The First Day of Class

I’m reminded every semester how the first day of class is one of those points in the calendar that makes working at a community college so special. So much goes into preparing the College for a new academic year, the pace and level of effort is remarkable. When the first day of class finally arrives, helping students find their ways and resolving unanticipated issues requires an “all-hands-on-deck” approach at both of our campuses. This day is filled with countless interactions for everyone.

While student admissions, enrollment, and advising appointments build steadily throughout the summer, the few weeks before the semester are packed with activities like new student orientation; deep cleaning of facilities; faculty meetings; preparation of countless events; and staffing classes for sections opened in response to waitlist demand. When that first day arrives, we know we're ready - come what may.

MVCC faculty and staff take part in a workshop titled "Empowering Students to Get on Course" with Robin Middleton at the August Institute Professional Development event before the start of the Fall semester.

The bustle associated with students finding the right classrooms fills the halls of most every building. Sometimes you can just see the look in a student’s eyes that says, "I could use some help." We're striving for that standard where, no matter what role we may play at the College, we're all here to help students - whether it's answering a question or helping a new member of our “family” find their way, we're here to help.

MVCC students receive help at one of the Information Booths set up around campus.

I try to meet as many new students as I can on the first day and work hard to make new connections. I'm always surprised throughout the year how many of these same students’paths cross mine - and we can always point back to that first day of class. With 7,500 students and my hectic schedule, I'd think the odds of running into someone again wouldn't be very good, but each year the same pattern emerges.

Students gather outside of the Alumni College Center on the first day of classes.

Settling in to a new academic year always brings a certain energy, tempered with a touch of positive anxiety for everyone, that captures everything the college experience should be - calling on the courage to try something new; throwing ourselves into the unknown; trusting others to help us find our way; using our instincts to make the right decisions; and being okay with not knowing everything, but trusting that most things will work out when all is said and done. It's what makes being a college student such a special experience and makes working at a college - particularly a community college - such a rewarding occupation.

It’s the first day of a new academic year at Mohawk Valley Community College. I’m glad I’m here. I’m glad you’re here. Let’s do something great together!

If you have any comments on this post, please contact me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

New Year Energy

If you have any questions or comments on this vlog, please contact me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

NEW YEAR ENERGY (text)

Hi! I’m Randy Van Wagoner, I’m the president of Mohawk Valley Community College, and this is my first vlog, so thanks for watching.

You know it’s the start of a new school year, and that’s got me really excited about everything going on here at the college. At MVCC, our mission is to promote student success and community involvement through a commitment to excellence and a spirit of service. And that mission drives our operation every day. You know things are tough with the economy and that’s driving an unprecedented number of individuals to our front door, and we’re doing everything that we can to help.

We maintain our commitment to a comprehensive mission where we’ve got college prep classes, like ESL, Math, English, Reading and Chemistry. But we also have the long-standing career programs, upon which this college was founded 65 years ago. In addition, we’ve got our transfer programs that lead students to the highest institutions around the country. Those programs provide students choice at a time when choice is probably … we don’t have all the choices we need or nor do we want. So those programs are here, they’re coupled up with wraparound services, advising, counseling, free tutoring, our learning center is packed with students studying together, seeking help in and outside their classes.

And our clubs and organizations, we have more than 50 student clubs and organizations that allow students to get involved, recognizing that more or just as much learning goes on outside the classroom as it does inside the classroom.

So as we look to the new year, we have a lot of new initiatives under way, the Jorgensen Field House will be opening early this fall, just creating a lot of excitement here at the college, at both our Utica campus, as well as our Rome campus, and additional locations around the county that we’ve been reaching out to over the past few years, offering both credit and non-credit classes, so no matter what your experience is in the coming year, whether it be enrolling in a credit program or just picking up a non-credit class here at the college, I hope you’re as excited as I am about the new year. So thanks again for watching, and I hope to share even more information with you throughout the year. Thanks.

If you have any questions or comments on this vlog, please contact me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

A Time to Engage

I have been an assistant coach for my daughters’ soccer teams each of the past three years.  For each fall and spring session of outdoor AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) soccer, I have had the good fortune to be paired with awesome head coaches.  Each one is the embodiment of those dads who would do anything for their daughters and commit to being responsible for the schedule, the practices, the lineups, the phone calls, the games, and everything associated with developing little soccer players.  As assistant coach, I don’t have to really commit – I’m kind of there as much as I can be.  I give it my all when I am there, but it’s always as my schedule allows, and somewhere deep down I limit my expectations with thoughts like, “I’m only the assistant” and if I miss a practice, it’s okay because the head coach is the one who should be there. For the assistant coach, commitment can be optional … or so I thought.

This spring session, I found myself needing to reconsider all of my notions of this commitment.  My head coach had another commitment grow larger than he expected, preventing him from holding regular practices and making anything more than our first two games.  It was clearly time for me to revisit my level of commitment and engage. I found myself taking the initiative to rearrange my schedule (which wasn’t as hard as I thought) and holding weekly practices, working on deficiencies I identified in our most recent game; taking time each weekend to think through my lineup for the game; and then coaching the game each week – complete with my pre-game talking points.  It was incredibly rewarding for me, as I watched my third- and fourth-graders grow into little soccer players.  AYSO is all about having fun, but as I have always felt, it’s a little more fun when you win. And to my surprise, we won all five games that I coached on my own. 

Surprising ourselves is one of the most satisfying things in life, I think – when we stretch ourselves beyond our own expectations and commit to something beyond ourselves.  For me, I got beyond thinking about my own schedule and started thinking about the experience of these girls.  The results were incredibly positive and rewarding on all accounts.

As I reflected on the extent to which I had to recalibrate my expectations for my level of commitment to our AYSO team, I couldn’t help but think about how often we limit ourselves by concentrating on what we’ve always done, the way we’ve always done it.  When we simply extrapolate the past into a linear projection of the future, we fail to take into account changing environments and changing needs. With the College implementing a retirement incentive this past spring, a number of talented colleagues left us here to carry on the important work of MVCC. Their commitment to the College is admirable (having all served an average of 30 years or more) and their talents will be greatly missed.  The departure of such a significant cohort of talented individuals has changed the environment in which we need to approach the coming academic year.  Much in the way the departure of my AYSO head coach changed things for me, the recent retirements have changed the leadership landscape at the College.

Now is the time to engage. So many to whom we would have turned to in the past for guidance and insight won’t be here when we kick off the new academic year in August. It will be incumbent on all of us to believe in ourselves and in each other to get the work done together. It will require us to go beyond thinking about our own sphere of daily influence and reconsider our level of commitment and engagement.  Initiative and creativity will be as important as showing up every day and doing a good day’s work.  Just as we had an entire cohort of colleagues exit, we’ll have a new cohort of colleagues that will look to each of us to help them be successful and find ways to help them contribute to the best of their ability.  Who knows, if we do our best and stretch a bit, we might even surprise ourselves.

If you have any comments on this post, please contact me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

The Educational Excellence Fund

During the feasibility study for the Challenge and Opportunity Campaign, we received feedback that the community would support any efforts that address important community needs and amplified things MVCC already does well– thus the Educational Excellence Fund was created. This post provides insight into the Campaign’s fourth initiative, which is focused on launching or redeveloping five allied health programs in five years; expanding our incredible Cultural Series; and enhancing technology in our programs and services.

With tremendous support from Rome Hospital and Bassett Healthcare, we were able to launch our surgical technology program last year. With a new clinical lab at our Rome Campus, the surgical tech program is off to a great start - producing graduates for jobs that are just waiting for well-trained professionals. We also plan on expanding the medical assisting program to provide healthcare providers with a needed workforce. In addition, redeveloping a medical coding and billing program as well as a health information technology program will help our healthcare employers respond quickly to the shifting sands of technology and create flexible workforce ever-changing times. Finally, we are working with our healthcare partners at Faxton St-Lukes and elsewhere to create capacity and graduate more radiologic technology professionals for the growing and changing services in healthcare related to imaging technologies. These programs are expensive and difficult to develop, but the need is there in our local workforce, making this an important part of our campaign.

In a diverse community such as ours, the MVCC Cultural Series not only helps prepare our students for the future, but provides community members with great opportunities today. MVCC experienced another record breaking year once again with nearly 17,000 (16,776) individuals attending 172 Cultural Series events during the fall and spring semesters this year. We averaged nearly 100 (98) patrons per event this season, which included collaborating with Herkimer County Community College to bring Grammy nominee and Association of Country Music’s Top New Artist of the Year winner “the Band Perry” to MVCC’s Utica Campus (tickets sold out a month before the show.) We upgraded the Festine Auditorium at the Rome Campus and saw multiple sellouts in that venue, including Michael Glabicki, the lead singer and founder of the band Rusted Root. Our annual international festival saw more than 600 people attend various events throughout the day. The Cultural Series allows MVCC to provide programming to support our innovative Diversity & Global View graduation requirement and helps us all see beyond ourselves and experience more of the world. Providing such comprehensive and diverse quality programming is limited by student fees and College support and is a natural fit for private sponsorship and investment.

Founded as a technical institute in 1946, MVCC has remained true to our technical roots and maintains a broad array of technically-oriented career programs. With strong math and science offerings that support our award-winning engineering programs as well as our community-oriented trades programs, MVCC’s commitment to technology provides our students and our community with current industry-relevant technology and techniques. The recent $2.8 million Cyberjobs grant from the U.S. Department of Labor is a recent example of MVCC’s ability to keep moving forward at the pace of change. However, maintaining currency in our labs for healthcare programs like nursing and respiratory care and trades programs like welding and heating and air conditioning, as well as the general information technology needs of our students and programs is a perfect fit for public-private partnerships and private investment from industry.

While the Creating Opportunity and Breaking Barriers initiatives in the Challenge and Opportunity Campaign focus more on meeting the most challenging student needs, the Educational Excellence Fund complements the Revitalizing the Economy initiative by leveraging the strengths of MVCC to meet local community needs in creative ways that demonstrate tremendous results. If you have any thoughts on this post, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Revitalizing the Economy

I learned a phrase here soon after my arrival four years ago – “never too high, never too low here in the Mohawk Valley.” As the economy tanked soon after, I watched the national and state unemployment rates surpass the local rate and saw Utica/Rome rank in the top 10 metro areas for housing values while other areas spiraled with devastating effect. Many shared the insight that the phrase means that this area doesn’t rise with the booms, so we “don’t have too far too fall” when the busts come. However, I believe if we work at root cause issues, like poverty, and foster a diverse economic base through an entrepreneurial spirit, this area can revitalize its economy and set a steady trajectory toward sustainable growth and prosperity.

This belief is built on the good fortune associated with the unique position MVCC holds in our community. We’re at the nexus of education system – connecting school districts and universities; we provide employers with well trained employees; we are strongly supported by local, state, and federally elected representatives; and we partner with countless non-profits and social service agencies to carry out an important mission. As a result, MVCC has identified Revitalizing the Economy as one of four initiatives as part of the Challenge and Opportunity Campaign through the MVCC Foundation.

One important aspect of the Revitalizing the Economy initiative is establishing the Cornhill Education Center. The idea is to create an educational hub of positivity and additional opportunity in the Hope VI area of Cornhill by locating classroom and lab space to deliver educational programming in unique and creative ways. We’ve begun to pilot this concept through a creative partnership with the Municipal Housing Authority by leasing a facility at 3rd and Elizabeth Streets in Utica. By offering carpentry and masonry classes there our students will be able to learn basic trade skills and then, with our partners, work on community restoration projects like home and building weatherization to increase energy efficiency in low-income housing, or a “Ramps and Rails” project for low-income seniors and disabled individuals. If we raise enough private support to match local and state dollars, additional non-credit GED and ESL classes could be offered along with introductory college courses for individuals who may have never thought college and career could be a viable alternative to the social services safety net.

Entrepreneurship is another critical tool in the economic toolbox that could create a diverse economic base and a spirit of hope in the region. With close to 25% of all jobs in Oneida County being connected to local and state governments, we have a long way to go – but there are many examples of success here locally. Many local businesses have been able to thrive through the toughest times in one of the toughest areas in one of the toughest states in the nation. However, entrepreneurship goes beyond just succeeding in small business – it’s more like a mindset that can be exploited in high demand/high growth areas. According to Upstate Venture Connect, 70% of all new jobs created in the last five years were through business startups and 40% of those new jobs came from just 1% of those startups – high growth/high demand fields. With healthcare, metals, cybersecurity, computer software, and nanotechnology thriving in a 90 mile radius of our area, there’s no reason the Mohawk Valley can’t foster and support entrepreneurs – and MVCC is once again perfectly positioned to provide smart resources and support to emerging entrepreneurs connect the dots and create viable networks for success. From relevant curriculum to access to mentors and partners, MVCC will provide that necessary support to foster entrepreneurs and revitalize the economy in the Mohawk Valley.

