Graduating or completing a certificate is a special time when students finish one of the most prominent achievements of their lives. But many students never graduate due to financial, family or work obstacles.
Sinclair Community College, Lorain Community College and Stark State College were chosen to share a $500,000 planning grant as part of a Completion by Design project that is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
The three colleges are collaborating to implement a nationwide initiative to help college students navigate through their obstacles and on to a pathway of success by graduating, transferring or completing their certificate.
Completion by Design is a five-year grant, and Sinclair is in its first year of the planning grant. In April, Sinclair will write and send a proposal to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to receive funding for the next four years.
As part of the planning grant, Sinclair will focus on helping three types of students navigate through college and avoid obstacles that hinder their progress toward attaining their degrees. These students include: students who are near college-ready, students who are undecided or who change their majors and students who come from high-poverty high schools.
“We are really trying to understand their [the students] needs in order for them to be successful,” said Kathleen Cleary, project director for Completion by Design. “For each population, we are designing a pathway so that the students have a very clear understanding of how to go to college, fill out their financial aid and take all the steps required for them to come to Sinclair and start successfully.”
After the student is enrolled at Sinclair, Cleary said Sinclair will implement a clear, coherent pathway for what courses the student needs to take.
Providing more graduates for the region is Sinclair’s primary focus. The secondary focus is funding because funding for Sinclair will be dependent on the number of graduates, Cleary said.
“We are trying to make it more obvious to the student on how to stay on the pathway [and graduate],” Cleary said. “Graduating is huge because our mission as a community college is to help the community. We cannot help our community effectively if we cannot offer more graduates in the areas that our community needs the most.”