SMWC named as Ball Brothers Venture Fund recipient
Posted on: 05/27
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) has been selected as a recipient of the 2009 Ball Venture Fund award, a competitive grant established by the Ball Brothers Foundation (Muncie, Indiana) and administered by the Independent Colleges of Indiana.
Of thirty-four proposals submitted for consideration, four institutions were chosen to receive an award. Other institutions selected were Martin University, Indiana Wesleyan University and Franklin College. The four institutions will share $76,000 in seed funding for campus start-up initiatives aimed at stimulating creativity and innovation and fostering competition and collaboration among the state’s 31 independent colleges and universities.
SMWC will use the $21,900 seed money to pilot initiatives that address the academic support needs of its large student population in the Woods External Degree (WED) distance-learning program.
“Although many institutions have developed a freshman experience program for their campus programs, adult learners have different needs and require different strategies,” said Jennie Mitchell, Ph.D., director of online learning and professor of business at SMWC. “We need to involve students early, train faculty in pedagogically sound teaching interventions for quantitative subjects, and develop a new level of online student support. The process developed in our Ball Venture Fund grant pilot program addresses all three aspects.”
SMWC will use its funds to develop a Virtual Academic Support Team (VAST) to support at-risk distance students through their first three semesters; create an early identification process for students at risk, which will include subsequent required participation in the VAST mentoring process; and provide professional development for all faculty members.
“The goal is to improve student performance during their first three terms and to improve retention, as a result,” said Dottie King, SMWC vice president for academic affairs. “By improving early identification of distance students at risk of failure, enhancing faculty understanding and implementation of distance education pedagogies, encouraging effective use of technology for distance student support and course delivery, and providing support for at-risk distance learners through a personalized support network, we can enable more distance students to become confident and self-directed learners. We are very excited about these new programs and initiatives and are so thankful to the Ball Brothers Foundation for giving us the opportunity to improve the way we serve and support our distance learning population.”
Now in its eleventh year, the Ball Brothers Foundation Venture Fund has disbursed more than $700,000 for 30 innovative start-up initiatives on Indiana’s independent campuses. The 2009 recipients were chosen from a field of 34 proposals submitted by 22 ICI member colleges and universities. The 2009 recipients were selected by a panel of judges, including Rich Spisak, Ball Brothers Foundation; Larry C. Cimino, retired, Eli Lilly and Company; and R. Duane Odle, AIA, Gibraltar Design.
Independent Colleges of Indiana, Inc. (ICI) is a nonprofit corporation that represents the state’s 31 nonprofit, accredited, undergraduate degree-granting institutions of higher education. ICI member institutions enroll more than 83,000 students (approximately 24 percent of all undergraduates statewide) and annually produce 35 percent of all bachelor’s degrees in Indiana. For more information: www.icindiana.org.
Founded in 1840 by Saint Mother Theodore Guerin and the Sisters of Providence, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College is the oldest Catholic liberal arts college for women in the United States. Today, SMWC thrives by offering a rich liberal arts education, scholarships and financial aid opportunities to make college affordable, individual attention, a value-centered education in a Catholic tradition, and a wide variety of student leadership activities. SMWC is located on a beautiful 67-acre campus near Terre Haute, Ind., and the College offers campus-based undergraduate degree programs for women and distance undergraduate and graduate programs for women and men. By participating in this community, students develop their abilities to think critically, to communicate responsibly, to engage in lifelong learning and leadership, and to effect positive change in a global society. For more information about Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, call 1-800-926-SMWC.
