Research shows that college students who feel that they belong at their institutions get better grades and fare better on persistence, engagement, and mental health. Belonging is the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, supported and allowed to be their authentic selves by others in the school environment.
Creating a Culture of Belonging & Connection, is an essential cornerstone of ACC’s commitment to serve all students, eliminating disparities and increasing success in service of our unifying goal of achieving an institutional completion rate of 70% by 2030. ACC’s new Office of Belonging & Purpose works with multiple internal partners, including ACC Legal Counsel, across the District’s eleven campuses to identify groundbreaking, proactive, lawful, and innovative neutral approaches based upon research-based best practices data to strengthen ACC’s capacity to create and sustain a culture of belonging where the achieving of our unifying completion goal becomes reality.
How We Practice ACC’s Values
Courage
As we comply with Senate Bill 17 law, we can operate with the courage and strength of our convictions in naming and facing challenges head-on in supporting and providing resources for all students regardless of how they identify, their lived experiences, different cultural backgrounds or strengths, and viewpoint diversity. Our students can remain confident that we sincerely desire to and will do whatever we reasonably and lawfully can to help them achieve their goals.
Compassion
Every student counts and we are committed in our collaborations with multiple internal and external partners to build an environment of other-centeredness, empathy, kindness, and love that enables all students, faculty, staff, and employees to win together. By intentionally extending ourselves to help others move forward in academic and organizational excellence our actions today lay the foundation for other’s triumphs tomorrow.
Joy
Bringing joy and passion into our work with each other and our students each day, we continuously create spaces to hear and see others who differ from ourselves…without requiring agreement. In such compassionate spaces and practices we acknowledge each other’s stories and suffering leading to more understanding of what we share-not what divides us. Bound by ACC’s unifying completion goal we strive together with all partners to provide the support and resources needed to help all students, staff, faculty, and employees achieve the unifying goal.
Yes
We find a “Yes” when faced with any obstacle in our students’ way by collaborating with multiple internal and external partners across the district to assess and develop potential strengths in institutional processes and structures to make them more user-friendly to all.This includes drawing knowledge from and being influenced by as broad a set of sources, people, experiences, expertise, viewpoints, and knowledge so we may implement ranges or sets of customized and scalable strategies that advance all ACC students, employees, and communities served toward achieving their educational goals and professional outcomes.
Key Concepts
Belonging is a feeling of being accepted and valued by others, a sense of connection, community, and recognition of one’s uniqueness and distinctiveness.
Purpose is a sense of meaning and direction in life, a connection to something larger than oneself, and a contribution to the common good.
Strengths are positive qualities and abilities that enable individuals to achieve their goals, overcome challenges, and express their values.
Targeted universalism means setting universal goals and strategies pursued by targeted processes to achieve those goals for all groups served. The targeted strategies are based on how different groups are situated within structures, culture, and across geographies to obtain the universal goal. It is goal orientated, focusing on data, connecting, collaborating, and the caring concept of bridging.
Bridging is about creating compassionate space and practices where we acknowledge each other’s stories and suffering without necessarily agreeing. It is about co-constructing a larger “we”, with shifting differences and similarities. Through it, all people experience being heard, being seen, and being cared for, which is the ultimate outcome of belonging.
Voices Uniting Everyone (V.U.E.)
Voices Uniting Everyone, or “V.U.E.,” discusses the great work ACC does in loving all our students to success by creating strong and true senses of belonging and purpose oriented initiatives happening at the college through exceptional faculty, staff, and students going above and beyond in this space. This show is hosted by Larry Davis, ACC’s Vice Chancellor of Belonging & Purpose, and airs on ACCTV.
See all episodes See all episodes of Voices Uniting Everyone.
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