Latest news with #SouthwestTech
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
In a first for Wisconsin, one of state's 16 technical colleges named best in nation
A technical college tucked away in a rural corner of Wisconsin was named the top community college in the country. Southwest Wisconsin Technical College in Fennimore won the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, a prestigious honor recognizing it as the best among the 1,000 community colleges nationally. It's the first time a Wisconsin institution has won the prize, which former President Barack Obama dubbed the "Oscars for community colleges." Southwest Tech beat out nine finalists, including another Wisconsin technical college. School leaders learned the news at an April 17 ceremony in Washington, D.C. Community colleges educate nearly half of all college students, and by far the most low-income students and students of color. But they are sometimes seen as "second class" to four-year universities, and graduation rates nationally are less than 50%. Enter the Aspen award, which aims to to elevate the importance of community colleges and make them better. The honor is awarded every two years by the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit think tank. "What drives us is the desire to improve colleges," said Josh Wyner, who founded the Aspen College Excellence program in 2010. "Our approach to that is let's identify the best actors, let's reward them, and then let's build training programs around what they teach us about how you can continue not just modestly better outcomes, but significantly better outcomes than the average." Southwest Tech fits this bill, Wyner said. About 58% of students graduate or transfer to a four-year university compared to the national rate of 39%. Even more impressive is its graduation rate for low-income students on Pell grants. Nationally, just 29% of Pell students graduate, he said. At Southwest Tech, 55% of Pell students graduate. Southwest Tech came to the Aspen Institute's attention in the previous awards cycle. Wyner and others were impressed with how faculty regularly assess student learning outcomes and adjust instruction to ensure better results each semester. "Frankly, that's really, really unusual," he said. "It's a very strong sense of accountability that faculty have for their own success and to make sure that their students succeed." More recently, selection committee members learned about how Southwest Tech analyzes its programs to ensure they lead students to jobs paying living wages. If they don't, the program is changed or shut down. For example, after learning Southwest Tech's agriculture program graduates earned low wages, college officials talked to local employers and told them they could not graduate students into poverty. "That's the language they use," Wyner said. "It's a very powerful expression of the fact that they care more about whether students succeed than whether they're enrolling them and getting their dollars." Southewest Tech asked employers what it would take to increase wages. College officials learned students need to know how to use drones and apply pesticides, both of which are now mandatory in the program curriculum. Childcare was another program where graduates earned low wages. Southwest Tech found students with bachelor's degrees earned better wages so the school revamped its program to better prepare students for university transfer. The Aspen Institute was also impressed with how Southwest Tech improved its advising system. Staff now help students go beyond drawing up an academic plan. They also come up with a plan for financing their education. Southwest Tech sends the plans to its foundation, which fundraises money to help bridge individual students' financial gaps, Wyner said. The school has a student headcount of about 3,700 students, most of whom are part time. Smaller community colleges are typically less likely than larger institutions to create systems that reach every student, often due to lack of resources or because they feel their smaller student population makes them feel they are already tapped into students' needs. "That's not Southwest Tech," Wyner said. "Southwest Tech understands that if they don't create systems to make sure every student benefits from these changes that they've made, that the ones who fall through the cracks will be the ones that need help most. I'm just so impressed by the leadership there and the culture that they've built." The Aspen Institute's process selecting Southwest Tech began in 2023 when the Aspen Institute scrutinized outcomes at all community colleges across the country and invited 150 institutions with the most promising data to apply for the award. A selection committee of education experts reviewed the applications and selected 10 finalists, which included Southwest Tech and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay. Site visits followed, along with requests for more detailed information, including graduate wage data. A separate jury, co-chaired by former U.S. Education Secretary John King, picked the winner from the finalists. Southwest Tech will receive $700,000 of the $1 million prize. The remaining money will be split between San Jacinto College (Texas), South Puget Sound Community College (Washington) and Wallace State Community College-Hanceville (Alabama). Ascendium, the Joyce Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, and the Kresge Foundation funds the prize money. (This story will be updated.) Kelly Meyerhofer covers higher education in Wisconsin. Contact her at kmeyerhofer@ or 414-223-5168. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @KellyMeyerhofer. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Southwest Wisconsin Technical College wins prestigious Aspen Prize
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What's Cool At School? – High School students going places with their love of the United States Constitution
LAS VEGAS ( KLAS ) – It's possible to have fun and go places while taking a deep dive into the U.S. Constitution. Just ask the students from the Southwest Career/Technical Academy's 'We The People' teams. After studying and practicing for weeks and months, dozens of students competed in pretend Congressional hearings at the local, regional and state level. The Southwest Tech 'We The People' teacher, Joseph Juliano, is pretty excited: 'These are some of the best hearings that I've ever seen. There was a lot of people that were visibly nervous, but they powered through it. I was really encouraged.' The team invites you to not just donate to their $50,000 fundraiser for the trip to Washington D.C., but to do so next Thursday at an on-campus 'We The People' 'Dine & Discuss' 3 course gourmet dinner, prepared by the Southwest Tech Culinary program. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE DINNER, CLICK – – – > HERE. TO JUST MAKE A DONATION, CLICK – – > HERE. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE 'WE THE PEOPLE PROGRAM' FROM THE NEVADA CENTER FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT, CLICK – – – > HERE. We always want to know What's Cool At School. If you've got something, let us know. 'What's Cool At School' is under the 'Community' tab at Or just email: whatscoolatschool@ Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
