Dean Richard Kravchak

Pioneering New Pathways to Learning

BY KENDALL HARDIN
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN NEVADA

Two years ago, the College of Southern Nevada snared Dean Richard Kravchak with the perfect trifecta of talents: world-class musician, dauntless administrator, and impassioned teacher extraordinaire.

As Dean of the School of Arts and Letters, his domain covers the departments of English, Communication (including Journalism), World Languages, and Fine Arts (including Arts and Design, Dance, Music and Theatre).

His academic career spans colleges and universities across the country, from West Virginia, Mississippi, and South Dakota to Iowa, and California, as well as public school stints in Los Angeles.

So why settle here in Las Vegas at the nation’s fifth-largest community college with 30,000 learners enrolled in CSN courses each semester?

“I’ve always seen education as a way to lift people up,” affirmed Dean Kravchak. “Especially for people who may not consider higher learning a stepping stone to a better life.”

“I can relate, growing up ‘on the other side of the tracks’ in rural New Jersey, where my male ancestors were laborers, farmers, and outlaws,” he grins. “I was the first man in my family to go to college and complete a degree, so I experienced firsthand what I call the transformational magic of education.”

Education as a Passport to the World

Kravchak’s virtuosic musical training on the oboe and English horn has taken him literally worldwide as a performer in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. He continues to perform professionally at festivals, in ensembles, and with major symphony orchestras. While he specializes in contemporary music, he also performs period pieces on historic double reed instruments of the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and early 20th Century.

“At the end of third grade, I chose the oboe from a cart of instruments so I could attend summer school,” Kravchak reminisces. “By the time I got to high school, my teacher convinced my parents that I should take private lessons – setting me up with the retired oboist from the New York Philharmonic. The rest is history.” (Not to mention, a classic example of how great teachers change students’ lives every day.)

Armed with prestigious degrees from the Eastman School of Music, the Juilliard School, and Florida State University, he pioneered and chaired academic accomplishments wherever he landed.

His non-stop enthusiasm, subject mastery, and good humor resulted in glowing evaluations from a legion of students: Best teacher on campus. Great motivator. A godsend. Always makes it fun and interesting. Never leaves anyone behind. Inspirational and interactive. Knows his stuff and works hard for his students. He deserves an A!

Re-Learning How to Teach

“I thought I was a competent teacher at all the various colleges and musical institutions where I’d worked until I landed in the Public School System of Los Angeles,” confesses Kravchak. “It was the hardest adjustment of my life.”

He found himself in the classroom with an entirely different cadre of students, some of whom were gang members with ankle bracelets. “I had been teaching the way I was taught – by attending lectures and regurgitating knowledge without engaging in any active learning,” confesses Kravchak. “This doesn’t work in low-performing schools.”

He had to “flip the classroom” by breaking down challenges, forming student teams for participatory learning, and instituting discipline, structure, and accomplishment as points of pride. He also directed the Canoga Park High School Drill Team, and during the seven years he taught there, the group boldly clenched first prize in the Los Angeles competition for five years in a row.

It’s no surprise that Dean Kravchak himself was awarded the Platinum Apple Award by the United Teachers of Los Angeles and the Teacher of the Year accolade by the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

Stumbling into Administration

“I received a battlefield promotion to spearhead the department when our chairman suddenly died at California State University at Dominguez Hills,” recalled the dean. “Music education tends to be conservative and rigid by way of training. But I had to make the choice to lead rather than defer to move the department forward for our students.

“I’ve been able to make changes and push the vision for CSN, with a shout out to the enlightened support of VP of Academic Affairs James McCoy, who has allowed me to make some pretty brazen changes since coming to CSN.”

What makes CSN so special and relevant at this moment? The dean cites an impressive array of opportunities for students, most of whom are first-generation college learners. The comparatively low tuition of $450/class is still a financial challenge for over 75% of the student body who attend college part-time.

CSN offers three major campuses conveniently based in North Las Vegas, Henderson, and West Las Vegas, plus eight Learning Centers outside Las Vegas and general education classes offered at Nellis Air Force Base and four prisons in Southern Nevada.

“Now that the college has celebrated its 50th Anniversary, we’re trying to create a smoother path to success for all students. We’re especially looking at ways to overcome bureaucratic red tape to help low-income students stay in school because once they leave, they rarely return.

Work-Ready Students

“While Nevada’s universities naturally gravitate toward research, CSN’s focus is on producing workforce-ready students,” cites Dean Kravchak. “A variety of exceptional programs and resources stand out at CSN.”

When students earn a certificate in Theatre Tech, they are automatically enrolled in the entertainment union IATSI (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees), qualifying them to work in live theatre, film/TV production, tradeshows, concerts and television broadcasting – where skilled labor is always in high demand on the Strip.

CSN also provides professional music recording technology training inside the college’s $1.5 million recording studio, rivaling the best venues in town. The campus broadcasting studio is amazingly self-funding. Graduates leave confident to meet today’s workplace demands.

On the Horizon

“I’m excited because we have so much on the drawing board just around the corner,” exclaims the dean. “CSN is one of three colleges in the country being considered by McDonald’s Corporation to provide continuing education and specialized training to its employees of all ages across the country. We’re working on the proposal right now. This is big!”

In partnership with the Clark County Public Library System and the National Endowment of Humanities, CSN is preparing to offer its Academic & Life Skills 101 class to the public throughout local libraries as a free service to residents who want to hone their skills as a bridge to higher learning (a $450 value).

Close to his heart is the dean’s dream for expanding a three-tiered credentialed Mariachi music program at CSN as the “tip of the spear” for all the exceptional Mariachi activity offered in the Clark County School System throughout the Vegas Valley.

According to the dean, “It not only would honor our local Hispanic culture in Nevada but would also support the highest achievements of CSN’s four-year-old Mariachi Plata (Silver), who have earned first place at Festival Vargas in San Antonio for the last two years, bringing the national championship of collegiate Mariachi bands home to the Silver State.”

Transforming Education for a New World

The dean, along with his committed team of faculty and staff, are pushing the envelope even more by pursuing innovative partnerships and alliances, along with private and foundation support, to launch new initiatives.

Passionate, persistent, and persuasive. Those are the first words Marcus Johnson, CSN Dean of Business, Hospitality and Public Services, uses to describes his fellow dean. “I couldn’t ask for a better colleague to sit down together to thrash out the issues of the day. We’re constantly exploring ways our departments can collaborate.”

“I remain passionate and committed because education is the best way we now have at our fingertips to change the world,” insisted Dean Kravchak.

“I firmly believe that all students are hard-wired for success. Our job is to help them find their pathway to success and achieve the life they deserve. Higher learning leverages the breakthroughs that create new solutions and social benefits for all of us.”

If the college’s motto is “Investing in the Future. Students first.” – then CSN found its perfect champion in Dean Richard Kravchak. With a relentless faith in quality learning for all, his tsunami of “magical transformational education” will decidedly enrich our desert landscape throughout Nevada.

“I firmly believe that all students are hard-wired for success. Our job is to help them find their pathway to success and achieve the life they deserve.”