Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to Kendall speaks. I'm Dr. Brian Stewart Kendall campus president.
And today we have an amazing group of leaders here at Miami Dade College. First, Mr. Ripley O' Connor, our director of Rising Scholars. Welcome.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: Ms. Bernadette Hernandez, our director of Presidential Scholars. Welcome.
And our Kendall own, Ms. Aurora Alonso, our director of our honors College here. Welcome to of our podcast.
[00:00:28] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: So honored to have you through here today to talk about some really important groups here at Miami Dade College. And let's, let's first start with your journey here. Ripple. Talk about your journey. How did you get to Miami Dade College?
[00:00:43] Speaker B: No problem. No problem. First, thank you again for the invitation. Happy to be here.
So my journey, well, I earned my undergraduate degree from Florida Memorial University, which is the only HBCU in South Florida. And while pursuing my undergraduate degree, I did work study in the financial aid office there.
And after I graduated, they offered me a full time position in the financial aid department. So I became a financial aid advisor. I worked there for two years, traveling from Homestead to Miami Gardens. And then I decided that I wanted to find employment closer to home.
So I ended up, after two years working at Florida Memorial, I ended up applying to positions at Homestead, Kendall Campus, Miami College, and I ended up getting an interview at the Kendall campus, where we're at now.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: A financial aid advisor position. And I was hired. And that's kind of how I that was my journey here to mdc.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Well, we're glad that you're here and appreciate your good work. We'll talk about the rising Scholars in a minute. Bernadette, tell us a little bit about the Presidential Scholars. Well, first, before that, tell us a little bit, a bit about your journey and how you got to Miami Dade College.
[00:01:46] Speaker D: Yeah, so I'm actually a California native, grew up in Southern California. And upon completing my master's in college counseling, I decided to just take a big leap of faith and move to Florida and started my journey at the north campus.
I was a retention and recruitment specialist for NTECH and just kind of loved advising and, you know, programming for students. And so I kind of immersed all that together and that's kind of what brought me to this position as the Director of Presidential Scholarship.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Well, that's great. We're so glad you're here with your journey. And now, Aurora, tell us about your trip to Miami Dade College, how you got here.
[00:02:26] Speaker D: Sure.
[00:02:26] Speaker C: So I did my college degrees at fiu. I majored in psychology and social work. I have a master's in social work. And then after that I began At MDC as a part time advisor for the School of Education.
Did that for two years and then I became a senior advisor here at Kendall. I did that for about seven years and now I've been in this role, Director of Honors College for two years.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: Well, I think our audience can see that the stories are all similar. They start in different roles and then elevated themselves to these leadership roles here at the college. So let's talk now about your specific programs. First, Ripple, tell me about Rising Scholars.
Tell our audience what it is.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: No problem. So the Rising Scholars program kicked off in 2021 and the program was created to increase enrollment, retention and completion for minority and underserved students and Miami Dade County.
So to get to that goal, we've created an holistic approach to supporting our students. We'll talk a little bit more about the success teams that we have at the various campus to support our students. We have a heavy focus on mentorship and also co curricular experiences.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Very good, thank you for that. Presidential Scholars. Burnett, tell us what's different about them and a little more about them.
[00:03:39] Speaker D: Yeah, so Presidential Scholars was created with having the student in mind that's a high achieving student that may have applied to a lot of institutions, maybe Honors College, different various programs and really just giving them another option. So we are seeking high achieving students that, you know, prioritize academics. And I'm really giving them the opportunity to excel at MDC and to have their degrees covered with tuition coverage and other financial support in addition to the wraparound services that Miami Dade College offers to really assist them in meeting their goals of student success and preparing them for after graduation, which I'll share more about later.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: Very good, thank you. And finally, tell us about Honors College. I know we have those on several campus, but talk a little bit about the Kendall campus and that if you would.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: Right.
[00:04:38] Speaker C: So we have Honors College on five of our eight MDC campuses and we strive to make the program the same across all campuses. Of course, every campus has its own culture, but essentially Honors College, our main goal is to prepare students for transferring to top rated institutions all around the country. So we do that through academics, through leadership preparation, through mentorship, and again, we'll talk about that in a bit too.
