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College Background
Celebrating over 225 years since its founding, Hartwick College is an engaged community integrating a liberal arts education with experiential learning to inspire curiosity, critical thinking, and an enduring passion for learning. After only 10 months from hearing about Rize for the first time, Hartwick’s faculty voted to launch 5 new programs in Fall 2023 including Cybersecurity, Analytics, Digital Marketing, Web Design and Game Development. Each of these new programs maintained ~80 - 90% of instruction face-to-face with 10% - 20% powered by the Rize platform.
“While Hartwick remains committed to its identity as a residential liberal arts institution, incorporating this additional learning modality not only broadens [students’] educational foundation but also equips them with valuable skills that are essential for future professional development and success in the job market.” – Matthew Sanford, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs
Celebrating over 225 years since its founding, Hartwick College is an engaged community integrating a liberal arts education with experiential learning to inspire curiosity, critical thinking, and an enduring passion for learning. Dr. Laurel Bongiorno, Vice President For Academic Affairs and Provost, shares, “Hartwick is the land of opportunities. Students can participate in international travel courses and study abroad. They can engage with our environmental campus. They can work at internships domestically and all over the world and study online. We have so many opportunities that also help students focus on life balance.”
Director of the Center for Student Success Dr. Clara Barnhart adds, “Hartwick is preserving opportunities for students to explore the liberal arts and to engage with experiences that they might not have a chance to do at any other time in their life.”
Hartwick knows that providing students with wide-ranging opportunities while fostering an intimate, personalized and balanced learning environment is key to their value proposition and enrollment success. Students choose Hartwick for a multitude of reasons that coalesce to create the right fit. With the College’s signature FlightPath approach, students are encouraged to develop a roadmap to their academic and professional development, ensuring they’re prepared to succeed when they graduate. The academics, the campus, the co-curriculars and the experiential learning opportunities combine into a differentiated offering compared to other opportunities.
Rita Chistiakova is a junior whose story of choosing Hartwick reinforces this reality:
"I was doing research and found Hartwick. I saw the magnificent view of the campus. I checked if they had a Computer Science program because that’s what I wanted to do, and they did. There were a lot of opportunities, a lot of organizations on campus. So I decided to go for it. I was screaming when I got the acceptance letter. I was so happy."
Recruiting and retaining students like Rita demands a personalized, experiential learning environment paired with an academic portfolio that includes relevant subjects and an array of career opportunities.
Maintaining the “land of opportunities” as a smaller institution has gotten increasingly difficult as the broader labor market evolves quickly and as students expect more flexibility and more career pathways and support. But Hartwick is an institution that knows how to work through challenges. Hartwick has a long-standing culture of faculty and staff partnering together to find innovative ways to serve students.
Coming out of the COVID pandemic, Dr. Bongiorno and faculty collaboratively identified the expansion of online learning options as an avenue to meet shifting student preferences, which some liked as a learning tool. A survey by McKinsey found that nearly 65% of students want some elements of their learning experience to remain virtual post-pandemic. A similar report from Anthology found that only 20% of students want entirely face-to-face courses, with the majority wanting a hybrid experience.
Hartwick believed that an intelligent blending of online and face-to-face courses could preserve the intimacy of the Hartwick campus, while simultaneously expanding academic programming and career pathways for students.
“Faculty and staff members sent me articles about Rize, and I started seeing Rize in a variety of ways. So I engaged a group of faculty to evaluate a partnership.” Dr. Bongiorno re-emphasizes, “An important part of bringing Rize to our campus was the collaborative interactions that I have developed with our faculty and making sure they were in the conversation from the beginning as we explored a partnership.”
After working with the Rize partnerships team through the spring semester, Hartwick’s faculty voted to launch 5 new programs in Fall 2023 including Cybersecurity, Analytics, Digital Marketing, Web Design and Game Development. Each of these new programs maintained ~80 - 90% of instruction face-to-face with 10% - 20% powered by the Rize platform.
Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer and Information Sciences Howard Lichtman reflects positively on the program development process: “every Rize program is customized dependent upon the needs of the institution. For example, when I was building a Cybersecurity program with Rize, my goal was not just to make it a good, successful Cybersecurity program because there are plenty of schools that have great Cybersecurity programs. My goal was to make a Cybersecurity program that was both a good program and at the same time uniquely Hartwick.”
Professor Lichtman continues,
"It took some of the faculty by surprise because they're used to one program taking years to build. Within 10 months of first hearing about Rize, we had 5 programs approved by the New York State Department of Education."
After receiving approval, the partnership’s focus shifted toward recruitment and retention connected to the core goal of deepening Hartwick’s value proposition. Building the partnership over the last two years, there are now 56 current students and growing who have declared a Hartwick major supported by Rize online courses.
A significant factor in students’ college decision-making process is whether a campus offers a desired major or program. According to past surveys from New America, NCES and Inside Higher Ed, the vast majority of students consider having their desired program of study available as an important or very important factor when choosing a college .
