NWACC leadership participants create employee service program

Volunteers will wear T-shirts with the college’s logo to help increase visibility.

BENTONVILLE — Nonprofit and other service organizations may receive volunteer help from Northwest Arkansas Community College employees in the future, thanks to a new project developed by college faculty.

Brenda Meyer, director of staff development at NWACC, reported on this year’s Leadership NWACC class at the board of trustees meeting Monday.

The program was created in 2014 with the continued development of college employees as the objective, she said.

Class size is limited to 10 and there have been 39 graduates of the program since it started, Meyer reported. The nine-month program includes monthly educational meetings, a mentorship program, a group project, outreach and educational field trips.

One of the highlights is a trip to Little Rock where participants meet with officials of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, Arkansas Community College Association and legislators, Meyer said. Six employees of the most recent leadership class attended Monday’s meeting.

The group project, Community Begins at NWACC, aims to bring faculty and staff from campus together to engage in service projects within the larger community, the participants said.

Volunteer teams will be created with faculty and staff. A team leader will coordinate a service project within the community, said Carl Collier, English faculty member. Volunteers will wear T-shirts with the college’s logo to help increase visibility.

The participants of the leadership class were the first team, he said. They helped sort donations at Youth Bridge in Centerton and assisted in serving a meal at First United Methodist Church in Bentonville.

“From here our NWACC leadership team will challenge previous NWACC Leadership teams to coordinate team projects,” Collier said. “We thought we could issue a challenge to all the divisions and departments through out the college to coordinate and set up a team volunteer project once a year.”

Two other groups have already accepted the challenge, he said.

Sevin Gallo, World History faculty and chair of Global and International Studies, said she met faculty through Leadership NWACC that she never would have worked closely with if not for the class. She said she runs ideas by and is working on projects with some as well others who participated in the program in previous years.

“We’re all working across campus together,” she said.

Ron Branscum, board member, commended the group for their work. “Not only is team building, but going out into the community and serving, that’s leadership and you all are doing a great job modeling it. I’m curious to see where it grows from here.”