2020 UPCEA Annual Conference

Community and Economic Engagement Network Track

Sponsored by

Networking Break in Exhibit Hall (Galleria)

UPCEA Trail Stops hosted during Networking Break

Taking its cue from Boston’s historical journey, a “Freedom Trail” presentation is an opportunity to host a thematic conversation at a metaphorical “stop.” Supported by each of the six UPCEA Networks—affinity groups for the areas of practice that make up professional, continuing, and online education, these informal conversations are hosted around a specific topic in the Exhibit Hall during one of the various 30-minute Networking Breaks during the conference, offering a chance for engaging, thoughtful conversation between attendees and presenters. This experimental format is particularly designed to provide opportunities for attendees to expand both their professional knowledge as well as their individual networks, in low-risk, engaging, and likely small group dialogues.

Something's Brewing: Connecting Faculty, Industry and Students through the PCO Unit
Galleria | Track: Community and Economic Engagement
Level: Applied | Format: Freedom Trail | Tag: Noncredit/Alternative Credential
Connecting faculty, industry experts, and students through the Professional Continuing and Online unit is complex work that can drive innovation and economic growth.  In a time of rapid change and a shifting landscape, partnerships need to be more than transactional: successful partnerships are based on trust and strategic, holistic engagement. This presentation follows case studies in varying stages of development, including the explosion of the brewing industry in Pennsylvania, the ways in which Shippensburg University responsded (industry forums, advisory boards, program planning with industry input, targeted continuing education, and grant projects), and the creation of pipeline programs professionalizing early childcare industries and logistics programming with regional economic drivers.

• Carolyn Callaghan, Shippensburg University

Moderator: George Calderaro, Columbia University

Crossing the Generational Divide: A Guide for Continuing Studies Professionals to Create a Successful Senior College Program
Marina I | Track: Community and Economic Engagement
Level: Applied | Format: Presentation | Tag: Noncredit/Alternative Credential
Across communities in the U.S., the number of older adults is growing at unprecedented rates as significantly more individuals are experiencing increased longevity. Response to the educational needs and interests of this  emerging population calls for innovative practices of teaching, research, and community engagement for leaders in continuing education. This presentation will engage participants in a conversation about the important  role senior citizens play in our communities and will help attendees to consider implementing their own non-credit, enrichment Senior College program. The presenters will focus on the specific entrepreneurial, organizational, and practical skills required to plan and launch a revenue positive Senior College program that improves active aging, intellectual health, and well-being for seniors in their service region. This workshop will address the major  aspects that led to a successful launch of Bridgewater State University’s new Senior College program, deconstructing for the audience major components that can be adapted to institutions of all sizes. Finally, beyond all  pragmatic reasons, participants will learn how serving and working collaboratively with seniors can be uniquely rewarding for continuing education professionals.

• Jennifer Reid, Bridgewater State University
• David Crane, Bridgewater State University
• Cathleen DeSimone, Bridgewater State University

Moderator: Melissa Lubin, James Madison University

(Re)Thinking Workforce Development Through Triple Alignment (Institution, Industry Partners, and Community)
Marina I | Track: Community and Economic Engagement
Level: Applied | Format: Case Study | Tag: Diversity & Inclusion
In 2018, FIU Office of Engagement put forth a plan to tackle the middle-skills gap within South Florida, which acounts for about thirty-eight percent of the 1.2 million jobs in Miami-Dade County. Many middle-skills jobs are in the seven target industries that drive economic growth in Miami-Dade County, including life sciences and healthcare, trade and logistics, and information technology. Jobs in the healthcare and social assistance industry are projected to grow by 19.2% in Florida, and 18.7% in Miami-Dade, by 2025. In 2019, Urban Potential Laboratories (UP Labs) was launched to close the middle-skills gap in Miami-Dade by collaborating with Industry partners (Memorial Health System, Baptist Health System, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital). The concept was simple: align industry partners with FIU (College of Nursing) and its faculty to come up with a curriculum that is just-in-time for career pathways in healthcare. The 14-week workforce development program prepares students for administrative and clinical tracks within healthcare.

