QCC chosen to participate in national academic learning institute in Chicago

This summer Gaelan Benway, Maureen Giacobbe, Carolyn (Cary) Morse and Amy Beaudry, an academic team from Quinsigamond Community College, attended the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ Institute on Integrative Learning and Signature Work at Loyola University in Chicago. Out of 64 academic teams from colleges and universities across the U.S., the QCC team was one of only six from community colleges chosen to attend this institute.

On the first evening of this four-day institute, academic teams shared their project ideas in poster format. In addition, QCC team members attended workshops on such topics as ePortfolios, community-engaged signature work, shared learning outcomes, reflective practice, integrative liberal learning, publicly active scholarship, and equity 101. They also met with faculty mentors from other institutions, and collaborated to transform their project idea into an action plan to organize and implement an Equity and Excellence one-day campus summit for QCC community members (i.e., faculty and staff members, student leaders and administrators), in March 2018. (Stay tuned for more information will be about the summit as we get closer to its run date.)

The excitement did not stop for the QCC team when the institute ended. On the plane ride home, they sat near Senator Elizabeth Warren, giving them an opportunity to speak with her about public higher education in Massachusetts, and the important work that QCC does to help all its students be successful.