Boldly engaging… these are the words that reflect how we will achieve the dynamic future we envision for the State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, in 2020. We will boldly engage our community, students, donors and our faculty and staff to create a future for the next five years and beyond that allows us to grow, adapt and achieve our mission.

We officially launched our 2015-2020 Strategic Plan this week, and I invite you to take a look at www.scf/StrategicPlan to see how we plan to achieve that future for our community’s college.

Our four strategic priorities allow us to set bold goals that reflect the explosive growth of our community, the changing educational needs of our students and employers, and position the college as an essential asset in the economic, educational and cultural life of our community:

• Strategic Priority 1: Ensure that SCF programs are available to students in all geographic locations of our service region.

• Strategic Priority 2: Develop a concierge-style experience focused on enhancing student recruitment and performance outcomes.

• Strategic Priority 3: Aggressively engage faculty/program managers/business and community leaders in collaborative curriculum development from start to implementation for programs that are rapidly responsive to workforce needs.

• Strategic Priority 4: Establish SCF’s central role in the educational, cultural and workforce development of our service region.

Seven enabling strategies represent the foundational activities that we must accomplish to achieve our strategic priorities. Each enabling strategy contributes to multiple priorities and allows us to progressively accomplish our strategic plan and build a better, more impactful SCF.

SCF’s 2015-2020 Strategic Plan is a melding of my vision for the college with the invaluable input from our community and our own students, faculty and staff. This plan is the result of multiple surveys, focus groups and feedback sessions. We are the Manatee-Sarasota community’s college and I believe this plan will take us into the future together with a shared vision.

College presidents don’t leave legacies and I am convinced that those who try are on a futile journey. College presidents have the privilege of helping guide a faculty, staff and a student body toward achieving their goals, ultimately enriching their lives, the lives of their families and our communities.  When that becomes the focus then the college president can encourage parents, alumni, community and business partners, donors and even our legislative leaders to join in that noble venture.

The plan and videos you can see at www.scf/StrategicPlan are the beginning of our venture, a road map to where we see the college going in the next five years. I need your help to reach these milestones. I encourage you to get involved in this plan and partner with me.  I know we share a passion for our community’s future.

I invite you to boldly engage with us as we turn our vision for SCF into reality.

Dr. Carol Probstfeld is president of State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota.