classes while ensuring appropriate, meaningful and diverse content, Tucker transitioned her classes to Open Educational Resources. Tucker created an online 3D Document Museum where students interact with images and documents in a virtual reality world. She was one of the first faculty members to pilot hyflex classes so no campus-based barriers would prevent student success.
Tucker employs a Pedagogy of Kindness, which recognizes that students are more engaged and productive when course design and teaching activities are predicated upon kindness and trust, believing that students desire engagement. She uses authentic assessments, which have been proven to provide a more equitable and accessible grading experience for students.
Cynthia Hatch (Associate Director, Workforce) rounded out the winners in the Beyond Ideas in Workforce category for the ESL Support for Nurse Aides program. This program is a robust English language-focused program created to offer workforce opportunities to non-native English-speaking (NNES) individuals and helps meet the region’s increasing demand for Certified Nurse Aides (CNA). By specifically working with NNES individuals, not only is this program increasing students’ potential to earn a family-sustaining wage as a CNA, but this program is also ensuring that our region will have a diverse population of health care professionals who will meet the needs of a culturally diverse group of patients. In fall 2021, Hatch applied for and received a grant through the All Within My Hands Foundation’s Metallica Scholars Initiative (MSI), a major workforce education initiative designed to support students, while elevating the importance of career and technical education. As of October 2022, NOVA has served 66 Metallica Scholars with a 75% credential attainment rate for healthcare credentials (CNA and CCMA).
Hatch’s expertise and outstanding leadership have been instrumental in building and sustaining the efforts involving this new workforce pathway. The program follows a hybrid format (Zoom and asynchronous via Canvas), providing flexible, convenient, affordable and specialized ESL instruction, enabling the CNA program to accept students with a lower English proficiency than would have been previously required (which was placement into ENG-111) and expedites their successful entrance into the medical field.
Congratulations to all!
Submitted by:
Kristy Balbuena, Academic Affairs Coordinator, KBalbuena@nvcc.edu