Harvard University studies Tuesday Night Live programming

The success of Tuesday Night Live at Hazard Community and Technical College has prompted students at Harvard University to study the innovative approach to supporting student success.

Tuesday Night Live (TNL) is an HCTC program designed to help busy, working adults be successful in college. The brainchild of Professors Jenny Williams, Amy Wernette and Michael Combs, the program includes hybrid classes that meet one night a week and fully online classes as well. Students testing at different levels attend the same classes in English and mathematics so they can quickly master the material with individualized attention. Children’s programming provides tutoring, homework assistance and STEM learning experiences to children of adult students at HCTC so finding childcare is not an issue. Supportive mentoring relationships are fostered through lab time with instructors, tutoring services, and shared healthy meals that are provided.

Harvard students Nicole E. Green and Jordan Wolff enrolled in a class called Community College Practicum taught by Dr. Ross Gittell, who was also the chancellor of the Community College System of New Hampshire at the time. He invited other state chancellors to present problems of practice that they would like students to address and students were allowed to self-select from there. Both Jordan and Nicole were drawn to KCTCS President Dr. Jay Box's presentation on the Tuesday Night Live program at HCTC.

“We thought it was an innovative approach and that belief was only confirmed through the additional research we did. The president of HCTC, Dr. Jennifer Lindon, was incredibly helpful in addressing our questions and providing us with additional documents/information, as were the members of the faculty who were kind enough to meet with us virtually. Dr. Box was most interested in if and how the Tuesday Night Live program could be improved and expanded into other colleges in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System,” noted Nicole, adding, “The project was a highlight of my time at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.”

Dr. Lindon noted that she was honored to see a program created at HCTC received such attention. “We are fortunate to have faculty members who came up with this idea. They worked consistently each week throughout each semester to meet the needs of the students. It is especially gratifying to see we created something at HCTC that other colleges deem worthy of implementing,” she said.