But the Honors College is for high achieving students, just like our other two programs. And we just offer a lot of different things to help prepare them for leadership opportunities and for transfer.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: Okay, very good. Well, let's delve into the Rising Scholars now. Talk a little bit about what makes the Rising Scholars unique and how you select students for that program.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: No problem. So first of all, the Rising Scholar program does cover the cost of tuition and fees.
It provides a book stipend and also a laptop computer, its members for technical support. And I think what makes the Rising Scholars program very unique is the mentorship that we provide to our students. So not only myself as the director of the of the program, provides mentorship, but also the Success Team members that serve in various roles at each of the campuses, serves as mentors to our students and then we have a heavy focus on our co curricular experiences. So over the past four years, we've been to several states, we've explored pretty much the educational centers there, visited museums and monuments and D.C. and New York. Those are just a few, to name a few. And also we attend various student leadership conferences across the nation as well. That helps with their developmental skills. So to be selected, like every other program, we do have a selection committee. But the most important thing is the student needs to apply, needs to complete the requirements. They have to complete fafsa, they have to submit one other recommendation, need to complete residency. And then the most important thing is to get all that in as soon as possible.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Beat the deadline.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Beat the deadline.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: What is a typical Rising Scholar student look like and what are some of the main challenges they face?
[00:06:42] Speaker B: So every year for the past few years, we bring in a new court every year and we, you know, bring in a diverse group of students. One thing I've noticed that we have a lot of first generation students in the program. So the first in their families to go to college.
I see we have a lot of student workers. So a lot of students work full time and they're also taking classes full time. You have to take classes full time. That's a requirement for the program. So they're trying to find that balance between work and school. And also as I mentioned earlier, is that we, a goal of our program is to recruit underrepresented, underserved and minority students to college.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: Very good. You mentioned a minute ago about the resources and the support they get.
Talk a little bit about more about how you wrap around supporting your students.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: Right, right. So I think that leads back into the Success Team. Right. So the Success Team comprises representatives from Financial Aid to assist them with the financial Aid FAFSA application. Every year it includes representatives from academic advisement. So they have a contact person in advisement to assist them to register for classes, to mentor them and help them get a dilable course load and include somebody from Single Stop, a representative that can help them with any personal challenges that they may face. So they meet with our scholars frequently throughout the year. They have that contact person in various departments to assist them with. Like I mentioned, anything, any barriers that they may face at the college.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: You know you said you'd had. We've had this program since 2021, right? Yes, sir. Is there anything, you know, when we did it in 2021 that you said, hey, this is something we added or help to support students that maybe we didn't have when we first started comes to mind. Anything?
[00:08:17] Speaker B: I would say mentorship, peer mentorship.
So. Right. So, you know, the first year, you know, we had one group. Right. But over the years, we brought new and new members. So typically right now, if a student has been at the college for two years, they'll serve as a mentor to a new student that's coming. It's going to be their first semester at college. So the peer mentorship program that we have, where our students mentor the next incoming class, I think has been very helpful in the. Glad that we have that in place now.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that's excellent that you kind of revise what you did. And one of the things we love to hear success stories. So tell us maybe a story or two about one of the students that comes to mind when you think about your program.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: Perfect. So the person that comes to mind is Jeanne St. Cyr. She's a recent alumni of the program. She graduated last year in June and now she's at Florida State University.
And the reason she comes to mind is because she didn't really have academic challenges. But she, when she first started, she wasn't very involved in acta like her first year or first semester, she was very quiet, very shy. She didn't come out to many of our events or activities. But when she finally answered the call and attended one of our events, it was like a full transformation. So she's been on study abroad with us to Costa Rica. She's spoken at our recent induction ceremony to the new class how the program has helped her come out of her shell. She served as the first Ms. North Campus ever at the North Campus a year ago. And she's just, you know, she's excelled and has done extremely well for herself. And we're extremely proud of her, I.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: Have to say about all three of these programs. The programs you guys have speakers, the singers, the talent, the whole thing. Every program I can't wait to go to. And you mentioned that she spoke it, and so I can certainly understand that.
Talk to our audience a little bit about how they could be involved in supporting the Rising Scholar students.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: So I like to say that a lot of our events are very open, so we encourage our faculty, our staff to come to like, our workshops that we have scheduled for our students most recently. What comes to mind, we recently held a Rising Scholars gathering at the north campus where one of our esteemed faculty, Dr. Carter, came and spoke to our students, talked about the transfer process, you know, for our students that will be graduating this June. So I would say to be involved, just come out. Um, our activities events are open to you, and we are in the community a lot as well. So our students are able to network and meet different officials, different professionals from various fields. So, yeah, come out.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: And you do a good job being visible on all our campuses.
