This content was published: March 16, 2021. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
PCC shares best practices with leaders from across the country at the DREAM 2021 conference
Photos and story by Amy Corliss
In February, Portland Community College joined 3,600 higher education, philanthropic and community leaders from across the United States, South Africa, New Zealand and Canada at “Dream 2021,”?Achieving the Dream’s annual conference.
PCC has been an Achieving the Dream college since 2017, leveraging guidance from coaches and a collaborative network of community colleges to help inform best practices in the college’s YESS (Yes to Equitable Student Success) work.
The college seeks opportunities like “Dream” to meet with leaders in the Achieving the Dream network and exchange ideas related to student success, as PCC continues to develop and implement systemic reform to improve equitable student success.
“‘Dream’ is such a great opportunity to learn from our colleagues and to build momentum and excitement around the possibilities of this work,” said Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Heather Lang. “There was a lot of interest in this year’s conference, which shows the engagement and the commitment to shifting the culture at PCC to better support equitable student success.”
PCC was recognized at the opening plenary session by Achieving the Dream President Karen Stout for having one of the largest numbers of conference participants this year, with nearly 100 registered.
“The teams leading our YESS work are dedicated to finding the best solutions to improve student experiences and outcomes at PCC,” Lang said. “Ice storms and power outages during the conference couldn’t keep us away!”
Achieving the Dream was able to adapt the conference to a virtual format, offering a rich variety of programming from more than 100 speakers and presenters.?This year, the conference focused on five themes: centering racial equity, fostering teaching and learning excellence, leveraging our localness, listening in new ways in the age of big data, and anchoring a bold new access agenda.
“The conference and the themes we covered were so timely this year in helping me think about our new organizational model, and how I can best set my division’s goals to be aligned with our college YESS work,” said Dean of Student Life and Engagement Josh Peters McBride. “‘Dream’ gave me and my team some great ideas to move this work forward!”
The YESS Steering Committee and Work Teams will review the takeaways from the conference and explore ways to apply new practices and approaches as they roll out the 2021 work plan.
Achieving the Dream announced they will be hosting “Dream 2022” in Portland.
Sounds like a administrator junket. Have fun. At least my tuition is sending someone to a fun place. I hope they had good food.