Pathways Plan
The Pathways Plan proactively guides and supports student choice with an eye for intentional completion by reorganizing and re-presenting our degree programs. Using student experience as a framework to guide our efforts helps us to stay focused on improving their success.
In short, Pathways is a student-centered approach to college redesign.
We began moving toward a holistic Pathways model in 2016. We will continue to adapt, evolve and improve our engagement with Pathways over time, with incremental achievements accruing each academic year and full implementation achieved by 2023.
Why Pathways?
- Pathways supports our mission for Inclusivity and Equity by ensuring that all students, no matter their income or social capital, receive proactive guidance to achieve their goals at equitable rates.
- Pathways helps us articulate a better value proposition to students and parents by linking programs to careers with living wages. Higher education is not a straightforward meritocracy, and income impacts graduation rates. Lower-income students may need a clearer picture of their future ROI.
- Guided choice and engagement by design eliminate irrational course selection, which saves time and money for students.
- 68% of SLCC graduates transfer to four-year schools. Pathways benefits SLCC transfer students by aligning them with communities and instilling in them a strong sense of purpose and self.
- Many SLCC students are nontraditional or part-time: 53% are the first in their family to attend college, 81% work while in school. Pathways' proactive advising model reinforces the benefits of persisting in a program, thus motivating all types of students.
Benefits to SLCC Students
- Area-specific advisors develop personal relationships with students through built-in meetings during crucial times in program pathways.
- An enhanced, community-focused first-year experience motivates and retains students.
- Engaging students early sets the tone for continued engagement.
- Students save time and money, thus reaching their goals more quickly and efficiently.
- High-impact learning environments empower students to take ownership of their decisions about higher education and avoid misguided course sequencing.
- Pathways foregrounds critical career exploration by helping students discover their interests, match them to careers and identify potential programs.
- Students who want to explore their options can do so in a guided way while completing general education requirements that keep them moving towards a credential.
- Students will enter the workplace or their junior year of college with clarity about their interests and abilities.
Our Pathways Story
Our student body is the most diverse of any higher-education institution in the state. The Pathways Plan honors SLCC’s unique population by enhancing learning and increasing completion for all.
SLCC Pathways is a multiyear initiative college redesign effort to enhance learning and increase student completion. Full implementation of SLCC Pathways will be achieved through incremental achievements every academic year from 2019 through 2023. Like piecing together a model, every fall we will implement new elements of the total SLCC Pathways initiative until it is fully implemented.