[00:10:45] Speaker B: So appreciate it.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: My last question is, what would you say to a student who's considering applying for Rising Scholars? And then if you want to give them any advice on how to apply.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: Yes. So first I would say apply. The application is open now. It closes this March. I would tell them to tell them to apply because the program is not only about, you know, helping them during their educational journey, but giving them the skills for them to succeed after they graduate.
So I would definitely encourage any student to apply and to make sure that they submit all the requirements as soon as possible so they can be considered. Another thing I'd like to mention, there's no GPA requirement. So it's very open to any, any type of student.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: So if you have questions, reach out and we'll get them all answered. So thank you for that.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: You're welcome.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Now let's turn to the Presidential Scholars. Bernadette, tell me a little bit about the qualities you look for in the applicants of your students.
[00:11:38] Speaker D: Yeah, so one of the main things that we look for in applicants for Presidential Scholars is a minimum GPA of a 3.5. So we want students that are high achieving, that have, you know, worked really, really hard in high school, that really put a lot of effort and emphasis their academics. And so that's one of the minimum requirements that is necessary to apply. And we also encourage students that are close to that mark, you know, to apply as well. But really what we're looking for is students that are engaged, that have shown leadership qualities, change making.
Some of the questions that we have in our application is to identify an example of leadership. And so we try to get an, an idea of how the student views leadership and, and maybe what have they exemplified as a leader.
And then we also ask about change making. So change making education Is really important to the program and really emphasizes how they want to be involved and what they've been involved in within the community, within their campus community or in high school. And what are some of the organizations that maybe they have given back to their time, since students are typically well involved in service.
And then we also ask for what are their interests, what are their hobbies, what type of student are they?
And that just gives us a great overview of this student as a whole and potentially how they may be successful in the program.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Mentioned the word leadership. That seems to be an important thing that Presidential Scholars do. Talk a little bit about how you want your students to serve as leaders and role models after you get them in. I know what you do when you look to bring them in, but after they've been with a while, how do you engage that part?
[00:13:26] Speaker D: Yeah. So that's actually been something that has happened very organically in the program with my encouragement, with getting them connected to student life, encouraging them to go to Club Rush and to be engaged in the campus community and kind of go beyond just going to class. So one of the ways that they've really been engaged in leadership is being in clubs. Student Government Association. We do have students that are involved in that. We have students that are in different, various clubs on campus. And most recently, I discovered that we have students that are starting new clubs. So it's been really awesome seeing them just take on that leadership and create their own clubs and, like, start sharing that amongst their peers and spreading the word to gain new attendees and recruit new students to those clubs and even helping them form them and kind of talk through with them, their vision and what they have in mind for that club and kind of help guiding them and assisting them in getting the right resources with an advisor and talking to student life and getting that going on their campus.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: So is this our third cohort of Presidential Scholars or fourth? Fourth. Yeah. I can't do math.
Same question I asked Rip, what did you do in year one that maybe you realized, hey, this would be something good to do in year four or three or whatever.
[00:14:49] Speaker D: Yeah. So one of the things that's been great about this program being fairly new and evolving is seeing the potential for growth. And so in year one, it was kind of like that trial time, getting students involved, getting them used to attending events and getting them used to what their program is about. And now that the program is established, really getting them involved in different areas that are going to help their not only personal, but professional developmental growth. And so one of the things we did last semester was we hosted a professional development day that was awesome because we want to get them equipped and ready for the real world, you know, after college. And even now some of them want internships and some of them want, you know, part time jobs, but they needed that extra support. And so we collaborated with MDC works at the college and had a full day of learning of resume building, how to prep for interviews, how to utilize handshake. And so we've actually had students have internships and they've gotten internships through handshake. And so just emphasizing the importance of utilizing our resources that we already have so that they're exposed to those opportunities, help them grow professionally.
[00:16:06] Speaker A: I think those are some of the unique opportunities Presidential Scholars present that make, make it so unique.
Talk a little bit about what your proudest moments are as director and maybe tell a story if you got that resonates.
