Vision Statement

RISE to the Top provides a student success-oriented, campus culture ripe with opportunities for meaningful collaboration and engagement between and among students, faculty, and staff through the development and implementation of customized, systematic high-impact practices. These high-impact practices assist in cultivation of student success outcomes including grades, graduation, transfer, employment, and lifelong learning (Kuh, Kinzie, Buckley, Bridges, & Hayek, 2006).

A comprehensive system of well-developed lessons and activities is utilized by faculty and staff in order to systematically engage students with institutional resources, build relationships and partnerships that support learning, and deliver activities and experiences that provide clear pathways to success in college (Kuh et al., 2006).

Goals

• Improve critical thinking through high-impact educational practices.
• Improve student engagement through high-impact practices.
• Enhance student learning through professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, focusing on high-impact practices.

These major goals will achieve four outcomes:

• Faculty and staff will demonstrate inclusion of high-impact practices in the learning environment.
• Students will actively engage in their course work.
• Students will demonstrate proficiency in critical thinking.
• Faculty and staff will reflect on ways to engage students through their roles at Southwest Texas Junior College.