Criterion 1 The President of Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC), Dr. Robert G. Templin, Jr.

, is fully committed to the Colleges participation as lead in the site partnership for the CCTI project, if selected by the League for Innovation, for the duration of the project. NVCC has engaged in a unique and innovative model in the development of its new Medical Education Campus (MEC) to be located in Springfield, Virginia. This campus came about as a result of a number of factors, including the student demand for health professions education; employer demand for 21st century workforce skills; the need for a clinical practice site; and a commitment to the community for access to care. In addition, NVCC has a nationally-recognized pre-college language program, NOVA Gold, that has demonstrated dramatic increases in retention and academic achievement among students. These two unique concepts will partner throughout the CCTI partnership.

NVCC sees its role as a potential CCTI site as a means to showcase its exemplary practices in the health care field to other community colleges as well as to build upon the innovations already created to improve the academic performance of students at the secondary and postsecondary levels. We will continue our ongoing partnerships that we have created with the nine local school divisions under our Tech Prep programs and will include a representative on the local site partnership team. Local employers who have been participants in developing the Medical Education Campus will be included in the site partnership team as well.

NVCC is committed to participating in all activities including CCTI programs, workshops, and project evaluation activities. Our goal will be to expand and share promising college and career transition strategies, and we will work cooperatively with other site partnerships. We will collaborate with existing local advisory boards of business/education partnerships. We will establish a framework to assess outcomes and are committed to collecting research data. The College will serve as a resource for and mentor to secondary and postsecondary institutions. The local site partnership will participate in randomized controlled trials to identify highly effective educational interventions.

NVCC will appropriately assign staff to the CCTI project for its duration and will finance the project above and beyond the project funding.

It is the policy of Northern Virginia Community College to maintain and promote equal employment and educational opportunities without regard to race, color, sex or age, religion, disability, national origin, marital status, or other non-merit factors. A goal of NVCC is that each qualified student has an equal opportunity to pursue a college education regardless of the presence or absence of a disability. To reach that goal, NVCC will make reasonable accommodations in providing the course, program and building modifications, and auxiliary services that are necessary to assure equal access.

In addition to a Financial Aid website, the College has printed copies of the Student Financial Aid Services Brochure available at each campus which provide a list of all

available federal, state, local, private, and institutional financial need-based and nonneed-based assistance programs and application procedures.

Criterion 2 NVCC, the second largest community college in the nation, serves the Washington, DC metro area. There are currently five campuses in operation. In August 2003, NVCC will open an innovative Medical Education Campus (MEC), the first specialized singleindustry campus in the Virginia Community College System. The MEC has been developed in collaboration with secondary-school systems. Through innovative academic pathways for high school through graduate level courses and emphasizing health promotion, wellness, disease prevention and quality of life, the MEC will dedicate its resources to development of specialized knowledge, based on a concept of culturally and linguistically sensitive health care practice. Using advanced educational technologies and instructional strategies, the MEC will have the capacity to educate increased numbers of nurses and allied health professionals critical to the workforce development of the region.

The MEC includes a 40,000 square foot Medical Mall consisting of primary care clinics, a Womens Center, a 32-chair dental clinic, a pharmacy, a vision center, and a medical lab with free or low-cost health care services provided by faculty-student practices or special contracts for low income, uninsured residents of the area. The MEC is the only community college campus in the nation with a medical mall providing direct patient care services of this scope as clinical practice sites for students. The Medical Mall project is based on NVCCs ten successful community-based Nurse-Managed Network Clinics that provide primary care, school and sports physicals, and womens health services,

including early detection of breast and cervical cancer, to more than 5,000 uninsured and underinsured persons annually. Associate degree-nursing students from NVCC and graduate nurse practitioner students from local universities have engaged in innovative, shared clinical experience in community-based nursing at the Network Clinics since 1995. This transition to community-based clinical practice was the result of a major curriculum revision in NVCCS nursing program. The value of the Network Clinics for students and the community was acknowledged during a recent accreditation visit from the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges, receiving a commendation. Following the success of the Network Clinics, the Medical Mall concept will enable the faculty, students, volunteers and contract service providers to enhance the level of service of the Network Clinics to include diagnosis and treatment, integrate physical health services with oral health, and expand the services to include physical therapy, pharmacy, vision and lab services and case management services. In addition, the MEC is the only college in northern Virginia to have a cadaver lab, which will enhance the clinical understanding of the nursing and allied health students.