• Umer Rahman, Florida International University
• Vanessa Valdes, Florida International University
• Caryn Lavernia, Florida International University

Moderator: Tiffany Erichsen, University of North Carolina, Wilmington

Linking Academic Program to Workforce Development and Economic Growth Through Community-Based Design
Marina I | Track: Community and Economic Engagement
Level: Applied | Format: Case Study | Tag: Diversity & Inclusion
This session will explore modes of connecting with local communities in order to drive academic program relevance and value. In a year-long project, a team of faculty, staff, and students at a private research institution used a design process of research and prototyping to understand and then design for their local community’s workforce development and economic growth. This session will examine specific aspects of their work, including how their community was defined, approached, and assessed; how the research team of students, faculty and staff was composed and operated; the learning that has resulted from the discovery and synthesis phases of the project, thus far.  Characteristics of St. Louis include large areas of extreme poverty, slow population growth, and unusually large black-white income differentials. Continuing education programs in the region are challenged to provide adequate educational advising, opportunities for immediate skillbuilding that can be translated into viable work, credentialing, and ways to advance communications and collaboration applications necessary for advancement. A user-centered research and prototyping process has become a viable way to build programs designed to address some of these challenges.

• Heather Corcoran, Washington University in St. Louis
• Patricia Matthews, Washington University in St. Louis

Moderator: George Calderaro, Columbia University

Foundations of Juvenile Justice: Linking the University, Community, and Workforce
Marina I | Track: Community and Economic Engagement
Level: Foundational | Format: Presentation | Tag: Policy
This session will examine the cross-systems approach to juvenile justice reform in New Jersey, the development of Rutgers University’s innovative professional education offerings under the Program in Juvenile Justice and Youth Development, and the ways in which conference participants can understand and contribute to systems reform. In 2020, Rutgers University will launch a professional certificate program in Juvenile Justice and Youth Development, developed through the interdisciplinary training model of the Program in Juvenile Justice and Youth Development with funding from the NJ Governor’s Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Committee   and Juvenile Justice Commission. This session will highlight the community-based approach of multiple stakeholders to develop professional training curriculum, and the steps that New Jersey has taken towards a more  effective system of juvenile justice.

• Kenneth Karamichael, Rutgers University
• Sara Nolan, Rutgers University

Moderator: Kelly Newell, Washington State University

The Future of Work is Now: Alternative Finance Ecosystems for Educating Today’s Workforce
Stone | Track: Community and Economic Engagement
Level: Applied | Format: Case Study | Tag: Noncredit/Alternative Credential
Most universities are not moving quickly enough to address the need for upskilling and career advancement among working adults. Financing is a major barrier facing students seeking alternative education experiences such as non-credit certificates and stackable credentials. An alternative financial ecosystem is needed to enable financing for adult learners from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds to access essential upskilling and reskilling education.This interactive session will use learner scenarios to present two models where university CE units have taken the initiative to shape the Future of Work and address challenges – including tuition affordability – facing our workers and economies. Ryerson University will share a simulation of the implementation and delivery of a CE-run Learn and Earn Hub, which offers a financing alternative for non-credit workforce upskilling. University of Richmond provides another solution through its partnership with Climb Credit: using alternative financing as a tool to increase access, affordability and enrollments in non-credit professional courses.

• Anne-Marie Brinsmead, Ryerson University
• Lisa Fanjoy, Ryerson University
• Alex Ferworn, Ryerson University
• Garrett Stern, University of Richmond
• Raza Munir, Climb
• Heidi Freund, Climb

Moderator: Aaron Sinkar, University of Texas

Community and Economic Engagement Network Meeting Spotlight: The 60-Year Curriculum: Lifelong Learning in the Digital Economy
Marina I
Level: Strategic | Format: Newtork Meeting Spotlight | Tag: Noncredit/Alternative Credential
The “60 Year Curriculum” is a response to the emerging global economy’s profound challenge to higher education. Meeting this challenge requires integrating instructional, advising, career development, and alumni services that impart the resilience and enable the upskilling necessary for job growth and career change in yet to be invented fields.Degrees, certificates, or other credentials must be adapted and administered to satisfy both employer and personal needs. This novel array of services must be available to young people and adults who, in most cases, cannot partake of a full-time academic experience, but learn in the workplace, in episodic formal instruction, and in daily life.

