John Wood Community College is making things a bit easier for ag students to pursue a 4-year degree at a neighboring institution.
On Friday of last week, members of John Wood’s administration gathered with administration of Western Illinois University in Baylis at the Agricultural Sciences Complex and the Fred L. Bradshaw Learning Center to sign a 2+2 agreement.
John Wood Community College President Bryan Renfro says the agreement sets up a direct path for students from John Wood’s Applied Science in Ag Business program directly into Western’s bachelors program for Applied Science: “The important thing about this is we really spell out which classes students will take, so there is no question for them about which classes they’ll need to complete their degree here. Most importantly, all of those classes are agreed upon by Western Illinois University to transfer. When they go in at WIU, they’ll come in at junior standing and finish their last two years there.”
Renfro says it solidifies an already long-standing partnership between the two schools who have a history of working together: “We view this agreement as the first of many opportunities that we will both be working on and encouraging our teams to work on to maximize transferability for our students here at John Wood Community College and benefit Western Illinois University in receiving students that will complete their bachelor’s degree. Usually how these articulation agreements work is we have point people, faculty that are involved. We couldn’t do it without them. As any one of us make changes to our curriculum, we work with them and then, we make changes to the articulation agreement and update it in making sure that those students are just taking the hours of classes that they need here and the hours that they need there.”
Renfro says agreements like this one ensure a smooth, affordable transition for students looking to get their bachelors degree in a four-year time span. He says it demystifies the process of course selection while also offering students crucial hands-on experience offered by John Wood before they finish up with a bachelors degree at Western.