To officially launch NMU's Evergreen initiative, the Division of Extended Learning and Community Engagement is hosting a two-day discussion opportunity beginning at noon on September 9 & 10 in Peninsula II in The Northern Center.
The event will provide opportunity for discussion among the NMU community regarding implementation of Evergreen and its approach to lifelong learning.
The new initiative will provide flexible educational options, career pathways and tailored resources for transfer, working professional, returning and other non-traditional students, offering assistance for both degree and non-degree seeking students.
The Evergreen initiative is part of NMU's effort to implement the 60-year curriculum, a model of continual education, from the high schooler to the retiree.
“We've had lifelong learning models for a long time. This system just streamlines it and makes it more understandable and accessible,” said Steven VandenAvond, associate provost for Extended Learning and Community Engagement.
Additionally, VandenAvond said the model aims to acknowledge that lifelong learning is a requirement – that workers must adapt as the world and workforce does. In addition, it recognizes that a traditional college pathway does not accommodate all students.
“We shouldn't exclude people just because they couldn't come full-time on campus right after graduating high school. This model acknowledges that you don't have to come immediately upon high school graduation, and you don't have to come full time,” VandenAvond said. “The program aims to help students make furthering their education work for them.”
Included in this effort is a way to articulate non-credit classes and experiences as part of a larger portfolio of learning, or to transfer those prior learning experiences into credit-bearing classes that can count toward a degree.
“This is lifelong learning taken seriously,” VandenAvond said. “We're really excited about this.”
After three years of working to articulate, organize and roll out Evergreen, VandenAvond noted that it will take a campus-wide effort to adopt this mindset.
“[Evergreen] is part of the core of what we do as a public regional comprehensive university,” he added. “We should be reaching out to all people and providing them with educational opportunities to advance themselves personally and professionally without sacrificing the wonderful things we do for traditional-age students.”
Visit https://evergreen.nmu.edu/ for more information on Evergreen, and to see the full schedule of events for the upcoming conference.