Brenden Rickards, Interim President, Rowan College of South Jersey

Higher education has a reputational problem in the United States, as many people no longer see the return on investment from going to college. “The higher education sector needs to get its reputation back,” Brenden Rickards, interim president of Rowan College of South Jersey, told Invest:. “We need a reputation where we’re of value, and there is return on investment. If you don’t have an ROI, you don’t exist, and RCSJ continues to grow its ROI by partnering with business and industry to educate students to meet industry needs.”

What were the key highlights and achievements for Rowan College of South Jersey in the past 12 months?

Over the past year, RCSJ has celebrated numerous achievements, including being named one of the nation’s Top 150 Community Colleges by the Aspen Institute. The College expanded academic and career pathways through partnerships with Rowan University and Inspira Health to introduce the Pathway to Nursing program, enabling students to earn their B.S.N. through the 3+1 Nursing model, and with Rowan University and the Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine to launch the Pathway to Medicine. Rowan Medicine—working alongside Cumberland County leadership and Virtua Health—also opened its first clinical facility on the Cumberland campus. In addition, RCSJ established The Academy for Neurodiversity through a unique collaboration with the Schools for Neurodiversity at the Gloucester County Special Services School District, Rowan University and its medical schools, and Gloucester and Cumberland counties. We strengthened community engagement by partnering with Junior Achievement of New Jersey to open a satellite office on the Gloucester campus, serving as JANJ’s first expansion site and the hub for its southern New Jersey initiatives. RCSJ also launched the Lita Marcelo Abele (LMA) Institute for Business Studies, created a new honor society—Tri-Alpha—for first-generation students with scholarship support from the OceanFirst Bank Foundation, and celebrated athletic excellence as the RCSJ Roadrunners earned the 2023–2024 Learfield Directors’ Cup for Two-Year Colleges.

Two future projects include expanding veterinary medicine pathways in partnership with Rowan University, as well as opening a dental clinic in Cumberland County for dental assistants. Rowan’s veterinary school will be the only one in New Jersey and one of only 33 in the United States.

Why did the school get involved in other areas like veterinary medicine?

RCSJ has offered programs in veterinary medicine, like equine science, for years, and with the University building the School of Veterinary Medicine, we will be able to seamlessly pathway our students through the doctoral level, filling a need in the workforce in our region. New Jersey doesn’t have a veterinary school, so this is all new territory. 

We have also made moves into dentistry, beginning with a certificate and associate degree in dental assisting, and we will eventually expand to a dental hygienist associate degree. We talked to those in the industry, such as the New Jersey Dental Association, regarding the need, and we were met with enthusiasm when we said we would pursue building the program at RCSJ.

How is the education model changing?

The student of today brings to the table almost as many behavioral or emotional health needs as they do academic needs. The population we’re serving is post-pandemic, and they are questioning their educational pathway and future career path. Our delivery methods of instruction have changed to meet the needs of our students – we offer a combination of traditional, online, and hybrid learning as well as 15-, 10-, 7-, and 5-week courses.  

To sum up, we have taken steps, based on post-pandemic student needs, expanding services in mental wellness, food insecurities, academic support services, and internship placement, for college, traditional, and non-traditional 18-year-olds and 28-year-olds, and give them relevant study in areas that lead to careers – not jobs, careers.

We have also forged a relationship with Workforce Development under the Department of Labor to give the workforce centers in Gloucester and Cumberland a presence on the college campuses here. We have workforce development, we have a medical school, and we have a hospital structure support system. And, as a military-friendly designated school nationally and by the state of New Jersey, we work with veterans, and we’re in conversation with the Veterans Administration about establishing VA clinics in the southern part of New Jersey and the northern part of Delaware.

Can you comment on your collaboration with the Bridgeton Public School System?

The state of New Jersey has been looking for ways to assist the student body in the Bridgeton School System. They need support and assistance. We offer the GEAR UP program, where we go into the Bridgeton middle schools and work with sixth, seventh, and eighth graders to support them academically and behaviorally, but also in an aspirational and inspirational way in terms of wanting to pursue education beyond high school, including the trades. We’re developing education and career pathways for all students. 

What is the outlook for higher education in New Jersey over the next couple of years? 

Higher education needs to build its reputation back. We need to get it to where people say, I want that. I want my son or daughter to have a better life than I have, and to get there, they need to get an education beyond a high school diploma. 

Secondly, we need to recognize that today’s student is different. We’re going to have to build more support systems. At our college, we spend as much money on behavioral support professionals as we do on academic faculty. 

We have to accept these changes as a society and provide those services for our students. We are in the service of people. We also need to recognize its origin. I believe the pandemic has influenced us greatly, and we need to walk and talk our people out of the darkness and inspire a willingness to reengage. We need a reputation where we’re of value and there is an ROI. If you don’t have an ROI, you don’t exist.