Shannon Vargas

Excellence in Campus Operations
CHEP Status: Active
CHEP Awarded: 03/17/2024
Excellence in Leadership
CHEP Status: Active
CHEP Awarded: 06/02/2024

Badge Evidence | Completed Courses (4 Hours Each)

This course "pulls back the curtain" for schools to help them better understand the principles and purposes of the ACCSC Standards of Accreditation. ACCSC101, along with the accompanying course ACCSC102, lays out the standards in line with the way schools are typically structured to better help you comprehend the important relationship between each standard and each aspect of running a compliant, accredited school. This course addresses the standards on the administrative side of your school, such as standards that relate to operations, admissions, and financial aid.

This course is sponsored by ACCSC


This course focuses on the ACCSC Standards of Accreditation which directly tie to the academic areas and program requirements for an accredited school. The course includes information on program development and design, educational policies and procedures, faculty, student services, and educational delivery methods.

This course is sponsored by ACCSC


Since the inception of career education, it seems employers have consistently claimed that students lack so-called soft skills. Although there's no universal agreement on what to call them, the term represents a set of skills (including things such as teamwork and communication skills) regarded as essential for long-term success in the workforce. ACCSC refers to these types of skills as essential workforce skills. This course will help institutions adopt a framework for high-quality career education programs, holistically integrate essential workforce skills into their programs, enhance students' development and demonstration of them, and prepare to achieve Essential Workforce Skills (EWS) Programmatic Certification.
Effective communication skills are essential in every aspect of life - especially in our work with students. This course provides a foundational understanding of all forms of communication and offers new techniques to improve admissions performance. In addition, a communication hierarchy provides participants with an advanced understanding of rapport building and connecting with today's students.
Success in helping students begins with "connecting" in a meaningful way. These connections are formed through our ability to understand generational experiences and preferences in communication. Additionally, a better understanding of ourselves helps us connect with students. This course explores how to work better together by using common collaborative principles and improving teamwork.
This course is designed to assist personnel at all levels of an educational institution in the understanding of the provisions of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 ("Title IX") as amended on August 1, 2024, and the Clery Act as amended in the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 ("VAWA"). These laws require that all individuals in an educational institution understand and comply with the laws in terms of what is prohibited behavior in relation to sex-based harassment and/or sexual violence, and what steps are to be followed when such prohibited conduct occurs. This course gives the participants information about the laws, as well as procedures to follow, to provide for the rights of all individuals under the laws. It also provides additional resources to assist educational institutions in continuing to build and strengthen their Title IX and VAWA policies, procedures and training throughout the year.
This course will review Title IX, the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, and the Violence Against Women Act. In addition to the background of each topic, victim rights, support system implementation, and grievance policies will also be explored. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of the topic and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your school. In addition to lecture videos, links to resources, and assessments, you will be able to utilize the Journal and Learning Activities. Take advantage of a method that works best for you.
This course provides a blueprint for running an effective financial aid office in an educational institution. You will learn to optimize the performance of your financial aid office with a minimum of waste, expense, and unnecessary effort. The course covers the cornerstones of an efficient financial aid office: timeliness, accuracy and customer service. You will also be advised of pitfalls to avoid in the realm of Title IV compliance. You will learn the key points to building an effective business office processing procedure. Reports and notifications required by the Department of Education are also explained. In addition, you will be given pointers on preparation for the annual Student Financial Aid (SFA) compliance audit and alerted to the most common triggers for Department of Education Program Reviews.
This course offers proven-successful techniques that ultimately prevent student loan delinquencies and defaults. Because there is not one miracle that reduces the chance of student loan defaults, this compilation of ideas and practices collectively greatly reduces those risks by giving ownership of the loan responsibilities to the students who benefit from them. By integrating effective borrower education and interaction from the day your students walk through your front door, your students will embrace the state of mind needed to give them lifetime accountability for their Federal Student Loans obligations.
This course is designed for the financial aid representative who is familiar with the financial aid process, and the campus manager seeking to learn more. The course provides a detailed review of the FAFSA to ISIR/SAR application process, concentrating especially on the technical aspects of the process beyond timeliness and accuracy. The importance of documenting verification and clearing comment codes will be explored, in addition to your role in using professional judgment.
With a seemingly endless stream of new laws and regulations, institutions have become burdened with ensuring they are compliant, while continuing to give great customer service to their students and families and all while achieving larger institutional goals. The role of the Financial Aid Office in compliance cannot be underestimated, but the Director of Financial Aid cannot ensure compliance in a vacuum. This course is designed to examine the fundamentals of law and regulation, and of the enforcement process. More importantly, this course provides tools for School Directors, Chief Financial Officers, Enrollment Managers, and Financial Aid staff to develop and build compliant practices that don't interfere with effective operations, customer service or institutional goals.
This course will help participants to interpret the many rules and regulations that are required by educational institutions offering Title IV funding. It will aid in preparing management and faculty in recognizing that compliance is the responsibility of the entire institution and is not just the job of the Financial Aid Office. Course content will also aid the individual in building a "culture of compliance" which will encourage teamwork and secure the cooperation of others on campus.
This course explores the critical differences between management and leadership. Participants will be introduced to definitions and myths about each area as well as how management and leadership must coexist for an organization to operate effectively. Participants will explore their own management/leadership tendencies through exercises to see leadership and management in action.
Not everyone is suited for, or desires, a leadership position. One of the first steps to being an effective leader is to understand the desire to lead in the first place. Participants will explore their motivation to lead and develop a deeper understanding of their leader style(s).
Beyond understanding the role of the leader, the ultimate effectiveness and impact of a leader takes into consideration the followers and the situation, too. This course defines leadership impact and explores the Interactional Framework for Leadership.
The higher education industry provides a wealth of opportunities and challenges for those seeking leadership positions. In this course, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the higher education sector and themselves. The importance of higher education institutions will be explored along with developing a personal leadership legacy.
Get ready to add a number of skills to your toolkit as you develop as a leader! This course focuses on increased self-awareness in communication styles and learning; developing deeper understanding through empathic listening; and motivating through innovation.
This course provides you with a framework to put your self-discovery and learning into a workable plan to further develop your leadership skills. A step-by-step process is offered to help you create a meaningful Personal Leadership Development Plan (PLDP) complete with the development of SMART Goals and advice from some of today's leaders in the higher education sector.
This course provides a synopsis of the essential tasks of leadership setting direction, aligning people, and motivating others. You will learn how to recognize the skills and characteristics of effective leaders, create an inspiring vision, and energize people to support and work toward your goals.
In this course, you will learn how to establish a team with the right mix of skills and personalities and create a culture that promotes collaborative work. The course covers steps to leading an effective team and includes innovative, easy-to-implement self-evaluation tools.
Focus is essential to effective teamwork. In this course, you learn how to diagnose and overcome common problems - such as poor communication and interpersonal conflict - that can impede team progress. You will also learn to take corrective measures to remove team problems and improve team performance.
This course provides a timesaving guide to planning and conducting meetings from start to finish. It covers preparation, keeping the meeting on track, and follow-up. The course also offers expert advice for dealing with problem behaviors exhibited by meeting participants.
This course provides the nuts and bolts of project management, including project planning, budgeting, team-building, execution, and risk analysis. The course covers useful tools and techniques such as GANTT and PERT charts, Work Breakdown Structure, and variance analysis.
How well do you work with your supervisor? This course will help you develop a mutually rewarding relationship with your supervisor. You will learn proven techniques for effectively communicating and negotiating with your supervisor, presenting problems or opportunities and accepting responsibility for your proposed actions.
In this course, you will learn how to manage diversity to extract maximum value from your employees' differences - including how to recruit diverse talent, resolve diversity-related conflicts, and communicate with employees and customers from other cultures.
This course will show you how to set realistic goals, prioritize tasks, and track milestones to improve performance and morale.
In this course, you will learn how to manage your career - including how to identify your business interests, professional values, and skills in order to target your most exciting career possibilities.
This course will help you master effective time management techniques. You will learn to analyze how you currently spend your time and pinpoint opportunities for improvement. The course will show you how to plan your time efficiently using scheduling tools, control time-wasters, and evaluate your schedule once it is underway.
In this course, you will learn the difference between positive stress that enhances productivity and negative stress that breeds tension, lowers productivity, and undercuts job satisfaction. The course includes strategies for dealing with underlying causes of worry and stress, with tactical advice and coping mechanisms for immediate problem management.
Change is constant and is often met with resistance. This course will show you how to manage change constructively and navigate the ups and downs that inevitably accompany a change effort.
In this course, you will learn how to identify underlying issues related to a decision, generate and evaluate multiple alternatives, and then communicate and implement your decision.
What will your institution look like in five years? Growth takes change and the commitment of the stakeholders in your organization. A five-year plan is essential for any owner or director of an educational institution, no matter how long they have been in the business. It includes various elements such as your enrollment goals for all programs, plans for new programs, new profit center potential, fees and all financial aid opportunities, enhancement of student services, faculty and staff planning, marketing and development strategies, and planning for physical space to support your expansion goals. Also, development plans are often needed to satisfy licensing and accreditation requirements. This course covers the essential components and techniques involved in developing a comprehensive five-year plan. We will show you an effective step-by-step planning process that involves the participation of representatives from your institution including staff, instructors, students, graduates, and the employers who hire your graduates. The process encourages participants to share their knowledge and ideas, and everyone who participates in the process ultimately becomes a stakeholder in making the plan work. The course includes planning worksheets that you can download and use to help you develop your institution’s five-year plan.
How many times have we said “if we’d only known” as a student walks out the door? No one starts classes planning to fail, but unfortunately problems do arise that present barriers to success. Students are good at identifying these problems blocking their path to success, but they frequently don’t have adequate problem solving and communication skills needed to overcome these problems. This course looks at the effect of stress on attrition, the use of tools to identify and help students at risk, and how to develop an institutional culture that shares responsibility for student success across the entire organization.