ARCC Scholars Program History

History of the Anoka-Ramsey Community College Scholars Program

In 2016, Anoka-Ramsey Community College identified the SoTL Initiative, initially named the Applied Research Initiative. With the support of a faculty coordinator, Dr. Catherine Ford, Anoka-Ramsey Community College English Faculty Member, four faculty members engaged in the practice of SoTL. Utilizing the help of internal college grants, faculty gained modest funding to support their efforts in completing pedagogical research using their classrooms as their labs.  These efforts resulted in four faculty producing and sharing research about various pedagogical components.

In the spring of 2017, the Anoka-Ramsey Community College Scholars Program was established to provide more formal institutional support for these SoTL efforts. Dr. Ford,  coordinated the program and lead the two Faculty Learning Communities. 

In 2018, Dr. Ford and Dr. Deirdre Peaslee, Anoka-Ramsey Community College Vice President of Academic Affiars, received a Minnesota State Innovation grant to pilot a scale-up of the SoTL Scholars Program making it one of the first states in the nation to institutionally support SoTL across a state-wide system.

In 2019, Ford and Peaslee received a Minnesota State Collaboration grant to expand the MN REFLECT program to two additional cohorts across 7 Minnesota State community colleges.

In 2019, Dr. Ford began a new position as Program Director of Educational Development at the Minnesota State System Office where she continues to lead the MN REFLECT Program. Dr. Megan Breit-Goodwin, ARCC Mathematics Faculty member, now leads the ARCC Scholars Program as the faculty coordinator.