Virginia Community College Experiential Learning Conference Draws Talent from Across the Commonwealth

NOVA hosted an inaugural Virginia Community College Experiential Conference on Saturday, April 15, at the Long Nguyen and Kimmy Duong Theater, located within the Richard J. Ernst Community Cultural Center. The event featured a keynote address from Dr. Wayne Frederick, president of Howard University, introduced by Dr. Diane Mucci, provost of NOVA’s Annandale Campus.

The event allowed students from across the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) to gather in a hybrid format for a transformative experience featuring student-produced projects and collaborative presentations by faculty/staff and students. The conference hosted more than 300 registrants, with 220  onsite. NOVA welcomed representatives from 12 out of 23 VCCS institutions.

Projects presented focused on themes related to study abroad, undergraduate research, service learning, internships, apprenticeships and leadership. These themes helped students to apply their learning to different environments. Students across the region were able to further explore career pathways and build their resumes, while getting practical, hands-on experience.

As keynote speaker, Dr. Frederick discussed the experience at Howard University, ways to enhance learning and what ‘experiential learning’ means for students. “Those experiences can be very instructive. When I encounter a student, I ask them about their mission. When you talk to students about their mission, you realize how much of that mission has to be fulfilled outside of the classroom.”

“We often think of experiential learning in a formal setting, but when you cross our campus and you run into a student from Ghana and you hear them speak in their native tongue, you have just experienced experiential learning,” Frederick said. “That is an experience, and that is why we want students to be interacting with one another. The practical definition is trying to apply what is learned in the classroom to other environments, but it takes on other roles: where it can be learned and by whom.”

From Undergraduate Research Opportunities and Field Work in Early Childhood Education, to a Federal Agency Internships Panel, this conference offered a range of opportunities for engagement.

“We are grateful for all the support in making the Virginia Community College Experiential Learning Conference a point of pride for the Commonwealth—one that highlights and celebrates our students’ innovative achievements,” said Dr. Eun-Woo Chang, vice president of academic affairs and chief academic officer at NOVA, who developed the concept of this statewide conference.

This event was made possible by sponsorships from four-year schools and industry partners such as Colonial Scientific, Emory & Henry College, George Mason University, Marymount University, Norfolk University, Old Dominion University, the Online Virginia Network, Shenandoah University, Sweet Briar College and Virginia Tech. Further, the event was organized by the VCCS Experiential Learning Committee, led by Dr. Jen Rainey, academic dean at NOVA’s Loudoun Campus. Next year’s conference will be held at Bright Point Community College (Chester, Va.) and it will be hosted by other VCCS institutions in the Commonwealth going forward.

Submitted by:
Hoang Nguyen, Associate Director of External Comms., HDNguyen@nvcc.edu