The development of the MEC was enhanced by the selection of Dr. Charlene Connolly, Provost, as a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow. Dr. Connolly is the only Fellow to represent community colleges. The outcome of her project was the development of a shared-governance of the MEC through the collaboration among NVCC, GMU and VCU and the creation of nursing and allied health educational pathways benefiting students engaged in life-long learning.

Criterion 3 NVCC has a nationally recognized remedial language program, NOVA Gold, which has demonstrated dramatic increases in retention and academic achievement among developmental students. Data indicate that successful completion rates in the developmental English program have increased from 53% to 68% and in the ESL component from 75 to 85%. The program offers students an opportunity to gain selfconfidence in their language abilities, learn computer skills, and be exposed to content areas of interest to them as they develop reading and writing skills leading towards thirteenth grade abilities required for entrance into college-level courses. NVCC will supplement existing programs through the CCTI site partnership with a modified model of NOVA Gold for potential allied health students.

Almost 40% of first-time students enrolling at NVCC place into some sort of remedial English or ESL program. Recent high school graduates at community colleges who place in either of these programs are often resentful of having to take the extra classes because they perceive the special program as keeping them from getting their degrees. Persistence through completion of programs is often a problem. In addition recent immigrant ESL students often hold a foreign university degree but need strong English language skills for success in career transitioning programs. NOVA Gold addresses all these psychological barriers to retention and success.

Developmental English and ESL classes at the MEC will use allied health and health technology content in the classes to stimulate interest in completing the class. ESL

students will also perfect oral communication skills within the context of the medical/health community. Non-native students often are very successful throughout the allied health programs in their academic work, but they cannot succeed in the job market because their oral communication skills are too weak to be successful. NOVA Gold addresses these issues because it focuses on meeting specific student needs.

The College has adopted the requirement that students must place in college-level English and math courses before beginning any allied health program. Thus, by offering remediation programs to improve students' skill levels in the first semester of their academic career, the college can better prepare students for the extremely rigorous program of study in the allied health fields. If students are better prepared for success, they will persist through completion of the program.

Another innovative program which NVCC has had in place for a number of years is the Health Careers Opportunities Program (HCOP), designed to encourage disadvantaged students to enter into various health careers. This program has resulted in dramatic increases in retention of at risk students in health careers programs by offering them pre-college assistance and continued support as they enroll in health careers programs. HCOP has expanded over the past year to include various off-campus sites at community organizations to encourage underserved students to consider health care careers.

Criterion 4 The Medical Education program at Northern Virginia Community College will not only include pathways in health technology training from secondary through post graduate level but will also include a comprehensive program of general education courses required for students in health technology degree or certificate programs. Many of the courses will be taught in a traditional classroom format - courses in which personal contact among students and with the instructor is key to successful skill learning. These courses would include, but not be limited to, speech and lab sciences. Other courses, such as English, psychology, and humanities, may be offered through either a hybrid format (an even mixture of traditional classroom format and distance education) or in a totally distance format.

The content of general education courses offered at the Medical Education campus would be geared toward the allied health student. For example, in ENG 111, one of the primary objectives of the course is to learn to write an argumentative essay. Allied health students would be guided into researching a health topic on which to base their argumentative essay. Required activities in the speech course could be focused on role playing in the health technology environment, such as interpersonal communication between doctor and nurse, or nurse and patient. The campus would be specialized in that it would deliver solely degree and certificate programs in the allied health field. Yet it would also be comprehensive in that any student who wants to complete a degree or certificate program in allied health could take all their course work required for program completion in that single location.

Other plans include a proposed project to increase the diversity of the nursing workforce in the northern Virginia area. The College has applied for a grant through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to put this plan into action. The receipt of this grant will enable us to provide services that will result in increased enrollment, a decreased need for remediation, increased level of academic and skill achievement, with the final result being increased entry into employment of a diversified nursing workforce which mirrors the diverse population of the local area.

Another longer-term initiative which will impact not only the health field, but every other discipline at the College is an expansion of the NOVA Gold project mentioned in criterion three to all campuses of Northern Virginia Community College. Through the auspices of a Carl D. Perkins grant allocation, the College has implemented a three-year project to assist with retention efforts College-wide. Each campus has selected the pieces of the NOVA Gold concept which work best at its locale and is engaging in a Collegewide effort through peer tutoring to improve retention rates in various developmental courses and, thereby, improve retention rates in college-level courses in which the students subsequently enroll. This has proven to be an exciting new direction for those participating in the project and will impact directly students desiring to enroll at the Medical Education Campus.

