Indian
River Community College and LaGuardia Community College recognized for
serving low-income, minority, and immigrant youth and adults
(Long Beach, CA) April 23, 2006—Indian River Community College in Fort
Pierce, Florida, and LaGuardia Community College, in Long Island City,
New York, are the winners of the 2006 MetLife Foundation Community College Excellence Awards.
The winners were announced in Long Beach on April 23 at the 2006 annual
convention of the American Association of Community Colleges.
The MetLife Foundation Community College Excellence Awards honor
excellence in promoting educational and economic advancement for young
people and adults who do not traditionally have access to higher
education. Each finalist combines determined leadership, innovative
programming, and attention to outcomes throughout the college, leading
to clear improvements in meeting the varied learning needs of
low-income, first-generation, immigrant, and working students.
Indian River Community College and LaGuardia Community College will
each receive $30,000 because they excel in the three areas that the
Awards promote:
Effective strategies and practices that benefit underprepared students. New
and creative practices, programs, and strategies help low-income and
other less-advantaged youth and adults succeed in college.
Implementation of these practices on a large scale across the institution.
Each college pursues a coherent, well-planned approach to change across
the institution, rather than managing a collection of disconnected
innovations.
Improved academic and economic outcomes for students.
Evidence of improvement derives from careful assessments of which
strategies and innovations improve access to, retention in, and
completion of college programs for students from traditionally
underserved populations.
“Both
Indian River Community College and LaGuardia Community College have
embraced the challenge of serving individuals from low-income
communities, students of color, non-native speakers of English, and
first-generation college-goers—the groups that are growing fastest in
their communities,” commented Marlene B. Seltzer, president and CEO of
Jobs for the Future, which administers the award for MetLife
Foundation. “Recognizing both the changing demographics of their
regions and the economic imperative for more low-skill individuals to
earn postsecondary credentials, these colleges are making significant
investments in services and strategies that can help these students
overcome varied obstacles to success.”
“MetLife Foundation established the Community College Excellence Awards
to bring national attention to the important role community colleges
play in providing educational access and opportunity to students of all
backgrounds,” said MetLife Foundation president and CEO Sibyl Jacobson.
“Through the Awards, MetLife Foundation accelerates the diffusion of
effective practices and policies by recognizing institutions that
promote and support the education of underserved students.”
Indian River Community College,
a network of five major campuses, serves one of every ten members of
its community. The campuses are immaculate, impressive, and
updated—“beacons of hope”—and IRCC sees itself as an engine for the
region’s economic development. In recent years, it has built five new
academic centers in partnership with business leaders with the goal of
creating a skilled workforce for emerging technologies and recruiting
new industries to the area. Twenty-five outreach and access centers are
strategically located in economically depressed areas throughout the
community.
Indian River is committed to tackling the region’s education gaps.
Currently, one-quarter of its community members lack a high school
degree, including an increasing population of Mexican and Haitian
immigrants. IRCC has recruited Spanish and Creole-speaking staff to
support students, and provosts, deans, and instructors also conduct
outreach. Students are recruited in a range of settings such as
community centers, citrus groves, dairy farms, and churches.
The 14,000 credit and 39,000 non-credit students at LaGuardia Community College
are overwhelmingly immigrant, female, and economically disadvantaged.
They represent 160 countries, speak 110 languages, and face significant
skill barriers to college success: almost 90 percent of entering
students require at least one course in developmental reading, writing,
or math. At the same time, the students are ambitious, with more than
half of degree-seeking candidates aiming for a Master’s degree or
higher.
LaGuardia addresses the needs of its large proportion of traditionally
underserved students through two major goals: fostering academic
success among developmental and ESL students through seamless
transitions to discipline-area work, and creating a sense of community
and heightened engagement with the college to achieve greater
persistence and success. Some of the LaGuardia’s strategies include
First Year Academies for incoming students organized around curricular
themes, learning communities linked to developmental or ESL and
credit-level courses, and pedagogies designed to engage and challenge
its extremely diverse student body.
As a result of such practices, the college boasts a five-year
graduation rate of 26 percent in contrast to the national average of 17
percent for community colleges. LaGuardia was among the top 25
community colleges for degrees granted to minorities in 2004.
###
MetLife Foundation, established in 1976 by MetLife, supports
education, health, cultural and civic programs throughout the United
States. The Foundation has contributed more than $90 million to
education programs that facilitate change and cultivate effective
learning environments at school and at home. For more information about
the Foundation, please visit the Web site at www.metlife.org.
Founded in 1983, Jobs for the Future is a leading innovator
in strategies to accelerate education and career advancement for both
young people and adults. Jobs for the Future provides research,
consulting, and technical assistance on education and workforce
development issues to public and private organizations throughout the
United States and abroad. For more information on JFF, please visit the
Web site at www.jff.org.
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