This episode explores the LCC College Connect Program, as host Patty Spagnuolo sits down with Toni Glasscoe and Alhassane Sako to discuss how it supports students transitioning into higher education. Designed for GED holders and recent high school graduates, the four-week program offers practical skill building in reading, writing, and math, along with personalized guidance.

Mentioned This Episode

Website: College Connect Program

Welcome to the StarZone, I'm Patty Spagnuolo. From resource fairs geared towards our students, to arts and entertainment aimed to connect with our community, Lansing Community College hosts many events throughout the year, and the StarZone gives you a rundown on what's on the way, where it's happening, and how you can get into the zone at LCC.

Hello. This is Patty Spagnuolo, your host on the Star Zone today.

My guests are Toni Glasscoe, associate Associate Vice President of External affairs, and Alhassane Sako, coordinator for the Coalition for College and Career Readiness. Toni and Alhassane, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Patty. I love that intro. The music is awesome.

It's very upbeat. Ready to go. Hey. First, I want to thank you both for all the efforts that you do for students. And Toni, you in particular.

I've seen you give tours of like 20 students, and then I've seen you give tours of with two students. And the thing that I admire the most is you have the same energy and care whether it's 2 or 20 or 200. So I really appreciate that.

And you, it has always been clear that students are first and foremost to you.

Thank you, Patty. It's been a great journey working with you all these years.

Well, you've been a great mentor, so, you know, I've gotten a lot of knowledge from you, so. Okay. So having said all of that, we're gonna dive into College Connect.

It's running from July 7th through the 31st, so maybe you could talk a little bit about what it is and what does it do for students.

Thanks, Patty. I'll start out. Alhassane is my partner in necessary and good trouble, not crime. This is our fourth year and pedi.

It's an opportunity for students who are GED holders, recent graduates, MI reconnect eligible students.

So could a person be an LCC student and attend be in this?

Patti, that's an excellent question. And Alyssa and I were chatting with Trio yesterday. We are hoping to partner with Trio. Yay.

We have our Trio grant and they actually could because if A student has not taken English121, math120 and they have a bit of a gap and they can't take the English or the math without the, I like to call it the helper course, the co requisite. They just need a little bit more gap filling and they could be eligible for our four week free. Alhassane.

Yes. Four week.

Is it free?

It is free.

Opportunity to get supports to include transportation, bus passes, tokens. We will feed our students every single day. They'll have breakfast at 8:30, we finish at noon. And we'll also provide other supports as needed or.

Or at least connect them with our fabulous academic success coaches.

Awesome. Well, one of the questions that I thought of when I was reading through the pamphlet is is there any component for career exploration?

I know that you only have a limited amount of time with these students, so.

Alessandra, you want to take that one or should I talk about Rebecca soa?

Oh, you can go ahead. Yeah.

We actually have career and Employment services who will come in and do a presentation on one of our pre class days. It's a full four weeks, but that first week and Tuesdays through Friday. Oh, Mondays sometimes are a little bit of a challenge.

Okay.

Fridays we connect with our students, make sure that they're ready to do whatever they need to do on the weekend and they have that Monday to take care of their business. And. And then we start up on Tuesday.

The first two or three days we have all of those folks come in that are supports, including career and employment services, our instructors, and I'm going to give a shout out to Colleen Thomas who will be teaching Math, and Joanne McFadden who will be teaching the English language arts piece. They also incorporate things that deal with employment. That piece is just as important and that's why we call it college and career readiness.

Perfect.

The reason that's so near and dear to me is that at the transfer center we get so many students that they might be 30 or 40 credits in and they still haven't decided.

And that can be problematic because they could be taking things that then once they do decide, those classes aren't going to apply to if they want to transfer somewhere or that type of thing. So you know, the sooner we can get them thinking about what career, what job they actually want to do, the better off we are.

So I heard you say 8:30 to noon. There will not be two sessions, just the one.

You remember, don't you?

Yeah, I do.

Yep. Dawn Hartin, another shout out, was the coordinator under our two sessions we had 1.0, 2.0 and it was under a grant called Catch Up Grant.

We're no longer functioning under the grant. The college has institutionalized College Connect under our coalition for college and Career Readiness. And we are running one section.

We started that with 3.0.

And this year, because it's Alhassane's first time and we need to make decisions early on, we decided that let's run one shift, as dawn used to call it, instead of the morning and evening 8:30 to noon. Our goal is 40 students and this will give Alhassane an opportunity to ease his way into being the coordinator all by himself for 5.0.

Because we're hoping to continue this. Patti, it is really important that we hit that. 40, 40 Students is what we're looking for.

Okay, so you kind of talked about all of the resources and things. What can students expect? Like when they walk in, is there going to be some sort of getting to know their classmates?

Are some people coming there with a posse? In other words, people that they already, you know, know like five or six of them that can sit together. How does that look for those students?

Patty, you had indicated that we might talk about a story without using names.

Yes, sure, of course.

And I can tell you that the six students that we had last year and we're shooting for 40, at least three of them knew each other and that was interesting. We do icebreakers. You know, I've got a K12 background, so every morning, whether they want to or not, we do get to know each other.

You activities because it's important that they engage with each other. We have a short time before classes actually start after they're done with their breakfast for us to do what I like to call check ins.

We'll also do Icebreakers during our math time and our English time. Joanne McFadden and Colleen both, they love to engage with students and a lot of times students don't feel comfortable.

We may have 50 year old students along with 17 and 18 year old students. The synergy was amazing the first two years when we had multi generational students in the same classroom.

I can tell you that there are at least two students from last year sharing a story that have been involved with our neurodivergent friendly campus initiative, participated in surveys and focus groups. One actually spoke and you probably remember at one of our summits as an example of a student who went through Reconnect.

Yes, I do remember that.

They are being very successful.

Awesome. So the rest of the focus, after you get through that first week with the resources, sounds like we are concentrating on reading, writing and math.

What of those three, what's the toughest thing to tackle? What causes the most anxiety?

Math.

Okay, that's what I was thinking. And we see that at the transfer center. The minute the student finds out they have to take math120. So how do you.

I'm assuming there are things in place to sort of alleviate some of that stress.

Absolutely.

And Colleen is amazing because Colleen is integrating things that help address anxiety and she's also delivering math concepts in the context of real world, whether it's banking or purchasing insurance, things that students are interested in and they have to do. That really relieves a lot of anxiety. A lot of one on one where she's spending time with the students privately or within the same room.

We take away the shame, we take away any negative recordings because we hear it all the time. I'm not good at math. My response is always, but you will be. I don't want to try and take away the reality.

But words are powerful and if we continue to allow people without affirming them, encouraging them, then they will believe what they say. I'm not good at math. There is so much we can do to build them up. And Colleen is really good at that. I like that.

I had talked to an elementary teacher a couple of years ago and she said it's not a matter of whether or not you're good or bad at math. It's how you understand it, how it's being taught to you.

Bingo.

Because not everybody learns the same way. Right? So yeah, it's just finding that thing, you know, that keys for some people.

So in talking about math and of course reading and writing, will there be placement tests also taken during this time?

Penny, have you been in our classrooms? That first week will also include assessments.

We use the accuplacer or GPA if they're recent graduates or if they can find their transcripts and meet the multiple measure for high school transcripts or ACT. Sat. That's our pre test. One of those multiple measures serve as our pretest, but they're being assessed through things like Alex for math.

So almost on a day, daily basis, Colleen can see and the student can see the progress they're making and that helps her know what to teach. Joanne will also do assessments so that she is aware of terminology that they already know.

Do they know how to set up a research paper, cite sources and so that first full week will be focused on college going skills, success skills, learning about LCC and the resources. But Also determining what do I need to teach as the instructor and what do my students already know?

So would that mean that after the student. So, okay, they take that preliminary test, if you will, or kind of that baseline, do they get a chance to take it again at the end?

Patti, you know how we run. Yep. The accumulaser will be the post test as well.

Okay.

And in the work that we do, we appreciate the grant. The grant dollars allowed us to get started. We don't have the same parameters.

And so if a student makes progress using accuplacer as the post test, we celebrate that as well. If the student is able to take English and math with a co requisite, that's our goal. And if a student can take English 121 and Math 120 outright.

Oh my. That's the touchdown. And so it's not restricted to whether a student can take English and math with the co rec.

If they've made progress, then we then look at options for students who may not be ready to take English and math with the co recs. I think it's a win win for all of our students. Absolutely.

So can they in effect then register for classes right after this program?

Yes. And fortunately, and you know this, Patty, it doesn't always coincide when registration is open. I know, but we try to get them through advising.

They have a map. And then our job afterwards is to follow up. Have you now that registration is open, registered for classes? And here's the beauty.

Before they finish up, they will have an academic success coach. And so where we finish our job of the in person, we're seeing you four days a week for four weeks. Work.

The academic success coaches will then shepherd and help and support and remind.

Oh, great. So are they part of the program during the day so to kind of get to know the students or one.

Presentation so they're not part of the programming. However, we encourage the students to stop in.

They can start connecting with the academic success coaches because the managers, you know, we have great managers. They will start to assign as soon as we provide them with a list of the students who have participated.

Great. Alhassane, is there anything you want to add, kind of summarize or wrap this up? Yes. College Connect is more than just a program.

It is a head start on your college journey. In just four weeks, you will build skill you need and learn how college work. College Connect is a support system.

And start your semester feeling confident and prepared. Great. Toni, any last parting words?

I don't. This is my last college Connect. And so I am going to go out with a bang.

And I'm looking forward to where Alyssa and Sally Welch take it in the future years. It's a wonderful opportunity. Wow.

Okay. And that makes me a little bit sad when you said that. So be a little weepy here. So. Well, I want to thank my guests Toni Glasscoe and Alhassane Sako.

And and to learn more and to register for College connect, please visit LCC.edu CC. Until next time, this is Patty Spagnuolo. Wishing you well, everyone.

Thanks for joining us here on the StarZone. For more information on this episode, visit lccconnect.org. You can also find a complete list of Lansing Community College events by visiting lcc.edu/calendar. Until next time, thanks for getting into the Zone.