Leary: Flexibilty key to LCCC serving students

Apr. 30—For outgoing Luzerne County Community College President Thomas Leary, the key to the future of higher education is flexibility.

"That's our mission in serving Northeastern Pennsylvania," said Leary, who is set to retire in June. "It's about having that flexibility and responding to regional needs."

Evolving to meet those needs has always been a constant priority for LCCC. Recently, Leary said, the number one issue on families' minds has been the cost of education, which has risen significantly in recent years.

"We have been most diligent over many years to remain the most affordable option for students. We understand that there are so many other financial obligations that families and individuals have. So, what we've done is we have maintained a tuition and students can access grants and scholarships where they can leave Luzerne County Community College with very little or no debt," he explained.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, LCCC has also found innovative ways to expand its learning options to best suit individual students, whether they want to take classes in-person or online or a hybrid of the two.

LCCC also expanded its tutoring services online, where students have access to it 24/7.

"You know, we have students at three o'clock in the morning who are doing work, and they can get on with a tutor and get the help that they need," Leary said.

According to the president, LCCC is also engaged in more local partnerships than ever before, providing students with more employment opportunities, as well as working to fill in gaps in the employment sector.

For example, in 2022 in conjunction with Geisinger, the school launched a program to provide an associate's degree in Applied Medical Science to help fill a need for certified medical assistants.

Additionally, with students changing careers more frequently and employers looking for workers who are multifaceted, LCCC developed a new initiative last year called, "Thrive for Five."

The school took an existing program and turned it into a short-term, hands-on training program to provide needed skilled labor to local manufacturers in five trades programs — electrical, plumbing/HVAC, industrial maintenance, machining, and welding.

"So, when students graduate, they're flexible enough and have the type of preparation where they can go into different sectors and and proceed in those sectors in terms of good employment opportunities," Leary said.

He added, "They can transition into other areas as technology changes, as the workforce changes, and be able to maintain employment."

LCCC has kept up with changing demographics in the region as well.

Leary pointed to LCCC's English as a Second Language program, which was started a few years back, as an example of one of the ways the school has continued to innovate and evolve in order to keep higher education accessible and affordable to all citizens.

"The future holds for higher education to be the leader in assimilating people into our communities from wherever they come from, and building both a social and an economic base that people feel that they have opportunities to thrive."