February 17 Pre-Reflection: Bay of Plenty Polytechnic

When we were asked to look at different institutions, and Bay of Plenty Polytechnic was my groups assigned institution, I felt it was a fitting match for me. From what I’ve been able to gather about the Polytechnic’s in New Zealand, they are very similar to the Community Colleges in the United States. I have been working at Owens Community College as an Academic Advisor since May of 2011 and I have found that, at least through my experience, there is an emphasis on helping students become a successful and functional part of society. At Owen’s “we believe in serving our students and our communities. Your success is our mission”. Oftentimes I’ve found that mission statements don’t always align with the actions of the institution or rather the espoused values of the institution do not match the enacted values. I’ve found, at least through my experience, that Owens, employees understand and believe the values of the institutional mission and truly put it into action (maybe because it’s simple, yet effective). Now, I realize that this is only my experience and no one else’s but I wonder if this is something that is common among many community colleges, thus perhaps Polytechnic’s as well

 (perhaps I’m stretching and reaching a bit too far, but I feel it’s a valid question that I hope is brought into a better light upon going to Bay of Plenty Polytechnic).

There are a few reasons why I’m interested in knowing how institutional mission’s align with enacted values at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic:
1. I focused on the institutional mission for this assignment.
2. Last semester (Fall 2011) I worked on a project that applied change theories to institutional mission.
3. I’m impressed with how well Owens seems to follow its mission.
4. The similarities between our Community Colleges and the Polytechnics
5. The mission of an institution, even if not enacted is something that helps outsiders to form an idea of what an institution is about, without setting foot on the campus (so, basically what we did for this assignment)… it sets the tone.

 With that being said, what did I find?

 To create this I highlighted phrases and descriptive words that explained Bay of Polytechnic on their website to eliminate extraneous and filler words. I then compiled the words and listed below to create Wordle graphics (there isn’t a national color for New Zealand… minus their flag of red, white, and blue… which seemed too USA to me (I know they like Black… their Rugby teams name is “All Blacks”… which is why I chose darker colors)

I then pasted those words into a word count, deleted words like “and” and “your” and then listed the top 15 words used from there.

 fulfill your dreams Hands-on learning discover your strengths and potential discover your strengths and potential build lifelong relationships with like-minded students and passionate staff essential industry contacts foster and nurture your talents reach your personal and professional potential passionate, creative and supportive range of different backgrounds and experiences reach their fullest potential dedicated to our students providing the best possible learning and teaching experience vibrant, friendly atmosphere talented hospitality passionate highly skilled and experienced professionals motivated, creative, innovative, curious and have a passion to help others succeed teachers, learners, helpers, coaches, artists, researchers, environmentalists, innovators and champions reach our fullest potential. Success Through Learning’

 Top 15 words used:
1. potential
2. reach
3. passionate
4. learning
5. students
6. strengths
7. discover
8. creative
9. vibrant 
10. teaching 
11. talents 
12. supportive 
13. success 
14. staff 
15. skilled 


 Something I find interesting is that they DO have a mission statement… but it isn’t listed on their site. I found it once on their site when a faculty members explanation but it’s never REFERENCED 
(http://www.boppoly.ac.nz/go/pikiarero-teaching-learning-development-centre/meet-pikiarero-team... Judith mentions the mission). But I found it stated out on http://www.justice.govt.nz .


Something to note: they mentioned “discover your strengths and potential” and “fullest potential” quite a few times http://www.justice.govt.nz/publications/global-publications/d/directory-of-official-information-archive/directory-of-official-information-december-2005/alphabetical-list-of-entries-1/b/bay-of-plenty-polytechnic 


 I’m looking forward to going to this institution and seeing how much they seem to enact their mission. From my investigation of other institution’s websites, I believe that I will like Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, especially because of the commonalities it shares with Owens Community College.