Newswise — DALLAS, N.C. – Gaston College was announced this week as one of the winners of the 23rd annual Bellwether Awards at the annual policy summit of the 2016 Community College Futures Assembly in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The summit showcased competitively-selected leading-edge programs in community college practice worthy of replicating.
The Gaston College program, “It All Begins with a SPARC3: The Power of Inquiry and Undergraduate Research at the Community College,” won in the Instructional Programs & Services (IPS) category. The IPS category recognizes programs or activities that have been designed and successfully implemented to foster or support teaching and learning in the community college. The SPARC3 (STEM Persistence and Retention through Curriculum, Cohort, and Centralization) initiative was developed to ignite student curiosity and prepare future Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) professionals for success in an evolving work environment.
The other 2016 Bellwether Award winners are Central Community College in Nebraska in the Planning, Governance, and Finance (PGF) category, and Alamo Colleges in Texas in the Workforce Development (WD) category.
In the January 26 announcement, Dale F. Campbell, Professor and Director of the Community Colleges Futures Assembly and Institute of Higher Education, said, “In more than 1,200 national community colleges this is one of the highest honors an institute can receive. The awards are similar to being selected by your peers, comparable to the Oscar or Emmy Award.”
“It All Begins with a SPARC3: The Power of Inquiry and Undergraduate Research at the Community College” was among 1,000 programs that were nominated for the 2016 Bellwether Award. Thirty finalists, 10 in each category, were selected from the 200 applications received. The application submitted by Gaston College described the SPARC3 initiative from its inception in 2009 and documented its goals, challenges and successes, including receiving a grant from the National Science Foundation to help build the program, the dramatic 197 percent increase in Gaston College’s Associate of Science program since the start of the SPARC3 initiative, and the College’s certification by the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Science Education—one of only two community colleges in the nation to have earned this certification.
Heather Woodson, Dean of the Gaston College Arts and Sciences division, spearheads the SPARC3initiative with Ashley Hagler, SPARC3 Director, and Dr. Melissa Armstrong, Science and Math Chair. The team submitted the application for the award and was notified in November 2015 that the program was a finalist. “By winning the award in our category,” said Woodson, “the SPARC3initiative has been recognized for its innovation and is considered a model to begin similar programs in other community colleges across the United States.”
Both Woodson and Hagler are active councilors for the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), a national non-profit organization that helps college faculty and administrators integrate research experiences into curriculum which is known to be a high impact practice in undergraduate education. Additionally, Woodson currently serves as the chair of the CUR finance committee, which provides fiduciary oversight for the organization. Elizabeth Ambos, Executive Director of CUR, explains “CUR provides extensive avenues for both peer-led professional development workshops, and peer-reviewed scholarly publication on topics relating to undergraduate research programs and measurement of impact of the undergraduate research experience on student success. CUR has worked with more than 600 academic institutions, including more than 100 community colleges, in development of undergraduate research programming.”
Woodson, Hagler, Armstrong, Gaston College president Dr. Patricia Skinner, and Gaston College board of trustees chair, James Smith, along with three students, Janna Stover, Chelsey King, and Madison Staves, presented the SPARC3 program at the Community College Futures Assembly in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., on January 25. That evening, they and other finalists were honored at the Bellwether Finalists Awards reception and the award winners were announced the next day.
“We are just ecstatic to win the Bellwether Award,” said Dr. Patricia Skinner, president of Gaston College. “I was thrilled for us just to be selected among the 10 national finalists, but to actually win this prestigious award is a real honor. I am so very proud of all the faculty, staff and students who worked on the SPARC3 program for us achieve this award.”
“The SPARC3 initiative has had a profound positive effect on our campus,” said Woodson. “It has truly been an honor for our group to be recognized on the national stage, but the real winners are the students who benefit from this innovative initiative at Gaston College.”
Gaston College is one of only three N.C. community colleges to have won the Bellwether Award since the award’s inception in 1995. Wake Technical Community College won in 2014 in the PGF category, and Blue Ridge Community College won in 2004 in the IPS category. “Leaders of past winning programs have obtained ‘free agency’ status through the demonstrated results their programs have made,” said Campbell. “They also receive thousands of phone calls and hundreds of visits to help others replicate the success of their program in other community colleges and institutions.”
About Gaston CollegeGaston College is one of 58 community colleges in the North Carolina Community College System. Serving both Gaston and Lincoln counties, Gaston College enrolls over 6,000 students each term in curriculum programs and averages over 16,000 annually in its Economic and Workforce Development and Continuing Education programs. Gaston College offers over 100 fields of study to obtain a degree, diploma or certificate. To learn more about the College’s services and programs, visit the Gaston College website at www.gaston.edu.
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