Thursday, February 22, 2024 | Making the Grade Brattleboro Reformer | Bennington Banner | Manchester Journal 2
‘Small by design’: CCV offers flexible pathways to learning BY BOB AUDETTE Vermont News & Media BRATTLEBORO — Joyce Judy has been the president of the Community College of Vermont since 2009 and a special focus of her work has been expanding access to higher education for all Vermonters, from high school students taking college courses to adult students seeking new career opportunities. “I’ve been with CCV since 1983,” said Judy, during an interview with the Reformer in Brattleboro on June 9. “I started as an academic coordinator in Springfield in 1983.” Judy who grew up on the family farm, McNamara Dairy Farm, in Plainfield, N.H., now lives in Waterbury. Before assuming the role as CCV president in 2009, she served as its dean of students and became CCV’s first provost in 2001. “Being a coordinator for from 1983 to 1994 in Springfield was such an important foundation for me to do with the work that I do today,” said Judy. “You get to see all the good things that happen in our classes,
the relationships that are developed between students and faculty, and the relationships between students and advisors that support their academic work.” Even though CCV serves thousands of Vermonters each year, she said, what’s unique is CCV treats each student as an individual, tailoring their education for their specific needs “Our classes are small by design,” she said. “We try to have no more than 20 students in a class so they can be active and participate.” One of the things that is universal to many of CCV’s students is their ability to pay for classes may be limited by their own financial situations. And like many educational institutions, CCV had to adjust its operations over the years, both to serve its changing demographic and to account for the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re a college designed to serve the adult student,” she said. “And in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, we served almost primarily women. But over time, our students started being very successful as they transferred and had aspirations far beyond us
and it forced us to up our game.” Over the years, CCV began to educate more men and more younger students, many of whom had their credits applied to undergraduate degrees. “We have 12 locations throughout the state of Vermont that are within 25 miles of 95 percent of the state’s population,” she said. But CCV got its online game started in 1998, long before COVID. “When we started offering our online courses, it was really, by today’s standards, so crude,” she said. But CCV, which was offering 40 percent of its courses online before the start of the pandemic, was well-positioned to transition to all online. “We were able to do it in a week,” said Judy. “But it was still a challenge.” Since then, CCV has developed a number of different remote learning modes, including its synchronous online offerings, which combine online lessons with group Zoom classes. “People like that because it removes geography,” she said. “Transportation is not an issue. Childcare
isn’t an issue, but you get a chance to be interact with other students and professors.” CCV also offers accelerated courses geared towards adults with five different start dates. Because participants must complete by the end of the semester, the coursework gets heavier the later someone joins a class. “We have really tried to be very responsive to how students are learning,” she said. But coming out of COVID, CCV is still offering in-person classes around the state, including in Brattleboro, medical assisting, digital photography, early childhood education, English composition and applied math concepts. CCV also offers hybrid courses, combining online instruction with limited in-person meetings, and FLEX, which are online courses with flexible assignment submission. One of the most exciting things CCV has recently introduced, said Judy, is the McClure Early Promise Program, for Vermont’s high school classes of 2023-2026.
