The MetLife Foundation Community College Excellence Awards were created in 2002 and have been awarded biennially to exemplary institutions, with a focus on recognizing community colleges that contribute to helping less-advantaged youth and adults meet educational and career goals.

This year, the application process has been significantly streamlined into a simple online self-nomination process of no more than 750 words, with the intent of identifying as many best practices as possible.

To apply for the 2010 MetLife Foundation Community College Excellence Awards, community colleges can submit self-nominations online through Friday, October 2nd at:

http://application.jff.org

  In 2010, MetLife Foundation will present three awards, in three separate categories:

• The Award for Exceptional Service to Students, which recognizes sustained institutional commitment to and clear strategies for helping larger numbers of students to succeed.
• The Award for Service to Communities, which recognizes success in addressing demographic and economic change in the college’s community or region through initiatives that provide solutions and have demonstrable impact.
• The Award for Service through Innovation, which recognizes a community college that has employed creative approaches to address a specific, distinctive local need, challenge, or opportunity.

All public, accredited community colleges in the United States are eligible to apply. The three winning colleges will be announced in April 2010 at the annual convention of the American Association of Community Colleges. Each will receive a $40,000 grant.