Welcome from Kalamazoo Valley Community College
 

Welcome from the President

Portrait of President Marilyn J. Schlack Welcome to Kalamazoo Valley Community College. This greeting is just one way to provide information about KVCC to you. Kalamazoo Valley Community College is an institution focused on your future. We are bound neither to traditional forms of education nor to traditional methods of communication. Our mission centers around meeting the needs of our community, our nation, and those who come to us in search of a better life for themselves and their families. We believe learning is a life-long process, that all education is education for employment, and that we can make a difference.

Kalamazoo Valley Community College is a two-year, comprehensive, public institution. This means that we offer a broad array of programs and courses designed for immediate employment as well as transfer to four-year institutions. Our "go-to-work" programs will give you skills necessary for immediate employment in today's highly technological and skill-based work force. Our transfer programs will give you solid grounding for success in a four-year college or university. Graduates in programs designed for immediate employment are highly successful, both in terms of job placement and in terms of entry salaries. Those who seek a bachelor's degree have found that the first two years at KVCC prepare them well for upper-division work and success.

This web site contains a lot of information! We invite you to explore the many facets of Kalamazoo Valley Community College. We further invite you to visit our campus and to call us. Learning is rudimentary in today's economy and today's world. We call ourself "a community of learning". This is more than a slogan. If you desire to join a group of people committed to learning, committed to your future, join the learning community that is Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

Sincerely,


Marilyn J. Schlack
President

Mission Statement

(Modified by the Board of Trustees - October 12th 2004)

We are committed to enriching the lives of our students and communities through quality educational programs and services.

To accomplish these ends, we will: 

  • Support student goal achievement through access to learning experiences and assessment.
  • Support a balance between a comprehensive curricular base and innovations in education, personal development and technology by strategically utilizing resources.
  • Provide curriculum and supportive services relevant to the needs of individuals, enterprise and government.
  • Maintain a learning environment built upon the inclusivity of ideas of all cultures and ethnic backgrounds.
  • Support economic vitality and stability through development of a skilled local workforce.
  • Integrate the components of campus-based instruction, M-TEC and the Kalamazoo Valley Museum to support student and community needs.

Adopted:   June 14,  1994
Modified:  October 9, 2001, October 12, 2004

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History of Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC) was established in 1966 by the overwhelming approval of voters in nine K-12 school districts.  It is a comprehensive, public, two-year college. Our enrollments total around 13,000 each semester. KVCC offers certificate programs in more than 20 areas of study and associate degrees in 25 others. These "go-to-work" programs include careers in business, health care, human and public service, technical occupations, and industry. KVCC also provides a quality experience for transfer students, offering associate degrees in education, liberal arts, pre-science and pre-engineering. We are a fully accredited institution.

KVCC has two campuses: the Texas Township Campus and the Arcadia Commons Campus. Designed by Aldon Dow, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, the Texas Township Campus is located near the I-94 and U.S. 131 interchange on 187 acres of rolling woodland west of Kalamazoo. Expanded several times over the last 35 years, the 430,000-square-foot complex features modern classrooms, comprehensive library and computer capabilities, two gymnasiums, a swimming pool, ball fields, tennis courts, a running track, two auditoriums, food services, free parking in expansive lots, and fully equipped labs for teaching science, industrial and manufacturing technologies.

Added in the fall of  2001 was a truly unique concept – the Student Commons, complete with a huge skylight and natural foliage.  Components include a fitness and wellness center for students and staff, a lounge, gathering and meeting areas, additional computer capabilities, and student-friendly space for music, art, poetry, and theater.

Located in downtown Kalamazoo, the Arcadia Commons Campus consists of what is now known as Anna Whitten Hall (built in 1994), the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, and the Center for New Media.  The campus serves as a lynchpin for a community/business/education partnership that renovated and revitalized a significant portion of the historic downtown area.

