Free professional learning opportunities

This week:

Basic Needs Insecurity Among Virginia Community College System Students: In fall 2020, over 10,000 Virginia Community College System (VCCS) students — including Virginia Western students — participated in the Hope Center’s #RealCollege Survey. Virginia Western’s report is here. The survey assessed students’ basic needs security and their well-being, as indicated by employment status, academic engagement, and mental health. It also explored the impacts of the pandemic, which challenged VCCS students, faculty, and staff in new ways. Hear about the survey results and VCCS’s growing work to support students’ basic needs and achieve the state’s college attainment and equity goals. Webinar is Thursday, June 3, at 3:30 p.m. Register here.

The Future Trends Forum: Discussions about the future of education and technology with writer/futurist Bryan Alexander. Thursday, June 3, at 2 p.m.: How can colleges and universities better support equity by race? with Dr. Tia Brown McNair, Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). More upcoming programs. Video recordings available on YouTube.

Next week:

NSF Spring 2021 Virtual Grant Conference. Designed to give new faculty, researchers, and administrators key insights into a wide range of current issues at NSF. Program officers will be providing up-to-date information about specific funding opportunities and answering attendee questions. June 7-11. Registration is free.

The #RealCollege Virtual Journey, sponsored by the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice. A series of online workshops and engaging activities led by experts and delivered free of charge. Upcoming topics include How to Ungrade (June 9); and Investing in Community Colleges (June 9). Register here. Recordings of previous events are available by scrolling down this page.

Knowing Our Students: Designing an Experience That Serves Students Holistically. Now more than ever, we recognize how connected a student’s personal and financial context are to their academic and career journey. This session will introduce a new guidebook developed by Achieving the Dream in partnership with the Advising Success Network designed to support higher ed institutions in better understanding their students and using these data to inform decisions about the college experience. Participants will engage in learning, discussion, and activities to ensure they leave with an understanding of the data that can be most useful, a process for using those data in their student success work, and examples of how other institutions have approached this work. Thursday, June 10, at 2:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. Register here.

Beyond:

Virginia’s Education Equity Summer InstituteJune 15-17, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Virginia Department of Education hosts this conference for Virginia educators, school leaders, education policymakers, and more. Breakout sessions and keynotes will include professional development to support Virginia’s recently expanded History and Social Science standards and the implementation of the new elective course in African American History for high school students that will launch this fall. June 15: Teaching Black History: Building Teacher Content Knowledge and Instructional CapacityJune 16: Teaching through Culturally Sustaining PedagogiesJune 17: Culturally Responsive and Inclusive Educator Practice at Four Critical Levels.

Bookmark the VCCS professional development website

Compiled by Stephanie Ogilvie Seagle. Updated weekly on the Green House Grants Blog.