U.S. Office of Personnel Management and Excelsior College partner to provide Federal employees opportunity to pursue a higher education at reduced cost

Posted on by Mike Lesczinski

Excelsior College and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have announced an agreement that will allow the Federal workforce – representing more than 1 million Federal employees – and their spouses/domestic partners to pursue higher education at a reduced tuition rate. The College will host a series of informational webinars for Federal employees interested in learning more about the alliance.

The agreement is part of OPM’s continuing efforts to build the future Federal workforce by attracting new talent, supporting Federal employee career development, and addressing current Government-wide and agency-specific skills gaps.

“OPM continually works with Federal agencies to ensure their employees are able to handle the very important work they do on behalf of the American people,” said OPM Acting Director Beth F. Cobert. “With this agreement, we are helping them do just that, while also closing vital skills gaps to strengthen our workforce.”

“Professional development has taken on greater importance in recent years as all levels of government look to address the skills gap,” said Dr. John Ebersole, President of Excelsior College. “By this agreement with Excelsior, Federal employees will have access to a quality, affordable education. It will also assist agencies in addressing their current and future workforce needs.”

In 2012, OPM and the Chief Human Capital Officers Council established a joint initiative to address critical skills gaps. The taskforce identified the following Government-wide mission critical occupations: Economists, Human Resources, Cybersecurity, Auditors, Acquisition and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Based on future hiring trends, OPM forecasts health care to be categorized as part of the STEM workforce.

For more information on the program, visit feducation.excelsior.edu or contact Hamisi Amani-Dove, Director of Workforce Partnerships at Excelsior College at partners@excelsior.edu.

 

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Excelsior College

Excelsior College https://www.excelsior.edu is a regionally accredited, nonprofit distance learning institution that focuses on removing obstacles to the educational goals of adult learners. Founded in 1971 and located in Albany, NY, Excelsior is a proven leader in the assessment and validation of student knowledge

 

U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

OPM’s mission is to recruit, retain and honor a world-class workforce to serve the American people. OPM supports U.S. departments and agencies with personnel services and policy leadership including staffing tools, guidance on labor-management relations and programs to improve work force performance.

Annual Educational Institute Supports Just Culture

Posted on by Nursing Staff

On May 5, 2016, the Annual Educational Institute organized by the Excelsior College School of Nursing was held at The Century House in Latham, New York. Attendees both online and in person were inspired by the key note speaker, Jane Barnsteiner, PhD, RN, FAAN, and her presentation that addressed this year’s theme Promoting a Just Culture Through Nursing Education.

Podium presentations by Suzanne Fischer Prestoy, PhD, RN-BC and Cheryl Dunton, MS, RNC-NIC (an Excelsior College 2015 graduate) discussed a just culture in the academic and clinical setting respectively.

Poster presentations by Mark Wahl, MS, RN and Dawne Olbrych, MS, RN, CNE, Robin Dewald, PhD, RN, CNE and Cathy DeChance, PhD(c), RN and Ruth Barnes, PhD, RN contributed to the academic perspective of just culture. Joanna Scalabrini, MS, RN and Jeanette Acevedo-Brace, MS, RN presented a poster about the just culture in the clinical setting.

National Nurses Week: Indulata Jayapal is a lifelong learner

Posted on by Mike Lesczinski

Indulata Jayapal, MS in Nursing graduateAt 74 years old, Indulata Jayapal was the oldest graduate of the Class of 2015. Three years earlier, after a lifetime spent in the nursing field, she returned to school for her Master of Science in Nursing to become a nurse educator. In this video, she discusses what originally drew her to nursing and how she is using her degree today.

Upcoming: ‘The Nyquist Leadership Series: Strengthening Communities by Bridging Health and Economic Development’

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

The Nyquist Leadership Series explores New York State’s most pressing contemporary challenges through the eyes of its most prominent government, education, and industry leaders. The series honors the late Ewald B. “Joe” Nyquist, a civil rights leader and former New York State Education Commissioner who played a key role in efforts to desegregate New York schools. The “visionary author” of Excelsior College, Nyquist fought to extend quality educational opportunities to learners of all ages.

On Tuesday, June 7, Excelsior College will host public health and economic development influencers from throughout the Capital Region at Wolferts Roost in Albany, New York for the leadership series event, Strengthening Communities by Bridging Health and Economic Development. 

Professionals working in both public health and economic development arenas seek to achieve common goals: strengthening communities and improving quality of life. This Nyquist Leadership Series event will explore the reciprocal relationship between health and economic development – the investment of resources into neighborhoods, buildings, and businesses – and the collective positive impact on communities. Expert panelists will engage participants in dialog about local and national strategies that integrate health and economic development to address public health issues and revitalize communities.