The Kalamazoo Valley Museum, which spotlights the history, culture, science and technology of Southwest Michigan, was opened in February 1996 and has attracted more than 1.25 million visitors in its dozen years. Its construction was financed entirely by private contributions --$20 million worth.  Governed by KVCC, the museum houses an interactive planetarium, the Mary Jane Stryker Theater for films and performances, a "mini-museum" for preschoolers, incredible hands-on exhibits, science and history galleries, the best of nationally traveling exhibits, and a Challenger Learning Center for young and not-so-young space explorers. The museum provides a unique learning environment for students of Kalamazoo Valley Community College, as well as the general public.

The third jewel in KVCC’s downtown crown is the Center for New Media, located in the historic W. S. Dewing Building in the heart of the city.  It incorporates the evolving computer technologies that come into play in the new ways of organizing, creating, packaging and delivering information.  Computer technology, the visual arts, creativity, the Internet, web-page development, entertainment, business, interactivity, e-commerce, communications and much more all fall under the aegis of “new media.”

KVCC and the Center for New Media have staged four Kalamazoo Animation Festival Internationals (KAFI) in the downtown.  The 2007 festival attracted more than 500 entries from 35 countries in competition for $15,000 in prize money, hosted a preview screening of “Shrek the Third” the evening before its national release and cemented its reputation as the Midwest’s No. 1 salute to this medium of artistic creativity.  The fifth KAFI  is slated for May 2009.


KVCC added the
Michigan Technical Education Center (M-TEC) to its workforce-development arsenal in March of 2001.  It is located in The Groves, the college’s business-education-technology park off of 9th Street along I-94 near the Texas Township Campus.  Its mission is to provide 21st-century training for Southwest Michigan’s current and future high-tech workforce.  It offers customized training for business and industry, and a wide array of non-credit seminars and workshops.

In June of 2005, the M-TEC of KVCC became the headquarters of the Michigan High Throughput Screening Center that provides computerized, high-speed and roboticized procedures and resources that can potentially accelerate the drug-discovering process. 

Many special services and programs are available at the college’s two campuses -- a thriving Honors Program; comprehensive learning, tutoring and testing centers that offer one-on-one assistance; and the International Studies Program that includes more than 130 courses emphasizing the global aspects of everything from accounting to wellness.


Other services include a friendly and knowledgeable financial-aid staff, online as well as in-person registration, and counselors who are dedicated to you, the student. Student activities and clubs provide opportunities to connect to other students as well as to develop skills that will add to your learning experience and make you a better job candidate.

The umbrella operation over much of this is KVCC’s latest initiative to make certain that students “make it.”  The Student Success Center began  in January of 2007.  A new breed of mentors, called “student advocates,” “career advocates” and “transfer success coaches” are there to help students succeed, and meet their educational and career goals. They provide not only academic support and assistance to students, but also point them toward the services they might need – tutoring, job-preparation skills, career assessment, goal-setting, social skills, wellness and nutrition, why they are at KVCC and what they want to accomplish.  Included in the new format are the three F’s – follow-up, follow-up, follow-up.  The advocates deliver the message that somebody really cares for the students and wants them to succeed.  As of the winter of 2008, 16 advocates were assigned to 675 students at both campuses.

And finally, beginning in the fall of 2007, the college launched the KVCC Automotive Academy that offers intensive, targeted and real-world training to students who want to travel a fast track in becoming the next generation of automotive technicians.  The academy-training format has been extended to students who want to pursue careers in welding and in the field of corrections, with more targeted vocations and occupations in the pipeline.

This background information hopefully will give you a sense of what KVCC is all about and what sets it apart.  But the best way is to come see for yourself and sample the caring and friendly learning environment, the high caliber of instructors, and the college’s strong commitment to student success.

Come visit us and experience for yourself the learning community of Kalamazoo Valley Community College.



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Maps   last updated 04/19/05

Locations | Contact Us | Site Map | Policies
© Copyright 2004

Kalamazoo Valley Community College
Texas Township Campus - 6767 West O Avenue, PO Box 4070, Kalamazoo, MI 49003-4070 -  269-488-4400
Arcadia Commons Campus - 202 North Rose Street, Kalamazoo, MI 49007 - 269-373-7800