As one of four initiatives in the Challenge and Opportunity campaign, Revitalizing the Economy is perhaps the most focused and yet most significant and far-reaching initiative, with the potential to have the greatest impact on the region. We’re developing relationships that will continue to evolve and leverage the strengths of all of our partners in this important endeavor. If you have any thoughts on this post, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Breaking Barriers

As I described in my last post, the Challenge and Opportunity Campaign has four major initiatives that serve as a call to action in helping the MVCC Foundation provide traction our students and community need to secure long-term success. While the Creating Opportunity initiative described in the last post provides more traditional support through scholarships, the Breaking Barriers initiative provides support for nontraditional needs that are difficult to address any other way – needs that are growing more complex in scope and intensity with each passing semester. Accessibility is a key element in our Statement of Purpose. We attract a very diverse student population – one of our most important strengths.

From providing the first step after high school to honor students; offering the important step in upgrading skills to returning adults, immigrants and refugees; helping those who have been incarcerated re-imagine their lives… students from all walks of life enroll in our classes each semester. More recently however, we are better understanding some of the most significant barriers MVCC students encounter. Many receive full federal and state financial aid, so their tuition and fees are covered. Often, however, some experience sudden changes to their income that supports their daily living expenses. As a result, many have no means to keep their educational dreams on track. Imagine the challenge of studying for a calculus exam when you live out of your car.

Other individuals have come to us having enrolled at MVCC years ago, when their lives were not as orderly and stable as they are today. Back then, they dropped out of college and never paid their tuition balance. Years later having successfully completed the hard work required to get their lives back on track, they’re ready to restart their educational dreams, but that old tuition balance remains, preventing them from enrolling until the outstanding bill has been paid. As you might imagine, a balance of $1,500 might as well be $150,000 to these individuals.

We’ve also identified a root cause issue associated with career education. Although MVCC offers more than 40 career camps each year to nearly 400 youth between 7 and 17 years old, the programs are non-credit, self-supported experiences that enroll only those students whose families can afford to pay the cost. Often, the students who need such important career exposure are those who do not have the means to pay – most often less than $200 for a full week of unique, career-oriented learning.

The Breaking Barriers initiative in MVCC’s Challenge and Opportunity campaign seeks to address each of these problems in significant ways. The Campaign will expand the initial support of a visionary donor who helped the MVCC Foundation recently create a Fresh Start Fund that pays the outstanding balance for students who dropped out of MVCC years ago. The Fund requires student “repayment” through volunteering 9 hours a week during the first semester at one of our many partner non-profit organizations.

The Campaign also will establish an Emergency Fund to assist students who just need a little help to navigate unexpected barriers to their education. In addition, the Campaign will provide funding for career camps for economically disadvantaged youth in the area and provide them with the important experiences necessary to help make learning and school relevant.

The MVCC Challenge and Opportunity Campaign is not so much about building buildings as it is about building creative solutions to barriers that often confront community college students and their families. Our goal is to provide our students and the greater community with a firm foundation upon which to pursue even bigger dreams and secure greater success than anyone thought possible. If you have any thoughts on this post, please contact me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Creating Opportunity

Thousands of student stories are developed at MVCC each year. Without the support of the MVCC Foundation, many of those stories would have a very different narrative. For example, the story of a student who graduated in the top 10 percent of their class and attended MVCC before transferring to a highly respected university would not have played out without the student receiving a presidential scholarship. Similarly, the single mother who completed our nursing program and started a career and support her children would not have been written without the student receiving multiple scholarships available through the Foundation. These stories and countless others comprise the story of Mohawk Valley Community College itself. Whether it’s helping to slow the "brain drain" by providing excellent education to recent high school graduates, providing relevant career skills to returning adults, or breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty for underserved populations, MVCC has been able to fulfill its mission to a greater extent due to the support of the MVCC Foundation. With the challenges facing this region, MVCC has an unprecedented responsibility to advance our important mission to the greatest extent possible.

Unfortunately, not every need can be met through traditional means, which is why the Mohawk Valley Community College Foundation recently launched the Challenge and Opportunity comprehensive fundraising campaign. With a goal of $7 million, this campaign will provide the College and our students with the traction necessary to ensure that obstacles are overcome to secure individual student and community success. A feasibility study was conducted to assess the critical needs in the community that MVCC can only address with private support outside our operating budget. One-hour interviews were completed with 76 people of influence and affluence – some connected to the College and others not as much. The study helped identify four initiatives that comprise the focus of the campaign – 1. Creating student opportunity; 2. Breaking barriers; 3. Revitalizing the Economy; 4. Educational Excellence. This post is the first of four that provide background on the context and significance of each campaign initiative.

