Academic Updates

Tennessee Wesleyan University academics continues to provide the highest quality educational experience to our students, preparing them to lead and serve in our world. Despite the challenges of the past year, we continue to seek new and innovative ways to serve the students of our region. I am excited to share with you a few recent academic initiatives at TWU.

Dr. Grant Willhite Vice President for Academic Affairs

NEW MASTER OF SCIENCE IN NURSING

In January 2022, the TWU-Fort Sanders Nursing Department welcomed the first cohort in the new Master of Science in Nursing program. This program is offered entirely online and contains two tracks in nursing administration and nursing education. Pathways have been developed for bachelor’s prepared nurses and RN-BSN online students. The tracks are also available to master’s prepared nurses as certificate programs. TWU is proud to expand on our strong tradition of preparing the best nurses in the region.

DENTAL HYGIENE PROGRAM IS ROLLING

The TWU Dental Hygiene program was awarded a significant grant from the Johnson Family Foundation, allowing the program to expand the number of operatories in the clinic and access for disabled clients. The grant is staged over several years and will allow for the gradual increase in the number of students the program can serve. A transformative gift from Simmons Bank funded the wrapping of the Dental Hygiene Mobile Unit. This clinic on wheels allows TWU Dental Hygiene students to serve clients outside of the main clinic, such as local schools and other nonprofit agencies.

MBA PROGRAM EXPANDS

In 2021, the TWU Master of Business Administration program in the Goodfriend School of Business expanded its footprint with the addition of a Marketing concentration. With courses focused on advertising, consumer decision making, and eCommerce, this program adds a new, high-demand dimension to the TWU MBA. With the addition of the Marketing emphasis, a general track was also developed which allows MBA students the ability to choose courses from any emphasis in the MBA program.

NEW DIGITAL MARKETING MAJOR

The 2021-22 academic year saw the approval of a new interdisciplinary major in Digital Marketing. Students in Business Administration or Communications Studies may now choose to gain experience in e-marketing, graphic design, web design, and social media communication.

DUAL ENROLLMENT AT TWU

Several years ago, TWU worked closely with McMinn County High Schools to offer dual enrollment eligible courses at times that would allow local students to take University courses on TWU’s campus. This program has been successful with dual enrollment students performing exceptionally in TWU classes and with a number of local high school students taking multiple courses on the TWU campus. These on-campus dual enrollment students have access to student activities and student support services, giving them a true early college experience. This year, TWU has partnered with Lenoir City High School to pilot dual enrollment options in their CTE program. The first course was rolled out spring of 2022 in the Criminal Justice track. Other area school systems have also approached TWU about similar programs at their high schools. Likely areas of programming include business, criminal justice, education, health sciences, and digital design. THE BULLDOG CONNECTION

The Bulldog Connection program entered the second year of implementation in 2021. This innovative program ensures that all four-year TWU students are engaging in a minimum number of high impact practices (first year experience, undergraduate research, diversity/ global learning, service learning, internships, etc.). These experiences are linked to tangible products intended to support student efforts to gain employment or enter graduate or professional school following graduation.

Students also engage in intentional, guided reflection in each of these high impact practices to ensure that students connect the TWU experience to their career goals. Freshman students engage in intentional discussion about the value of the TWU experience (liberal arts and high impact practices). Sophomore students began this year in cultural diversity general education courses to connect the course content to their future career goals. In the next two years of implementation, students will engage in major embedded high impact practice courses and their senior capstone courses.

Read how our young alum are connecting their TWU experience to their career in our monthly Bulldog To... feature series.