Dayton, Ohio – The Community College Futures Assembly has awarded Sinclair Community College a 2007 Bellwether Award for its Student Success Plan. The Bellwether Awards were established to annually recognize “outstanding and innovative community college programs.”

In August 2006, the Community College Futures Assembly issued a call for nominations and 30 Bellwether finalist colleges were competitively chosen from the applicants. Ten finalists were selected in each of three categories: Instructional Programs and Services; Planning, Governance and Finance; and Workforce Development.

Sinclair won its award in the Instructional Programs and Services category. That category recognizes programs and services that foster or support teaching and learning in the community college. Sinclair’s Student Services and Information Technology staff collaborated to create a system combining student success counseling with online support systems serving both students and counselors. Faced with statistics showing high rates of dropout for first-year students, Sinclair’s Student Success Planning system provides tools for counselors to proactively identify students at risk, develop an individualized plan for each student including course selections or service referrals, and track student progress. Students also receive to-do lists to help them in following up on counselors’ recommendations.

Karen Witt, Director of Sinclair’s Student Success Planning Services, accepted the Bellwether Award at the 2007 Community College Futures Assembly in Orlando, Florida.

The Community College Futures Assembly convenes annually as an independent national policy forum for key leaders to work as a think tank in identifying critical issues facing the future of community colleges and to recognize Bellwether Finalist colleges as trend-setting institutions. For more information about Sinclair’s Student Success Plan, contact Karen Witt at (937) 512-2264 or karen.witt@sinclair.edu.