Pillar 2: Help students get on a path

The second pillar of the Guided Pathways model is Get on the Path, which requires the College to help students choose and enter a pathway that will help them reach their goals by:

• Providing detailed information on target career and transfer outcomes, as well as clear course sequences, critical outcomes, embedded credentials, and progress milestones for each academic program.
• Aligning math and other core coursework with each program of study.
• Using multiple measures to assess different students' needs.
• Creating first-year experiences to help students explore the field and choose a major if undecided.
• Reworking full program plans based on required career and transfer exploration.
• Incorporating contextualized, integrated academic support to help students pass program gateway courses.
• Building K-12 partnerships focused on career and college program exploration.

What we've done so far:

• The General Studies Workgroup spent last semester defining intentional support to
  to help undecided students in the General Studies major with getting on a path. The group is examining the needs of the sub-populations of students within the General Studies major to make recommendations regarding support structures for each population. Here are their recommendations.
• The Intake and Onboarding Workgroup recommended many changes to the admissions and advisement process in order to design a holistic experience to support students from the first point of contact through the midpoint of their first semester. Click here to see a full list of their recommendations for the College's admissions and advisement processes.
• The Intake and Onboarding Workgroup recommendations were organized into five categories and an implementation team was created for each. The teams began working in Fall 2019 to implement the recommendations. Click on each link below to see each team's membership and the recommendations they are working on.
  • Admissions, Application, and Steps to Enrollment
  • Advisement and Enrollment Events
  • Financial and Billing
  • Website
  • Technology

What's ahead:

• The Undecided Student Workgroup was formed in March 2020 to identify the needs of students who are undecided on their majors and to make comprehensive recommendations regarding support on intake and onboarding and first semester and/or first year curricular solutions to help students who enter MVCC with undecided or undeclared status. 
• The Orientation and First-Year Experience Workgroup was formed in March 2020 to research, design, and recommend a plan of action for engaging first semester students into the college environment through Orientation, Convocation, and CF100, along with other retention initiatives as they relate to persistence and achievement of students goals. 
• Implementation teams are continuing their work.