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Do you remember “CPR Annie?”  Unfortunately, I didn’t have any real-life experience with CPR Annie, but I clearly remember my older sisters coming home from school and talking about how they had to yell, “Breathe, Annie, breathe!” during their CPR training in health class.   

These days, people are talking about “SimBaby.”  SimBaby provides realistic situations for nursing students.

 “The infant is lying on a hospital bed; breathing is shallow and its tiny heart is racing. The nurse steps in to assess the situation and take the appropriate action. A possible real-life scenario, for sure. But in this instance, the “baby” is an electronic mannequin and the “nurse” is a nursing student at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College. The instructor is standing by a monitor to see if the nurse decides on the right intervention.” 

Sim Baby is an electronic baby mannequin that simulates real-life medical situations for nursing students.  It’s an invaluable training tool for today’s nursing programs, which already have adult patient simulators. Dabney S. Lancaster Community College was, in fact, the first program in Virginia to have the adult version of Sim Baby. Read more about SimBaby in the September issue of @ WDS, the monthly, VCCS Workforce Development e-newsletter.    

Colleges are failing to increase the civic literacy of their students according to this article in USA Today.  A study tested more than 14,000 freshman and senior students at 50 colleges and universities across the nation.  Half of the schools were selective and the other half were randomly choosen.

In general, the better a college’s U.S. News & World Report ranking, the less its civic literacy gain. Yale, with the highest-scoring freshmen (68.94%), along with Princeton, Duke and Cornell, were among eight schools with freshmen outscoring seniors.

The bottom line is that study indicates that students are entering college with little idea about America’s history, the rights we enjoy as Americans or how those rights were established.  Further, it shows that the students learned little or nothing about those subjects while attending their college or university.  And it seems to have made no difference what caliber of school the students attended.

“Several of the colleges at the lower end of our survey are some of the most prestigious in the country, with average tuition, room and board somewhere north of $40,000 a year.  These are the schools, although their stated mission is to help prepare active citizens, that are the most derelict in their responsibility.”

One of the experts quoted in the story says the problem isn’t the quality of the education, but rather it’s focus.

Today’s students have fewer civics requirements as the value of higher education is more often defined in economic terms.  “Less is being expected of secondary and post-secondary education in the way of civic education, and because less is expected, less is achieved,” says William Galston, Brookings Institution senior fellow of governance studies.

So the question remains:  In a nation where fewer and fewer people are even voting, is higher education doing enough to see that we have an informed citizenry - and should they be doing more?

Posted by Jeff Kraus

“Nothing in life is good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

William Shakespeare had that one right.  I think about that quote a lot - especially when people recoil from something new.  Remember when Elvis and the Beatles, and their Rock ‘n Roll music, would be the end of us all?  How many parents now wish it were that music and not today’s hard rock and rap pouring from the ear buds of their kid’s Ipod?

But there’s a new wrinkle in the debate about something new that our children have and we didn’t at their age:  text messaging.

As you can read in this story, college students in Virginia are reacting slowly and reluctantly to signinig up for safety-oriented text messages being offered at their college or university.

Why? Do students feel invincible?

“I think there’s part of an element of that going on,” VCU’s Ohlinger said.

Matthew Stuckey, a VCU senior from Richmond, said he had a different reason for not signing up for the alerts.

“I just haven’t gotten around to it,” he said yesterday as he studied in a courtyard between classes. “I probably will do it — eventually.”

It’s enough to make you wonder if complacency has already replaced the sick feeling in the bottom of students’ stomachs everywhere after the Virginia Tech shooting last April.

It’s not like text messaging is out of style.  As this article shows, teeneagers are texting at the most inappropriate times:

Fairground Road is kind of scary in general, especially since some people — many of whom drive very large vehicles — seem to think it’s Goochland’s own Autobahn. Not smart considering the number of blind curves, side roads and the constant threat of deer determined to increase your auto insurance. But last week I saw something truly terrifying: A teenager text messaging while driving Fairground Road. I figured that the odds of the kid wrecking before he got to Route 522 were about five to one.

So, just to recap here:  When it comes to signing up for free text messages, which carry potentially life-saving information, the students “will do it — eventually.”  But these young people have no problems texting while operating a motor vehicle on a dangerous road.  Hmmm…okay?

Posted by Jeff Kraus

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is one of the greatest movies of my childhood.  I remember sharing Charlie’s disappointment when he thought the final golden ticket had been discovered.  And with him, I was enchanted by the possibilities that sprang from the visit to the secretive chocolate factory and the antics of the Willy Wonka portrayed by Gene Wilder.

There is something inspiring about the possibilities behind a bigger-than-life opportunity.  I know I’m not alone in that.  We see it play out every time a jackpot gets big and people are willing to chance $1, and we see it in the dreams expressed by those whose numbers were the lucky ones.

And we saw it again just recently as the first recipients of the Wythe-Bland Foundation Scholarship reported for class at Wytheville Community College.  You can read more about it at this story from the SWVAToday.com website:  As the article explains, the scholarship is an open opportunity to any high school graduate in the two counties:

The scholarship program requires eligible students to provide proof of residency in Wythe or Bland for at least two years before graduation; to have attended a public or private high school in Wythe or Bland for at least the junior and senior years (provisions are made for home-schooled students and those who obtain their GEDs); and to apply for any other available federal and state financial aid, scholarships and grants. It also requires students to achieve a 2.0 grade point average by the end of the first year and complete 67 percent of all classes to continue receiving the grant for a second year and complete 40 hours of community volunteer service with an approved agency by the end of the first year.

This an incredible opportunity for each of those students.  It means they can earn a certificate or associates’ degree without having to pay tuition.  And with the guaranteed transfer agreements Virginia’s Community Colleges have with 20 public and private four-year colleges and universities, the students can easily be on their way to a bachelor’s degree at the school of their choice.

So…that’s what it feels like to hold a golden ticket.  

There are only one or two other communities in the nation that has attempted something of this size and scale.  It’s a bold initiative that will certainly make Wythe and Bland counties destinations of choice, in a marketplace where knowledge and talent is the sought-after resource, and ones to keep a close eye on in the near future.

Posted by Jeff Kraus

There’s not enough Gen Xers out there.  You could call that an oversight for the Boomers - an oversight that will apparently cost many of them a cozy, lazy retirement.

That’s the crux of an article written by Christina Couch for Classes USA.com and picked up by a number of TV stations across Virginia and across the country.  (You can read a version of the article on Richmond’s WRIC site:)  More and more Boomers are finding that their 50s and 60s aren’t the begining of retirment, but rather a second career.

And that’s a good thing.  Our nation has a number of professions, like teaching and nursing, that need trained, mature and experienced people and they can’t find enough of them.

Virginia’s Community Colleges are working to be part of the solution by creating programs that can fill those professional needs by designing programs that meet the personal needs of people seeking a second career.  The VCCS Career Switcher program, which helps people become a teacher through an accelerated 16-week program is an example of that.  In fact, the program was just named the recipient of a competitive national Encore Career Grants.

The bottom line is that there is too much need in our workforce to let these folks slip quietly out to pasture.  And frankly, they hold too much experience and talent to just let it go to waste.  By making it easier for them to transfer to a new career, it’s a win-win for everyone.

Posted by Jeff Kraus

Thanks for clicking over to VaHigherEd.com - a blog dedicated to updating you on the latest news and information about Virginia higher education generally and Virginia’s Community Colleges specifically.  We have a stable of great contributors who will offer legislative updates, workforce updates, and general comments about community colleges and all of the commonwealth’s higher education.  We look forward to hearing from you and hope you will be a big part of the conversation!

Posted by Susan Hayden