As I reflect on my first academic year at Colorado Northwestern Community College, it has been one of excitement, challenges and opportunities.

We had the joy of celebrating our incredible students in April and May through honors ceremonies, pinning/winging events, and at commencement. For those interested, we have shared many of those photos and videos in the CNCC Spotlight section at the bottom of the main page of our website at CNCC.edu.

The CNCC experience is one which, in my humble opinion, everyone should have. As we look ahead toward the coming year and our future, CNCC has secured the assistance of a company to help us better capture the words and marketing strategies that would highlight our unique qualities as a college.

Crafting the right message that resonates with those outside our borders will increase enrollment by attracting larger numbers of students who can appreciate who we are, as we are.

It will encourage these prospective students to join our Spartan family, take advantage of our signature program offerings and learn from our outstanding faculty. This brand identity work will not result in changes to name, colors, mascot or logo, but is focused on messaging and strategy.

With the recommendations provided, CNCC will learn how best to market our signature programs, fill seat vacancies and to grow our programs.

Finally, to help in our strategic planning and budgeting, this company will provide us with recommendations on how we can best meet workforce and economic demands by developing new programs and services or offering both in different ways depending on the needs of our community.

Once this consulting company has completed its work, its leadership will deliver a presentation to the college and community members. We will share the time, date and location of this presentation on our website in July, and the community presentation will occur in August.

Thank you to all those who have and continue to help as we work toward a better, brighter future and congratulations again to all our recent graduates.

Lisa Jones is the president of Colorado Northwestern Community College.