Innovations
Congratulations to the 2024-2025 Innovation of the Year Award winners from 35 participating League member colleges! The League initiated the Innovation of the Year Award over 35 years ago to recognize local community college programs and initiatives that reflect the spirit of innovation and experimentation on which our organization was founded. The award provides an opportunity for colleges to showcase their innovative efforts; celebrate the dedicated educators, staff, and administrators who are responsible for this exceptional work; and promote a culture of innovation at their institutions....
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Humber Polytechnic’s Idea Lab is a library initiative designed to support digital fluency skills development and media-rich assignments requiring fabrication, audio, video, photography, and more. Digital fluency was highlighted as a key skill-in-action in the Humber Learning Outcomes (HLO) framework, a pillar of the institution’s 2018-2023 strategic plan, designed to equip students “with the skills and perspectives they need to succeed as global citizens and professionals” (Humber Polytechnic, 2025, Humber Learning Outcomes section). Developing digital fluency is also the first priority in...
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As part of its One College model, HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, has created a framework referred to as HawkSOAR. It consists of a collegewide cross-functional team focused on the alignment of HACC’s student success efforts. The concept stemmed from the college’s partnerships with Achieving the Dream (ATD) and the Community College Research Center (CCRC), both of which champion evidence-based institutional improvements for student success. HawkSOAR consolidates all programs into one cohesive structure to establish a strategic, data-informed culture for students and employees...
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Mental health has increasingly become a significant barrier to student success in community colleges, second only to the growing cost of tuition (Gallup & Lumina Foundation, 2024). According to The State of Education 2024 by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation (2024), 64 percent of students who considered dropping out of higher education cited stress or mental health struggles as a primary reason. As reported in Supporting Minds, Supporting Learners (Center for Community College Student Engagement, 2024), 56 percent of respondents experienced emotional or mental difficulties that hurt their...
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Monroe Community College (MCC) is a cornerstone of education and workforce development in the Finger Lakes region of New York. As part of Governor Kathy Hochul’s One Network for Regional Advanced Manufacturing Partnerships (ON-RAMP) initiative, MCC is honored to lead the Finger Lakes-based ON-RAMP program alongside those in the Capital, Mohawk Valley, and Central New York regions.
The primary hub of the Finger Lakes ON-RAMP Center will be located at the Finger Lakes Workforce Development (FWD) Center located on MCC’s downtown campus. At the center, learners will earn industry recognized...
Middlesex Community College (MCC), with campuses in Bedford and Lowell, Massachusetts, has a longstanding mission of educational access and success for its diverse communities, but this commitment was deepened with the adoption of its 2022-2027 strategic plan: With Equity At Its Core. This plan outlines ambitious goals for addressing systemic and persistent disparities in educational outcomes by rooting work across the college in the equity agenda. Recognizing changing community demographics and the need to expand access to high-quality education to all, MCC made a bold move to embed equity...
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We talk about the importance of two key words in the Student Life department at Kirkwood Community College: connection and experience. Our endeavors are centered on providing opportunities for connections between students, between students and campus resources, and between departments in order to improve the college experience. While we have often discussed the belief that our efforts are contributing to meaningful connections and positive experiences, our efforts to track the engagement of students have proven it. The Platform for Engagement & Activities at Kirkwood (PEAK) provides us...
Lone Star College-Tomball's (LSC-Tomball) leaders recognized educational technologies that will revolutionize education and reshape teaching strategies and student learning experiences years before ChatGPT gained popularity. The Internet, social media, and a wide range of educational resources had widespread digital influence, presenting both opportunities and challenges for traditional brick-and-mortar academic environments (Wiesinger & Beliveau, 2016). The college strived to stay at the forefront of the newest trends and challenges, which prompted the development of proactive strategies...
In 2014, Dalton and Crosby noted that, “colleges and universities have long recognized that helping students to become personally connected and committed early in college is critical to their successful retention and graduation” (Abstract). However, feeling connected to an institution and its academic process can be “especially challenging for new students who must quickly master a wide range of academic, personal, and social adjustments” (Dalton & Crosby, 2014, Abstract).
In a mission to retain students and guide them toward success, Rio Salado College, an online community college based...
