If community colleges are to remain relevant, they must be future-oriented, and responsive to demographic and labor force shifts. The Get Skilled, Get a Job, Give Back initiative (G3) was implemented during the 2021-22 academic year to retain economically disadvantaged students, improve community college completion, and help students graduate into…

Objective: Most undocumented students enter higher education through community colleges, yet these institutions typically offer less support than four-year universities. Using Shumaker and Brownell's theory of social support, we aimed to understand how resources at community colleges influenced undocumented students' persistence. Specifically, we…

In the face of troubling public sentiment regarding the usefulness of college, this article shares a model for incorporating intentional and sustainable community-engaged learning (CEL) into the curriculum through a yearlong professional development faculty fellowship program. The authors share their experiences moving through the training,…

High-ability and gifted students are well-served by a focus on the development of community. The Academic Year Governor's Schools of Virginia were created with a formalized emphasis on the network of relationships built among the students, faculty, and the larger community. The power of these communities of learners was evident in a study of the…

The community college has one of its missions to provide access for students who intend to transfer to a 4-year university using a vertical transfer pathway. As potential advocates for students in the transfer process, faculty who work in community colleges need to recognize the importance of supporting transfer students and help to improve the…

Twenty-five years ago, the aspirational vision of a newly formed national SENCER initiative led one of the authors (Wood) to initiate a long-term relationship between the Smithsonian Institution and George Mason University, involving a residential, immersive approach to education focused on biodiversity conservation. In the Smithsonian-Mason…

Despite the fact that many learners are attracted to the humanities and liberal arts, community college students--particularly those from low-income backgrounds--are often advised to avoid those subjects in favor of STEM-related courses like information technology, health care, and engineering. The reason is clear: unless students have had…

The evolving demands of the agricultural workforce require skills beyond traditional technical expertise, including communication, teamwork, adaptability, and self-management. These employability skills are critical for fostering innovation and addressing the complexities of modern agriculture. In support of helping community college faculty to…

After a sharp decline associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, 2023 marked two consecutive years of increase in the number of freshman and high-school dual enrollees, with under-18-year-olds driving a disproportionate share of this growth. The rising importance of this latter student group presents new opportunities for colleges as well as…

The Humanities to Career initiative is grounded in the belief that the study of the humanities/liberal arts (HLA) can be an asset in preparation for technical and professional careers. Lorain County Community College, in Elyria, Ohio; Bunker Hill Community College, in Boston; and Northern Virginia Community College, located outside of Washington,…

The American Community Survey (ACS), a nationwide study collected continuously every year in every county in the United States, is designed to provide communities with reliable and timely demographic, social, economic, and housing data each year. These ACS estimates are not averages of monthly or annual values, but rather an aggregation of data…

Many public workforce training programs lead to industry-recognized, third-party awarded credentials, but little research has been conducted on the economic benefits of these credentials in the labor market. This paper provides quasi-experimental evidence on the labor market returns to industry-recognized credentials connected to community college…

This article reports on four synthesis findings from the Credentials to Careers (C2C) initiative -- a consortium of seven community colleges working to create and implement innovative programs to train or retrain unemployed and displaced workers for STEM, advanced manufacturing and health-care-related careers. These are 1) collaborating with…

In the past several decades, the number of college students who experience mental health concerns has increased astronomically. During that time, acts of campus violence have increased as well. Unfortunately, many colleges have been unable to effectively meet the needs of students with mental disorders. This article explores the challenges…

The extent to which rural community colleges adapt effectively and in alignment with economic and technological trends significantly influences the extent to which the people and communities they serve experience economic success. Advancing understanding of how rural community college presidents across the nation lead their institutions through…