New Student Orientation
Welcome to Ascent College!
We are so excited you’re here. We’re been praying for you and steadfastly believe in God’s call on your life. We know this new adventure probably comes with a ton of questions and maybe even some anxious nerves. That’s completely normal, and we want you to know we’ll be with you every step of the way.
Here’s a quick welcome from our Chaplain, Pastor Kevin Willis. He is always at your service and can be reached directly at kwillis@ascent.edu at any time. He is a prayer warrior!
Our students, staff, and faculty come from all ages and walks of life. Many of us are juggling busy careers, family life, and ministry service in our local church. In short, we get it! You can do this, and you belong here. You’re going to fit in great. Before you know it, you will have acclimated to online learning like a pro, flourishing in all God has for you as He develops and empowers you as a Spirit-filled ministry leader.
You’ve already successfully completed several important tasks as a new student:
- Application Submitted and Accepted
- Signed into Populi
- Enrollment and Student Services Fees Paid
- Accessed your Ascent.edu Email Inbox
- Student Enrollment Agreement (SEA) Signed
This means you’ve already met two very important people on our team:
Amy Barney
Sonji Thee
*Note: Sonji Thee also serves as the Academic Advisor to all students attending the Potomac School of Leadership.
Your Academic Advisor is your biggest cheerleader!
Beyond the practical support they provide in helping you register for classes and achieve your academic goals, your academic advisor is faithfully walking with you every step of the way – lifting you up in prayer, answering any questions, and ensuring you are set up for success. They are always here and happy to help.
Reach out to your assigned Academic Advisor at any time.
Katy Blevins Calabrese
*Note: Katy Calabrese also serves as our Director of Marketing, so may reach out to students regarding testimonials, graduation spotlights, and other related items.
Victoria Davis
*Note: Victoria Davis also assists our Registrar, so may reach out to students regarding scholarships, open invoices, and other related items.
ACADEMIC CATALOG AND STUDENT HANDBOOK
Before you begin, it’s important to understand the academic policies and institutional protocols that govern Ascent College. Please take time to carefully review the following documents:
Click here to view the latest academic catalog.
Click here to view our student handbook.
Click here to view our 2024-2025 academic calendar.
Click here to to view our 2025-2026 academic calendar.
All students are expected to be familiar with all policies and guidelines stated in the Academic Catalog and Student Handbook, which are updated annually. We’ve also included several key policies at the bottom of this page to further reinforce critical standards at our school. You can also explore Policies and Procedures.
Let’s explore the tools and resources we think you’ll use most frequently as a student at Ascent College. Before we officially dig in, we want you to know an abridged version of these resources is stored at MyAscent, our “one-stop shop” for all current students, so you can access everything you need without the initial orienting information you see here.
Bookmark that link!
Ascent College utilizes Google Workspace for all staff, faculty, and student email addresses. You have received a system-generated invitation to your new Ascent.edu email address, and have hopefully signed in to that account already. If you have not completed this task, please contact our Registrar, Sonji Thee, to request a new Gmail invite, as your original message may have timed out.
Please carefully monitor your email inbox for updates from your Academic Advisor, Registrar, professors, and other key staff members, as your Ascent College email address will be the primary point of contact moving forward.
POPULI
Populi is the online learning management system we use to house all of your courses and academic records. You’ll spend most of your time here, completing tasks like:
- Updating Your Mailing Address and Contact Information
- Submitting Tuition Payments
- Accessing Your Courses
- Completing Assignments
- Participating in Discussions
- Following the Syllabus
- Viewing Course Content
- Requesting Transcripts
- Reviewing Your Degree Plan
Here is a quick video from our Vice President of Academics, Dr. Anna Morgan, walking you through the academic basics of Populi.
Our Registrar has captured many of the Populi features you’ll need to understand and use regularly on the financial side in this brief video.
While your course shells will not officially open until the first day of the term, we recommend logging into Populi and exploring now to help you get your bearings. Your Academic Advisor will share more and help answer any questions when you connect for your first phone call.
What is Weave?
Important assignments to a program of study may require students to upload their submissions to a portal embedded within Populi called Weave. This video shows how to do that. Weave is one of the tools Ascent College uses to assess the quality and effectiveness of our programs of study so that we can continue to improve the education we provide.
What is Turnitin?
Turnitin is a plagiarism detection software that compares submitted assignments against a vast database of academic sources, websites, and previous submissions. It highlights similarities and provides a report to help identify potential instances of copied or improperly cited content, including work that has been created or edited through a generative AI tool. For selected assignments, Turnitin will generate an analysis of your submission, pointing out the level of similarity your work has to other people's work.
Explore the attached document below, which explains the Similarity Report and how to interpret its findings. You will likely encounter this report in your future classes at Ascent College. This tool will support our students and faculty as we continue to improve the quality of academic learning at Ascent College.
Understanding the Turnitin Similarity Report
For more information, have a look at these videos about Turnitin:
Understanding the Similarity Report
Ascent College Policies about Plagiarism and Generative AI
Ascent College students are Kingdom leaders and ministers of the Gospel and don't come to Bible college intending to cheat but are passionate about learning and investing in their own growth. However, under the pressure of stressful seasons, anyone can be tempted to look for shortcuts without fully considering the ethics of their actions. God sees us in those moments, and how we shape our own heart attitudes and actions sends God a signal about how trustworthy we are with his Kingdom work. Under stress to meet a deadline, it is far better to reach out to your course instructor or student advisor in those moments and ask for more time rather than cut corners, damage your own character, and miss out on your own learning opportunities. As a reminder, the Ascent College policies about academic integrity and AI usage are provided below.
Citing Sources and Plagiarism
All information that is not considered common knowledge or has not been discovered by yourself personally should be carefully documented in a footnote or endnote to show the source. Common knowledge which does not need to be cited includes:
- Widely known facts, like “George Washington was the first president of the United States”
- Common opinions, like “Michelangelo was one of the art world’s greatest masters”
- Very well-known quotes, like Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream”
If you do not provide a citation for something that is not considered common knowledge or you have not personally discovered it, you have committed plagiarism! Plagiarism is using the intellectual property of others without proper citation, giving the impression that it is one's own original work.
Follow these guidelines to avoid the possibility of plagiarism:
- Do not simply cut and paste blocks of downloaded text into your paper; this is plagiarism. If you want to use this material, it must be cited.
- If you do record the exact words of your source, enclose them in quotation marks and cite the source.
- Always cite both the text that is quoted verbatim, as well as the thoughts and ideas of others that you paraphrase.
- Whether your information comes from printed materials, books, journals, e-mails, videos, online discussion groups, or anywhere on the internet, give proper credit by providing appropriate documentation.
- Refer to the Ascent College Style Guide for more details.
Students are expected to complete assignments with integrity. This means that all written assignments must reflect the student's own work and be submitted for credit only in one course. Where secondary sources are used, the student must footnote/endnote the information. If materials are used without being attributed to their source, it is plagiarism. Plagiarism is a spiritual matter of character and integrity. Be aware that if assignments are discovered to contain plagiarized materials, the assignment may receive a failing grade, and the course may be assigned a failing grade as well. This will affect your academic status and may result in dismissal from the college. Do not let the pressures of completing assigned work jeopardize your academic career and the preparations for the ministry to which God has called you.
Generative Artificial Intelligence Usage
Unless clearly specified by an instructor, Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) tools such as Chat GPT may only be used for brainstorming and idea generation. Students may also use Grammarly’s Gen AI functionality to aid in idea generation, paraphrasing, and citations. Students must ensure that all submitted work reflects their own understanding and creativity. Gen AI tools are never to be used for tests, quizzes, and assessments or to produce any of the written content you submit for grading. If students do use Gen AI tools for the planning phase of papers and essays or for help with paraphrasing, students will need to cite it fully and properly, using Turabian AI citation guidelines (note that Grammarly’s Gen AI functions include a citation generator). In other words, if you use Generative AI in preparing a paper, you must cite it appropriately. Using an AI tool without proper attribution would be a violation of the Ascent College student code of conduct. Use of Gen AI beyond what is stated above is equal to plagiarism and a violation of the Ascent College student code of conduct.
