Queensborough Community College

Queensborough has partnered with the Department of Education (DOE) and the multinational software corporation SAP, to develop an Early College Initiative (ECI) High School in Business Technology . The school will be located in a public school building in Queens.

This is a very exciting project that promises to provide high school students interested in Business Technology with the opportunity to participate in a program that will help them successfully transition from high school to college to challenging 21st century careers. The initiative reflects President Obama’s remarks in the State of the Union Address, wherein he emphasized the importance of “connecting companies to community colleges that can help design training to fill specific student needs.”

The ECI project is supported by a number of QCC chairpersons, faculty and Academic Senators, and will be facilitated on our campus by Denise Ward, Interim Vice President for Pre-College, Continuing Education and Workforce Development. At the January meeting of the Steering Committee, the Marketing and Curriculum Planning Subcommittees gave updates on the initial work of their members: The committees planned to:

• Develop a marketing and recruiting campaign (funded by the DOE), including print and on-line strategies to enroll 110 students for the fall 2014 launch.
• Finalize the mission and value statements of the ECI and name of the high school.
• Begin work on skills mapping and the scope and sequence plan by assembling job descriptions from technology companies that are applicable to careers in business technology solutions – and for which two of QCC’s existing degrees most closely prepare our students (Associate in Applied Science degree in Computer Information Systems in the Business Department and Internet Technology in the Engineering Technology Department).

Two QCC chairpersons serve on the Steering Committee, and an additional two chairs with seven QCC faculty serve on the ECI Curriculum Planning Subcommittee. Any changes to existing degree curriculum will be subject to the standard QCC Curriculum Committee approval process. All of the program’s college courses will be taught by QCC faculty.

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