[00:16:20] Speaker D: I think what's, what's really amazing to see over time is how students have grown personally, especially students that, as Ripple mentioned, maybe are very quiet or reserved or not so open to attending events because we do a lot of programming. And so getting them to go is kind of like the first step. And once they go to an event and they attend, they're more likely to continue that. So it really helps with retention efforts and getting them, you know, engaged and, and creating a sense of belonging to not just the program, but to the college overall. So I think what I'm most proud of is to see how students have had that trickle effect where they attend an event, they meet friends, they attend other things, they grow, they become speakers at like our student panels, they become speakers at our signature events, and they just grow and evolve as a student, as a person.
And seeing students that are involved and grow in that matter just really, you know, emphasizes the importance of our programs. And I think one of the great things about that is how they prepare themselves for after mdc. And so one of the students that I've seen just really grow personally has been Alexandra Viaga. She graduated already. She's actually doing her bachelor's at mdc.
So that's another great thing is that our programs share, you know, the opportunity beyond just Presidential, beyond their aa. They can do their bachelor's here if it's a good fit for them. And so this student has been involved in so many things, not just within the program, but she's also been connected to a local dentist where she got to do service hours like volunteering. She wants to be a dentist one day. So getting her connected to the right opportunities outside of MDC also has been part of her journey and being able to grow in her professional development and continue her studies at MDC and her bachelor's of biology where she wants to become a dentist someday. So we've really seen how important it is to get students connected and not just connected to the program, but outside opportunities and at the college where they feel comfortable to continue their. Their journey with us.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: Imagine with both these programs, it's going to be fun to have reunions down the road and follow where these students are. And I know we'll talk about the honors college students. It's been around a little longer program in a minute, but I just hear you tell that story and I'm thinking, wow, I want to see these kids in five years. Kids, these students.
[00:19:10] Speaker D: Yeah, no, we're excited to hopefully do a reunion someday. Yeah.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: Talk a little bit about the future. What, what kind of events and initiatives do you have in the coming year?
[00:19:20] Speaker D: Yeah, so we, we do have, coming up, our summer educational and cultural immersion trip that we do annually.
Every year it's been a different location. So we're looking forward to picking a new location this year and seeing like where we're going to take students to. In the past, we've gone to Boston, we've gone to New York, D.C.
so just expanding them outside of Florida, it gets them exposed to colleges outside of the state and gets them open to what life could look like. You know, attending an out of state university or maybe it's a private institution or an Ivy League school. So expanding those opportunities for students to think beyond just what's available to them close to home. So I think that's really important because we've had students go out of state, we've had students go to Boston University, North Carolina, Chapel Hill on a scholarship. We've had students go out of out of state.
And so just creating those opportunities where students can go beyond what they think they're capable of and providing that open door for them. So I think that's definitely a focus for me.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: I know being a California girl, you probably have California covered, but if you need someone from Texas, I've got you.
[00:20:43] Speaker D: You know what, Texas actually was on our list, Texas and Chicago. And I think Pennsylvania, we're thinking of. Yeah, Texas is actually born and raised.
[00:20:53] Speaker A: I can help there if you need the help.
[00:20:55] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: Can a presidential scholar also be an honors student?
How does that work?
[00:21:02] Speaker D: Yeah, that's a great question. So we've had students that have been accepted to both programs once they get offered a scholarship. And so they actually, unfortunately, cannot be part of both. So, so they have to select either Honors College or Presidential Scholars.
And that's just because each program has different requirements. And another important aspect to that is they can enter Presidential Scholars with dual enrollment credits. And I know that may not be the case for Honors College. So Presidential Scholars sometimes can come in with 30 dual enrollment credits and finish their AA within a year. So that's also an option. And one of the differences.
[00:21:41] Speaker A: Okay, very good. And my last question. Can you describe how the program helps students after graduation? You mentioned a lot of the things you did as they approach it, but talk a little bit about after graduation.
[00:21:52] Speaker D: Yeah, so transfer is a huge part of the second year that they're in the program. And so we put an emphasis on how to prepare for transfer.
And we also get them to be open to applying for scholarships. So Jack Ken Cook Scholarship is a huge one.
Other scholarships that are going to help them transfer, we connect them to those opportunities. And then we also have had a Florida college tour. So we've gone to Florida colleges, University of Central Florida, uf, fsu. So we've opened that door for them to have that experience of thinking beyond home as well and going to other institutions that are maybe out of reach for them, but giving them that option to think of, you know, where can they go beyond the local colleges.