Turnitin is not meant to be a judge and a jury of your work but a helpful guide for a conversation with your instructor, with the end goal of strengthening your writing and increasing your awareness of academic ethics.
FEDERAL FINANCIAL AID
Our current tuition rate is $350/credit hour. This does not include the cost of any required textbooks. Note that some courses may include additional fees for various resources and tools.
Federal financial aid can help allay academic expenses for eligible students. If you are filing for federal financial aid, please carefully review the guidelines and steps provided by our Registrar:
Please note federal financial aid is awarded and disbursed based on the number of credits a student registers to take each semester. Should adjustments be made to your schedule after a term begins (i.e., a class is dropped), be aware that the federal government may require a return of funds. It is strongly advised that any federal financial aid refunded directly to students be safely stored until a student has successfully completed the related courses and satisfied all outstanding fees.
Tuition is invoiced after the start of each term. Students are expected to pay their account balance in full prior to registering for the next semester. Tuition Installment Plans (TIP) are available and should be explored with the Registrar. Please be advised there are non-refundable enrollment fees for all payment plans.
Auditing students (not eligible for federal financial aid) are required to pay in full for their courses at a rate of $50/credit hour before the term begins. Audited course fees are non-refundable.
Should you ever need to make a change to your course schedule, you should reach out to your Academic Advisor immediately. The first seven (7) days of a term are referred to as the “Add/Drop Period.”
Students who need to drop a course will receive a 100% refund of all invoiced tuition if they do so within the first seven (7) days of the term. From that point, students are able to drop courses moving forward, but the tuition refund decreases exponentially each week. After the fourth week of the course, any students who drop a course will be required to pay for the course in full despite having not completed the stated requirements or receiving any credit and will need to retake the course again in the future at full cost.
Encountered a considerable challenge or emergency preventing you from completing your assigned coursework by the stated term deadlines?
Please submit a Request for Incomplete Grade form. You will be asked to submit appropriate documentation to substantiate your request. Submitted forms are reviewed by the Registrar and ultimately decided at the discretion of faculty. Approval of any submitted Request for Incomplete Grade form is not guaranteed. Please proactively communicate directly with your Professor(s) to articulate a proposed plan of action and timeline to complete all outstanding work.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS
The booklist for each upcoming term is always emailed to students and published on the website (linked to MyAscent) several weeks before the term begins.
Ascent College works with Logos to provide electronic textbooks for select courses at affordable student rates. Utilizing these resources is optional. Students may choose to opt out of Logos and source hardcopy textbooks via a vendor of their choosing (Amazon or Christianbook.com are highly recommended).
We recommend creating your free Logos account (following the instructions below) using a personal email address, as these resources will remain in your possession for the duration of your life! Using a personal email address will ensure you can access your library long after your time at Ascent College has concluded.
Students not interested in utilizing electronic textbooks where offered must opt out of Logos via the links provided in Populi in the right sidebar menu under the Syllabus tab of each course at the beginning of each term in order to avoid the non-refundable fees. Students who successfully complete the opt-out instructions will receive an email confirmation. Please review the attached instructions carefully and contact your Academic Advisor with any questions.
TOOLS AND TECH
You will learn about many of the tools and resources available for your use at Ascent College in your first 8-week course, GEN102 Orientation and Library Resources. Here are some short videos and instructions for several of the applications we think you’ll use most frequently:
WRITING RESOURCES AND RESEARCH TOOLS
Please refer to MyAscent for a complete list of useful resources and helpful tools as you delve into the deep waters of responsible research, critical thinking, and academic writing. Remember to bring any related questions to your professor as you complete GEN102 Orientation and Library Resources.
*NOTE: Be sure to begin at Grammarly.edu Do not set up your account at Grammarly.com.
IMPORTANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
Academic Standing Policy
To remain in good academic standing, all students are expected to maintain a minimum of a 2.0 grade point average. A student whose semester GPA falls below 2.0 will be placed on academic warning. A student whose semester GPA falls below 2.0 for the second consecutive semester will be placed on academic probation. If the student’s semester GPA falls below 2.0 for a third consecutive semester and/or the cumulative GPA is below 2.0, the student may be placed on academic dismissal from the school and must wait for one semester before applying for readmission. The student will no longer be certified for GI Bill® benefits when the semester GPA falls below 2.0 for the third consecutive semester. For GI Bill® benefits to be restored, the student must be under a monitoring program that requires the student to maintain a semester GPA of 2.0.
All students must maintain a GPA of 2.0 or better to maintain status for any institutional scholarships awarded.
Prior Learning Assessment
Ascent College awards credit for life experience. No more than 30% of the credit in a student’s degree program may be awarded for life or work experience.
All students must maintain a GPA of 2.0 or better to maintain status for any institutional scholarships awarded.
Student Complaints
Students are encouraged to follow the Biblical principles found in Matthew 18 to resolve conflicts, concerns, or complaints. Written complaints shall be responded to in writing within ten (10) days of receipt of the complaint. If the complaint is rejected, the student shall be notified of the reasons for the rejection. None of the student’s rights or remedies shall be limited by participating in the complaint procedure. In addition, a student participating in the complaint process will not be subjected to retaliation or adverse action.
If the student is not satisfied with the outcome of this complaint process, they have the right to contact the State Council for Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), which provides a webpage for students who may have complaints against a college.
If you are a resident of a state other than Virginia, you may also contact the office in your state to file complaints against the College. Please contact the Student Affairs Office for further information.
Students may also contact The Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE) at 5575 S. Semoran Blvd. Suite 26, Orlando, Florida 32822-1781 and phone number 407-207-0808 to file a complaint against the College.
The student complaint will follow these steps below:
- Students will be encouraged to resolve the complaint themselves by speaking directly to the person involved. If no resolution can be made, then the student is encouraged to complete the next step.
- Complete the Student Grievance Form and submit it to the Student Dean. The administration will acknowledge receipt of the form to the student within 48 hours.
- If necessary, a meeting will be set up to include the parties involved.
- If no resolution is achieved, the complaint shall be transmitted to the College President for review and resolution.
The Virginia State Approving Agency (SAA) is the approving authority of education and training programs for Virginia. This office investigates complaints of G.I. Bill® beneficiaries. While most complaints should initially follow the school grievance policy, if the situation cannot be resolved at the school, the beneficiary should contact the SAA office via email at saa@dvs.virginia.gov. G.I. Bill® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). More information about educational benefits offered by VA is available at the official U.S. government website at VA.gov | Veterans Affairs.
Sexual Misconduct and Violence Policy
Click here to view our Sexual Misconduct and Violence Policy.
Leave of Absence
In the case of prolonged illness or accident or other special circumstances that require a student to pause their studies, a leave of absence may be granted to a student who submits the Leave of Absence Request Form through that student’s Academic Advisor. The Leave of Absence Request Form requires an anticipated return date that must be within 180 days of the start of the leave of absence. If a student has not returned as an active student in that time frame, that student will be administratively withdrawn and will need to reapply to continue their studies. If a student would like to resume taking courses within those 180 days, they may do so as long as their student account balance has been fully satisfied and they have satisfied any academic disciplinary measures required. No additional fees will be incurred during a leave of absence. Upon the student’s return from the leave of absence, he or she will be permitted to resume taking courses in their program of study. A leave of absence is not permitted to extend beyond 180 days within a 12-month period.
Institutional Withdrawal
A student must submit a form to the Registrar’s Office to officially withdraw from Ascent College. Failure to attend classes is not considered an official notice and could result in a grade of “F” for all courses in progress at the time the student ceases attendance. An official withdrawal is recorded after the student completes all exit interviews and associated tasks.
Ascent College admits students of any race, color, nationality, or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, handicap, national, and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, and other school-administered programs.