The Institute for Partnerships in Education (IPiE), a UNC Greensboro School of Education initiative that works with local school districts on projects including tutoring, professional development, and dual enrollment, has rapidly expanded in recent years. While IPiE may be the lead in these external partnerships, none of them would be possible without the assistance of many different offices within UNCG.
Among the areas across campus that the IPiE team has worked closely with are the graduate school, undergraduate admissions, sponsored programs, global engagement, cashier’s office, and Esports. Each of these offices has played a vital role in the success of the partnerships that IPiE has developed across the Triad.
Said Holt Wilson, co-director of IPiE, “Without the support of our internal partners across campus, IPiE’s programs would still be just a set of ideas and some ambitious goals about how the university and a school district might work together to address one of the many emerging or enduring challenges facing education now. In very real ways, our campus colleagues created the new structures and processes that allowed those ideas to become what they are today.”
With projects such as dual enrollment with Asheboro City Schools and MLIS enrollment with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, undergraduate admissions and the graduate school are heavily involved, ensuring that students can register at UNCG.
Joel Lee, the associate vice-chancellor for enrollment management at UNCG, was able to assist in not only getting high school students enrolled for classes, but with helping to get those students registered and determining how to bill a school district instead of an individual.
Regarding the dual enrollment partnership, Lee said, “First, it introduces them to college coursework, college life, and the campus environment. For some of these students, this might be the first time they’ve ever really been involved with a college.”
As the director of sponsored programs at UNCG, Joy Dismukes works closely with the IPiE team any time they apply for external funding. Her office reviews any sponsors and guidelines, provides institutional information, and sets up fund numbers for any projects.
Dismukes said, “What (IPiE is) doing not only impacts the university, but it can impact the whole state because we’re helping students. But then, there’s also a component where they’re helping educators who are receiving additional support and getting additional training.”
IPiE has also worked closely with UNCG’s rapidly growing Esports program, partnering to get more girls involved with STEM through the Girls Who Game initiative.
Wilson stated, “Establishing and refining new processes with our partners across campus has been crucial to IPiE’s success. Our ability to develop and implement successful projects with our community partners is a direct result of strong collaboration across various university offices and leaders. When we run into challenges, everyone is quick to engage and work with us to design solutions that enable projects to move forward.”
These internal partners believe that the work IPiE is doing is of great importance and benefit to UNCG as a whole.
Lee said, “It establishes us as a dedicated community partner because a lot of the stuff that IPiE is doing, they’re really doing for the benefit of the region, the county, to the area. It shows that we’re dedicated to college access and it helps position us as an expert.”
Dismukes added, “That’s the heart of UNCG. We are a very community-engaged institution. I think that we strive, especially through sponsored programs, that the work that we do, the research that happens here, that we’re giving back and we’re doing things that are going to impact the community and help move us forward. (IPiE’s) right on target with the work that they do.”
The work that is being done by IPiE truly takes the university “village” to be successful. With the support that has been provided by the UNCG village, IPiE’s impact has been able to spread across the region.
