Page 27 - BusinessWest June 13, 2022
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 The new Center for Health Education and Simulation on Jarvis Avenue is one of many recent additions to the HCC landscape in recent years.
Course of Action
Looking at HCC today, and what she projects for tomorrow, Royal said the process of evolution at the school is ongoing. And that’s because change is a constant — change within the communities being served, change in the busi- ness community and the workplace, and change when it comes to the needs of the students coming to the Homestead Avenue campus.
The pandemic acceler- ated this process of change in some respects, said Royal, and it also brought a greater need for reflection on just what students need — and how those needs
can be met.
Returning to the subject of the new child-
watch center, she said it’s a reflection of how the school has been focusing on the basic needs of students and taking direct steps to address them, work that was part of the latest strategic plan, which was completed in 2017.
“We want to be a college of academic rigor, known for helping students overcome barriers to success,” she explained, adding that when discussions were launched on this matter, there were four barriers that were initially defined — food, housing, transportation, and childcare
— with area focal points, such as digital literacy, mental health, and others, identified
Each has been addressed in various ways, she said, citing initiatives ranging from a program
to house students in dorms at Westfield State University (which not only provides housing but provides exposure to potential next step in the higher education journey), to another program that provides 3,000 bus passes to students to help them get to and from the campus.
Childcare has taken longer to address, she went on, adding that collected data clearly showed the need for a facility where students could place children while they were attending class or accessing services at the college. With $100,000 in support from the state, HCC was able to become the second community college in the state (Norther Essex is the other) to offer child- watch services.
returned to its roots with facilities in downtown Holyoke, including the HCC MGM Culinary Arts Center in the Cubit Building on Race Street, and the Picknelly Adult and Family Education Center.
Meanwhile, it has become far more diverse, said Royal, adding that, overall HCC has changed and evolved as the region, its host city, the local business community, and society in general have.
“We are a reflection of the community,” Royal explained, adding that the Itsy Bitsy Child Watch Center is just one example of this phenomenon.
“When you look at the history of our com- munities and when you think about how these communities have changed, then we’ve had to grow and change with them to keep up with the changing demographics of our region — both
in growth in numbers and in terms of the ‘who’ that we’re serving; we really serve a lot of student populations.”
Elaborating, she said that today, as always, the focus is on inclusion, empowering students, and creating an environment in which they can not only attend school, but achieve success, however they wish to define it.
“We’re really focused on equity,” Royal explained. “It’s important that we provide equi- table opportunities and that there is an equitable chance of success no matter who walks through the door. And the data shows us that our BIPOC
(Black, Indigenous, people of Color) students are not succeeding at the same rate as our white students.
“So our equity initiatives look to be able to provide the additional support and services so we can bring those numbers into alignment,” she went on, adding that, overall the school has become far more data-driven as it works to
“
students who start, finish their education, and then focus on work for the rest of their career.”
understand the changing demographics of those it serves — and usethat data to determine how it pivots and changes to better serve students and other constituencies.
Summing it all up, Royal said, “We have a reputation of being a place to come, to start your education at an affordable rate, with high-quality faculty, strong academic rigor, plenty of support services, and to set students up to transfer to any of the prestigious four-year institutions in our
Culturally, we have fewer
area or beyond.”
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