Track 1 – PRESIDENT’S GREETING

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TRACK 2 – COMEBACK FROM COVID

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TRACK 3 – RESHAPING FUTURE OF HIGHER ED

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TRACK 4 – BACKED BY GREAT EMPLOYER PARTNERSHIPS

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TRACK 5 – BUILDING BACK STRONGER

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TRACK 6 -  DEMOCRACY/CITIZENSHIP

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TRACK 7 -  STUDENTS

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Speaker: President Cioce

Welcome to the 2022 President's annual report to the college community the next evolution in annual reports. My name is Michael Cioce and I have the privilege to serve as the president of Rowan College and Burlington County. In recent years, we have presented this report as a newspaper, calendar, and even tarot cards. This is the first all audio version. So pop in some of your buds and listen to the highlights from the 2022 academic year. This year was a bounce back here for many. We emerged from lockdown and use the theme of back to your future as a way to celebrate an empowering moment of returning to on campus activities and taking back control of your destiny. In some ways bounce back maybe a misnomer. We're not just back we're better than before. We learned a lot during the pandemic and incorporated it into what we already do. Well, for those keeping score, we do it pretty well earning a 99.13 out of 100 point by intelligent dot coms ranking system, which was top in the state of New Jersey. Pretty intelligent indeed.

Speaker: Jason Varga

Come back from COVID. The college resumed in person services in summer 2021. With all staff back on campus by September one difference greeting students was little stickers with numbers that helps identify and limit the number of students exposed to COVID. The novel idea gained statewide press. The college also supported the community by hosting testing on campus as well as motor vehicle tests to help ease the backlog created by COVID. The college welcomes students back to their future with an actual DeLorean on campus. Got a screening of the Back to the Future trilogy and themed T shirts designed by a student Jaida Owens, a graphics design student who interned in the college's marketing office. Many other on campus events returned such as the college fashion shows that showcase students designs and Give Kids a Smile that offers free dental care to children in need. While remaining largely online. The RCBC Foundation continued to raise money to support students by setting a record on Giving Tuesday and meeting its goals for Project Baron that supports students in a number of ways such as mental health, college readiness and diversity initiatives

Speaker: Jason Varga

Reshaping future of higher ed, we know that a community college education is a very smart way to invest in yourself, which is why we found it exceptionally gratifying that intelligent.com ranked rcbc as the top Community College in New Jersey based on our programs, student readiness return on investment cost and student engagement we scored 99.13 out of 100. While proud to be the only college in Burlington County our support of students extends throughout the state presidency. Cioce was a vocal leader of the state's efforts to modernize the school funding formula to make it more equitable for all students, especially for low income minority and adult learners. This reform led to a $10 million increase in operating aid to county colleges including a 28% increase for RCBC. The college also implemented many internal reforms that improved both student success and operational efficiencies improving the class schedule ensured students could take classes when they needed them while maximizing resources a $95 summer discounted tuition rate incentivize the Summer Enrollment, a typically underutilized term for which students cannot receive state aid. New culinary director J. Desmond Keefe made strides in integrating the Mount Holly program into the Mount Laurel campus offering a number of tasty events such as Thanksgiving lunch for students Super Bowl party and spring barbecue. The college also changed the way students can earn credits launching High School Quickstep its first dual enrollment program for career certifications in high demand industries and prior learning assessment to provide a way for students to earn credit for their work experience. RCBC became the first community college in New Jersey to earn recognition as a National Center of Academic Excellence in cyber defense. The college also enhanced communications with the launch of the rcbc Podcast Network featuring the program pod an intimate conversation among faculty, students and employers and the Baroness podcast dedicated to discussing empowering and inspirational women in Burlington County. Lastly, as this annual report breaks a barrier as an audio issue last year, it was remarkable in that it told the college's story in the form of 31 handcrafted tarot cards.

Speaker: Jason Varga

Backed by great employer partnerships, the college got a much needed caffeine boost in the spring when it became the first community college in the country to open Saxbys Cafe on campus. The cafe is managed and staffed entirely by students providing them the opportunity to learn money, academic credit and real world entrepreneurial experience for their resume. The first student CEO was Owen Taylor, a business student in the college's three plus one program. 

Speaker: Owen Taylor
Thank you all for coming to the grand opening of RCBC Saxbys cafe. I am so immensely excited and grateful to have the opportunity that RCBC and Saxbys have provided. I can't think of another program that gives students like me the chance to have hands on experience in quite literally running a business.

Speaker: Jason Varga
Another great employer partnership is Lockheed Martin, which created a special portal designed to hire more rcbc engineering and cybersecurity students. Here's a clip from the first ever program pod episode about one of our RCBC students talking about that partnership with us today. We have Justin Schoopachevich, a recent graduate who overcame addiction and is working full time at Lockheed Martin.

Speaker: Justin Schoopachevich

I really wanted to work at Lockheed Martin in the beginning, like I was the reason I went to college and I'm like, I would love to work for them. So he gave me that opportunity. He's like, hey, there's an opening for Lockheed Martin. It's an internship. So I jumped on it. And I became an intern. It was awesome. I had a great time. I started June 28. And on September 7, I became full time. So I'm working there now and I'm loving life.