Criterion 5 In order to provide leadership to this project, NVCC will hire a full-time working project director who will be responsible not only for liaison activities through the CCTI project and with the League, but for directing the activities that directly impact the students in improving their retention, persistence, academic achievement, etc. In addition, the project director will conduct academic testing, maintain project statistics with the assistance of a statistical analyst, recruit participants, and act as liaison with all of the members of the partnership team, including employers. The person hired to fill this position should hold a Master's degree with related experience in a community-based setting.

A part-time statistical analyst will be hired to assist the project director in maintaining project statistics. This person will work closely with NVCCs Office of Institutional Research in order to provide a full picture of College-wide and community-wide efforts to increase educational opportunities and to improve academic performance of students.

A part-time instructional assistant will be hired specifically to work with students at the Medical Education Campus in order to implement the NOVA Gold project at the campus.

A member of the teaching faculty will receive reassigned time from instructional duties for two semesters to coordinate the establishment and delivery of the remedial general education program.

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Approximately $7,000 will be reserved for electronic means of communication with students. This will include developing a web board and a virtual desktop.

Ten percent of the budget will be reserved for administrative costs to cover some of the additional indirect services the College will provide in administering the project.

The College and the partners will make a significant matching contribution to the project in terms of the utilization of existing College resources, the services of Tech Prep personnel already employed by the College, time of the Provost of the Medical Education Campus, an Academic Dean at the Woodbridge Campus who was instrumental in developing the NOVA Gold Project, the Dean of the Allied Health Division and numerous other College personnel involved with this project.

Project Budget Request from League Personnel Project Director (100%) Fringes @ 25% Statistical Analyst (50%) Fringes @7.65% Instructional Assistant (50%) Fringes @ 7.65% Faculty release time (20 credit hours) Fringes @ 7.65% Electronic resources to assist students Indirect Administrative Costs @ 10% $50,000.00 12,500.00 25,000.00 1,913.00 25,000.00 1,913.00 11,000.00 842.00 6,832.00 15,000.00 $150,000.00

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Matching Contributions from Partners Personnel Tech Prep Co-Directors @ $3,000 x 2= Provost, Medical Education Campus @ Dean, Woodbridge Campus @ Dean, Allied Health @ Other College personnel @ College labs, computers, Medical Education Campus facilities @ Time of 10 partners @ 2,000.00 x 10= $6,000.00 10,000.00 2,000.00 2,000.00 10,000.00 50,000.00 20,000.00 $100,000.00

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Members of Northern Virginia Community College Site Partnership

1. Dr. Robert G. Templin, Jr. President Northern Virginia Community College 4001 Wakefield Chapel Road Annandale, VA 22003 703-323-3101 2. Dr. Charlene Connolly Provost Medical Education Campus 8333 Little River Turnpike Annandale, VA 22003 703-323-3404 3. Dr. Suzanne Hintz Dean, Communications and Humanities Division Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge Campus 15200 Neabsco Mills Road Woodbridge, VA 22191 703-878-5716 4. Ms. Ronda Hall Associate Director, Continuing Education/Workforce Development Medical Education Campus 8333 Little River Turnpike Annandale, VA 22003 703-323-4109 5. Dr. Pam Narney Coordinator for NOVA Gold, Woodbridge Campus Northern Virginia Community College 15200 Neabsco Mills Road Woodbridge, VA 22191 703-878-5668 6. Ms. Karen Drenkard Chief Nurse Executive INOVA Health Systems 2890 Telstar Ct. Falls Church, VA 22042 703-205-2360

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7. Ms. Susan Theodoropoulos Director of Nursing Education and Research Virginia Hospital Center, Arlington 1701 N. George Mason Drive Arlington, VA 22205-3698 703-558-6858 8. Dr. Kathleen Kunze Supervisor for Career and Technical Education Prince William County Schools P.O. Box 389 Manassas, VA 20108 703-791-7298 9. Mr. Dan Alford Instructional Technologist Technical Applications Center Northern Virginia Community College 8333 Little River Turnpike Annandale, VA 22003 703-323-4127 10. Ms. Katreena Arnold Director of Continuing Education Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge Campus 15200 Neabsco Mills Road Woodbridge, VA 22191 703-878-5754

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