And in addition to that for transfer, we've also helped them with having workshops. I host workshops for them where they can prep, whether that's scholarship writing, application, using Common app, and just really getting them thinking about that process. And for local partnerships, we do partner with FIU and we do a transfer, a tour with FIU's team, and we have representatives from their Honors College. So we have a lot of students that end up transitioning into FIU Honors College. And so just having those local partnerships helps them with that process of transferring where they can feel comfortable with applying to those institutions and getting the resources that they need after graduating mdc.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a scary prospect. I was thinking about leaving mdc and I think both Rising and the Presidential do a great job of shepherding those students on. So great. Thanks for those answers. All right, Aurora, let's move on to the honors students. And I have to give a little sidebar here. I've been here seven years and I'll never forget my first honor Honors College event. It was at the. What was the theater in downtown Miami that we used to own? No, no, we used to own Olympia. Olympia.
[00:24:03] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: I won't tell that story. But President Jacobs at Homestead gave me a hard time. But that's a, that's a Texas story. But I was so jealous of honor students because I was at the medical campus and we don't have honor students. We have rising dollar students there. And.
But I've all. One of the most exciting things when it came to Kendall was now I have an honors program.
So talk a little bit about the honors program.
Talk about the qualities of your students or.
[00:24:31] Speaker C: So Honors College students are high achieving.
They've also done very well in high school. They're driven to become leaders.
They, you know, and leadership is found in a lot of different ways is what we teach our students. So it may not be that they've been presidents of the clubs, but they show leadership in other ways in their classrooms, in clubs and organizations, in the community.
They're high achieving academically. They have big goals to transfer. So what we look for is students who are willing to be open to transferring outside of Miami. Miami schools are amazing. We all know that. But we want to open our students to other opportunities. And there are different ways we do that within the Honors College. But we do want students who are open to that. And they. They are. They very much so are. And we. What we do also is we're looking to build a community with our campus, the Honors College in general. As I mentioned before, we're across five of our eight MDC campuses. But we work really hard to keep the Honors College one big happy family.
And not just with our current students, but with alumni as well. We work really hard to keep that alumni network active. We've had reunions, and I think we do a good job because our students love to come back. They love to come back and see us see their professors.
They love to help current students after graduating. Alumni are always open to help students transfer to whatever school they've gone to. So they're very driven to help each other out.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: When was the Honors college? How long has it been around Miami College?
[00:26:05] Speaker C: Over 20 years.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: 20 years. Wow. Okay. You mentioned high achieving students. Talk a little bit about that experience and how you can kind of help grow.
As you mentioned, they're high achieving in high school, but they come to us. We want to continue that growth.
[00:26:20] Speaker C: Correct. So they. We operate on a cohort model. So students take classes together. For the most part, they take their honors courses with just Honors College students. So that's how we differ a little bit from presidential and rising scholars. We operate on a cohort model. So as Bernadette mentioned, some Students may choose presidential if they have a lot of dual enrollment credits, transfer credits coming in. That doesn't work for Honors college because we do keep that cohort for two years. Our students have to be in our program for the two years of their AA degree and over half of the credits they take. So at least 36 of their AA credits are honors credits. Those are honors classes which are smaller in class size. They are taught by honors certified faculty. So the courses are more rigorous than, than other courses.
And so you know, they, they delve into topics a little more in depth than than other classes. Classes do.
The professors have them working on projects. I know a lot of them have done like podcasts for example, as some of their projects. They do service learning for their classes. So that involves them in the community and in the campus more than usual. They do take other non honors courses and that's because we do want them to be part of the campus community as well. We don't want them to just isolate themselves and be just with honor students. We do want them to be integrated into the college community.
So they do take courses with other students as well. But as far as academically, we do expect a higher academic rigor from them. So we expect them to go above and beyond just the minimum requirements.
And you know, we do have a GPA requirement for them to remain in the program and that's a 3.5.
So we expect high achievement in their courses. We help them with mentorship, with tutoring. A lot of students do become tutors and they tutor each other.
We connect them to all campus resources. The faculty also play a huge part in their success.
