|
Channel 12
Alexandra Renslo reporting
http://nwtv12.img.entriq.net/htm/nwtv12flashplayer.htm?articleID=8342
December 21, 2010
Fifty-year-old Gerry Page is back in a familiar spot. The Brooklyn Park man is back in school at North Hennepin Community College for the third time, trying to finish up a degree he first started nearly three decades ago.
"The first time in the 1980s, it was probably more difficult working full–time, going to school, and two little kids [at home], it just got difficult," said Page.
Life got in the way of Page's schooling back then, and he never completed his degree. Page did, however, return to North Hennepin several years ago to finish up, but then he was deployed to Iraq as a first sergeant with the Minnesota National Guard.
After returning from that latest deployment last spring, Page got a postcard in the mail from North Hennepin Community College encouraging him to come back to school and finish up where he left off. Page enrolled back at the college this fall.
"Maybe the third time is the charm," Page said with a smile.
Last spring, North Hennepin Community College contacted about 700 students like Page who had been enrolled in North Hennepin during the past three years but had never completed their degree. It's part of a pilot program at the school called the Return to Learn initiative.
"We know that some students have come back," said Jaime Simonsen, North Hennepin's dean of adult education.
The college sent out postcards and emails to encourage students to finish up their degree. Simonsen said often the students may only be a semester or two away from getting their diploma, but for whatever reason, life's circumstances just got in their way.
"We have other students who were thinking about coming back to school at the time, but hadn't made that phone call to get back in touch with the college, and this helped to encourage that," said Simonsen.
The nudge not only helps students get back on track and earn a college diploma, but it helps the college learn why the students dropped out in the first place.
"We know that there's a lot of information that students who leave an institution can provide to us so that we can better and improve our own practices," said Simonsen.
North Hennepin's program is now paving the way for a similar effort at the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system (MnSCU). MnSCU is launching an effort to contact those who dropped out of college over the past 10 years at all 32 of the state's higher education institutions.
Simonsen believes the effort could have a positive impact for both individuals and the state.
"It's helping to educate them [former students] about the resources that are available at the college," said Simonsen. "We're really excited about what that would mean for the state and what it means in terms of building capacity at all of our institutions."
|