Santiago Canyon College is launching a new Hawks Flight Path program next month — a sequence of three General Education courses that will help students more easily focus on their majors.
“We acknowledge that our students have a lot of demands on them,” said Jason Parks, vice president of academic affairs. “They’re working and they have familial responsibilities. When you think about a full load of 30 units a year, that’s four to five classes a semester—a big challenge for students who have a family, plus a job.”
The Hawks Flight Path was created to ease the burden.
Parks conceived of the program, but he is quick to credit a team of colleagues, including faculty and deans, who put it together. “The team got together and really thought it through about how we would work to benefit the students the most. I think it’s really well-designed. The spring is the soft launch for it,” he said. “Next fall we will target incoming freshmen who need all of their prerequisites.”
The first class is in public speaking (Feb. 12–March 24) followed by a class in nutrition (March 25–April 28), and, finally, an introduction to cultural anthropology (April 29–June 9).
“We have knowledge of what classes go well in those shorter times and where students thrive, so we’ll choose those classes (accordingly),” Parks said.
Since the Hawks Flight Path classes will fulfill General Ed requirements, students will be able to put more hours and effort into the classes that are part of their major. This is particularly helpful for students whose majors require a lot of time, for instance, if they must work in a lab.
“They can take those three classes and then take an overlying major’s course, something that they maybe need to spend quite a bit more time on, such as a calculus, chemistry or physics course,” Parks explained.
“The initial thought was let’s target our students who may be pre-nursing or health sciences,” he said. “For those…
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