With the rising cost of tuition, a college degree is increasingly out of reach for too many Americans. Although MVCC is committed to limiting tuition increases – having raised tuition less than 3% each of the past 5 years (with 1.5% increases 3 of the last four), not every student qualifies for federal and state financial aid. If a student has a household income of as little as $44,000 in some cases, they fall above the threshold for federal Pell grants and must take out student loans if they do not have the resources to pay for college. The Creating Opportunity initiative provides scholarships for students of all backgrounds who might not otherwise be able to afford attending college.

The MVCC Foundation currently manages 92 named scholarships and provided $280,000 in scholarships to 250 individual students last year. An endowed scholarship can be established with $10,000 to provide a scholarship from the annual interest of the investment. The most comprehensive scholarship program is the Presidential Scholarship that provides full tuition for two years to any student who graduates in the top 10% of any high school in Oneida County. The Presidential Scholarship is one of the best approaches to minimizing the natural “brain drain” that occurs in every community where the best and brightest high school graduates leave to attend college elsewhere – too often rarely to return home. Each year about 60 presidential scholars, including some valedictorians, save money and stay home for two years by enrolling in small classes taught by highly qualified faculty. By attending MVCC, these students spend two more years in this community with a chance to expand their experience and appreciation for the region – making them more likely to stay or return if they choose to go away. Endowing the Presidential Scholarship fund is a primary priority of the Challenge and Opportunity Campaign and represents half of the overall $7 million goal.

The Creating Opportunity initiative will help secure the futures for countless MVCC students for years to come. With hundreds already benefiting on an annual basis, expanding the number of scholarships available will ensure that even more students are able to pursue their educational dreams that otherwise would be delayed or derailed completely due to the lack of financial support. The Challenge and Opportunity campaign will expand the student stories that have yet to be written and help craft the future narrative of this community by creating opportunity where it currently fails to exist for so many in our community

For more information, check out the MVCC Foundation website or if you have any comments on this post, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Anyone

I love to play with words and enjoy when I come across a creative arrangement that puts something common into new perspective. Like a Seinfeld television episode, a Simon & Garfunkel song, a Maya Angelou poem, or a Dilbert comic strip, creative play with words can causes us to think differently about something we might otherwise dismiss through a general inattention that sometimes develops through the speed of daily life. I recently came across one such arrangement of words that reminded me of a fable that I hadn’t come across in years.

As an undergraduate, I was told by my career counselor not to major in communications. He said, “You need a skill. After all, look at us now, we are already communicating!” I’m glad I didn’t take his advice because in every college I’ve worked, “communication” always seems to be the “thing” we need to improve the most. Organizations are comprised of people –with all our gifts and gaps.  As much as organizational communication can be improved, individual communication is the mostly frequently used form of communication, and yet, the hardest one to improve on any large scale. I think it falls short when we don’t take the extra time to ask one more question, or confirm what we’ve heard and what we’ve decided. This shortcoming is best illustrated in the old story about Everyone, Anyone, Someone, and No One (I couldn’t find the author for attribution.)

“Once upon a time, there was a big job to do and Everyone was responsible for completing it. But Everyone figured that since Someone was bound to do it (Someone always did), Everyone didn’t have to. Of course, Anyone could have done the job, but as it turned out, No One did.  This made Someone quite angry because it had been made clear that it was Everyone’s responsibility, not just Anyone’s. Yet No One had envisioned that Everyone would skip out on the assignment. When an explanation was asked for, Everyone pointed a finger at Someone only to be told that No One had managed to do what Anyone could have done.”

I feel the pain in the simplicity and the truth of that story. Hopefully, each of us can think about how to help Anyone be more successful. If you have any thoughts on this post, please contact me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

From Churning to Learning

During a recent breakfast with thirty high school superintendents and principals (MVCC has hosted this event regularly for several years), I shared a video entitled “Discounted Dreams.”

While many school districts use documentaries like “Race to Nowhere” and “Waiting for Superman” to help explicate their current circumstances, community colleges have been using “Discounted Dreams” for that same purpose. The video chronicles nine amazing students, each working to overcome challenges - from financial struggles to learning disabilities – in pursuit of their educational dreams at community colleges around the country. Several vignettes discuss the obstacles faced regularly in the effort to define and measure success among community colleges.