Register today.

This event is sponsored by the Excelsior College School of Health Sciences.

Date: June 7, 2016
Time: 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Location: Wolferts Roost, 120 Van Rensselaer Boulevard, Albany, NY 12204

TrueCaller: Be Careful Who You are Calling

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Smart phones are omnipresent. People are walking with them for recreation, using them on the way to work and often during work while looking at the small monitor into our lives. On the weekends people of all ages are shopping at the mall, checking email and looking up prices of goods from competitors and using social media. This is not limited by location or age, with tweens and elders, and everyone in between using smart phones to stay connected across the country.
Not all smart phones are made alike. The smart phones they are using are divided into two primary camps-the Android and iPhone. There are other platforms, however they generally are not significant players. Smart phones, much like computers provide yet another opportunity for hackers to attack and to leverage information this into cash flow for those with malicious intent.
The Apple platform has historically not been a hotbed of vulnerabilities. Over the last few years there have only been a handful of malware examples related to Apple that have been noted. This is not significant when compared to the Android phones. The Android smart phones have over time been a primary target of attack. One of these recently has been TrueCaller.
Description
TrueCaller is a service which allows people to search for phone numbers, block incoming calls, and text messages from selected numbers. This is also used for spammers, telemarketers and to connect with friends. When first encountered, this vulnerability was labeled with a medium severity, but was upgraded to critical when a zero day was discovered.
Attack
The attack itself exploits the TrueCaller process. TrueCaller uses the IMEI (International Mobile Station Equipment Identity) for the specific phone. This is comparable to our social security number. Each IMEI is unique. If the attacker happens to know the IMEI of the target phone, the attacker could secure a host of information about the other party’s phone number, home address, mail box, gender, etc. The vulnerability also allows the attacker to modify the settings, disable spam settings, and add/delete blacklists. This can be quite disastrous for the user if exploited.
Mitigations
Although this can make the user’s life quite interesting, there are a few steps the user can take in order to decrease the potential for this to affect the user. A patch was released on March 16, 2016. The user still should install the updated version of the app. The updated app would also have the code to fix the issue.

 

The Android, unlike the Apple platform is an ongoing target for hackers to manipulate. The patch for TrueCaller may alleviate that particular vulnerability, but users of the platform should be aware that every time they seek to download an app they run the risk of obtaining a piece of malicious coding that can be very troubling.

 

To learn more about how to protect yourself and your business visit the National Cybersecurity Institute and learn about our training programs, certification preparation, and many free resources.

 

Charles Parker, II, has been coding since the mid-1980’s, and has been working in the finance, auto manufacturer, and health industries seeking secure solutions for issues for over 17 years. Charles has an MBA, MSA, JD, LLM, and is a doctoral candidate for a PhD in Information Assurance and Security.

Kastur, The Power of One Woman

Posted on by Nursing Staff

By Esther Bankert, PhD, RN
Faculty Program Director, BS in Nursing

image of Gandhi and his wife
Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi), and his wife.

Kastur’s life with Mahatma began as a young girl, marrying a man she never knew or chose to be with, as this was an arranged marriage. She devoted her life to this man and she became Mahatma’s most avid critic as he devoted his life to righting the wrong of social injustices that plagued their country.

Kastur was lovingly known as Ba, mother to all who followed her husband. Ba was an extraordinary woman; she raised their children, sharing her world with her husband who was so passionate about saving his people from the ravages of poverty. Nonetheless, Ba chose to stand by her husband through all the trials and hardships he had endured, and she stood with him which also meant imprisonment for her and her husband.

Ba’s legacy is no longer the forgotten woman who was a woman behind the man but one who stood alongside her husband. She had her own will, her own personality, her own identity; it was a true love story that her husband stated: “I learned the lesson of nonviolence from my wife. Her determined resistance to my will on one hand, and her quiet submission in the suffering my stupidity on the other hand, ultimately made me ashamed of myself and cured me of my stupidity.”

Arun, the grandson of Mahatma and Kastur, said in his eyes his grandfather merged his personality with his grandmother and found an important aspect of his identity through her. Thus, the forgotten woman in history is no longer; Kastur was the partner to her husband that made him what he is and whom we all came to know around the world as, Gandhi!

