MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Tags: Access, Diversity, Student Retention, Student Services
December
2024
When St. Louis resident Bobbie Simmons enrolled at St. Louis Community College (STLCC) to study medical coding, it seemed like she was finally on the path to a rewarding career in a high-demand field. Then a serious health issue set her back, threatening her ability to maintain a dependable source of income for rent. “It was hard focusing on my schoolwork when I didn’t know if I’d have a roof over my head,” said Simmons. Her story is not unique; many students at STLCC face similar challenges.
Thanks to a new STLCC program, students like Simmons, who face housing insecurity, now have a resource...
Tags: Access, Diversity, Partnerships, Student Services
November
2024
Incoming first-year students at Moraine Valley Community College who are interested in pursuing a degree in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have an opportunity to participate in the Greer Scholars Program, which seeks to diversify STEM careers by funding and supporting students who are underrepresented in these fields.
The Greer Foundation, which champions organizations committed to helping people improve their lives, chose Moraine Valley as the first Chicago-area community college grantee to support a cohort of students as Greer Scholars. The foundation has been suppo...
Chandler-Gilbert Community College’s (CGCC) Title V and Enrollment Services teams offered a career exploration curriculum for ICAN youth in summer 2024. ICAN is a free, local program that provides K-12 students in Phoenix, Arizona’s East Valley with programs for educational development.
The relationship between CGCC and ICAN began in fall 2023 when the college was invited to participate in a parent information event hosted by a local school district. During this event, parents raised numerous questions about attending college, including affordability, accessibility, and admissions criteria. Th...
Transfer students represent approximately 35 percent of Delta College’s student population (Delta College, n.d.). According to the college’s Institutional Research department (Kevin Hobart, August 14, 2024, personal communication), from 2014 to 2019, 2,796 Delta College students completed an associate’s degree program; 1,851 of those students transferred to a four-year institution and 1,357 completed a bachelor’s degree at their transfer institution.
As part of our efforts to strengthen transfer student success and Delta’s work with postsecondary partners, one of the college’s strategic initia...
Transform_ED is a year-long Austin Community College District (ACC) research initiative and plan to anticipate and address future changes in higher education. The purpose of the research is to “analyze how external factors may impact future programmatic growth and student success at ACC to inform strategic positioning and decision-making" (Austin Community College District, n.d., Mission). The program brings together representatives from ACC’s Instruction Division, Student Affairs Division, and Teaching & Learning Excellence Division (TLED) to:
Anticipate changes in higher education and i...
The Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OMHAS) found a 353 percent increase in demand for behavioral health treatment between 2013 and 2019 (Hernandez & Lampl, 2021). Additionally, 2.4 million Ohioans live in communities that lack adequate behavioral health professionals (Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addition Services, 2023). In response to this crisis, a collaboration was formed between OMHAS and the Ohio Departments of Higher Education and Medicaid. The mission of the resulting Ohio Wellness Workforce Great Minds Fellowship is to increase the number of Ohioan...
Tags: Access, Community Relations, Partnerships, Programs and Practices, Teaching and Learning, Workforce Preparation
July
2024
In November 2021, 16 unemployed or underemployed individuals began their journey toward bettering their lives and those of their families by becoming the first cohort to participate in Santa Fe College’s (SF) new Achieve, Conquer, Believe and Excel (ACB Excel) program. ACB Excel’s mission is to empower members of the SF community who want to break the cycle of poverty, but need the financial and emotional support to do so. The concept for this program stemmed from conversations that the college’s president, Dr. Paul Broadie II, had with community leaders regarding local economic needs and barr...
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June
2024
Valuing faculty and staff development as an essential component to enhancing student success, Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) has developed a twofold approach to supporting pedagogical inquiry and learning. First, the college founded an academic journal, Teaching and Learning Excellence through Scholarship (TALES), as a mechanism to encourage faculty engagement in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Second, CCBC established a journal club for faculty to foster a culture of curiosity and lifelong learning in pedagogy. Both of these initiatives are low-cost and high-ben...
Foothill-De Anza Community College District: A Creative Approach to Increasing Access to Internships
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May
2024
In 2019, Foothill College Workforce Development nurtured an idea: What if we could remove one of the biggest barriers students face when entering the workforce with a low-stakes opportunity to gain experience and an internship? Students want to work, but industry professionals want to hire those who already have experience. The flip side of this scenario is that companies won’t hire those without experience and students can’t gain experience if no one will hire them. Our goal became providing students with work experience and an opportunity to explore career opportunities that they wouldn't no...
Jackson College has been committed to providing excellent education and support to its students for over 95 years. In today's fast-paced world, college students' requirements and needs are evolving. To address these needs, Jackson College has initiated a pilot program called Harriet's Hub, which serves as a one-stop student resource center.
The name hearkens back to the college’s heritage, remembering a former faculty member, Harriet Myer, who helped college students by establishing a student assistance fund. With two rooms of dedicated space in the college’s library, the hub provides necessar...
