EvCC Receives $1.7 Million Student Success Grant
Press Release
Release Date: March 8, 2013
Contact: Heather Bennett, EvCC Executive Director of Resource Development, 425-388-9253; hbennett@everettcc.edu
EvCC Receives $1.7 Million Student Success Grant
EVERETT, Wash. – Everett Community College is using a new $1.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to help more students stay in school and graduate.
The five-year grant will enhance advising, help every student create an effective educational plan, increase scholarships for low-income students, fund faculty mentoring and technology training, provide industry-specific language skills training, strengthen retention efforts and support expansion of EvCC’s web-based advising data portal.
“Everything we do is focused on student success. This grant enhances our ability to help students stay in college and earn their degree,” said EvCC President David Beyer.
As part of the grant funding, the college is expanding its Pathways Center, which provides industry-specific language skills training and supports non-native English speakers interested in pursuing healthcare careers and foreign-trained healthcare professionals wanting to re-enter the field. The Center will now offer language skills and tutoring for ESL and at-risk students studying aviation maintenance and advanced manufacturing.
The grant also pays for a part-time development associate, who will raise money for scholarships and related educational expenses for low-income students. Funds collected locally will be matched, dollar for dollar, with federal funds.
The grant has allowed the college to hire a new director of advising, who will implement strategies to strengthen the experiences of new students. Those strategies include having students meet with an educational planner before their first quarter, connecting students with faculty advisors to develop a degree plan and encouraging students to complete a college success class.
Assistance and coaching of new faculty funded by the grant includes training in using the college’s new online learning management system, Canvas, faculty peer mentoring and individual training and support.
The Title III-A Strengthening Institutions grant proposal was developed by EvCC’s Student Success and Retention Committee and authored by the college’s grant developer Carla Shafer.