Several community colleges have received Title V Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions program funding from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to better support Hispanic students.
Among the grant recipients is California’s Río Hondo College, which will launch an intensive program to support science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) field studies for students with its $2.8 million grant. Enlace, a pilot student success program, will provide services to all enrolled STEM students with a focus on low-income, first-generation, Hispanic students. The program will include scientific research experiences for students.
Another California college, Los Angeles Valley College (LAVC), received a $3 million grant to expand its dual-enrollment program to increase college-level course offerings at high schools and to create new career pathways for students of color.
And Berkeley City College (BCC) also was awarded nearly $3 million to expand supportive services for Latinx and marginalized students. This is the college’s first grant since being named a Developing Hispanic Serving Institution by ED in 2020.
Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) in New York received a five-year, $3 million grant to increase support to Hispanic males and low-income students. The college plans to expand its bilingual staff who will help students navigate through college successfully.
Also in New York, SUNY Orange will use its $2.9 million grant to develop student supports to increase engagement, retention and completion rates of Hispanic and low-income students. The college will introduce students to career and transfer planning during their onboarding process and then reinforce that planning through advising, and as well as engage students’ families in orientation activities.
Lone Star College-Montgomery (LSC) will expand outreach activities to encourage interest in higher education with its $2.7 million Title V grant. The Texas college will establish a Maverick Outpost near public transportation in the greater Conroe area to serve as a one-stop-shop for students interested in enrolling at LSC.
Also in Texas, College of the Mainland (COM) will apply it’s $3 million Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions grant toward an engineering faculty position in the college’s soon-to-launch engineering programs, along with other student services and Title V program positions. In addition to supporting student services, the grant will also help COM acquire lab equipment and supplies for its new engineering programs and Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) building.
Colorado
Three community colleges will receive funding to help revitalize rural housing and address labor shortages in southeastern Colorado.
As part of the new Colorado Partnership for Education and Rural Revitalization (COPERR), the state will grant up to $5 million to Lamar Community College, Otero Junior College and Trinidad State Junior College. The colleges will build trades programs so students can help improve housing in their communities. The training programs will include in-class learning and experiential learning, during which students will complete remodels and new construction of blighted properties that the community colleges have acquired or purchased via COPERR funds.
Students will pay tuition for the workforce training courses, but they will receive a stipend upon completion of their work for the experiential learning component.
“This program will be a game-changer for southeast Colorado,” Otero Junior College President Tim Alvarez said in a release. “Quality affordable housing and addressing our region’s shortage of trades professionals are two major components to revitalizing our rural communities.”
The program is funded through money the state received from a national mortgage settlement reached in 2012 after 49 states sued mortgage servicers following the 2008 financial crisis.
Maryland
Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) will use a $559,251 federal grant to expand access to behavioral health services for families affected by opioids and other substance use disorders. The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resource & Services Administration.
CCBC will create the Opioid-Impacted Family Support Program, which will be the only National Addiction Studies Accreditation Commission training program in Maryland. The program will train and place more than 100 newly credentialed counselors to work within the medically underserved areas of Baltimore City, the surrounding counties and rural parts of the state. Participants will receive specialized training in counseling children and families who experience and/or have family members experiencing opioid or other substance use disorders.
Massachusetts
Holyoke Community College (HCC) has received two state grants totaling more than $1 million to continue educating and training early childhood educators and to support the programs that employ them in western Massachusetts.
Both the $680,000 Career Pathways Grant and the $360,000 Strong Start Training and Technical Assistance Grant come from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC), which licenses public and private childcare programs in the state.
HCC is the lead agent on the six-month Career Pathways Grant, which will allow the college to continue its free Childhood Development Associate Plus (CDA-Plus) certificate program. The program was created to help early childhood educators already working in the field attain their national CDA credential or enhance their certification.
Greenfield Community College and Berkshire Community College are HCC’s partners in the consortium.
As for the Strong Start grant, an initial award in 2019 established HCC as the EEC’s professional development center for western Massachusetts.
Last year, HCC, working with UMass Boston as the lead agent, offered a series of workshops on and off campus to provide training, coaching and technical assistance to early childhood programs. Due to the pandemic, the program was revamped to focus on supporting programs that are reopening and implementing COVID-19 guidelines.
Michigan
Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) can continue to help students struggling with food insecurity with support from a $48,796 grant from Kent County and the Heart of West Michigan United Way.
GRCC has offered curbside food distribution since March, providing more than 1,200 bags of food and other needed supplies, such as diapers and cleaning supplies. With the new grant, GRCC will continue providing food and other materials through the fall.
Minnesota
Minnesota West Community and Technical College will receive $172,800 from the Governor’s Emergency Educational Relief Grant (GEER). The funds will support the college’s Remote Learning Resources in Nursing project, which aims to increase the quality of education for students and faculty who are adapting to new learning and teaching styles due to the pandemic. Specifically, the funding will help to increase the opportunities for virtual simulations for students.
New York
Bronx Community College (BCC) will use a $100,000 grant from the Robin Hood Foundation to provide emergency assistance to students who were not covered by CARES Act funding, including international and undocumented students.
“We are excited that we will be able to offer this assistance,” said Judith Eisenberg, the college’s grants director. “The money can be used for tuition and books, but also for personal emergency needs like food, rent, utilities and internet service.”
North Carolina
Carteret Community College will expand its commercial driver license (CDL) program thanks to a donation of an automatic tractor and refrigerated trailer from the Crystal Coast Country Club and its owner, PKS LLC, along with Ryder System, Inc.
Prior to the donation, the college partnered with Craven Community College and shared a tractor-trailer and revenue from enrollments between the two programs. Now, Carteret can operate the program on its own and have a truck on campus full time. The refrigerated trailer also will serve as emergency storage for the college’s culinary and baking and pastry program in case of an extended power outage.
