Goal I. Access to Higher Education
The Judson ISD Early College High School Steering Committee held its first Leadership Council Meeting on September 21st. The committee, made up of both Judson ISD and NLC officials, will meet the day following JISD Board meetings.

On Saturday, September 22nd, NVC hosted the John Jay Science and Engineering Academy’s AWESoME Girls Summit (Advancing Women Education in Science, Mathematics and Engineering). This marks the third year the AWESoME Girls Summit was conducted by the NISD magnet school, and the second year the initiative was held at NVC. The program objective is to expose female high school students to opportunities in science, mathematics, and engineering and increase participation of women in these fields. This year, 77 girls in grades 9-12 participated. Female professionals in related fields engaged participants in interactive workshops; speakers represented some of the following organizations: Entex Resources, LLC; Southwest Research Institute; Ford, Powell & Carson, Inc.; University Health System; SeaWorld of Texas; Brehm, Havel & Company; St. Mary’s University; and Northwest Vista College.

The SPC Recruitment and Retention team registered and enrolled 1006 dual credit students, up from 763 last fall. This is one of the highest numbers of dual credit enrollments in St. Philip’s College history! This year celebrates a more than 30% increase in dual enrollment thanks to intense recruiting efforts by St. Philip’s College staff.

PAC has entered into a partnership with the Edgewood ISD to articulate 17 dual credit courses at Edgewood Fine Arts Academy. PAC is offering courses in drawing concepts and graphic arts to 24 high school students during the fall 2007 semester. Courses in music and dance will be offered next year.

Goal II. Student Support
The GED program located at SPC achieved a record completion rate. Ninety-nine (99) students completed the program, the highest for any city site. The GED program is a partnership with the City of San Antonio and is located at the Learning, Leadership and Development Center at St. Philip’s.

SAC faculty and staff held a ceremony to recognize Ms. Leticia Ogilvie as the first recipient of the Truett L. Chance Scholarship. Mrs. Trudy Kinnison, daughter of Dr. Chance, provided funds for the scholarship to the ACCD Foundation to establish an endowment in honor of her father, a former President of San Antonio College, Chair of the Department of Social Sciences, and esteemed professor and mentor. J.C. Horton, Political Science Professor, is the Chair of the Truett Chance Scholarship Committee.

Goal III. Workforce Development
Dr. Zaragoza was the keynote speaker at the Coca Cola – San Antonio Teacher Administration Association luncheon on September 27th. Dr. Zaragoza’s remarks focused on the commitment of ACCD to continue to expand Alternative Teacher Certification programs in the critical need areas of Science, Math, ELS, and Special Education.

SPC is collaborating with Coca Cola to explore opportunities to serve students and to address the company’s immediate employment shortage needs. Discussions are underway for Coca Cola to provide internships for SPC Truck Driving program students who meet their employment profile.

Alamo WorkSource has committed $150,000 to SPC to provide Job Coaching/Pre-Vocational Training at its Southwest Campus location. The program is designed to help students gain full-time employment after successful completion. Students will learn job search skills, interview skills, resume writing, and job retention skills. Last year’s preliminary report indicates 94% student completion rate and 81% job placement rate. The program is scheduled to begin on October 15th.

Goal IV. Capacity To Serve
NVC has been awarded $10,000 by the American Masterpieces: Dance-College Component, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts. Grant funds will be used to implement the Performing History: Discovering Reciprocal Influences in Contemporary Dance program. The project will collaborate with the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and the Escuela Nacional de Danza Clásica y Contemporánea del Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, to conduct outreach activities that will include lecture-demonstrations and performances.

SAC recognized two noteworthy faculty members this week: Dr. Horace Nash and Ms. Carmen Reyes-Johnson. Dr. Nash, Professor of History, published an article titled “Community Building on the Border: The Role of the Twenty-Fourth Infantry Band at Columbus, New Mexico, 1916-1922” in the book Buffalo Soldiers in the American West: A Black Soldiers Anthology, published by Texas A&M Press. Ms. Reyes-Johnson, History Instructor, is co-author of a book Eyewitness to Texas History, published by Hunt Publishing Company. Her co-authors are Felix D. Almaraz (UTSA Professor of History and a San Antonio College Outstanding Former Student) and Patricia Thompson.

For the second year, PAC’s Intensive English Program (IEP) hosted 18 international students and their teachers from the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base, Sept. 19. The students, who will return to their home countries as English language instructors, visited the PAC campus to learn effective strategies in language instruction.

For your information, the new FY 2008 Budget was made available on-line as of September 1, 2007.

Goal V. Organizational Communication
A delegation of six Russian educators and administrators, accompanied by an interpreter, visited SAC for a workshop on community colleges and distance education. Presenters included President Robert Zeigler, Executive Vice President Kris Clark, Interim Dean of Arts & Sciences Bill Richardson, Dean of Continuing Education Tim Rockey, and Director of the Instructional Innovation and Technologies Center Charlotte Wolf.

A meeting was held with the staff of the award winning San Antonio College Ranger to brief the reporters on the areas of responsibilities of facilities and especially the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) projects. In a related item, the PAC CIP parking lots are substantially complete and faculty, staff and students have begun using the parking lots.

We have an increasing number of events and activities district-wide and are taking the opportunity to showcase such events on Time Warner Cable channel 98 and Grande cable channel 23. This section of the Chancellor’s Weekly Report provides a schedule of the programming for our regularly scheduled times of 12 – 2 pm on Saturday and 9 – 11 am on Sunday. Programming varies due to the timing of Board and committee meetings, groundbreaking ceremonies, etc. The programming for the coming weekend is as follows:

Saturday, 10/8, 12:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Citizen's Bond Oversight Committee meeting and a presentation on "Achieving the Dream."

Sunday, 10/9, 9:00 – 11:00 a.m.
The regular September Board of Trustees meeting and the LULAC Parent/Child Scholarship Awards Ceremony