5/26/2015Dave HawnPage
Dave Hawn, Chief Executive
of ECMC Group and Zenith Education GroupPage Content
As Chief Executive of both Zenith and ECMC Group, I haven’t had the opportunity to meet as many of you as I would like, but I am committed to keeping you informed about where we are headed as an organization. I plan to use this forum as one communication vehicle, but also plan to invite other key current and future members of the senior leadership team to “guest blog” so you can meet them too. I’ll start today with a high level look at the future, and in subsequent written and video blogs, explore some of the key topics mentioned here in greater detail.
As evidenced by Zenith’s first four months of operation, change will be a constant as we build the country’s finest system of career schools. We’ve made remarkable progress in a very short period of time, in ways that are meaningful for students. Our programs are now more affordable and we’ve eliminated institutional lending in our schools. We’ve begun to phase out programs with unacceptable student outcomes. We are well into an organizational restructuring to help align the size of our workforce with the student population, flatten the management structure, and shift more responsibilities to our campuses.
These initiatives have helped move Zenith in a positive direction, and they have tested our resilience as individuals and as an organization. At ECMC Group and Zenith, we’ve had to make tough decisions, let go of preconceived ideas, question old methods and develop new ones. We can expect more change—and will have to embrace it—as we redouble our efforts to improve the student experience, increase efficiencies and adjust to enrollment trends. Despite the challenges, I remain steadfast in my optimism about Zenith’s future, and speaking on behalf of ECMC Group, Zenith’s parent company, we are in it for the long haul.
Over the next 2-3 years, we expect to invest tens of millions of dollars in strengthening our schools. We have identified best practices at several campuses that we plan to implement widely, such as a robust student orientation program or “Save Our Students” meetings to focus on students at risk of dropping out. We are prioritizing a host of technology initiatives for implementation, including improved internet access and significant upgrades to CampusVue, our core student information system. We are planning to transplant some of our existing programs at other campuses such as Dental Assisting and Nursing, and to launch new higher-end programs geared to labor market demand, such as Respiratory Technician, Health Information Technician, Process Control Technician and Renewable Energy Technician. With the recent hiring of our SVP Student Success, Karen Turner, we will be developing new and improved partnerships with regional and local employers.
In addition, our ECMC Foundation is investing $2.5 million over the next two years in its Campaign for Innovation. It was terrific to see so many of you send in submissions to the campaign—thank you! We have decided to award grants of up to $25,000 for 23 of your ideas and more than $25,000 for 33 of the ideas. We will share more specifics about these grants in future communications.
Like all of you, I want to fill the empty seats in our classrooms, as there are thousands of students who can benefit from our programs. To help attract more students, we are developing a new marketing program to help reposition the Everest brand and better reflect the new direction of the organization. Our intent and commitment, through our marketing as well as our admissions and student finance advisors, is to provide accurate information to help each prospective student make a quality decision about where to attend school. Until the new marketing program is launched, we have eliminated some of Everest’s older commercials and added a new one which features our 20 percent tuition reduction and Everest’s new nonprofit status.
Again, in future posts and videos we’ll delve deeper into key topics as marketing, technology investments, best practices, new programs and innovation. For now, please accept my sincere thanks for everything you are doing to help our students and graduates progress toward their dreams. Their success is our success.