Joe Bertolino, President, Stockton University

The main role of the university is to prepare students to be able to reinvent themselves multiple times throughout their lives, because the world we know right now will not be the world their children experience. “We want to teach students how to be able to pivot, adjust, change, and reinvent themselves as the world around them changes,” Joe Bertolino, president of Stockton University, shared with Invest:.

What is unique about Stockton University?

About 50% of our students are first-generation college students. We provide access to students in communities that otherwise might not have that access.

The vast majority of individuals with a bachelor’s degree got their degree from public regional universities like Stockton. We always hear about the prestigious institutions and the big-name institutions, or those institutions affiliated with research or athletics. Institutions like Stockton were founded specifically to educate community members in the community where they reside.

There isn’t another public regional institution within a nearly 50-mile radius of Stockton. We are located in the southeasternmost part of the state, which I would characterize as economically challenged. We have two primary campuses. The main campus in Galloway Township sits on 1,600 acres of rural woodlands, surrounded mainly by farms. In addition, we have an urban campus in Atlantic City, and the wealth disparity in that area is significant.

Most of our nearly 9,000 students come from this region and are from working-class families. About 85% of our students work and are on some type of financial aid. We serve a large number of students who are socioeconomically challenged. Why is that important? Because we are an institution that is in and of the community we serve.

Most of the students are not only from this region, and from the state, and they will likely stay here in New Jersey. They will become employees in the state and employers in the state. As I often remind our business leaders and our legislators, they will be customers in the state, they will pay taxes in the state, and they will be voters in the state. 

More than any other type of institution, it is the public regionals that educate the people in this state who stay in this state and who, in turn, become the human economic drivers of the state.

What are your institution’s initiatives for workforce development?

In Atlantic City, we offer our Live, Work, Learn program each summer. In our fourth year, we had well over 500 applications for about 200 slots. Through the program, a student will be connected to an employer in the region. The employer agrees to provide the student with a paid internship and/or summer employment. In addition, they pay for the students’ campus housing for the summer. So, they live here, they work here, and they are learning in the process because we are also providing an academic component with career readiness training.

Secondly, we have developed strong relationships with community colleges throughout the state. The community colleges serve as an important conduit for first-generation college and nontraditional students, and also for students who may be facing academic or economic challenges.

Our transfer pathways program allows us to provide a low-cost, high-quality education. For example, we have strategic partnerships where students can take their first three years of classes at their local community college, at the community college rate, and then complete their last year with Stockton and earn a Stockton degree. 

Additionally, we have about 2,500 high school students who are currently enrolled at Stockton through our dual enrollment program, where they earn college credits for select courses they complete in high school.

These relationships are key to our role in the community and the workforce, and the economic development of the region. We are investing in the community, and the state and the community invest in Stockton.

What do you think about the value proposition of college education?

The data still shows that from an economic perspective, an individual who has completed a four-year degree will have a better long-term financial impact on their lives.

But that isn’t always the selling point. What I remind people is that we hear time and time again from employers that they’re not just looking for individuals who know how to do a particular job, but instead are looking for individuals who know how to think critically, to be creative, to be innovative, to take risks, and to be able to communicate in a variety of different ways. They want people who understand how to use the technology and who understand how to build, form, and maintain relationships. That’s where higher education comes in, because we provide all those opportunities. We are at our core a liberal arts institution.

At Stockton, we take an authentic, interdisciplinary approach to education. It’s an interesting curriculum because it provides maximum flexibility. It will provide better financial options for you. It will open more doors for you from a career perspective, and it will allow you to develop and expose you to other facets of the world and other skill sets that you may not even realize in preparation for your future.

What is the role of the University in preparing students for the future?

Stockton is preparing students to reinvent themselves multiple times throughout their lives because the world we know right now will not be the world their children experience. We want to teach students how to be able to pivot, adjust, change, and reinvent themselves as the world around them changes.

Additionally, we focus on creating an ethic of care. At Stockton, we ask the members of our community and our students to be part of something bigger than themselves. An ethic of care means that we agree, as members of this community, to treat ourselves and others with dignity, respect, kindness, compassion, and civility.

If we educate our students to stop and listen to other people’s narratives and learn how to appropriately share those narratives, we would be in a better position because we are talking about what it means to be a human being. That is where higher education can engage in a different conversation.