School Ties

Matrix: The Magazine for Leaders in Education, June, 2000

Higher-Education Institutions Working Together & with K-12

Community College, University Offer Bachelor's Degree Program

COLUMBUS, Ohio--For the first time in its nearly three-decade history, students at Washington State Community College in Marietta will be able to receive a bachelor's degree on site. Through an educational partnership with Franklin University in Columbus, a bachelor of science completion degree program began in January. Business administration is the first major being offered through this pilot program, and more degree programs are expected.

Students who have received their associate's degree will complete prerequisite, preparatory course work, called bridge courses, from WSCC, and will then complete the final 40 semester hours of their bachelor's degree on the WSCC campus.

These final 40 hours will be Franklin University courses, and the bachelor's degree bestowed will be from Franklin.

A six-week course format will allow students to complete their bachelor's degree in 16 months.

The on-campus program joins another program already in effect, through which students take most of their courses at Washington State, then complete the final courses for their bachelor's degree, taught by Franklin faculty, via the Internet.

Majors offered by Franklin University include business administration, technical administration, health services administration, computer science, and management information systems.

Franklin University is partnering with other two-year community and technical colleges to bring bachelor's degree programs to nontraditional students via the Internet in communities in the U.S. and Canada.

Barat, Lake Forest Sign Admissions Agreement

LAKE FOREST, Ill.,--Barat College and The Lake Forest Graduate School of Management signed a dual-admissions agreement, that allows Barat College students planning to complete baccalaureate degrees in management leadership to enroll in the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in pursuit of an MBA.

Under the agreement, Barat College students who graduate with at least a 3.0 GPA in the management leadership major and who meet the admissions requirements of the LFGSM will automatically be admitted to the graduate MBA program.

The GMAT requirement will be waived. Students must be fully employed as business professionals, with a minimum of four years of appropriate experience, when they begin the executive MBA program. Enrollment must take place within 12 months of graduation from Barat.

Union County College Reaches Out to High-School Students

CRANFORD, N.J.,--The Board of Trustees of Union County College approved an agreement between the two-year community college and St. Leo University, St. Leo. Fla., which will allow students to enter the four-year college as juniors after their graduation from UCC.

The agreement is designed primarily to serve UCC students who have earned an Associate in Art or Associate in Science degree and who wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in accounting, business, or computer information systems. UCC graduates who are unable to relocate to St. Leo's can pursue a baccalaureate through the university's Internet-based external degree programs.

In other news, high school students from Union County competed in the Tech Prep/School-to-Career Expo 2000 this spring, an event hosted by UCC Cranford.

Expo 2000 was developed to challenge students to use their occupational learning and skills. Students created and designed projects for different areas of the competition in order to gain exposure to skills and resources sought by employers in the areas of communication, entrepreneurship, design and creativity, architecture, and in finance careers.

UCC also held the "Great Bridge Building Competition" for high school students. Under the direction of UCC professor Louis Campo, 15 teams combined engineering skills and architectural designs to construct the best bridge.

Experience Science at SJU

BROOKLYN, N.Y.,--Why are so many high school students spending their free time on Saturdays in the science laboratories at St. Joseph's College?

Since "Experience in Scientific Research" was first offered more than 10 years ago, at least 1,000 students, from freshmen to seniors, have come to the college for four Saturdays in the fall or spring to experience a variety of scientific experiments in biology, chemistry, physics, and astronomy.

This year's program focused on future careers in science, exploring chemistry and consumer products, physics' relationship to sports and electronics, astronomy's use in space exploration, biology and molecular biology, and the role of earth science in solving crimes using forensic science.

Six members of the science faculty at St. Joseph's College design and facilitate creative experiments and conduct them with the assistance of college science majors. Many of the science majors have been able to use the experience as a reference for applications to summer research programs at universities such as Cornell, Stony Brook, and the University of Georgia. Some students also have been accepted into lab positions at Pfizer, Inc., because they have gained experience with a variety of lab techniques.