• Chris Dede, Harvard University

• John Richards, Harvard University

• Henry Leitner, Harvard University

Moderator: Ursula Bechert, University of Pennsylvania

 

Building an Extended Campus:  Transforming Extended and Online Education for the Future of San Antonio
Marina I | Track: Community and Economic Engagement
Level: Applied | Format: Case Study | Tag: Noncredit/Alternative Credential
The “Decade of Downtown,“ as proclaimed by former mayor Julian Castro in 2010, has positioned University of Texas at San Antonio at the heart of a rapidly increasing number of businesses and workers in San Antonio’s downtown, giving the university an opportunity to rebrand and provide unique programs and opportunities. This session will examine how UTSA is creating an extended campus in collaboration with colleges, schools, centers, and the San Antonio community at large to further impact the city by increasing the numberand range of programs to support workers to advance in their current jobs, or to enable those without a college degree to finish and successfully compete for better paying jobs or new careers.  The presentation and discussion will focus on the opportunities and challenges of rebranding and creating an enlivened new direction for building new programs in a competitive market.

• Melissa Vito, University of Texas at San Antonio
• Lisa Blazer, University of Texas at San Antonio
• Suzana Diaz-Rosencrans, University of Texas at San Antonio

Moderator: Elizabeth Stoner, Eastern Michigan University

Navigating Institutional and Corporate Demands with the Shift in Higher Education
Marina I | Track: Community and Economic Engagement
Level: Strategic | Format: Presentation | Tag: Noncredit/Alternative Credential
With rapidly changing technology and vastly diminished half-lives of career skills, how do continuing education schools act as the bridge between traditional education models and corporate workforce development demands? It is critical for these constituencies to collaborate closely to identify innovations to research, and deploy sound pedagogical innovations to meet the breadth of the skills gap. To ensure not only the success of students, the workforce, and corporations but also maintain the vital role of higher education, continuing studies schools must have a comprehensive understanding of community and corporate needs and develop nimble, effective and targeted solutions.  This presentation will demonstrate how two institutions are working with community and corporate partners to assess the needed skills, and collaborate with established university departments to expand their offerings. Specific initiatives include working with Rice’s unique “Data to Knowledge” program teaching corporations to tackle big data problems; providing continuing education to corporate partners of Houston’s new innovation district, The Ion; and providing upskill education to city of Houston’s workforce. Also included are case studies of UWC2’s long-term partnership with Boeing, and new initiatives to collaborate with Microsoft, Amazon, Tableau, and the Othello-UW Commons. All of these efforts are designed to keep today’s workforce competitive and lead the change in continuing education.

• Mary Lynn Fernau, Rice University
• Sandra Janusch, University of Washington

Moderator: Pat Malone, State University of New York at Stony Brook

NYU Real World: A Degree in "Jobs That Don't Exist, But Will "
Stone | Track: Community and Economic Engagement
Level: Strategic | Format: Case Study | Tag: Diversity & Inclusion
We don't know the future of work. What we do know is that right now, today, graduates change careers, not just jobs, four to five times over the course of their working lives. With rapid advances in AI and bio-technologies, entire industries may become obsolete within just a few years. How do we prepare students for jobs that have yet to be invented, entire industries that don’t yet exist? By putting students in the real world. NYU Real World, a flagship initiative at NYU School of Professional Studies, brings in A-list outside organizations from across industries—Instagram, Porsche, Nike, JetBlue, Ace Hotel, ESPN, The Atlantic—who engage directly with students from different degree programs to solve real problems in real time, and with no answer key. Delivered in a flipped-classroom format, the entire process is experiential, collaborative, and competitive. Right and viable solutions get implemented. Real World is now one of the hottest programs at NYU, and a key result: we are producing human beings who graduate immediately ready to navigate new environments they've never encountered before, and solve problems.

• David Hollander, New York University
• Miguel Ortiz-Crane, New York University

Moderator: Scott Weimer, Virginia Tech

Universities Meet Demand for 21st Century Skill Building with The Greater Washington Partnership CoLab: Three Universities, Three Approaches
Marina I | Track: Community and Economic Engagement
Level: Strategic | Format: Presentation
In one of the fastest growing tech regions in the nation, the Washington Capital Region, 14 companies and 12 universities got together to create one of the very first industry-backed, university-aligned Digital Technology Credentials. Targeted specifically at the liberal arts student, this unique collaboration expands the pipeline for tech-savvy talent without drawing on traditional IT and engineering students who already capture a premium in the labor market. This conversation showcases the work of three very different, high-visibility Universities (American University, George Mason University and Georgetown University) and how their Continuing Education divisions adapted to industry needs, delivering the Digital Technologies Credential in three very distinctive ways. This session offers participants a glimpse into how public / private partnerships can work to deliver skills and micro-credentials of the future.

• Jill Klein, American University
• Marc Austin, George Mason University
• Kelly Otter, Georgetown University

Moderator: Eric Bullard, University of California, Los Angeles