High school-college dual enrollment up during pandemic Bonnie Meibers
Area colleges have seen enrollment increase in their College Credit Plus programs since the pandemic started.
College Credit Plus is Ohio’s dual enrollment program that gives students in grades seven through 12 the opportunity to earn college and high school credits at the same time by taking courses from Ohio colleges or universities.
Sinclair Community College has seen its highest enrollment in the program ever in 2021.
“We’ve seen continual growth,” said Liz Cicchetti, director of the CCP program at Sinclair.
Sinclair has also seen an increase in the “full time equivalency,” suggesting that students overall are taking more classes.
New funding supports students in need
PIQUA The Edison Foundation has joined together with Edison State Community College to provide funding for student emergency needs. After a yearlong study, The Edison Foundation Board of Directors approved the Student Emergency Assistance Fund formation in June 2020, along with budgeting $5,000 for FY21 as startup funding. The newly formed fund is a critical lifeline of support that provides immediate aid to students threatened due to unforeseen circumstances.
The Student Emergency Assistance Fund is available to students currently enrolled at Edison State who have emergency needs beyond academics. Needs, which if left unaddressed, would significantly compromise their ability to finish the semester. A student may request expenses totaling up to but not exceeding $500 to be covered once per academic year for the following eligible costs: childcare, food/meals, gas, housing/rent, medical/dental expenses, personal automobile expenses, public tra
Edison State establishes new police department
PIQUA The Edison State Community College Department of Public Safety has changed dramatically over the past 18-months. After a successful history creating a safe campus environment, and based on changing campus safety and security standards, the Department of Administration and Finance determined the need for an armed presence on campus. Safety had been maintained through some very well-designed physical security measures and competent security guards contracted to serve the college.
According to a press release, in mid-2019, a search was conducted for a Director of Campus Safety and Security. Bruce Jamison, retired chief of police from the city of Piqua Police Department, was brought on board and found support from administration and trustees to form a police department to meet the needs of a growing college with multiple campus locations through professional law enforcement. A police department was established by meeting the requir
College students seek peace
By Vivian Blevins - Contributing columnist
When you characterize college students, do the following words resonate with you? Drinking, drugging, hooking up, speeding in fancy cars, cutting classes.
Some college students might be defined in this way; however, after decades of working in higher education in several states and at all levels through graduate studies, my experience suggests that most students are more complex than these stereotypes.
Each fall semester, my students at Edison State Community College write what I call a peace essay in which they chronicle a time in their lives in which they have faced a significant challenge and the ways in which they have dealt with that issue, coming to peace with it, or not. I also tell them that they may vacillate in their thinking.
Nursing students honored with pinning ceremony
Nursing graduate Jammie Kaeck, of Sidney, smiles for family upon receiving her nursing pin.
PIQUA The year 2020 has presented unprecedented challenges, making the nursing pinning ceremony held on Friday, Dec. 11, so special for the 34 Edison State Community College students who completed the nursing program.
The pinning ceremony is a time-honored tradition in which the graduate nurse is presented to family and friends as a professional who is about to practice nursing. The graduate is usually “pinned” by the faculty members who have worked with them throughout their studies. Each school has a unique pin, which serves as a symbol of the successful completion of a rigorous curriculum, which prepares its graduates to administer to the sick and injured and promote health through the practice of nursing.