On the RISE: Institutional transformation by harnessing synergies

Thursday 4:00pm - 4:30pm Fountainview
Oral Presentation

Gita Bangera, Bellevue Community College
Transforming the culture of the third largest institution of higher education in the State of Washington is no small task; especially when that goal is to bring transformative learning including High Impact Practices (Kuh 2012) to scale across all disciplines. Difficult as this may be, there are compelling reason to undertake this as undergraduates who engaged in these experiences were markedly more likely than their peers to feel that they were engaged and thriving in the workplace after graduation (Gallup Purdue 2014). At Bellevue College, we do this by using the dual operating system framework – bringing together the adaptive operating system and the command control operating system (Sharp 2018)
At Bellevue College, we developed the RISE Learning Institute (Research, Innovation, Service, and Experiential Learning) - by combining disparate programs such as our Center for Career Connections and the undergraduate research program, adding other high impact practices such as service and cohort-based learning (including our innovative Autism Spectrum Navigators program), we harness synergies and take transformative learning to the institutional scale. We partner with employers, non-profits, and 4-year universities to bring students experiential learning opportunities and develop faculty capacity. We collaborate with other units on campus to strengthen the adaptive operating system and work with the command and control system to create an environment for sustainable change. We are empowering and energizing our faculty, creating broad opportunities for underserved students, and changing the culture of our institution. In this session, we will share the story of the RISE Learning Institute, its collaboration with other units on campus and provide attendees an opportunity to think about possible transformations on their own campuses.
Kuh, G. (2008). High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter. Washington, DC: Assn of Amer Colleges.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/168848/life-college-matters-life-college.aspx (accessed 11/11/18)
https://jimritchiedunham.wordpress.com/tag/leith-sharp/ (accessed 11/11/18)