College completion is a key to success.
Montcalm Community College’s Alpha Tau Alpha Chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society is bringing a national initiative to its Sidney campus Sept. 10-13 to encourage its students to finish what they have started. MCC’s “Dream to Complete” week is part of a national program titled C4: Community College Completion Corps.
President Obama and higher education leaders have pledged to boost college completion rates by 50 percent during the next 10 years. Phi Theta Kappa is leading the C4: Community College Completion Corps, a student-led initiative to raise awareness of the importance of college completion for students as well as the colleges and communities they serve.
“Students who complete a community college degree or credential can earn up to $200,000 more during their lifetime than those who don’t complete,” said MCC President Bob Ferrentino. “Community college degree completion is their pathway to unlimited opportunities.”
Special activities are planned throughout the week to encourage students to commit to complete their college education. Events include learning about strategies for degree completion, and the exploration of career options and the degrees needed to complete various degrees.
The final event is a “Commit to Complete” day on Sept. 13, during which students will be asked to sign a pledge committing themselves to degree completion. Lucas Davis, Associate Director of Regional and Chapter Development – Division I of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, and Janet Bloomfield, vice president for employment training with Michigan Works will be the keynote speakers during a noon presentation in rooms D303 and 305 in the Beatrice E. Doser Building on the college’s Sidney campus.
MCC student Katrina Soper, who also serves as the president for the college’s Alpha Tau Alpha Chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and as the Michigan Region’s vice-president, is a key organizer for the organization’s week-long effort.
“We came up with idea to help students get a better feel for what is available to them at MCC in terms of academics,” Soper said. “We often find that students begin college and don’t know what they want to do – what type of career they are interested in. They take a few classes and become discouraged and then drop out of college.
“Our goal is to create awareness about potential career paths and the degrees needed to achieve success both academically and in the workplace,” Soper said. “We also are emphasizing importance of degree completion as a key to overall success.”
MCC’s “Dream to Complete” week features the following activities:
- Sept. 10: “Dream to Achieve” focuses on the awareness of the importance of degree completion and strategies to achieve completion. This session is from noon to 1 p.m. in rooms D303-305 in MCC’s Beatrice E. Doser Building.
- Sept. 11: “Close-up Career” features business representatives to discuss career options and the degrees needed for various careers. Career interest testing and drop-in counseling/advising also is available throughout the day in MCC’s Student Success Center. This session is from noon to 1 p.m. in rooms D303-305 in MCC’s Beatrice E. Doser Building.
- Sept. 12: “Breakout Degrees” offers clarification of pathways made available by different degrees. Faculty from the areas of biology, counseling, business, English, information technology, law, manufacturing technology, math, humanities, and psychology discuss the types of degrees available within the field and the career opportunities those degrees can be used to achieve. This session is from noon to 1 p.m. in rooms D303-305 in MCC’s Beatrice E. Doser Building.
- Sept. 13: “Commit to Complete” encourages students to dedicate themselves to degree completion and features keynote speakers, Lucas Davis, Associate Director of Regional and Chapter Development – Division I, and Janet Bloomfield, vice president for employment training with Michigan Works. This session is from noon to 1 p.m. in rooms D303-305 in MCC’s Beatrice E. Doser Building.
For more information, contact MCC’s Alpha Tau Alpha Chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society Advisors Jessica Snyder at jessicas@montcalm.edu or 989-328-1229, or Amber Jaramillo at amberj@montcalm.edu.
