Good evening NMC family,
I want you to be among the first to know that the NMC Foundation Board has taken a bold step to commit $1 million to help meet the immediate emergency needs of both students and the college in response to challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
These are challenges that you are engaged in and working to solve every day. I have seen your incredible fortitude. You have stepped up to provide support to our students in new and unprecedented ways.
Yet the need is still great.
The NMC Foundation will seek funds from donors to support and enable student success by meeting immediate needs in three categories:
- Student support, including scholarships, food pantry access and flexible funding for emergency needs like rent, technology, and other basic needs;
- Academic support, increasing capacity of key areas including the Writing & Reading Center and Educational Technology to ensure that students are successful as they transition to remote learning;
- Program stabilization, including flexible funds to ensure programs will be able to continue to operate for the benefit of students and the greater community despite the impact of the coronavirus on the college’s finances.
The community (including many of you!) has wasted no time stepping up to meet the challenges and given generously. More than $100,000 of emergency funds has already been raised to support students through the NMC Foundation.
As you first heard me lay out at our virtual town hall, the 4Rs framework will help us focus our attention and actions as we live into our new normal. I’m proud of our NMC teams for exemplifying the 4Rs in this effort. Together, we are refocusing our fundraising priorities through the Foundation as part of the Be What’s Possible campaign to lift up our students’ and College’s greatest needs right now. This support is helping to ensure that students have the scholarship support they need to stay in school when we reopen, and the methods that we are using to reengage have had to be reimagined — I never would have thought that I’d be attending meetings and gatherings over Zoom. This effort is of course all in an effort to right the ship.
These funds will ensure the continuity of education for many students facing tremendous adversity during these challenging times. But there will still be work to do and hard decisions for the college and our students to face in the coming months.
I am grateful that NMC has a longstanding history of being supported by the community. This college exists because the community decided that education is important to the well-being of the region. I, along with the Foundation team, am hopeful that our community will once again step up to ensure that an NMC education will remain accessible for all.
Having seen all that you have done to this end, and through listening to community members who ask, “How can I help?” I too am filled with hope about the future of our students and the college.
Thank you,
Nick
—
Nick Nissley, Ed.D. | President | Northwestern Michigan College | 231.995.1010
