BlueWave News

June 2022

The 2022 Adult Education Graduation Ceremony was held on Thursday, June 9 at the Nathan H. Wilson Center for the Arts, located at FSCJ South Campus. This was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the students who completed the high school and high school equivalency programs.

The evening featured an uplifting message from keynote speaker, FSCJ Business Analyst for Curriculum and Scheduling Ayshea Golden, who is also a graduate of our Adult Education program.

Congrats to FSCJ Baseball

FSCJ's Baseball team finished an incredible 2022 season with a third-place finish at the NJCAA Division II World Series in Enid, Oklahoma. FSCJ went 3-2 at the national tournament, beating Phoenix College, Lansing Community College and losing to the eventual national champion, Pearl River Community College.

In the most successful season since 2000, the team's final record was 33-21.

Fire Academy Receives Memorial Gift

We would like to thank the McArthur family for their contribution to FSCJ's Fire Academy. They made their generous gift in memory of Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department Captain Darrold McArthur.

The donation will be used to provide financial assistance to current and future students enrolled in the Fire Academy of the South at FSCJ.

President's Forum Features Admiral Michelle Howard

To learn more about the President's Circle, email foundation@fscj.edu.

The FSCJ Foundation hosted the second President's Forum event on June 6. The event featured keynote speaker Admiral Michelle Howard, the highest ranking woman in Naval history. FSCJ donors, partners and supporters gathered to hear Admiral Howard share her experiences and knowledge in leadership.

Dr. Avendano thanked her for her time with a commemorative President's Circle Challenge Coin, which are given to donors of $1,000 or more.

FSCJ.edu Redesign Update

The new FSCJ.edu is coming soon. The overall design and site structure have been approved, which means the development of individual sections is underway, including the homepage, program landing pages and the search functionality. As part of the new site, there will also be 360º panoramic tours to highlight various locations and programs throughout the College. Check out this example: https://virtualtour.fscj.edu/#ctdl-UMAP_2020102176612,BLD_2020101916995.

Later on this month, the design team will conduct user experience testing of key components through a beta site. Findings from that testing will support the full launch, which is still on target for Fall Term 2022.

Stay tuned for updates and opportunities to learn more.

Introducing FSCJ's Center for Credentialing Excellence

The Center for Credentialing Excellence (CCE) was established to support the recent state mandates for student microcredentials. In addition, several functional areas at the College also have opportunities to develop microcredentials to further support students' academic and employment goals.

The CCE will be the one-stop location for FSCJ micro- and macro-credential management to provide ongoing support. Located within Training and Organizational Development, the CCE will guide faculty and staff through the four-step process for new digital badging requests: Collect, Approve, Design and Issue.

Currently, Training and Organizational Development offers 18 badges to more than 200 FSCJ employees, while Continuing Workforce Education offers eight. We look forward to the growth of this initiative.

Guided Pathways and Strategic Planning Update

As we continue our student success work, the activities of the VIP 2.0 and Guided Pathways are aligning. Recent highlights of our work include the following:

As we begin to wind down our current academic year, watch for a full summary of the College’s efforts and successes. If you have questions, please contact Dr. Deb Fontaine at deborah.fontaine@fscj.edu.

Our student athletes are working hard in the classroom and in their sports. Check out these highlights from the 2021-22 academic year:

The Assessment Centers are launching a pilot of the ALEKS PPL Math Placement Exam. This no-cost placement exam is an exciting and new comprehensive approach to accurately assess and prepare students for success in FSCJ math courses.

After the initial assessment attempt, students will receive an individualized remediation module that they can access at any time to help them improve their placement score. Reading and writing placement will continue to take place in Accuplacer or PERT, but students who choose to be a part of this pilot will be able to take advantage of the study module and retake the ALEKS PPL exam up to four additional times at no cost.*

Training will soon be offered to the Orientation, Advising, Contact Center and LLC staff. Following the pilot, the data will be analyzed to see how ALEKS PPL contributed to success in math by saving students time and money through proper placement.

For questions or to learn more, email Dr. Rich Turner at rich.turner@fscj.edu.

* This assessment is not open to students who are participating in Dual Enrollment and those who currently have valid placement scores.

FSCJ is hosting a large Summer Open House event at the Deerwood Center on Saturday, July 30, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. We are still in need of volunteers! If you have not already, don’t forget to register to volunteer by clicking on the green button below. Last year we assisted more than 300 students and hope to make this event even bigger!

As always, if you know someone interested in attending FSCJ, send them our way!

Fact Book and Student Success Report Now Available

The Office of Institutional Effectiveness recently published the 2020-21 Fact Book and the 2022 Student Success Report. Both documents are available on the Data Library SharePoint.

The Fact Book is updated annually and provides convenient and accessible sources for common information about FSCJ. Information for this publication is retrieved from state and federal sources like the Florida Department of Education, Florida College System and the U.S. Department of Education.

The FSCJ Student Success Report was developed as part of FSCJ’s continued Achieving the Dream efforts. The reports are produced by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Student and Workforce Analytics Team.

Faculty and Staff Accomplishments

Congratulations to the following employees for completing FSCJ Certificate programs!

Active Learning Certificate

Administrative Assistant Certificate

Managing at FSCJ Certificate

June's Administrative & Professional Collaborative (APC) spotlight shines on Assistant Director of Purchasing Amy Benigno. In her role, she provides Collegewide leadership through exemplary customer service and training. In her short time at FSCJ, she has created an internal training site for departments needing financial information and security training as well as updating the P-Card program to include a SharePoint site for all things P-Card related. This provides the various Collegewide departments with on-demand training for the most sought-out questions.

Review the highlights of the June 14, 2022, meeting of the FSCJ District Board of Trustees:

You can find more information on the Board of Trustees meeting on our website.

Who's New

This list includes those individuals who are filling the newly appointed Faculty full-time positions, full-time A&P positions and full-time Career Employee positions.

Faculty Full-Time

A&P Full-Time

Career Full-Time

Who's Retiring?

The following employees have recently retired, or will soon be retiring, from FSCJ:

FSCJ's faculty, staff, students, programs and leadership are often highlighted by local and regional media outlets - online, on air and in print. Read articles featuring important updates and activities happening within the College by clicking here.

Upcoming Events

Test your knowledge. To ensure all faculty and staff have an opportunity to submit answers, the quiz winners will be selected at random from entries with all questions answered correctly. You have until 6 p.m. on the day the newsletter is distributed to email your answers to bluewavenews@fscj.edu. The three winners will receive a BlueWave prize pack! Please note: Previous quiz winners, while eligible to submit answers, are not eligible for additional prizes for six months.

1) When is the Summer Open House event being held at the Deerwood Center?

    a. June 30

    b. July 30

    c. July 2

    d. August 18

2) How many FSCJ student athletes were named to the Academic All Mid-Florida Conference team during the 2021-22 academic year?

    a. 31

    b. 12

    c. 19

    d. 21

3) Who served as the keynote speaker for the Adult Ed Graduation Ceremony?

    a. Ayshea Golden

    b. Dr. John Avendano

    c. Admiral Michelle Howard

    d. Dr. Marie Gnage

4) When is the Juneteenth Festival at Downtown Campus?

    a. June 19

    b. June 20

    c. June 21

    d. June 22

5) CCE is the acronym for what FSCJ initiative?

    a. Career Certificate Excellence

    b. Center for Credentialing Excellence

    c. Communication Career Exploration

    d. Center for Coursework Excellence

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