Faculty serve as mentors as well for the students and we just encourage them to connect with faculty as much as possible. If there's ever issues, they know they can reach out to their faculty, they can reach out to their Honors College director, they can reach out to their peers. So we really try to build that community to help them succeed.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: Are there any kind of unique or research opportunities for our students?
[00:28:44] Speaker C: Yes, we do have a grant.
It's the minority STEM grant. It's we pronounce it Mess up mseip. Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program.
That's our biggest one where we disseminate information on opportunities for research, for internships, and that one is focused on stem.
But we do also, we send emails all the time to our students. That's the first thing I tell them, check your emails. Because we're sending a ton of emails and they are all full of opportunities. So we have partnerships with like, for example, we have partnerships with UM and FIU to do summer research for. It's our STEM students, and they do it in the summer because it's pretty much a full time requirement. So they're taking less courses and they're able to focus more on. On the research.
The MESSIP grant also has opportunities like that, and we connect them to other programs. We have one with the Air Force and it's in Rome, New York. So it's just a lot of different partnerships.
We do have internship opportunities also for non STEM students. So I know research is a lot of stem. Right. But we do offer opportunities for non STEM students as well because our students have all kinds of majors. We accept every major in the Honors College. So we do have a lot of things that they're able to participate in.
[00:30:10] Speaker A: Especially being on five campuses. You have to be very diverse with how you support those students.
What about community service? Highlight some of the community service opportunities our students participate in.
[00:30:20] Speaker C: Yes. So as I mentioned, their classes require them to do some service learning hours.
So because of that, our students usually end up doing more than just the minimum. So our students take IDH courses, which are the interdisciplinary honors courses. Those are the leadership classes, kind of similar to sls.
So their IDH courses require them each semester to do service learning hours. Through that, they learn what they want to become involved in. And a lot of the time they kind of stick with whatever they started. And so some of them are out in the community. Like, we have students doing internships with commissioners offices with different organizations in the community. We have students on campus as well that work with. I said working with Earth Ethics in the Environmental center here on campus. So it's a wide variety of things. And then some of the service is done through clubs too.
One of the things that our students are going to start is a little free library here on Kendall campus.
Yeah. So I'm very excited about that. So those are examples. It's a wide variety of things that they are doing in the campus and in the community.
[00:31:32] Speaker A: What about our honors students in study abroad? Do they have that opportunity?
[00:31:36] Speaker C: Yes. So we have a couple of things. So study abroad as part of mdc, our students are able to participate in those courses over the summer. So not during fall or spring, because they do have to be on campus taking their honors classes. But our students do participate over the summer with the D.C. study abroad programs, now exclusively for Honors College, we have a couple of opportunities. As you all may know, the two academic seminars that we have, the Washington Center, Washington, D.C. and our students are there right now. And then we have the one in Austria, that one's the Global Citizenship Alliance. And now we get to have our friends in presidential and rising scholars join us on those as well.
So. But those aren't full semester. Those are about a week and a half. And they get these opportunities to attend these seminars.
We do have another one in London, it's the Richmond American University of London. And that one, we're able to send one student for a semester to study at that university.
So they would be taking courses over there. Bring them back to complete their AA here.
And their IDH course would be the only MDC course that they're taking. And they would. We work with a professor for them to do that virtually. That's the one. True. Like study abroad. That's not during the summer for our students.
[00:32:59] Speaker A: Great. That's great. Talk finally about what your goals are for the future. What do you see of expanding any. Any other future things you'd like to share with our audience?
[00:33:09] Speaker C: Yes. So we're always looking to build our alumni network.
So as I mentioned, our students love to help each other out. We recently had our first alumni reunion, that was last year. And now we're having a second one actually Today in Washington, D.C. as part of the seminar. Our students get to attend that. So our dean was able to organize another reunion with alums in the DC network.
So we have goals to just continue those and build those events and. And then other transfer opportunities like building more partnerships with schools.
We have a big part of our mission is to help students transfer. Right. Just like our other programs as well. So what we do is we have information sessions on scholarships, on transfer schools. We have representatives coming to our campus to talk to our students about transferring to these schools all around the country. So we hope to build more relationships like that, get students connected to these schools, to admissions representatives.
I hope to also have more internship opportunities.
Our summer one that I spoke of with First STEM students with UM and fiu, we're hoping to add even more schools to that.
And these are all paid opportunities for our students. So it helps them not only get experience and network, but it also helps them fund their education.
