January 14, 2015 | SharkAdmin Welcome back or for our new faculty members, welcome to Northwest Vista College for a new year 2015 and another spring term. Spring….brings with it the thought of rebirth, of renewal, of all of those students, new and returning, who want and need our care and compassion necessary for them to be successful. Being a college of 16,000 students, sometimes it’s difficult to see the individuals in the crowds moving to and from their classes. It becomes our task, the task of each of us, to educate our 16,000 students …one student at a time. While as the college president, I get the opportunity to welcome you, this evening I am also here as a new NVC adjunct faculty member….excited to be back in the classroom. So why do we do what we do, why is it worth the commitment to our academic disciplines and our diverse population of students? Faculty members who join our ranks and remain at Northwest Vista College do so because they cherish the special opportunities this special place affords for intellectual, artistic, and social engagement beyond the routine encounters of academic-disciplinary life. It is a place where academic programming aspires to get away from the confines of our compartmentalized academic fields of study, where disciplines lose and reconfigure themselves, where science and art commingle, where individuals take the chance of thinking out loud with others who may not share anything with them—at least not to begin with—beyond an appetite for discussion and academic debate, where diversity of thought is embraced. Because of this freedom, and the quality of the talent that it attracts, Northwest Vista College has the continuous potential to be a seed-bed for intellectual innovation and a laboratory for social and cultural change. NVC has a rich history and an instance of an amenity that only a community college of distinction can afford, a place where the college strives to exceed itself. Those who become faculty members of Northwest Vista College dedicate themselves to ensuring that this precious amenity is appreciated and enjoyed. The role of faculty members of Northwest Vista College is crucial to the well-being of the college as a whole and your presence and active engagement inside and outside our classrooms are highly prized by the students and others who are positively impacted by each one of you. The main inducement that the college offers its faculty members for their involvement in the college (beyond the monthly paycheck) is the stimulation provided by the collegial company and intellectual conversations only available in this kind of environment and the knowledge that our efforts are changing the lives of those we touch at NVC. Here's a short Power Point depicting some of those lives [file 1]
