Alumni News

How does one go from being a history major with dreams of becoming a National Geographic reporter and end by becoming the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Institutional Effectiveness for the Virginia Community College System? Catherine Finnegan can tell you all about that journey.

 Chris Ferland is a futurist. If you want to know what is happening with higher education in Georgia, or if you want to know what the trends may be for the future, Chris is your go-to guy.

Claire Howell Major believes her position of professor in the Department of Higher Education at the University of Alabama is the “best job ever.” And who’s to say that she’s wrong?

With bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English, Claire wanted to go further educationally, and focus on teaching and learning in higher education in general. “I wanted to think about it from a bigger picture than say from the perspective of ‘what is the best way to grade students,’” explains Major.

When Khoi Dinh To, a native of Vietnam, decided to study in the U.S. he had no contacts here, so he looked at the U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings and applied to several universities. UGA was the first to offer him a place in its doctoral program and he took it. He believed that, “not only would a degree from the IHE afford me great job opportunities, but I could work with Drs. Sheila Slaughter and Jim Hearn on NSF projects, and the weather was similar to that of Saigon!”

According to the College Board, four out of ten graduating high school students start their college careers at community colleges. With the benefits of lower tuition and more hands-on attention from faculty, community college can be an attractive beginning to a college career.

There are over 1,600 community colleges in the United States, serving 11 million students. One of those “first-responder” institutions is Western Nebraska Community College, in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Its newly appointed president is Institute of Higher Education alumnus Todd Holcomb.