Serving Our Nation's Finest

Charter Oak State College is dedicated to educating adults. All our services are designed with working adults in mind, and our success is measured by their ability to finish their degree and improve their workplace success. One important sub-set of that population is our nation's active military. These students are working to finish their degree while holding down a job and raising a family -- just like all our other adult students -- but they are often doing all of that while stationed overseas or at the frontlines.

With the 21st century military providing advanced communication capabilities, our active military students are able to continue working on their online courses while they are deployed. For me, someone who has been promoting distance learning as a major tool for increasing access to higher education, these stories about our soldier-students are tremendously compelling. We are truly transforming education from a location to an activity -- an activity that is available wherever the student finds herself or himself.

It is also true that our military members have always been at the forefront of distance education; in fact, they invented it. As a result, these students also expect us to provide a quality product. If increasing access was the first challenge for distance learning, improving quality is today's challenge. Our active military students serve as excellent evaluators for testing and improving our educational products.

For a student perspective, you can meet student and military mom Diana Jones who is featured in our "Community" video. Her video spotlights the tight virtual community that Charter Oak cultivates through its online classroom, and in her piece, Diana talks about the bond she has with her fellow students, which has fostered friendships beyond the classroom. She also expresses her appreciation for the loyalty of her admissions counselor, and the quick, positive feedback she receives when she has questions -- whether she is taking courses stateside or while stationed overseas.

Finally, I want to extend my gratitude to all of our military members who have served, or are now serving, our country.

Please join us!

Mark your calendars for October 27! The Charter Oak State College Foundation is sponsoring its annual Shea Lecture, which is FREE and open to the public. This yearly event is offered in memory of the College’s first President, Dr. Bernard Shea. The topic of this year’s lecture is a timely and fascinating one - the reliability of eyewitness testimony. The presentation will be delivered by Associate Professor of Psychology Jennifer Dysart of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who is an expert in eyewitness testimony. She will share her research into how we see and how we remember what we see. She is often asked to testify at major trials, and we are thrilled she can lend her expertise on this fascinating topic. Professor Dysart will be joined by a panel of police chiefs from Connecticut’s three largest cities.

We chose this topic for this year’s Shea Lecture because we believe it will resonate with our public safety students and alums. As many of you know, the College has a vibrant public safety program that has graduated nine Connecticut police chiefs. In fact, the panel of respondents includes Hartford Chief of Police Daryl K. Roberts, a COSC alum, and the recipient of the 2011 Charter Oak State College Foundation Innovation Award. This award will be given to the Chief, who recently announced his impending retirement at the end of the year, at the fundraising reception that will follow the Shea Lecture. Chief Roberts will be joined on the Shea panel by Bridgeport Chief of Police Joseph Gaudett , who is a current COSC public safety student, and New Haven Chief of Police Frank Limon. The lecture will be moderated by retired Branford Chief of Police and COSC alum John DeCarlo, PhD.

This thought-provoking event will be held at the Hartford Tower Auditorium, 22nd floor, 1 Hartford Plaza, Hartford, CT. This magnificent room is part of the Hartford Insurance Company’s building and the fun begins at 5:30 PM. We hope that those of you who live within driving distance of Hartford will come out for the lecture. In addition, we will be filming the talk so that it can be used in police training across the state. And if you would like to thank Chief Roberts for his 30 year career serving the citizens of Hartford, the fundraiser will give you a chance to shake his hand.

Our website has more information about the Shea Lecture. The staff and I are very excited about this event - will you be joining us?