The story of Kastur was told by Arun Gandhi, peacekeeper, the featured speaker at the Social Injustice Conference I attended in Geneva, New York (April 25) sponsored by Keuka College School of Nursing. Arun’s writings include the book, “A Patch of White;” a compilation of Gandhi’s Wit & Wisdom; a book of essays on “World Without Violence: Can Gandhi’s Vision Become Reality?;” and most recently with his wife, Sunanda, the book on “The Forgotten Woman: The Untold Story of Kastur, The Wife of Mahatma Gandhi.”

Image credit: London Express / Getty Images / Universal Images Group

General Peter Pace to deliver Excelsior College Commencement address on July 8

Posted on by Mike Lesczinski

General Peter Pace, USMC (Ret.), 16th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will deliver the keynote address at Excelsior College Commencement on July 8, 2016 at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York.

Born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Teaneck, New Jersey, Pace was commissioned in June 1967, following graduation from the United States Naval Academy. On September 30, 2005, Pace was sworn in as 16th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In this capacity, he served as the principal military advisor to the President, the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council. Prior to becoming chairman, he served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pace also holds the distinction of being the first Marine to have served in either of these positions.

During his distinguished career, Pace held command at virtually every level, beginning as a Rifle Platoon Leader in Vietnam. He also served in Europe, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and Somalia. In June, 2008, Pace was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor a President can bestow.

General Peter Pace retired from active duty on October 1, 2007, after more than 40 years of service in the United States Marine Corps. He is currently serving on the board of directors of several corporate entities involved in management consulting, private equity and IT security. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from George Washington University, attended the Harvard University Senior Executives in National and International Security program, and graduated from the National War College.

Excelsior College, founded in 1971, enables the success of working adults by removing the obstacles to their educational goals.  The College is home to five schools and multiples institutes and centers, and offers multiple pathways to degree completion, including online coursework, the acceptance of credit in transfer, prior learning assessment, and credit by examination. Excelsior has a student body of more than 40,000 and has graduated more than 160,000 worldwide in its 45 year history.

Excelsior also has a long history of service to the military and veteran communities. Currently, 40 percent of the student body comprises active duty personnel or veterans. The College also has a number of strategic partnerships with military and veterans organizations, including the Department of New York, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, South Carolina, and Vermont state VFWs that offer reduced tuition and fees for veterans and their spouse/domestic partner. The school’s Center for Military Education and Lt. Col. Bryant A. Murray Veterans Center offers a wide-range of financial, educational, advisement and mental health resources to students and alumni.

Each July, hundreds of Excelsior College graduates, accompanied by their friends, family, and benefactors, gather in Albany, New York for Excelsior College’s Commencement.  For many of these individuals, Commencement marks their first opportunity to meet their classmates, advisors, and instructors in person.

This year’s Commencement begins at 3 pm EST on July 8, 2016. To learn more, visit https://www.excelsior.edu/web/commencement.

What is a Capstone?

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

A capstone course is required in each undergraduate degree at Excelsior College.  Don’t be intimidated by the name of this course.  A capstone is a class in a course of study that is to be taken towards the end of a student’s degree.  It is a class where a student demonstrates all that has been learned in previous coursework and professional and/or military experiences.  Your capstone course may include case studies and review learning outcomes such as ethics and diversity. “The capstone course is an opportunity for students to demonstrate that they have achieved the goals for learning established by their educational institution and major department” (Christ, 2013, p. 115).

Capstone Courses by Degree Program

Each degree program has different capstone courses and different prerequisites to be eligible to take the capstone. A few examples of degree program capstone courses include:

Associate of Science in Criminal Justice

Bachelor of Science in Nursing Capstone

Bachelor of Science in Business Marketing

Master of Science in Nursing Informatics

Please contact your academic advisor for more information.

Christ, William G. (2013). Assessing Communication Education: A Handbook for Media, Speech, and Theatre Educators.  Retrieved from https://books.google.com/

 

Professionalism in Nursing

Posted on by Nursing Staff

By Tresa Kaur Dusaj, PhD, RN-BC, CNE, CHSE, CTN-A
Faculty Program Director

image of health care workersI recently attended a conference where professional was discussed and defined. It became apparent that professionalism is defined uniquely through one’s own interpretation. I define professionalism as representing nursing in all aspects of my life through my actions, values, practices. Many students encounter this term in their coursework and are encourage to promote nursing. This is easier said than done. Professionalism goes beyond being a “cheerleader” for nursing. It encompasses representation, advocacy, service, learning, and discipline.