Another thing we want to do is send students to more conferences.
So we have another grant that provides funding for that. So we're now starting to encourage students even more so to submit proposals and attend conferences.
[00:34:49] Speaker A: Wow. That's great. Well, this has been a great conversation. Aurora, Bernadette, Ripley, thank you for what you do for our students.
We hope that the purpose of this podcast is to answer some questions. You guys are amazing leaders. Your students are amazing. Every time I get to go to your events, I sit there in awe of them. And so thank you for being a part of our podcast. We like to close our podcast here with turning the microphone around. We did our very first podcast with our SGA officers here, and they wanted to ask me a question. So we're going to turn the microphone around, and you guys can ask me anything you'd like.
[00:35:21] Speaker B: Well, I like that act. You can go first.
[00:35:23] Speaker C: No, it's okay. Go ahead.
[00:35:24] Speaker B: I was going to ask Dr. Stewart, when will be the next rising Presidential Scholars gathering here? I know that you did something last fall where, you know, our scholars were able to greet you. Our first. Our. Our newest cohort, our fourth cohort. So we would like to see if we can plan something with you this upcoming spring.
[00:35:42] Speaker A: I love that idea. What do you think? Cookout or what do you want?
[00:35:45] Speaker B: That'd be nice. I heard there's a cookout happening this Wednesday.
[00:35:48] Speaker A: One of the things we've tried to do is a tailgate party for all of our sports. And on Wednesday, we're doing it for our basketball team. So our men and women, for the first time this season, played on the same night. So we're going to do a cookout and feed our audience. But I think that's a great idea. Let's do something maybe in February.
And I'm open. You let me know.
[00:36:07] Speaker B: Perfect.
[00:36:07] Speaker A: We can play a little basketball. Whatever you want to do.
[00:36:10] Speaker B: And then we appreciate your partnership because in years past, we've done those MDC Scholar game days where the Scholars come out and support our sports team. And we actually have a rising scholar that's a part of the soccer team, the first soccer team.
So we really appreciate.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: Well, you know, I'm game for anything. Dunking booth. Whatever we can do to support you guys. So.
[00:36:28] Speaker B: Sounds good.
[00:36:28] Speaker A: Let me know the ideas. Aurora, will you.
[00:36:31] Speaker C: Yeah. I wanted to know if you want to come lead a colloquium. As you know, that's one of our. Our main honors college events. Every Thursday, our students have to attend colloquium. I think it'd be fun if you were able to lead a session.
[00:36:44] Speaker A: Tell me about what that would be. How would. What would you want out of it?
[00:36:47] Speaker C: Any topic that you'd like. So we can talk. But I'd love to do that. Great.
A surprise posts. We won't tell them when it's happening, but we can talk.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: You got it. I'm in. Happy to do it.
[00:36:59] Speaker D: That's so awesome.
So my question, Dr. Stewart, is we, for presidential scholars, we want to expand connecting students with faculty.
So what would you suggest how we can do that? I know in the fall, we. We kind of initiated an academic symposium just to kind of pilot, see how it goes, connect faculty with the program, to host a seminar for them. And so I want to continue that development for students to connect with more faculty. And I just wanted to get your feedback. What's the way that we can expand on that initiative?
[00:37:34] Speaker A: I think that's a great question.
I think one of the things that maybe our faculty and our community have trouble with is distinguishing between all three of these programs.
So maybe we could do a luncheon, you know, where we invite faculty to it and do a program where you speak, your students speak, and then maybe we kind of brainstorm a way to.
To, you know, improve that partnership.
[00:37:57] Speaker D: I love that. That'll be. That'll be awesome.
[00:37:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:38:00] Speaker D: Can we start that here at Kindle?
[00:38:01] Speaker A: Let's do it. Hey, let's start it all at Kindle.
[00:38:03] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: Aurora is going to do it at Kendall, but you two also.
Well, I really do truly appreciate the three of you being here. This has been an incredible conversation, and I do mean it. These are three great programs. We are blessed to work in an amazing college, and we're blessed to have great leaders. And. And I appreciate you being here. So thank you again for being here. I want to thank our guests. I want to thank Christina Signs, our head writer, Paul Klein, our executive producer, and Alex Bellows, our producer on site for making us all great today. Thank you and goodbye for now.