The segment I showed the superintendents and principals centered on the proposition that funding incentives are, essentially, backwards for community colleges – “funded by enrollment, as long as community colleges have as many students coming in their front doors that are exiting their back doors (dropping out), they have no financial incentive to change…it’s a churn model.” A “churn model” wherein the “substance” being “ground up” is the student!

It seems to me that, all too often, when we focus our discussion on inadequate performance in the community college, those discussions center on student effort above all else. The notion espoused in “Discounted Dreams” suggests that what’s needed is a fundamental reexamination of the structure of the community college (especially as it pertains to operational funding) – at least equal to that given to student performance.

If we are truly mission-driven organizations (and I believe we are), community colleges need to turn the current Washington D.C. rhetoric into reality. Increasing student completion rates and significantly growing the number of college graduates in this country is a must if we expect higher education to lead the nation’s future economic growth and stability efforts in any meaningful way. It’s equally important that our graduates leave our institutions having experienced the joy and power of having participated in a life altering academic endeavor, replete with a plethora of scholarly effort. I believe that reality can come for most, only after the move from a churning model to a learning model of student success is made.

It’s not about social progression and passing students to simply get them through – it’s about maintaining our commitment to open access while offering programs and services that lead to real learning and growth; maintaining academic rigor while providing appropriate student support to actually bridge the gap between level of preparation (where we find students) and program outcomes (where they need to be to live engaged, productive lives). Changing mental models and financial incentives, from where we are as an institution to where we need to be, will be a journey, to be sure. But if we develop a laser focus on student success, enrollment (and the necessary funding) might just be a natural bi-product.

If you have any thoughts on this post, please contact me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Two Lists - Two Perspectives

Lately I’ve heard more about a recent story in Moneywatch (based on a Gallup Survey) than I have about a CNN story (based on a budget travel study). As a glass is half-full person, I’m compelled to write about one story more than the other. The Moneywatch story covered the results of a recent Gallup Survey of 350,000 Americans about their state of happiness – asking questions about how they view their social and work experiences, health, and overall well-being. The Utica-Rome area ranked 10th lowest out of 188 metropolitan areas. It can’t be all about the weather and the unemployment rate is a full half percent below the national average and we’re in the top half of the 372 largest metro areas in terms of lowest unemployment rates. My guess is, like with most things, it’s all in how you look at it.

Having moved around the country a bit (New York is the fourth state we’ve called home), I understand that every place has a downside. For example, I absolutely loved living in the Denver/Boulder area with the Rocky Mountains, 300 days of sunshine, and vibrant big city feel. However, I didn’t like the overwhelming growth, traffic, school class sizes, living in drought conditions, and the fact that Albuquerque was the nearest metropolitan area – six hours away. Every place has its downsides. To that point, every area has its upsides. The CNN story listed the top 15 places kids should visit before they’re 15. While I’ve seen many of these places on other lists (e.g., places to see before you die, etc.), what I noticed on this particular list was that more than half are within a seven-hour drive and 5 (a full 1/3) are within a five-hour drive of Oneida County.

The items in the top 15 related to history are enhanced by additional places within a few minutes or few hour drive, including, revolutionary and civil war sites, the Erie Canal, women’s history, and interesting local lore. The natural wonders sites are also complemented by the amazing Adirondack and Catskill mountain ranges that sit in our own backyard along with the Atlantic Ocean and eastern shoreline a few hours away. We have the full four seasons, unlike one-third of the country that suffers through something like winter, but really it’s more like a long cold, windy, slushy season with a few days of snow. It’s the real deal here where you can embrace the winter months and fully invest in winter activities (granted, this was a long winter to be sure). Although it’s often mentioned that the 4-5 hour drives to Toronto, Montreal, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia are great, we don’t talk as much about the fact that the area has such good schools, amazing performing arts offerings, and very little traffic that helps reduce the stress of daily living in the Mohawk Valley.

Wherever you live is also about community and feeling connected with others – something this area has in abundance. The sense of community in this area is quite remarkable and takes shape through the generous and giving spirit that makes for such great turnouts at local fundraising events like the Greatest Heart Run/Walk and large community events like the Boilermaker. And while we have many challenges to overcome, unlike many areas, this is one that is small enough that you can get involved and feel like you’re making a difference – and at the end of the day, that's likely toward the top of the list for most people. If you have any comments on this post, contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.