Tags: Community Relations, Equity, Learning and Organization, Programs and Practices, Teaching and Learning, Teaching Strategies
March
2024
In 2022, Humber College launched the Bhutan Education and Skills Training (BEST) project, a five-year, $4.8 million (CND) initiative funded through the Government of Canada to support the reformation of the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system in Bhutan’s technical training institutions. The project unites Humber College, Bhutan’s Ministry of Education and Skills Development, 10 national TVET institutions across Bhutan, the private sector, and local civil society organizations. The project is focused on building institutional capacity to support students who are often...
At Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), we are leaders in applied education; we centre technology in our teaching and programming to equip our graduates with skills to be the problem-solvers of tomorrow. In fall 2023, SAIT welcomed Dr. Bill Rankin as Expert in Residence to facilitate the development of innovative teaching and learning approaches through the integration of new and emerging technologies. Through his Teaching Innovators Programme, Rankin will work with SAIT instructors to push the limits of technology integration in their own pedagogy.
“What is really powerful about S...
With a focus on accessibility, diversity, and job-relevant education, community colleges are well-positioned to address the evolving needs of students and the workforce. Within the broader field of higher education, community colleges can serve as laboratories for experimentation in pedagogy and curriculum while providing affordable and high-quality education (Hadzi-Antich, 2023).
Recognizing the crucial role of quality and innovative teaching, Johnson County Community College (JCCC) used its strategic plan to leverage student learning to the forefront of institutional initiatives. Goal 1, Ste...
Mesa Community College (MCC) introduced the new Associate in Arts, Emphasis in Anthropology, in fall 2023. This is the fourth Z Degree offered by the college that is entirely online and uses open educational resources (OER), saving students time and money. Chief Online Education Officer Laura Ballard said anthropology was selected for Z Degree learning because,
The department was already offering zero-textbook-cost courses, incorporating openly licensed content, library materials, and instructor-developed content. This allowed us to focus on design and copyright when building out the degree be...
Tags: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Programs and Practices, Teaching and Learning, Teaching Strategies
November
2023
Since its inception, Anne Arundel Community College’s (AACC) Model Course Program has provided over 100 faculty members with the opportunity to deepen their understanding of social hierarchy, structural inequalities, and individual-level biases and to apply diversity, equity, inclusion, antiracism, and accessibility (DEIAA) theory and praxis to their curriculum and pedagogy. The program began with a focus on highly enrolled classes, with the goal of eradicating race/ethnicity-based equity gaps in student outcomes. Each year, the program has evolved, expanded, and continuously improved based on...
In spring 2020, a dozen Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) students gathered as a crew to virtually discuss topics for a new podcast series project. The project was the brainchild of Beth Baunoch, Associate Professor of Media Studies, who wanted to give her students a broader platform to create new media and learn new skills in the process. To make that happen, she applied for and received a $40,000 Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowship stipend.
Choosing one topic to investigate for the podcast series was challenging, but Baunoch wanted her students to come up with a focus...
Community colleges serve their local communities by providing quality, affordable, and accessible education, transfer opportunities, workforce training, and career credentials for the benefit of all those who live and work in the region. To ensure that they provide the education and training needed by businesses, governments, and individuals in their local areas, community colleges must build strong partnerships with local employers, civic leaders, P-12 educational institutions, potential donors, chambers of commerce, and other entities that promote individual and community growth. Very often,...
Tags: Community Relations, Diversity, Partnerships
August
2023
Monroe Community College (MCC) prioritizes the intersection between global learning and social justice. Our mission statement calls for us to build global engagement and understanding while strengthening the college’s commitment to community, service, and justice (Monroe Community College, 2022). Through curricular programming, professional development, and strategic partnerships, we are attempting to create global citizens who are committed to making the world a just and safe place for all.
MCC, in Rochester, New York, boasts a diverse and global student body. We currently have over 800 immig...
The 140-acre Mesa Community College (MCC) Arboretum has been upgraded to Level II Accreditation by the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and The Morton Arboretum, for achieving standards of professional practices deemed important for arboreta and botanic gardens. “We’ve had a remarkable year of achievements,” said MCC Life Science faculty Sean Whitcomb. “The Level II Accreditation is a testament to the arboretum's dedication to maintaining a diverse and sustainable community of trees.”
There are four levels of accreditation, with Level IV being the highest level. Thirty-nine countries hav...
For the first time in its 57-year history, Dallas College is graduating a class of bachelor’s degree students this year. This occasion marks a pivotal moment for more than 100 students at one of Texas’s largest community college systems, which previously offered associate degrees as its highest degree credential. The program presents students with a life-changing opportunity via a full tuition scholarship and career pathway toward a $60k first-year job. Furthermore, this innovative program attracted the attention of the Bezos Foundation, resulting in the launch of a tuition-free, on-campus ear...
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