{"id":31547,"date":"2021-03-17T12:48:48","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T17:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=31547"},"modified":"2021-03-17T12:49:20","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T17:49:20","slug":"sinclair-receives-achieving-the-dream-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2021\/03\/17\/sinclair-receives-achieving-the-dream-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinclair Receives Achieving the Dream Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sinclair Community College has been awarded the highest designation by Achieving the Dream<\/a> (ATD), which the school has been part of for around 10 years. It was given the Leader College of Distinction<\/a> award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2026.signifies\u2026that Sinclair is one of the top four community colleges within the Achieving the Dream Network in terms of the efforts we\u2019ve made at transforming ourselves,\u201d said Sinclair assistant English professor, Dair Arnold<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a long way to go, but we\u2019re pretty proud of how far we\u2019ve gotten at this point. It was nice to receive that recognition from Achieving the Dream for our efforts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Started around 2006, ATD works to improve student success rates and remove gaps between students who have different demographics, including gender, race, age and ethnicity. There are currently more than 300 colleges involved in the Achieving the Dream Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re beginning to close a gap between students,\u201d said Sinclair senior vice president and interim provost, Dr. Kathleen Cleary<\/a>. \u201cWe look at every demographic group and our goal is that your demographics will no longer be predictive of whether or not you\u2019re successful.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The award given to Sinclair recognized it as one of the top four schools whose efforts align with ATD\u2019s goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
(Source: Sinclair Community College\/Flickr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be one of the top four, it\u2019s really one of the top four in the whole country,\u201d said Cleary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To reach its goals of transformation, Sinclair has been focusing on the end goals of each individual student, whether that be to transfer or go straight into the workforce. Students have a MAP created for them<\/a> that shows all the classes that they plan to take and when they plan to take them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe start with the end goal, then we develop an academic pathway for you,\u201d said Cleary. \u201cWe want to design a system that will get you where you want to be as effectively and efficiently as we can. It\u2019s starting at the end and then working backwards to make sure you get where you want to be.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinclair has also reduced the number of what it called \u201cdevelopmental classes,\u201d which consisted of courses that the students did not necessarily need for their degree.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe now have 10% of those classes\u2026because now we try and get you into the class you need to graduate and then provide you with the academic support that you need to be successful,\u201d said Cleary.  \u201cWe\u2019ve reduced the time to graduation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinclair\u2019s student advising has also changed. Now, students can have a designated advisor who guides them along their academic path and finds the best ways for them to reach their goals. The advisors are also there for any issues that students might come across. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStudents love advising now,\u201d said Cleary. \u201cThey know their advisor is their person and they can go to that person even if they need\u2026a loan\u2026for a car payment or they are having trouble with financial aid and they don\u2019t understand what their next steps are. They just need a friendly face from somebody they know really cares about them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the different departments of Sinclair have come together to ensure students have the best experience and receive the help they need. This can mean directing a student to the correct resources if a staff member cannot personally answer a question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPrior to our deep involvement with Achieving the Dream, I felt as if\u2026 we were working hard in the classroom, but what was happening outside the classroom, we weren\u2019t really aware of,\u201d said Arnold.  \u201cNow\u2026there\u2019s this overwhelming sense\u2026 [that] everybody is in this to assist you. We\u2019re one big team working together.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
(Source: Mica Asato\/Pexels)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even though it has been awarded for its efforts, Sinclair does not plan to stop. The school desires to keep pushing forward to give all students the chance to reach their goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of Sinclair\u2019s greatest strengths is we\u2019re never satisfied with being good enough,\u201d said Cleary. \u201cThat quest for excellence sometimes causes us not to stop and look at how far we\u2019ve come. That\u2019s what I see is the real value of these national awards. It gives us a moment in time to say, \u2018We want to be better, but let\u2019s recognize how far we\u2019ve come.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help improve itself as a college, Sinclair has focused on the priorities of alignment, growth and equity. This allows the school to get students the education that they need and the places they need to go after graduation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor alignment, we are really working hard to make sure we know what employers need, and we\u2019re getting the right talent to graduate and fill those jobs,\u201d said Cleary. \u201cWe also are working with our university partners\u2026to make sure our curriculum is aligned well with theirs and that students can transfer in successfully. For growth, we want more students getting more education – faster and for less money. There\u2019s still a lot of work to be done there. For equity, that has infused every conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arnold was the co-chair for Sinclair\u2019s Equity Summit<\/a> in November 2020, which about 500 people attended. She explained that the college has been examining its exchanges with students to see how it can increase equity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe more we understand equity and what it is that we\u2019re doing that might be a\u2026barrier to a student or\u2026of assistance to a student, [the more we can bring]\u2026that all together\u2026so we\u2019re repeating the stuff that is positive,\u201d said Arnold.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it works to become a better school, Sinclair\u2019s individual faculty members have been learning as they perform their own work. This may be challenging at times, but they continue to work towards their goals every day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSinclair\u2019s considered a national leader in student success and equity,\u201d said Cleary. With all of these eyes on us right now, we have to learn in public. People are willing to make mistakes and to cut each other some slack and recognize when people\u2019s hearts in the right place. That commitment to learning in public, I think is essential to us moving forward in this work.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinclair is extremely honored to have received such an award from ATD, but at the end of the day, its efforts and goals all comes back to the students:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
(Source: Sinclair Community College\/Flickr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese awards are meaningless if we\u2019re not serving students well,\u201d said Cleary. \u201cI think we try to always keep our focus on students first. The focus has to be on the students and not the awards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebekah Davidson<\/strong>
Intern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sinclair Community College has been awarded the highest designation by Achieving the Dream (ATD), which the school has been part of for around 10 years. It was given the Leader College of Distinction award. \u201cIt\u2026.signifies\u2026that Sinclair is one of the top four community colleges within the Achieving the Dream Network in terms of the efforts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":31562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2102,2616,2110,3],"tags":[4926,4928,4929,4927,4715,276],"class_list":["post-31547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-featured","category-local","category-tartan-news","tag-achieving-the-dream-award","tag-dair-arnold","tag-kathleen-cleary","tag-leader-of-distinction","tag-rebekah-davidson","tag-sinclair-community-college"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/lcod2019.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-8cP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31547"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31573,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31547\/revisions\/31573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}