Edmonds College
PAE-10: Affordability and Access Programs

Since 2005, Edmonds Community College has been part of the TRiO Student Support Services Program. Our program provides resources and support to 160 low-income, first generation college students, and students with disabilities each year that will assist in student success and persistence towards graduation. TRiO serves to motivate and help students accomplish their goals by offering comprehensive individual support through academic advising, tutoring, and peer-to-peer mentoring through an AmeriCorps Retention Project Program called the "TRiO Make-It-Happen Mentoring."

The college has Worker Retraining program, which provides gap funding for displaced workers to enter a professional-technical program. The college also houses a BFET (Basic Food and Employment Training) and Workfirst program on campus, which provides funding and support for GED, ESL, and/or a professional-technical certificate. In addition, the college has an Opportunity Grant program, which provides funding and support for a year's worth of classes in a growing professional-technical field. Recently, there were grant-associated programs that paid for approved students to train in short-term certificates in energy management. The EdCC Foundation has a number of scholarships available to students. They award once a year and also have a "Complete the Dream" scholarship available quarterly to those who need one more quarter to graduate. Lastly, the EdSTEM Program, funded by the National Science Foundation, provides scholarships to students enrolled in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) degree programs.

In 2011, Edmonds Community College became part of the program, Achieving the Dream, a national nonprofit that helps more community college students succeed, particularly students of color and low-income students. We're in the process right now of identifying strategies for improving student success, closing achievement gaps, and increasing retention, persistence, and completion rates. Three priorities have been identified. Priority Area #1: Improve First Time in College (FTIC) Student Experience - a. Charter comprehensive College Success Course and calibrate common success curriculum in Special Programs. Priority Area #2: Increase Faculty Engagement and Student Success in HELC (High Enrollment Low Completion) courses - a. Review placement scores, prerequisites, and course objectives on HELC to ensure proper initial placement and support student success; b. Increase faculty engagement through professional development for instructors; c. Charter a Teachers’ Academy where new FT faculty work collaboratively to improve student engagement and success. Priority Area #3: Increase Campus Understanding and Support of Student Equity and Success. As part of the Achieving the Dream initiative, the college has formed a new body called the Student Success Council. The purpose of this council is identify, record, support, and report out about student success efforts on campus and link these efforts to our larger Strategic Student Success plan. The Student Success Council recently began a program offering mini-grants of up to $5,500.00 that support innovation, foster student success, and have the potential to be scaled up if successful.

In 2011, Edmonds Community College became part of the program, Achieving the Dream, a national nonprofit that helps more community college students succeed, particularly students of color and low-income students. We're in the process right now of identifying strategies for improving student success, closing achievement gaps, and increasing retention, persistence, and completion rates. Three priorities have been identified. Priority Area #1: Improve First Time in College (FTIC) Student Experience - a. Require students in target population to participate in a NSO: New Student Orientation and complete an FTIC survey. Priority Area #2: Increase Faculty Engagement and Student Success in HELC (High Enrollment Low Completion) courses - a. Charter a Peer Mentoring Program for students in HELC classes. Priority Area #3: Increase Campus Understanding and Support of Student Equity and Success. In addition, in 2012, Edmonds Communtity College received a 3-year grant from College Spark, a private foundation located in Seattle, which supports college readiness and retention for low-income students. Worker Retraining, BFET, and Opportunity Grant departments all support low-income students on their rosters.

The college has Worker Retraining program, which provides gap funding for displaced workers to enter a professional-technical program. The college also houses a BFET (Basic Food and Employment Training) and Workfirst program on campus, which provides funding and support for GED, ESL, and/or a professional-technical certificate. In addition, the college has an Opportunity Grant program, which provides funding and support for a year's worth of classes in a growing professional-technical field. Recently, there were grant-associated programs that paid for approved students to train in short-term certificates in energy management. The EdCC Foundation has a number of scholarships available to students. They award once a year and also have a "Complete the Dream" scholarship available quarterly to those who need one more quarter to graduate. Lastly, the EdSTEM Program, funded by the National Science Foundation, provides scholarships to students enrolled in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) degree programs.

Through our membership with Washington Campus Compact, a consortium of colleges and universities dedicated to civic engagement and service-learning, we have access to a program called the College Access Challenge Grant funded by the Department of Education. We've received funding for this program for three years (AY 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013). One of the missions of this grant is to increase knowledge of college access resources (FAFSA, Pell Grants, Scholarships, etc.) for both the prospective student and their families. In 2010-2011, our focus was to bring prospective students enrolled in the Edmonds School District Indian Education Program and their families on an alternative spring break to Whidbey Island for some cultural immersive activities and financial aid workshops.

Through our membership with Washington Campus Compact, a consortium of colleges and universities dedicated to civic engagement and service-learning, we have access to a program called the College Access Challenge Grant funded by the Department of Education. We've received funding for this program for three years (AY 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013). Through this grant, we support outreach to K-12 schools and work with an after-school mentoring program with the Edmonds School District. In addition, since 2007, Edmonds CC has received grants from Washington Campus Compact to fund full-time AmeriCorps Members through a program called the Retention Project. The goal for this program is to use mentoring and service-learning as strategies to support low-income, first-generation college students to succeed in college access and college success. Currently, we have an AmeriCorps Member working in TRiO Student Support Services supporting a peer-to-peer mentoring program, one in the Learn and Serve Environmental Anthropology Field (LEAF) School for a peer-to-peer in class mentoring, and one in the Center for Service-Learning with K-12 outreach and a college student to youth mentoring program.

http://www.edcc.edu/atd; http://www.edcc.edu/opportunity; http://www.wacampuscompact.org/cacg; http://www.wacampuscompact.org/programs/retention/retention.shtml; http://www.edcc.edu/bfet/; http://www.edcc.edu/workfirst/; http://www.edcc.edu/retraining/; http://www.edcc.edu/foundation/scholarships/; www.edcc.edu/mesa; www.edcc.edu/rise