AIC Awarded Multi-year Grant from Davis Educational Foundation

SPRINGFIELD — American International College (AIC) has been awarded $186,400 over three years in support of the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship. The grant was received from the Davis Educational Foundation, established by Stanton and Elisabeth Davis after Stanton Davis’s retirement as chairman of Shaw’s Supermarkets Inc.

In an effort to strengthen and bring together student support services in one accessible location on campus, AIC created the Center for Academic Success (CAS) in 2008 with support from Davis Educational Foundation and others. CAS offers a number of student-support programs, including mentoring and advising, a writing program, tutoring, and support for first-generation college students. The AIC Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship (CETLS) is designed to complement the efforts of CAS by enhancing a vibrant academic culture at AIC. The mission of CETLS is to provide all faculty members with opportunities to achieve and be recognized for teaching excellence, be supported in scholarship, and grow through collaboration and community.

When CETLS was created in 2014, a regular schedule of workshops and grants for travel to conferences on teaching and learning were offered to AIC faculty for the first time. CETLS now offers a variety of opportunities for faculty development.

“American International College is grateful for support from Davis Educational Foundation, which was key to the creation of the Center for Academic Success,” said Raj Parikh, AIC’s executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “As AIC is committed to robust student-support services, the college additionally makes a concomitant investment in faculty support and development, outcomes assessment, and technology tools. For faculty at AIC, whose primary focus is teaching, the next logical step is advancing the improvement of teaching, which will naturally impact student learning. By providing an accessible location, expertise, and resources, the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship embodies AIC’s commitment to faculty development and student success.”

In addition to augmenting funding for faculty development, thereby supporting high-quality instruction for AIC’s diverse student body, the grant allows AIC to equip the faculty technology lab, providing cutting-edge technology training and teaching-outcomes assessment.