A Welcome
From The President

On behalf of our faculty, staff, and myself, I’d like to welcome you to Volunteer State Community College. This fall semester marks our 35th year of providing quality, accessible higher education and workforce training to north, middle Tennessee.

By choosing to attend Volunteer State, you’ve joined a diverse and growing population of individuals who have decided to make their lives and their communities better.

Over the past year, we have witnessed many kinds of growth - growth in enrollment, growth in program offerings; growth in teaching locations across our service area – all of which can be calculated, analyzed, and reported.

But we’ve also grown in a way that really can’t be measured – our vision has grown.

There was a time when community colleges served two primary purposes; to prepare students for successful transfer to a university and to provide technical instruction for individuals who wanted to start a career in technology after two years of college. Today’s community needs are different. People have begun to realize the necessity of a lifelong commitment to learning in order to adapt to our ever-changing global economy. One example is Tennessee’s P-16 initiative. This initiative, designed to improve teaching and learning from preschool (P) through the senior year of college (16), requires a collaboration between public and private businesses and local schools, colleges, and universities. At Volunteer State, we have eagerly embraced this endeavor to the point of becoming a driving force in our local P-16 Council. We understand that we can’t sit back and wait for students to enroll in college before we help them succeed. Student success is not an end. It is a process that begins early in life and requires our diligent assistance over many years. Our vision includes long-term commitment to the process of student success.

Another emerging trend is the need for adult-friendly education. Many of you are already enrolled in some of our flexible delivery courses such as the College@Home program where you watch your lectures on video or DVD or participate in class discussions online. Some of you have already met JOE – Just One Evening. In the JOE program, you are a full-time college student by attending class meetings only one evening a week and it is possible to earn your associate degree in only 24 months. Though JOE has only been around for a year, enrollments have tripled and we’ve expanded the program to our Livingston Center. We understand the working adult’s need for accessible college classes. Our vision includes making college possible for busy, working adults.

In the end, the Volunteer State Community College vision is not a picture of what the college will be in the future. Our vision is of your future and a better life for you and your family. And just as you have committed yourself to lifelong learning, we will remain committed to your success - never sacrificing quality, never forgetting our history, and never losing site of our vision of a better quality of life for all Tennesseans.