- Partnerships: We develop reciprocal relationships with educational institutions, community organizations, agencies and businesses. We build learning solutions to address problems of practice in our region and beyond.
- Innovative Action: Develop or customize curricula, programs or practices to improve access, address workforce and community needs, and advance our fields of study.
Continued innovation and expansion of a strong foundation of existing partnerships are keys to practicing the virtues and achieving the priorities in the college’s Strategic Action Planning Framework.
That was the message from Jason Klein, the college’s senior director of Learning Partnerships, during his presentation at the Jan. 10 All-College Meeting.
Partnerships obviously play a foundational role in helping to advance the college’s strategic priorities, Klein said.
He is guided by questions, he added: How are we meeting the needs of the region and the state? How are we partnering with others? How are we innovating – and how are we able to sustainably continue to innovate?
“A big part of my job is trying to be out there, listening to people, connecting with them and understanding what’s important to them in school districts and community colleges near and far, and really with a statewide lens that goes beyond our region that we’ve traditionally served,” he said.
“Those partnerships bring us synergies with the other things already going on in our departments,” he added, “so part of my job is to say, ‘Oh, I see a match here,’ and to make sure I know what’s happening in the departments and what the priorities are within our departments.”
Klein spoke of current partnerships, such as PLEDGE (Partnering to Lead and Empower District-Grown Educators), an innovative action that already has made professional dreams come true for 220 now-alumni of the NIU College of Education: “I get the chills every time I talk about it.”
His list of positives also included the college’s partnerships with school districts, Golden Apple Foundation, the Illinois Association of School Business Officials, Little City and the on-campus events for high school students who have indicated their interest in becoming teachers.
“You can tell they’re exuberant. They’re loving this,” Klein said of the future educators and the fun programming designed to stoke their excitement.
“This is awesome work to make those connections and, hopefully, fill our classrooms with undergraduates: It allows those students to achieve their individual goals and, of course, in this case we have the virtuous cycle as educators of them being able to educate future learners,” he added.
“This was happening separate from Jason, but my job is to make more things like this happen, and, frankly, happen more easily for all of you with all the other things you’re already doing.”