Speaker: Jason Varga
The company has also donated equipment to the college so that students can learn on equipment used by the global security and aerospace community. Other employer highlights include the college being named one of the only 500 training providers selected nationally by Amazon for its Career Choice Program. The college received the voice of Business Award from the Burlington County Regional Chamber of Commerce where members and the organizations receive a 10% tuition discount to the college. One of the many great things about community college is that nothing is linear. The college has enjoyed a partnership with the Borah, heart and lung for many years that has largely centered on providing opportunities for nurses and other health science students to gain real world clinical experiences. In recent years. That partnership has expanded to include areas such as technology and culinary culinary student Brianna Rivera intern at the hospital learning about food preparation for a large organization and filling specific nutritional needs for patients. She made such an impression that she earned full time employment

Speaker: Jason Varga

Building back stronger, the college continued to leverage opportunities to reinvent itself and improve services to students. The college earned a $1 million. And by the way, no other community college received more state opportunity meets innovation grant to improve three strategic areas that include the following on ramps to college through increased opportunities for students to earn college credit based on prior work experience or while simultaneously enrolled in high school fostering safe and inclusive learning environments through enhanced classroom experience and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives cultivating research innovation and talent through expanded opportunities for students to conduct undergraduate research or learn through real life hands on experiences. The college opened the Center of Excellence for veterans students success with the goal of improving retention and graduation rates among veteran students. The initiative was funded by a $375,000 federal grant and will provide a dedicated space exclusively for veterans as well as expanded advising and academic success services for veterans. RCBC was one of nine colleges in the country selected to participate in the American Council on Education second learner success lab cohort. The learner success lab is an 18 month inclusive learning community that integrates evidence based practices for retention and completion, career exploration and workforce development.

Speaker: Jason Varga

Democracy, citizenship. education and citizenry go hand in hand and the college was proud to support a number of impressive initiatives aimed at promoting democracy. rcbc was the first college in New Jersey selected to host the Smithsonian's traveling exhibition voices and votes Democracy in America. This month long exhibit included historical and contemporary photos, video and historical objects related to voting and democracy. Some faculty incorporated the exhibits into coursework to help reinforce the themes of developing an informed citizenry. The college not only educated people about democracy, but served as a participatory role by serving as a host site for the state's first early voting sessions. Citizenship is just not a domestic endeavor. Dr. Brandon Chapman, social and behavioral science chair facilitated a number of lectures and films as part of a federal grant with Rowan University aim to establish a global security and internal studies program focused on health environment and emergency response. We had him on the town hall.

Speaker: Dr. Brandon Chapman
I was approached by Rowan University and our Dean of Liberal Arts, Donna Vandegrift, Rowan University was looking to expand their international studies offerings into more global security issues during your certificate and a more specific certifications and programs regarding that and was also looking to develop more specific foreign language capability in both RCBC and ru students, specifically in Arabic and Chinese. And so you know, with my broad background in in grant writing, and my social science net logical background, too, I became a good fit for this. And so, you know, became a co author on it. And we'll talk more about specifics of course, as we go along, but that's generally where I'm coming from and how I got initially involved with us.

Speaker: Jason Varga
The grant also helped establish new Arabic and Chinese courses at the college which are two of the highest demand languages in the global economy.

Speaker: Jason Varga

Students. The academic year reached its crescendo with three perfect graduation ceremonies featuring three outstanding scholars who each overcame their own obstacles to take back their future. Collectively, they epitomize the perseverance resourcefulness and intellect of RCBC students, Christina Scillieri, overcame the tragedy of losing her beloved mother coupled with the world dealing with COVID to the triumph of becoming RCBC class of 2022 valedictorian,

Speaker: Christina Scillieri
And while trying to manage the grief and acceptance of the events that had occurred over my entire life, really, just two months later, COVID went on to shut the world down. What was I gonna do now? Now, I certainly don't have to tell a single one of you about experiences had through this pandemic. But I am just so unbelievably grateful that rcbc made a way to make themselves accessible to us during such a chaotic and challenging time. It was this college and so many of the programs and organizations associated with our campus community that would all go on to provide me access to real opportunities, and far beyond just academics. I knew that if I had any chance for this educational journey of mine to be successful, I was gonna really have to dig in and give it everything I had and more.

Speaker: Jason Varga
Gia Carosiello remarkably transformed that dark past battling drug and alcohol addiction into a bright future of helping others. In this heartening journey of becoming an rcbc President's Award winner,

Speaker: Gia Carosiello
I started to realize I needed a change in my life. But I was still not fully on board until my nephew Dominic was born. I thought I was being sly and secretly still getting high, but it was not a secret. And I was eventually told, if I did not get help, I would no longer be allowed in my nephew's life. That is when I fought and fought the hardest that I ever fought in my life. It was extremely difficult and daunting, but it made me realize that I can do whatever I put my mind to. I celebrated five years sober in March, and my nephew turned five in September, I guess what I'm trying to say is that no matter what hardships life throws at you, you will always be able to conquer them by fighting for yourself, because you are worth fighting for.

Speaker: Jason Varga
Aaron Caldwell had a powerful message to never limit yourself or let others limit you as he shared his spiritual journey with autism that took him from potential dropout to motivational knockout.

Speaker: Aaron Caldwell
All of you also have mountains in your life, these barriers, these absolute knows, you've got things to overcome. You've got your struggle, and you have people telling you, you can't. But don't listen to that. Because you can. All of you sitting here right now is a testament to this fact. You're here because you want it to be you worked hard for it. And now you've earned your spot sitting here today. What else can you accomplish when you put your mind to it? You see, I want you to understand something. Don't let a label define who you are, or set a limit on what you can do. You're much more than a label. So don't say I can't because it's something you have or because somebody told you you can't. You can climb those mountains.

Speaker: Jason Varga
We hope you enjoyed listening to the 2022 President's annual report, first ever all audio version, and in the words of President Michael COC. We're done