The State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota creates opportunities. We offer access to high-impact, low-cost higher education. We provide the education that allows our working adults to advance in their profession or start a new one through certificates, two-year and four-year degrees. We offer high school graduates a low-cost, high impact associate degree that transfers directly to a state university in Florida. We offer the opportunity for high school students to accelerate their lives by earning college credit and associate degrees while still in high school.

These are things we do well and will continue to focus on to ensure our College is meeting the needs of our community. As we consider the future of our College, the word opportunity has great meaning and tremendous impact. As our community expands, our College must determine to best way to create more opportunities for education and training, while remaining true to the support we have provided our region for more than 60 years.

At SCF, we will always do what we say, deliver on our promises and provide a strong return on investment for our students, donors and taxpayers. Creating opportunities for growth, advancement and fulfillment is central to that pledge. We must expand on our strengths to meet the demands of our rapidly growing community. Every day is an opportunity to introduce someone new to our College. These new residents are our future students, donors, supporters and workforce.

To impactfully create learning opportunities at SCF, we will never become complacent. We want to be our students’ first choice to find the programs, degrees and certifications that will meet the employment and economic needs of our community.

Internships and experiential learning opportunities in the classroom expand learning and lead to positive outcomes for students. By expanding on our partnerships with our business community we can create more opportunities for our students. We are in the early stages of developing learning communities, which are groupings of students in academic interest areas or majors that provide scheduling assistance, resources and collaborative opportunities.

We also want to create more extracurricular activities to participate in community programs for our students, faculty and staff. Engaging with our community will create enrichment opportunities to complement the educational experience. SCF already fulfills multiple monthly requests for subject matter expertise from local civic groups and the media. To expand on that goal, the business incubator/accelerator we are developing on the Bradenton Campus could create consulting opportunities for faculty and staff.

As we focus on providing the best services to our students and community, we have to maintain the outstanding staff and faculty team at SCF. We must be one of the top employers in our service area to maintain the level of talent required to be among the top colleges in Florida. We created the SCF Leadership Academy in 2017 to identify and professionally develop the future leaders of our institution. We recently brought our second class together and will groom our academy members for leadership roles at SCF and in our community.

Opportunity is at the heart of our College. We create opportunities for a better future every day for our students and community members. As we maintain our focus on our strengths, we know that creating more opportunity is the pathway to SCF continuing its leading role in our region.

Dr. Carol Probstfeld is president of State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota.