As I reflect on the amazing feeling that comes from shaking five
hundred hands crossing the stage at MVCC’s largest graduation ever, the words
of Southern Poverty Law Center co-founder Morris Dees – MVCC’s Commencement speaker
– linger for me. He told the graduates that they are witness to history and should
help make their communities healthier, more vibrant and, most importantly,
defined by equality and justice for all. But can we define those adjectives in
actionable terms? The crutch phrase too often used in this region, “never too
high or never too low in the Mohawk Valley” is a stereotype that glosses over
definitions and data upon which we can act toward those more aspirational ends
described by Mr. Dees. Why can’t the Mohawk Valley region aspire and pursue a
more vibrant, reinvented era of prosperity? If only we had a set of indicators
by which we can understand our baselines, align our collective efforts, and
pursue focused progress!
Fortunately,
the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties partnered with Mohawk
Valley EDGE and the United Way of Greater Utica to identify a well-defined set
of community indicators. You can view the full list of the 80 indicators here and the first annual
report card here. At the
fourth annual Poverty Symposium hosted on MVCC’s Utica Campus recently,
Peggy O’Shea provided an overview of the indicators project and introduced the
metaphor of community problems associated with the image of a tree and the
indicators representing the roots of that tree – i.e., the indicators project
will help us get to the root causes of the greatest challenges we face as a
community. The primary challenge is that these indicators are not the sole
responsibility of one person or one organization – they summon the attention
and intention of all of us!
Here are some indicators that MVCC is working on with
our partners to move the community in a positive direction:
Population
by race and ethnicity – As we celebrate the
diversity of this region as a strength, MVCC’s nationally recognized and unique
Diversity & Global View (DGV) graduation requirement and Cultural Series
help our graduates (as well as faculty, staff, and community members!) become
more culturally competent and self aware in an increasingly complex global
society.
Children
living in poverty – Our Gear Up and Upward
Bound programs in conjunction with our school district partners provide
inspiration and support for low-income and disadvantaged students in grades
7-12 – to help break the intergenerational cycle of poverty.
Median
household income –Household incomes readily
increase with better-paying jobs that can only come with additional education
and training. Over the past five years, our credit enrollment has increased 25
percent (with more than 7,300 credit students last fall!) and our noncredit
enrollment has nearly doubled during that same period. To help ease the
financial burden, the MVCC Foundation provides more than 250 scholarships each
year with specific funds for single mothers, part-time students, honors
students, and many specific to our career programs.
People
below poverty – Nothing traps people in
poverty more than incarceration. As outlined in Michelle Alexander’s work, The New Jim Crow, we
incarcerate our citizens at a rate seven times that of any other developed
nation in the world and more African-Americans are in prison today than were
enslaved at the height of slavery in 1850. Two thousand nine hundred
individuals are released from correctional facilities each year in Oneida
County and those who have committed felonies are unable to access food stamps,
public housing, or find employment easily. MVCC’s New Directions program
provides intake and support services to hundreds of formerly incarcerated
individuals and lights the way to positivity and renewal.
Change
in total jobs – With a trained
workforce, our region can better attract and add jobs. MVCC works hard to match
our programs to fill local workforce needs. We just graduated more than 125
nurses and are helping employers fill job openings for airframe and powerplant
technicians, machinists, cybersecurity and other high-demand fields. The MVCC
Foundation is also helping us launch entrepreneurship initiatives next year to
inculcate an entrepreneurial culture of growth and development for years to
come.
Student
performance in English and Math – We
partner with the Boys and Girls Club of Utica to provide the Reading Rangers
summer literacy program to prevent learning gaps for low-income children over
the summer. We are also working with local school districts to assess math
skills for every high school junior in the area and identify curriculum for
their senior year to ensure they are ready for college. In addition, with
support of the Rome Community Foundation, we are launching the Rome Futures
Academy that links literacy skills with career exposure and awareness to make
the connection between school and work.
High
School graduation rate – Making that connection
between school and work is something MVCC focuses on through our career camps
for youth. This year we expect to have more than 40 career camps and serve more
than 500 kids by giving them exposure to careers available locally.
College
graduation rate – Our Phi Theta Kappa student honor society won a
regional award for leading the “Pledge to Complete” program in which more than
600 students, faculty and staff signed to pledge their commitment in supporting
student completion and help produce our largest graduating class ever. This
past year, MVCC’s graduation rate reached a five-year high. In addition, we
have implemented the Pathways to Academic Recovery with intentional
interventions and support to help students on academic probation get back on
track toward graduation.
Education
levels of adults – What if we increased the
college-going rate of high school graduates by requiring high school seniors to
complete an MVCC admission application in order to graduate from high school?
Fortunately, a couple of progressive local superintendents have taken us up on
exploring that question and are considering the implementation of such a
program next year! In addition, our new Educational Opportunity Center will
serve more than 1,000 first-generation college and low-income adults each of
the next five years and provide the necessary support to set them on a path for
a greater quality of life through further education and training.
Education
levels of adults by ethnicity – Our outreach efforts and
enhanced support services have increased credit enrollment of African-American
students by 66 percent in the past five years and nearly doubled the number of
Hispanic students enrolled at MVCC during that same period.
Technology
degrees and technology
program enrollment as share of total degrees – Founded
as a technical institute in 1946, MVCC has remained true to that comprehensive
mission and continues to nurture and refine our technical degree programs. In
fact, we’ve had a Nanotechnology degree program on the books since 2005 – we
just need a chip fab plant built in the area so students can complete the
required internship!
When all
local organizations review the 80 community indicators and set their focus on
the ones by which they feel they can move the needle, we will start to see more
consistent and positive developments in the region. Most importantly, we will
see a greater alignment in our thinking and our actions – an alignment that
could prompt a new saying, “Ever upward in the Mohawk Valley.”
