Celebrating Student Success

'Tis the season as they say - the season to celebrate student success that is. As we come to the end of the spring semester and the academic year, I find myself readily inspired by the accomplishments and celebration of student success at MVCC. For the past two weeks, I have been addressing the recommendations of the system design teams in my blog posts. I plan on continuing to do so, but I'm compelled to insert a post here to reflect on some recent and upcoming events celebrating student success.

Last week we inducted more than 50 students into the Lambda Beta Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the international student honor society of community colleges. The family, friends, and staff in attendance filled ACC 116 and helped make for a great event that celebrated our top academic students.

The Student Clubs and Organizations Awards Reception celebrated the student leaders of the more than 40 student clubs and organizations at MVCC. With opportunities for students to participate at both the Utica and Rome Campuses, these student leaders bring a special element to making MVCC an exciting and dynamic college experience for all students. It was great to see the faculty and staff advisors recognized for their guidance and mentoring of these student leaders as well.

One of my favorite things about MVCC is the way in which some of the academic departments provide personalized ceremonies of student success. Last fall we had the "completion ceremonies" for the first class of Airframe and Powerplant students and a similar ceremony for the CNC machinists who completed the innovative program in partnership with Bartell, Inc. in Rome. Here in the spring, the Social Sciences department put together a wonderful ceremony for students who received awards and scholarships (one scholarship completely funded by the faculty in the department) - you could feel the sense of pride and belonging among the many students in attendance. As we approach the College's graduation ceremony on Friday, May 16th, we'll also have similar celebrations like the Athletic Awards Banquet and the inspiring scholarship reception that links many of our generous scholarship donors with the well-deserving student recipients. In addition, we'll have our Psi Beta student honor society induction ceremony for psychology students and our nursing program ceremony for this year's nursing class, as well as many other smaller celebrations around the College.

I once heard a community college president say that one of her favorite responsibilities was getting to be a part of so many student celebrations - I have to agree. I like to say that our success as a college is only limited by the success of our students. To see all that our students are accomplishing is a wonderful affirmation of the incredible talent and determination found in MVCC students and the fantastic support that our faculty and staff provide to do what we can to help students reach their potential during their time here. If you have any other ideas of how we can celebrate student success in unique and meaningful ways, contact me at presblog@mvcc.edu.