CENTER HIGHLIGHTS
The Center for Academic Planning and Support, along with the rest of Great Bay Community College, completed the transition to the Portsmouth campus in August, 2009. We had a busy summer of supporting two campuses and our satellite program at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which began offering credit bearing courses for the first time. As in the past, we assisted new students through the placement testing, course registration, and new student orientation process in conjunction with the FYE program and the Advising Center. On August 31st, classes for the Fall Semester began and we turned our attention to getting settled in our new home.
As you visit the new center now, you will notice that services have remained intact but each service has more space in which to work. There is increased space for studying, for the Math and Writing Centers, and for computerized testing. In the past, the Assistive Technology station, the CAPS conference space, and quiet testing space all shared one room. The Assistive Technology station now has its own room and, although we have had challenges with the computer that houses the software recently, it should be up and running before this goes to print. We also have our own, separate, conference space and four rooms specifically for quiet testing. Our upcoming Transfer Fair (on November 17th) has grown as well, to a record 25 participating colleges!
Programmatically, there have been several exciting new developments in CAPS this fall. One is a transition program, called Compass Connections, developed in collaboration with Marshwood and Noble Adult Education Centers to provide college readiness assistance to adult learners right on the college campus. Carol Despres has written an article describing the program for this newsletter – please check it out. The hard work that went into bringing this together is truly evident in how smoothly the program has run to date.
We have recently completed a visit from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security regarding our approval from the Student and Exchange Visitor Program Office to enroll international/nonimmigrant students. Although we had been approved in the past, we needed to update our status with the change to our new location. Diana Varga collaborated with others throughout the college to prepare the needed materials for this visit. We will not have the final results for up to 16 weeks, but it appears to have gone very well.
Terri Varney and Erica Brown have also written articles highlighting collaborative relationships that have been developed for the benefit of our students. Please take a few minutes to read about all that is happening in the Center, and to learn more about our Featured and Around the World Students. If you haven’t yet done so, come see us in CAPS soon!
