Transformative learning for students, a healthy future for the college
Julie and I and our three pups — Jolene, Vivi, and Talulah — are settling into our new home on campus, and the dogs in particular are making friends with our community. (They’re enthralled with the squirrels on campus!)
We have hosted several groups of students, faculty, and staff at the President’s House. And we’ve started a new tradition hosting a dinner for our sports teams before their home openers. So far this year, we’ve had our football, women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, and cross country teams over for a pizza party. We’re doing the same for our theatre performers in October and November and will continue the tradition with winter sports and performances.
Let me give you just a small taste of what else we’ve been working on. Five teams of faculty and staff rolled up their sleeves and spent the summer developing plans designed to meet head-on the strong headwinds facing small colleges like ours. What we have going for us that other colleges don’t is a long-standing reputation for excellence, innovation, and resilience, powered by an engaged and brilliant faculty and staff, and supported by dedicated alumni like you.
We asked ourselves, “How can we improve and enliven the experience of our current students while directly appealing to this decade’s college-bound high school graduates?”
The teams offered both bold, resonant ideas and immediate, cutting-edge solutions to solidify the college’s healthy future while we continue to offer a transformative learning environment for our students.
Here are three key takeaways:
- Later this academic year, we will introduce two professionally driven, liberal arts-rooted schools, the School of Health Sciences and the School of Business. In conjunction with Impact Beloit’s career-readiness and experiential learning capabilities, integrating career-readiness into our curriculum helps prospective students see clearly how a Beloit education launches their future. Of course, our engaged alumni network will play a crucial role in providing internships and mentoring opportunities. Look for more news, including specific requests, later this year.
- We are attending to the student experience on our beautiful campus: making improvements in residence halls, creating events that accentuate our unique culture and drive more shared and joyful experiences, including athletic events and artistic performances.
- And we will continue opening our campus to our Beloit community. While we have a strong history of creating community- based learning opportunities for students, strengthening partnerships with local community businesses, organizations, and other area educational institutions will enable us to enhance our transformational learning environment — and contribute to our city of Beloit community in the process.
We have placed three students in year-long fellowships at local businesses and organizations — Beloit International Film Festival, the Sky Carp, and Merrill Community Center. Nine more students are taking a course called Impact Beloit Community Connections, where they will deepen their understanding of how organizations come together to create social change.
I’ve traveled to several cities around the country — including Chicago and Washington, D.C. so far — to meet with alums, and I’m grateful for their support. Our work to raise resources to champion our new efforts is already underway, and I’m eager to continue the work to raise more support for the future Beloit we are building.
I like to say that students learn in every nook and cranny of this place. I intend to keep saying it — because it’s so true.
From the President’s Nook,
Eric Boynton
presidentsoffice@joyerianicaragua.com
