I clearly remember land navigation training while serving in the Army. The clarity, however, is in my memory not necessarily in my ability to clearly read a compass and map.
During basic training in the 1980s, we used a paper map and compass. Mapping the route, shooting the azimuth, and calculating distance by step count was actually fun, at least in the daylight. At night, my skills diminished quickly, and I passed the test by the skin of my teeth.
Later, while planning for a nighttime airborne mission, I realized identifying the location for my headquarters platoon could be difficult. The forecast was cloudy, and there would be no moonlight. So, I implemented my own pathfinder idea.
Our jump out of a perfectly good airplane went well. My platoon assembled quickly. I put on my night vision goggles, and we made our way directly to the headquarters location. While the teams were setting up, my lieutenant expressed surprise at how easily I had found the designated location. I suggested he switch his goggles to infrared. That’s when he saw the path lit by infrared ChemLights my “pathfinder” had placed several hours before the mission started.
At Â鶹ÊÓƵ, we do not have infrared ChemLights marking the way forward. Instead, we rely on a shared vision, strong governance, and a clear plan.
The Â鶹ÊÓƵ Board of Trustees recently approved the college’s 2026–2030 Strategic Plan, titled Right Where You Belong (https://mcdowelltech.edu/mission-values-goals). I am grateful for the Board’s leadership and support, and I am thankful for the faculty, staff, students, and community partners who helped shape the plan.
At its heart, this plan is about people. It is about students who need opportunity, employers who need skilled workers, faculty and staff who make learning possible, and a community that grows stronger when education and work are connected.
Much like land navigation, the strategic plan helps us pause, look ahead, and ask important questions: Where are we going? How will we get there? And how will we know if we are making progress?
Our work remains grounded in Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s mission: “MTCC enriches our community with access to student-centered, affordable, high-quality, lifelong learning opportunities that promote workforce development.” We are also committed to our vision: “We learn and grow while focusing on individuals, our community, and our institution.”
The new strategic plan is built around four priority areas: Quality, Access, Success, and Impact.
Quality asks what we bring to students and what kind of learning environment we bring students into. Access asks who we reach and how easily they can enter. Success asks what happens after students arrive. Impact asks one more question: What happens after students complete their course of study?
That final question is one of the most important conversations happening in community college leadership today. For many years, colleges have focused on access, retention, and graduation. Those remain essential. But we must also ask whether a student’s credential leads to further education, employment, economic mobility, and a better life.
In other words, completion should lead somewhere meaningful.
That idea connects directly to the Good Jobs Western North Carolina initiative and to Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s proposed McDowell Manufacturing Momentum initiative, or M3. In a previous article, I shared that a good job is work that provides family-sustaining wages, stability, opportunities for advancement, and a clear connection between a person’s education, skills, purpose, and contribution to the community.
M3 is one example of how Â鶹ÊÓƵ intends to move from strategic planning to strategic action.
Through the Good Jobs WNC application process, Â鶹ÊÓƵ has been working closely with Baxter Healthcare, Smurfit Westrock, and Columbia Forest Products to better understand their workforce needs and design pathways that prepare students for real opportunities. They have shared that technical knowledge matters, but so do communication, professionalism, teamwork, accountability, attendance, safety awareness, and problem-solving. Those skills are not “extra.” They are essential to success in the workplace. So, M3 is designed to comprehensively meet employers’ technical and professional expectations.
This is what strategic-plan implementation should look like. M3 reflects Quality because it aligns instruction and training with employer needs. It reflects Access because it creates new entry points for students, adults, and workers seeking advancement. It reflects Success because students will receive support, advising, and career preparation that help them continue forward. And it reflects Impact because the goal is not simply to complete a class; the goal is to connect people to employment, wage growth, and long-term opportunity.
The new strategic plan gives us a shared map for that work. M3 is one early example of how the map can help fulfill our mission and vision. But the real energy behind the plan is our faculty and staff, who have a passion for students and for this community. They teach, advise, coach, encourage, and serve because they believe education can change lives.
Even without infrared ChemLights, I strive to be the kind of leader John Maxwell describes: “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Together, with the Â鶹ÊÓƵ team and our community partners, we will continue helping students discover that Â鶹ÊÓƵ is Right Where They Belong. To learn more about Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s programs and opportunities, visit.
