Paris Junior College was recently selected as the recipient of the 2023 “Exemplar” ROSE award in Recognition of Scaling Excellence. PJC is the first community college in the state to have achieved the goal of reaching scale in the essential practices across all four pillars of the Texas Pathways strategy.
“The Guided Pathways is a wonderful program that provides PJC students with clear program maps to graduation and support services for students to achieve their goals, remove barriers to success, and provide more timely and less expensive completion,” said Dr. Jerry King, PJC interim president.
The Texas Success Center recently announced the recipients of the 2023 Talent Strong Texas Pathways Awards. Including PJC, the Texas Success Center honored the exemplary work of eight Texas community colleges for their success in the implementation and scaling of the state’s research-based guided pathways strategy, Talent Strong Texas Pathways. Awardees were celebrated in Houston, Texas at the November Talent Strong Texas Pathways Institute: Mapping Pathways to Student Post-Completion Goals, with 500 attendees representing 48 colleges statewide.
Two other colleges received the Texas Success Center’s most prestigious awards, in addition to PJC. Panola College received the “Rising Star” ROSE award. Temple College received the Recognition of Dedication to Educational Outcomes (RODEO) award.
Five colleges were recipients of the Recognition of Scaling Excellence (ROSE) award, including North Central Texas College, Coastal Bend College, Victoria College, Clarendon College, and Galveston College. Outstanding among their peers, these colleges have dramatically scaled the essential practices associated with the strategy, resulting in a dramatically improved student experience at their campus.
At PJC, the student experience has been dramatically altered through the implementation and scaling of Guided Pathways at the institution. Today, learners access well-designed programs that align with their transfer or workforce goals. Learners also have the opportunity to actively explore and experience supportive onboarding for a strong start within their program. The college provides proactive advising throughout the student’s time at the college and ensures that students engage in active and applied learning throughout their program progression.
The comprehensive, whole-college reform efforts conducted by PJC are expansive. In scaling the essential practices of across the four pillars of the Talent Strong Texas Pathways strategy, the College has fundamentally transformed into a student-ready institution.
“This award was a result of a lot of hard work from a lot of people at Paris Junior College,” said Dr. Pam Anglin, former PJC President, “and this award is for every employee at Paris Junior College.”
The Texas Success Center is pleased to showcase the transformational impact of the Pathways strategy with this award and to highlight PJC’s commitment to comprehensive, whole-college systems change.
Photo cutline: Shown from left at the Texas Success Center awards ceremony are Rob Stanley, Vice President of Academic Instruction; Dr. Jack Brown, Biology faculty; Dr. Michael Erny, Vice President of Workforce Education; Dr. Pam Anglin, former PJC president; Dr. Jennifer Collar, English faculty; June Combest-Tyler, Student Success Coach/Counselor; and Susan Sanchez, Adult Education and Family Literacy Director.
