From providing hands-on experiences to meeting work force demands in the community, Barry University continues to provide the future of tomorrow with the knowledge, experience and tools to excel in the world’s ever-changing environment.
One of the university’s priorities is student success, said Barry University President Mike Allen.
“I think students today,” said Dr. Allen, “coming into college, particularly at Barry, are really looking for this personalized, holistic approach to their experience. So we are aligning our organizational structures and the talent within our organization to think about the student life cycle, from when they’re recruited, how they’re advised, and then infusing career advice from the moment they set foot on campus, ensuring that they get practical experience through internships, that they graduate, and then that they go on to get a great job.”
Another priority for the university, he said, is meeting the talent and workforce demands of the community. “The biggest area where that is occurring is in technology, and particularly the use of artificial intelligence (AI). For Barry, that’s occurring in two separate ways, but this is probably our greatest focus right now in terms of new and innovative programming.”
Dr. Allen said a new AI center was launched this semester. The focus of the center is to work with the university’s faculty, students, and truly think about the applications of AI.
“Every field is changing and evolving in really significant ways,” he said, “So, what does technology look like in healthcare? What does technology look like in business? If you want to become a teacher, how does the use of technology and AI help you become a better teacher? Really, infusing that in everything that we do through our new AI center is one piece of that. The other piece is, how do we use it as a very large organization to run the university in the most effective way that we can? And again, it’s using these new tools that all of us have, from a technology standpoint, to make ourselves better as an organization.”
Barry University, said Dr. Allen, just launched a new school of mental health, which is bringing together three mental health disciplines under one new umbrella: social work, counseling and psychology.
Dr. Allen explained that traditionally, at many schools, such disciplines reside in different silos around the university. Barry is bringing them together. However, they will keep “their distinct identity of who they are and what their discipline represents, but having them come together under this umbrella of mental health has great promise for us.”
The mental health needs and concerns of people of all ages are growing, he said, and Barry is aiming to address this through their school of mental health.
“Barry has always been known for, and takes great pride, in the teachers that we produce,” said Dr. Allen. “We know there’s such a tremendous demand for teachers out there. We have a program with an organization called BloomBoard. What that program does is it funds paraprofessionals who are in schools throughout the state who want to upskill to become certified teachers, and we do that through an accelerated program here at Barry.”
Another new program the university is proud of is a master’s in emergency management, said Dr. Allen. Barry has a program in emergency management, but now it is adding a master’s in order for individuals to obtain a more advanced degree in the field of study.
“Having well-trained emergency professionals out in our community is a huge value,” he said, “and at Barry, we’re very happy to contribute to that.”
Providing hands-on experiences to students is a form of learning the university is applying.
Other spaces where Barry is taking a leadership role, said Dr. Allen, is having students do what they call “learn by doing.”
The students, he said, learn by “actually getting out and being part of the professions that they want to join. For the longest time, the healthcare profession really had a corner on this approach, right? You’d spend some time in the classroom, and then you would learn how to be a nurse, or a doctor, or what have you, in a hospital. The way things are evolving in every field, in every discipline, students need to learn by experiencing the profession themselves while they’re students, whatever their field is.”
Barry is opening up to partnerships with industries and others, said Dr. Allen, to “say, ‘come in and talk to us and show us what you want to see in our graduates. Talk to us about the skills and talents that they need to have to be able to thrive at your companies when they graduate.’”
A high point of emphasis for Barry, he said, is making sure that regardless of the field students are studying, “they get the opportunity to learn by doing while they’re on our campus.”
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