News

CollegeNow Hosts Professional Development Conference

October 2009

The relationship between Tompkins Cortland Community College's CollegeNow program and local high schools continued to grow in August as CollegeNow welcomed 90 educators from 25 districts to campus for a professional development conference.

The all-day conference in Dryden gave high school teachers and their TC3 liaisons a chance to devleop professional relationships and skills in the most effective way possible: with face-to-face communication. "I enjoyed getting to meet with other TC3 concurrent enrollment teachers as well as faculty liaisions," said Patti Hoyt of Unatego High School. "I gathered lots of great information, I feel more confident, and I am looking forward to teaching TC3 courses."

CollegeNow concurrent enrollment allows high school students to earn TC3 credits while taking classes at their home high school. During the 2008-09 academic year, more than 3,000 high school students earned college credits, at no cost, through the CollegeNow program. The total number of credits earned was more than 17,500, representing at least $2.3 million in college tuition savings (based on TC3's tuition of $132 per credit). The classes are taught by high school teachers who are approved by TC3 and work with a college faculty member.

The conference, which featured 24 sessions on specific fields of study as well as general interest workshops, was organized to further develop the relationship between TC3 faculty and high school teachers responsible for teaching TC3's college-level CollegeNow courses. The continuing effort to enrich these teaching relationships got a major boost two years ago, when CollegeNow developed the liaision program, which pairs up TC3 fauclty and high school teachers in specific fields of study.

"The professional development conference is something we've always wanted to do," said CollegeNow Associate Director Victoria Zeppelin. "The feedback we've received from our high school teachers is that they'd like more contact with the College. The conference helps us continue to build the relationship between the College and our partners, and it gives the high school teachers the chance to meet and network with colleagues from other high schools who are teaching the same courses.

TC3 faculty also concurred. "I am glad I was a small part of this success," said Tatiana Stremlin, professor of music at TC3 and a faculty liaison for CollegeNow. "I like to have contact with my colleagues, as I always learn from them and their studenst as well."

For more information about the CollegeNow program, contact Victoria Zeppelin, Associate Director of CollegeNow, at 607.844.8222, Ext. 4328, or by e-mail at zeppelv@tc3.edu.