Now in its third decade, the Adult Degree Completion Program (ADCP) at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) is getting a makeover that emphasizes leadership theory and practice and more flexible formats.
The program, which began in 1995, offers a path for working adult students with at least 60 credit hours of undergraduate work to progress toward a bachelor’s degree. The management and organizational development major has been significantly revised and renamed “Leadership and Organizational Management.”
“Those who were in the focus group sessions came to us and said, ‘Leadership is something we feel is important,’ while at the same time we were having internal conversations about how we incorporate leadership for the common good, which is kind of entrenched in our traditional Business Department undergraduate majors,” says ADCP program representative Travis Pettit, a graduate of the program’s 52nd cohort. “So it really seemed like synergy was there. All signs pointed that leadership was the way to go.”
The changes come following extensive conversations with focus groups, local educational partners including Blue Ridge Community College, and other stakeholders. Much of the curriculum has been updated and revised, with topics such as leadership theory, leadership practice, global trends in economic justice, biblical perspectives, cross-cultural perspectives and team leadership. ADCP faculty members Bob Davis, Todd Lilley and Jason Good worked with Associate Dean Sue Cockley and Margo McIntire, program coordinator, to develop the new curriculum.
Structure and format appeal to working adults
Each cohort in the program runs for 15 months, meeting one evening a week, and provides 38 semester hours of credit. Nearly 1,000 students have enrolled over ADCP’s history, and about 90 percent of students who begin the program complete it.
New ADCP student Jason Burnett of Stuarts Draft, Virginia, started work on an undergraduate degree years ago and now hopes to finish it through the LOM program.
“The class structure of one night a week was very appealing, and the campus resources, in my mind, will allow me to stay focused as a student and working parent to achieve my academic goals,” Burnett says. “As a single father of two and a working adult, I feel this program at EMU, rather than a traditional student setting, gives me the best chances of completing my degree while being able to balance my family, employment and life.”
Patricia Craft, from Massanutten, Virginia, similarly found the right fit with ADCP.
“I wanted a school that would not be considered a diploma mill, one that would allow me to transfer the most number of my earned college credits and also enable me to earn a degree in the shortest amount of time as a part-time student,” Craft says. “My personal preference was to be in an environment that fostered an active real-time discussion of ideas instead of an exchange of emails. I chose EMU’s ADCP because it met all of these factors.”
Hybrid format coming
The cohort of 14 students, including Burnett and Craft, learn in a traditional, face-to-face format. A transition to some online components will occur this year, and by next fall, the program is expected to be offered in a fully hybrid format.
“One of the things that Blue Ridge said to us was that they have students who live 10 minutes away from campus, and they want all online courses because their lives are so full and so busy between families and work that the idea of coming to campus is just a real struggle,” says McIntire, also an ADCP alumna.
At the same time, she says that the cohort model used by ADCP is a core element of the program and one that provides an important support system, so staff want to find ways to preserve that.
“It’s really an educational community that they form,” McIntire says. “So we want to try to keep that, which is a little harder to conceive how to do it online. We might learn some things along the way to help us do that better.”
For many years, ADCP also offered an RN to BS in Nursing major that was recently absorbed into EMU’s Nursing Department. Between that program and the larger business-focused major — both deeply grounded in Anabaptist values and perspectives — 90 cohorts have now graduated from ADCP.