SENDAS Goals

Goal #1: Enhancement and integration of student support

Enhanced Advising Services for STEM

With the implementation of Guided Pathways, students are assigned to a Field of Interest (FOI) advisor who will be responsible for guiding students as they select their program and career, set goals, and meet academic milestones. The SENDAS Project enhances academic advisement through two additional designated advisors for STEM. Advisors will go beyond transactional services to guide students through essential elements for college success; help students build skills including academic planning and use of technology and resources; and coach students so they can articulate their program requirements and follow-through on action plans identified during advising meetings.

Incorporate Financial Literacy into Student Experience

As an institution of higher education, MCC will provide students with valuable tools and information needed to make informed financial decisions. The SENDAS Project will provide education and guidance to assist students in creating a financial plan to achieve their academic goals and empower future financial stability.

Implement STEM/Computer Science Boot Camps

Boot camps address academic competencies and personal development skills to allow students to focus on pursuing a degree in STEM fields and/or Computer Science. The SENDAS Project will expand Boot Camps through STEM and Computer Science opportunities during the academic year.

Expand Embedded Tutoring

Embedded learning assistance programs, such as Supplemental Instruction (SI), has found that participating students achieve higher mean course grades, successfully complete critical courses at a higher rate, and are more likely to persist at their institution.

Create Internship Opportunities

Exposing students to experiences in their chosen educational path early can help them make informed decisions regarding future careers. The SENDAS Project will provide support for creating and maintaining a cohesive, collaborative, and integrated process for internships and other student support.

Goal #2: Coherent, systematic professional development

Mindfulness

Mindfulness as a focus of professional development improves the college experience by promoting strategies that help calm and focus the mind. The SENDAS Project is providing all employees at MCC access to Mindfulness professional development to help manage difficulties of life and the stressors of community college work. Mindfulness practices applied to instruction and student supports significantly benefit students.

Culturally Responsive Practices

Multicultural awareness and competency training traditionally focuses on conceptual knowledge of cultural differences rather than cultural development through introspective practice. The SENDAS Project aims to transform the current climate of diversity, equity, and inclusion by engaging faculty and staff through a mindful practice of cultural introspection to extend cultural responsiveness across campus.

Develop Learning Communities

Learning Communities intentionally build and foster a connection among students, faculty and discipline. The SENDAS Project will initiate a partially integrated learning community model by which instructors teaching early, critical courses in targeted Fields of Interest partner with instructors teaching a paired course to develop shared components of their syllabi, contextualize instructional materials, and develop shared assignments.

Goal #3: Develop a more inclusive hiring process

Culturally Responsive Hiring Practice

Through intentional efforts, the college must make search processes more inclusive and equitable in order to improve the recruitment and hiring of a diverse and culturally responsive workforce. The SENDAS Project will provide assistance in review hiring processes and procedures to assure they are inclusive and unbiased.

Culturally Responsive Hiring Practice Training

Cultural competency training to create hiring goals is necessary to address how to build an inclusive workforce and to build the capacity of search committee members to critically look at department needs related to diversity. The SENDAS Project will provide professional development for search committee members on best practices to recruit and hire employees with diversity in mind.