North Arkansas College President Rick Massengale Sr. said his school has a history of trying to "meet students where they are."
So, the college's new education "without walls" effort is "us going back to our roots," he said.
The college is partnering with a trio of school districts to bring college courses to their schools, starting this fall. The cities of Clinton, Jasper and Marshall have the students and buildings -- "and we've got the teachers."
"We're in a rural area, and it breaks my heart to hear about kids" riding buses for hours to access higher education, he said. "We need to go out and educate people in their community, not demand they come to us."
Collaborating with Massengale and the city on this endeavor fulfills "one of my personal lifelong dreams," said Jay Chalk, superintendent of the 1,228-student Clinton School District.
Chalk, who describes himself as a proud Clinton High School graduate, said he dreamed of students at his alma mater graduating with not only high school degrees, but associate degrees.
Massengale "worked with me to make that happen," Chalk said.
It didn't make sense to Chalk for his students to receive concurrent credit from multiple colleges, which makes it very hard on them when they finish high school and want to move on to post-secondary institutions, he said.
"They have to take a lot of time and effort to just get the credits transferred," Chalk said. "We are now streamlining the process by only using North Arkansas College."
Chalk added, "I also shared with [Massengale] the dream of offering courses to our community folks. A majority of our people work and are not able to make an hour or more drive to take college courses."
Opened in 1974 in Harrison, the college also has a location in Berryville, and it serves students from several counties in northern Arkansas.
Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, the college offers variegated transfer and technical degree programs, one-year technical certificates, certificates of proficiency, customized business and industry training, adult basic education (GED) classes, non-credit community education courses, and online degrees.
Programs offered in Clinton, Jasper and Marshall will be based on student interest, said Massengale, who became North Arkansas College's fifth president in 2021 after serving for two years as vice president of academic and student affairs. Clinton, as an example, "has a really strong agriculture draw, so we'll offer Ag classes there."
"Our agriculture program is very strong -- I'm a product of the program -- [and] I think our kids receive many valuable skills in our Ag program, but they don't receive any professional certifications or college credit for perfecting the skills they acquire," Chalk said. "North Arkansas College is going to make that possible."
For the fall semester, Massengale said, "every class we're looking at for Clinton" already has "a credentialed teacher" lined up to teach it. Massengale is also open for additional instructors in all locations, he said.
"I want to use local talent if I can. Anyone who wants to be part of this as an instructor" or as a partner -- from other colleges to business and industry -- is invited to reach out to the college, Massengale said.
"We're servants of the people, and we want to do what's best for kids," he said. "By taking education to these communities, the communities can keep their talent there," as opposed to students moving away for their education and never returning to their hometowns.
The additional "opportunity for our residents to further their education locally with an institution of higher learning, coupled with attracting new residents and outside dollars into our economy, will be more beneficial than most realize," said Jason Hayes, executive director of the Clinton Area Chamber of Commerce.
It "will allow us to keep more of our youth in our community, strengthening our labor pool and growing our population from within. It is this improvement in the quality to our available workforce -- coupled with Greers Ferry Lake, hiking and mountain bike trails, floatable rivers, merchants, locally owned hospital and utility services, and a five-lane highway system linking us to the interstate -- that will continue to make Clinton and the surrounding area a great place to live, raise a family and start a business."
Typical fall enrollment for North Arkansas College in recent years has been roughly 1,900, and "about 700 of them are high school students, [so] we have a good concurrent enrollment base," Massengale said.
"I'd be disappointed if we didn't hit 2,000" for this fall's enrollment with the enhanced outreach to Clinton, Jasper, and Marshall, as there's been "lots of excitement so far."
More than three dozen Clinton students have already expressed interest, Chalk said. "Our hope is to increase that number to around 60" by the fall.
Manufacturing is a main area of interest for North Arkansas College students, with the college currently constructing a new building for excellence in manufacturing. Health care, especially radiologic technology, is also an area of interest, Massengale said.
In addition, "our trades, like HVAC," are esteemed by industry evaluators, and "we're one of the few two-year colleges with a data science program."
A map shows the communities of Clinton, Jasper and Marshall in north-central Arkansas. North Arkansas College, based in Harrison, is partnering with school districts in the three cities to bring college courses to their schools starting in fall 2024.
