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California community colleges face urgent demands: closing persistent equity gaps, adapting to rapid technological changes, meeting workforce needs, and serving increasingly diverse learners. Foothill College is catalyzing personal, economic, and social change in Silicon Valley by creating protected spaces where innovation, reflective practices, and equity-minded reform can flourish. These spaces, known as culture pods, are a permanent institutional strategy for advancing our core values and contributing to Foothill’s Blueprint for Success and California Community Colleges’ Vision 2030 goals...
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Across the nation, colleges continue to grapple with a steep rise in the number of students seeking mental health support. Mental health challenges often manifest directly in academic performance—missed classes, difficulty concentrating, or decreased engagement—making support systems essential to learning (Center for Community College Student Engagement, 2024). Many community college learners face socioeconomic barriers, including difficulty accessing affordable behavioral health services (Lipson et al., 2021). These same challenges often intensify their mental health needs while...
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In February 2023, Monroe Community College (MCC) was invited to join a cohort of nine other two-year institutions to participate in the Aspen Institute’s Unlocking Opportunity: The Post-Graduation Success and Equity Network.[i] More than a student success initiative, Unlocking Opportunity (UO) was designed to help participating colleges usher in sweeping reforms at their respective campuses. This endeavor would subsist at the intersection of academic and student-support services and focus on boosting post-completion outcomes, making possible more streamlined transfer in higher opportunity...
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From Training to Credential: Aligning TDCJ Officer Development With Postsecondary Workforce Pathways
Coastal Bend College (CBC) is a rural community college in South Texas serving nine counties and two partial counties, with the main campus in Beeville and other sites in Alice, Kingsville, and Pleasanton. CBC’s service area spans 8,633 square miles and maintains a population of over 160,000, with 20 percent of those individuals living in Bee County (Hatch et al., 2023). The region’s largest employers include Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) (City of Beeville, 2019; Data USA, 2023).
In March 2024, CBC signed...
Collaboration between community colleges and universities is not just beneficial—it is essential. These partnerships create seamless educational pathways, foster innovation in teaching and learning, and reduce persistent access obstacles. Despite their promise, meaningful collaboration between faculty and staff across these institutional types remains elusive. The barriers are rooted in structural, cultural, and interpersonal dynamics. This article explores the barriers to such collaboration and introduces the Transparency, Relevancy, Authenticity, Vulnerability, Equity (TRAVE) framework as a...
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The rapid pace of industry means education programs must produce skilled, job-ready graduates quickly and efficiently. This trend has prompted many community colleges to reconsider how they design and deliver technical education. At Kirkwood Community College, we use a mastery-based approach. Students advance by proving specific skills rather than sitting through a fixed number of class hours.
To make this possible, Kirkwood has combined asynchronous content and an open lab delivery model. These tools give students flexibility while continuing to hold high expectations for quality and...
As higher education has evolved, so has the role of the college president. Community college presidents shoulder the expectations of the faculty, staff, board, alumni, politicians, and other community stakeholders. A changing political landscape demands flexibility, societal expectations demand empathy, socioeconomic turmoil demands creativity, technological advancements demand innovation, emerging crises demand alacrity, and the prevalence and permanence of information demands perfection. In fact, Martin (2021) described college presidents as “influential leaders and living logos who bring...
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Maricopa Community Colleges launched its first formal bachelor’s degree transfer partnership with another Arizona community college in July 2025. This innovative collaboration with Northland Pioneer College (NPC) creates an accessible pathway for students statewide and represents a bold step toward expanding high-quality, affordable bachelor’s degree options for students in urban and rural communities. It also offers a replicable model for other community colleges seeking to build student-centered, workforce-aligned partnerships.
Transferring Made Easy
Through this partnership, students who...
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At Anne Arundel Community College (AACC), digital accessibility is more than a compliance issue; it is a vital component of our mission to offer high-quality, affordable, accessible, and innovative lifelong learning opportunities. According to the World Wide Web Consortium (n.d.), digital accessibility means that “websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them” (para. 6). From providing accurate captions for videos, enabling navigation without a mouse, and structuring documents for screen readers and for users who benefit from clear...
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“Gig work” and “side hustle” are labels often used to describe the work done by today’s entrepreneurs. These self-employed individuals are a significant component of today’s workforce, and their number is growing. This segment of the workforce found new momentum during the pandemic, which led to 36 percent of the U.S. workforce freelancing in 2021 (Upwork, 2021). Businesses were shut down, workers were sent home, and unemployment compensation was slow coming in and sometimes insufficient. So, workers undertook the steps necessary to feed themselves and their families.
The rapid need to pivot...
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...
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 integration of BrickMMO into Humber Polytechnic’s programming fundamentals program in fall 2023 provided students with the opportunity to learn through a workplace integrated classroom (WIC) teaching methodology which resulted in increased learning, opportunities for solutions-based problem solving, and cross-program collaboration projects. BrickMMO is a smart city education platform made of a 1:45 scale smart city designed to provide students with a hands-on sandbox, or safe testing environment, to apply their newly acquired skills. This project was originally envisioned to develop a...
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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...
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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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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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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When I was young, I used to look up at the night sky and dream. I lived in Atlanta, a location filled with light pollution, so it was rare that I saw more than a few weak pinpoints of light scattered around the moon. Still, I pondered. Where did the stars come from? Did everyone see the same sky? How did the moon change shape?
Since the dawn of humanity, people just like me have looked up to the sky and wondered. Cultures across the globe have developed mythologies about the cosmos, from stories of the creation of the sun and moon to depictions of constellations. Egyptians built the pyramids...
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...
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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....
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