Here are five ways you can promote professionalism in your career as a nurse:

  1. Join a professional organization. As a student, you are eligible for a reduced rate to many professional organizations. I joined the National League for Nursing as I knew Nursing Education was my career path in nursing. I enjoyed the many benefits as a student which included webinars, simulation resources, networking, reduced conference fees, and more. It was also a membership that I could then list on my resume.
  2. Advocate for your profession. I have been asked to represent nursing to public and state officials. Your license and degrees bring a wealth of credibility to your name. I advocated for nursing education by asking State Senators for greater funds for nursing scholarships. Then as a student, and now as a faculty member, I see the need for funds to address the global nursing shortage.
  3. Volunteer your time. Service to your community extends your role as a nurse. Community service offers the compassion of our profession while giving to those in need. As a nurse representative, you may be impacting young children who have never interacted with a nurse, lending a hand to a person who needs your assistance, or offering a listening ear to learn how others view the world. I volunteered to teach an exercise class in a senior high rise in Baltimore, MD. I quickly learned that there were other things the seniors needed like computer training and medication reconciliation. One program flourished so many more to impact the small community.
  4. Teach and be taught. Learning never ends for a nurse. You are always adapting to new research, insights, and technology. Some states require mandatory education credits while other do not. I encourage all nurses to stay current by reading journal articles, attending conferences, and sharing their own expertise with their colleagues and through professional conferences. Also, interdisciplinary education is a great way to learn the roles of members of the health care team.
  5. Read the ANA Social Policy Statement (ANA, 2010). The American Nurse’s Association has written a document on professionalism. I encourage you to read through this document which highlights the role of the nurse in the profession and in everyday life. For example, I am careful as to what I post on social media especially when I know the world many read it one day. I promote nursing by celebrating my role as an educator and share my passion for nursing.

As nurses’ week approaches us, I challenge you to take on one or two items from the list above. You might inspire others to join the profession. You will shine light on the role and responsibilities of the profession. You will share your passion and love for nursing with others. You are a part of a unique, trusted, and rewarding professional and be proud, be professional!

Reference

American Nurses Association. (2010). Nursing’s social policy statement: The essence of the profession (3rd ed.). Silver Spring, Md.: American Nurses Association.

Photo Credit: John Birdsall MR / John Birdsall Social Issues Photo Library / Press Association Images / Universal Images Group

Excelsior College’s Degree Conferral Process

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Your Conferral (Graduation) Date is Automatically Assigned

Your years of hard work have finally paid off and that light at the end of the tunnel is blinding; you shield your eyes and step through, for you have finished your last course or examination towards your degree requirements at Excelsior.

What is the Degree Conferral Process?

You may have heard from peers who have attended traditional institutions that you should have applied for graduation months ago (which could send you into panic mode). Good news! At Excelsior, there is no need to request graduation. Also, Excelsior confers degrees every month! Once your advisor is in receipt of your final grade or outstanding transcript(s) and sees that you have satisfied all of your degree requirements, you are automatically assigned a conferral (graduation) date. Your file is subsequently reviewed by several members of our advising and Office of Registration and Records staff to make sure that everything is in order. Our advisors use deadlines set forth by the college in order to determine your conferral date and to allow for efficient processing of student files between the necessary offices.

It’s important to note that this approval process may take some time (up to two months, at times), as many students graduate at the end of every term. Typically, students see their graduation status change about 3-4 weeks before their assigned conferral date. For example, if your assigned conferral date is December 19th, you may not see your status change until November 28th. Once you are cleared for graduation, a packet is mailed to the address listed on your file. You have until two weeks before your conferral date to submit, in writing, any additions/corrections you wish to make to your final transcript. With timely payment of your graduation fee (if applicable), your physical diploma and a student copy of your transcript are sent out on your assigned conferral date.

Getting Your Diploma – An Important Part of the Degree Conferral Process

Excelsior’s advisors understand the excitement and oftentimes the anxiety that come along with finishing up your degree; you just want that coveted piece of paper in hand showing that your hard work was not for naught. We thank you for your patience as we at Excelsior do the heavy lifting to get that diploma in your mailbox as soon as we can. In the meantime, sit back and enjoy that celebration dinner you have scheduled with family and friends. You’ve earned it!

To access the PDF document containing the full list of conferral dates and the appropriate deadlines, please visit MyExcelsior (requires login).

 

8 Tips For 8-Week Courses

Posted on by Excelsior Staff
Kendra Jones
Kendra Jones

Accelerated courses can be ideal for working adults trying to fit higher education into their busy lives.  But completing the work for a three-credit course in about half the time of a traditional term can also be very challenging.  In this brief video, Excelsior’s Kendra Jones shares eight tips for success in eight-week courses.  The guidance provided here will help you to prepare before the start of the course term, take full advantage of all of the available resources, and interact effectively with your instructor and other students.  Enjoy the video, and good luck in your course!

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