Page 39 - 2020 Westchester Economic Development Guide

Education
A New Way of Thinking
With highly educated residents, top-ranked schools, outstanding high school graduation rates and innovative college programs, Westchester is the most educated county in the U.S.
A New Vision
Nearly half of Westchester residents over the age of 25 hold a bachelor’s degree or higher compared with 33 percent state-wide and 28 percent na- tionally. Nearly a quarter of those resi- dents hold advanced degrees.
With 30 post-secondary educational institutions located across the County, Westchester has public and private two-year institutions, as well as fully accredited universities that offer bach- elors or advanced degrees across mul- tiple disciplines.
Educational Highlights
• 13,000 students enrolled at Westchester Community College, 24,000 enrolled in Continuing Education courses.
• SUNY Purchase is ranked as one of the Top Ten Public Liberal Arts Colleges in the nation, by US News and World Report.
• New York Medical College in Valhalla is a health sciences college conferring advanced degrees in medicine, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, public health, the biomedical sciences, dentistry and nursing.
• Pace University, which offers an Environmental Studies Program, was ranked by PayScale.com among the top 10% of private US colleges that provide the best return on tuition investment.
The Manhattanville College Center for Design Thinking
Manhattanville Center for Design Thinking
In the fall of 2019, Manhattanville College in Purchase launched the Center for Design Thinking – the first center of its kind in Westchester and one of the only centers of design think- ing at a small liberal arts college.
The center is key to preparing today’s students for the workplace of tomorrow, according to Manhattanville President Michael Geisler. As a system- atic and creative approach that sup- ports the development of solutions to complex problems, “Design Thinking is the key to merging the traditional strengths of a liberal arts curriculum with the practical requirements of training a human workforce for tomor- row’s market,” said Geisler.
“Design Thinking is a systematic approach to problem solving applied to any context - and it starts with
problem identification – because of- ten people go about solving the wrong problem,” explains Professor Alison Carson, Associate Provost of Academic Innovation and Design Thinking. “Design Thinking is a systematic meth- od that can help avoid bias. Additional steps in the process include ideating, prototyping and testing. It’s also impor- tant to be able to empathize with people who experience the problem.”
Citing a recent example of this training in action, “we had students identify a problem on campus that they wanted to solve. One involved cafeteria food. At first it was thought to be an issue related to the food itself. But as they researched the issue, it became clear the problem was more about cafeteria hours, accessibility and use of meal plans. Students then recommended the development of a cafeteria delivery service app. Using this method led to a very different kind of solution.”
“Our students are now develop- ing experience in defining problems and making change – those are the kinds of professionals businesses want to hire.”
“Our students are now developing experience in
defining problems and making change – those are
the kinds of professionals businesses want to hire.”
—Professor Alison Carson
WESTCHESTER COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GUIDE 37
© Alison Calvello