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The Emerging Technologies Institute (ETI) at Foothill College originated in summer 2022 as a way for virtual reality (VR) to be integrated into education. ETI’s mission is to give all staff, faculty, students, and administrators a chance to engage with emerging technologies that have the potential to shape change in society and education. Opportunities include interacting in physical lab settings such as Foothill’s VR lab, where faculty and students can explore how technology can provide more immersive learning experiences, and participating in research projects, where they engage with...
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In July 2022, Rogue Community College’s (RCC) new President, Dr. Randy Weber, energized the college with an initiative to stabilize enrollment. This was identified as the first of five institutional priorities. Leveraging his expertise in strategic enrollment management (SEM), Weber, in collaboration with the newly appointed Dean of Enrollment Management, spearheaded a strategic shift. This transition moved the college from a narrow focus on recruitment and new students to a more comprehensive approach, embedding American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers SEM...
Whether or not college pays off financially, and to whom, is an increasingly important question for institutions of higher education and their students. Career reasons are top motivators for students when deciding to enroll in postsecondary education, yet public perception has declined for the past five years regarding whether college is worth the cost (Lumina Foundation, 2023; Nguyen et al., 2024). This issue is especially salient for community colleges, underscoring the need for robust evidence that students of all backgrounds can attain positive post-completion career outcomes.
Measuring...
Arapahoe Community College (ACC) celebrated the completion of Phase 1 of its Health Innovation Center in October 2024 with healthcare and education partners, state and county officials, donors, civic leaders, and ACC students and employees. The Center’s simulated education spaces are used across ACC’s healthcare programs to improve functional collaboration between disciplines while preparing students to better serve patients. This expansion of healthcare programming, which began as a vision in 2017 before finally commencing in May 2023 with the renovation of ACC’s existing two-level annex...
Moraine Valley Community College is committed to providing students with the resources they need to be successful. Understanding that students cannot accomplish their educational goals if they face challenges in meeting their basic needs, the college developed the Project Care initiative, which offers an array of wraparound services and resources to help them meet those needs, ultimately allowing them to better focus on their education.
According to Teresa Hannon, a counselor at the college’s Counseling and Career Development Center (CCDC), the initial focus of Project Care was the campus...
The Seattle Promise Initiative, a pioneering program launched by the City of Seattle, aims to ensure that all public high school graduates in Seattle have access to higher education without the financial burden of tuition. An innovative component of this initiative is the Path to UW program, a collaboration between the Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning, Seattle Colleges, and University of Washington (UW). The program provides targeted support to Seattle Promise students as they transfer from community colleges to one of the most competitive universities in the nation....
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Established in 1970, Rogue Community College (RCC) serves Oregon residents in Jackson and Josephine counties at campuses in Grants Pass, Medford, and White City. A public two-year community college, RCC offers multiple transfer degrees; more than 80 career and technical education degrees or certificates; a variety of workforce and short-term training, academic skills, and continuing and community education classes; and services to the business community.
Developing College Priorities
After experiencing the fastest enrollment decline in the state over a five-year period, RCC was faced with the...
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In fall 2024, Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) began offering its first bachelor’s degree: a Bachelor of Applied Science in integrated digital manufacturing (IDM) engineering technology. To understand why Tri-C developed a four-year IDM degree, we need to look at some historic and recent economic data about Northeast Ohio.
Ohio has held a notable position in the manufacturing sector, typically ranked number three in the U.S. with over 14,000 manufacturing companies (IndustrySelect, 2024). More importantly, Northeast Ohio is a crucial player within the state, with over 6,000 manufacturers in...
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...
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The rapid growth of competitive eSports over the past 10 years has led to its emergence as a cocurricular program on hundreds of college campuses. Projected to grow to over a two billion dollar industry by the end of 2024 and forecasted to be a nine billion dollar industry by 2032 (Fortune Business Insights, 2024), there is a growing need on college campuses not only to provide opportunities for student engagement via competitive eSports programs but also to develop new and creative degree programs to support this growing industry. This article explores the development of the eSports program...
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In a new spin on the challenge of meeting students where they are, Santa Fe College is serving one student a time, at scale. The SF Achieve initiative offers a unique take on a Promise Program by providing not just financial help, but direct college coaching and mentoring to students in their high schools. College specialists, embedded at local schools everyday throughout the school year, meet with students regularly, get to know them, and help them understand how a college education can serve as a launching pad for their goals and dreams. SF Achieve is literally meeting students where they...
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