Eduardo J. Padrón
President
Office of the President
300 N.E. Second Avenue
Miami, Florida 33132-2297
305-237-3316
epadron@mdc.edu
Message From the President
Monday, January 03, 2011
Kicking off a benchmark year
Happy New Year and welcome to the start of a new semester. I hope you enjoyed the winter break and are refreshed and ready for the exciting time ahead of us.
As I stated in my holiday message, we achieved a lot in 2010. Our accomplishments are too numerous to outline here, but I'd like to recap some of the highlights with you.
Last year MDC:
- Celebrated our 50th anniversary with the smART exhibition and Golden Gala, raising more than $5 million for the American Dream Scholarship Fund.
- Launched the Confucius Institute, inaugurated the North Campus Science Complex and broke ground on Wolfson Campus' new Student Support Center.
Secured more than 50 grants totaling $16,315,964.
- Raised more than $100,000 in donations and relief supplies to aid those devastated by the earthquakes in Haiti.
- Received several prestigious institutional awards, including the 2010 Higher Education Civic Engagement award from The Washington Center, the CollegeKeys Compact 2010 Innovation Award for the Learning Outcomes initiative and, for the second year in a row, the Chronicle of Higher Education's Great Colleges to Work For distinction.
Earned several faculty awards for excellence in teaching and service-learning. Among the honorees were Elizabeth Nicoli-Suco, who was named Florida Professor of the Year by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, and Mercedes Medina, who received the 2010 Faculty Leader of the Year Award from The Washington Center.
- Graduated nearly 11,000 students, representing more than 100 countries, at seven commencement ceremonies.
- Made college history by winning the 2010 National Junior College Athletic Association women's softball championship and finishing the season with a record 51 wins.
- Revised the College’s mission, vision and values statement and developed a new five-year strategic plan.
- Offered new baccalaureate degrees in physician assistant studies, electronics engineering technology, supervision and management, and film, television & digital production, and two new accelerated associate degrees in computer information technology and business administration.
- Opened SingleStop outreach centers at North and Wolfson campuses to help boost student graduation rates, fight poverty and achieve a new level of social mobility in the community.
This list not only demonstrates how industrious we have been, but also shows that the College has a solid foundation to build on. We have a lot to look forward to this year; and while this is a challenging time from a fiscal standpoint, we have a sound plan in place to keep us moving in the right direction. I look forward to working together to make 2011 a year of record achievement.
Thank you.
Eduardo