Hartwick’s on-the-ground experience with Rize matches trends.
Dr. Barnhart states, “These programs have become key to being competitive because these are options that students are looking for. The courses may be related to a chosen new major or may be offered as an elective, but even just getting some baseline skill development in these high-interest areas is something that's really important to today's students.”
Professor Lichtman adds, “Do I think these new options are bringing more students? Yes, I think in the past students who looked at Hartwick and maybe another school would choose the other school because it had Cybersecurity. That’s what they wanted. Now we can compete on that level and say, ‘we have Cybersecurity, too.’”
Beyond new student recruitment, these new majors and minors are tools to retain current students. Professor Lichtman: “Rize is the retention tool that we want. In the past, whenever students came to me with another interest, we didn't have a way to fill that interest. All we could do was offer them Computer Science. But now, we can offer them customized solutions that better fit what they want. I think that's going to create a stronger student body because when they graduate, they'll be better prepared for whatever they meet.”
Lindsey Jones’ is a senior who remarks, “My Hartwick experience would have been very different if I didn't have Cybersecurity. Computer Science has a lot of branches, so to learn Cybersecurity opens up many more opportunities instead of just coding. I'm really proud to have that opportunity.”
James Mendez is a rising junior double majoring in Computer Science and Game Development. He shares how excited he was when Hartwick added Game Development as a major: “When I first got to Hartwick, I originally planned to only do Computer Science, but in the back of my mind, I wanted to do Game Development. When I heard the announcement that there was going to be a collaboration between Hartwick and Rize, I was really excited. I'm just glad to have the opportunity to study Game Development.”
Hartwick is pleased with the immediate value that the Rize partnership has created by widening its menu of options, but the College knows that the key to driving enrollment in the long-term is delivering student satisfaction and outcomes.
Demand has been clear from the very first semester where student participation well exceeded Hartwick’s original expectations. More importantly, students are enjoying their experience with 81% of students sharing they are likely to recommend their Rize-powered courses. Two students, Rita Chistiakova and Mike Kuchinski, highlight career preparation and instructor support as two key ingredients for success.
Rita recently obtained her CompTIA Security+ certification after completing several courses, something Mike highlights as a valuable component of Rize: “I think certifications are very important. They put your job application just a little higher up on the pile. Anything to get a little higher up is definitely beneficial.”
Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs and Registrar Matthew Sanford adds,“Rize excels at preparing students for the realities of the professional world by immersing them in a digital, online learning environment. By offering students these experiences, we enhance their readiness for future success. While Hartwick remains committed to its identity as a residential liberal arts institution, incorporating this additional learning modality not only broadens their educational foundation but also equips them with valuable skills that are essential for future professional development and success in the job market.”
Mike also loves the large amount of support provided through both thoughtful course design and instructor support: “I like how there's a lot of resources. Rize doesn’t just throw you in there. We were very well prepared, which was originally a fear of mine going into the course because I'm a very hands-on learner. But we had great resources and the teacher replied very quickly if I ever had any questions. It’s a very well thought-out system.”
Working with a partner who prioritizes student support was a core requirement for Hartwick as they explored launching hybrid programs, because personalized attention is core to the Hartwick experience. Dr. Barnhart adds,
"We stress that it's a real community that you get to be a part of. There are a lot of people supporting you – people that you actually get to know and who care about you. Whether it's staff members, faculty or other students like you, people will know your face here. I think that that's pretty special."
Dr. Barnhart believes Rize’s support aligns with this longstanding emphasis: “We were all impressed with how much the Rize team does with outreach to students taking Rize classes. We assumed that we would have to do most of that, but Rize gives us visibility into who needs help which makes it easy for Hartwick to focus on the students that we should really be focused on. Everyone has been great and very accessible with quick answers to any questions or concerns. With any partnership like this, things come up that are unexpected. But any time that has happened, Rize communicated well and gave us proactive information. That builds trust, and it was a good indication to me of how the partnership would go.”
Looking ahead, Hartwick will continue to innovate to meet the shifting needs of students and deliver the types of opportunities that support students as well as drive recruitment and retention. Embracing a hybrid campus model through a partnership with Rize has been an important part of that mission and has received high praise from students.
In reflecting on the partnership, Dr. Bongiorno shares, “one way I think of Rize is as an incubator. Rize is helping us figure out where to go and what's next. I like that Rize assists us in discerning what will be next in our academic portfolio.”
Professor Lichtman adds, “As I'm watching emails and updates from Rize come through, especially with the new AI programs and the refreshed cutting-edge classes, I believe that the partnership with Rize will continue to evolve.”
Hartwick continues to innovate, and find new ways to provide students with a future-forward education. Building on 225 years of progress, and a culture of innovative thinking, they’re keeping the land of opportunity accessible for generations to come.
Download Hartwick's story here. If you’re interested in learning more about Hartwick College's story or how you can partner with Rize, request a call with our Academic Partnerships Team.
