It is a pleasure to welcome you to Navarro College/Ellis Center at Waxahachie.  You are enrolled in one of the fastest growing community college systems in the United States.  Your registration in English 1302 through the Navarro Distance Learning Program suggests that you are a successful student, not only with the skills but also with the personal discipline to succeed as an independent learner.

This course continues the fine tradition of excellence associated with Navarro College since its founding in 1946.  With its EMT and Nursing Programs, the CISCO Academy, Small Business Development Center, the Fire and Police Academies, and now its distance learning program, Navarro College is recognized rightfully as one of the most innovative and service-oriented colleges in the Southwest.

We are proud of recent improvements we have made in our learning facilities at the Ellis Center.  In one year, we have invested more than 1.2 million dollars in classroom additions and renovations, equipment purchases, parking facilities, and security features.  With more improvements slated for the future, it is little wonder that the Ellis Center supports the largest student body segment in the Navarro College system.

Our faculty members represent a wide spectrum of experience, training, and mastery of the delicate mechanisms of teaching and learning.  Most have more than a quarter century of experience in the classroom, and they bring to their courses and their students not only sensitivity, understanding, and caring, but also a commitment to student success and a discipline that represents the highest academic standards and expectations.

Most importantly, we are proud of you and our many other students, many of whom balance a complicated schedule of work, family commitments, and studies.  Navarro College is blessed with a diverse community of learners from more than forty countries around the world.  In such a community, we have as much to learn from each other, perhaps, as we do in our classes. 

Let me encourage you to get started quickly in your work for this course.  Keep in close contact with Dr. Grimes, your instructor, and let him know when you need assistance.  With its easy navigation and many supporting materials packed into this CD-ROM, as well as its links to many helpful online resources, this unit is only another method of instructional delivery; don't forget that your professor is most accessible and willing to work with you personally to help you to complete English 1302.  Know also, that if I or the staff at the Ellis Center can be of help to you, don't hesitate to contact us!

Sincerely,

Harold Nolte, D. Ed.
Dean
Navarro College/Ellis County Center
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