{"id":45068,"date":"2026-09-28T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=45068"},"modified":"2026-09-23T14:03:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:03:41","slug":"sinclair-promise-works-to-build-a-student-ready-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2026\/09\/28\/sinclair-promise-works-to-build-a-student-ready-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinclair Promise works to build a \u2018Student-Ready\u2019 campus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sinclair Promise is a three-year commitment that started in 2024 to encourage student achievement and outcomes for alumni. The Sinclair Promise aims to prepare students for successful post-graduate outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initiative is funded by the Sinclair Board of Trustees<\/a> and the President\u2019s Office, totaling $1.75 million in funds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vice Provost Lisa Mahle-Grisez said that Sinclair Promise is committed to helping Sinclair become a \u201cstudent-ready\u201d campus. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Lisa Mahle-Grisez, Vice Provost. CONTRIBUTED.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThat means that we no longer fixate on faculty and staff, on whether students are college ready. We are tasked with understanding how we, as a campus, a faculty, and staff are ready to meet students\u2019 needs where they are now and push ourselves to retain more of them from semester to semester,\u201d Mahle-Grisez said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Community colleges face a decline. \u201cWe\u2019ve been really good at recruiting new students and getting new students in the door, but we\u2019ve been less successful at retaining students,\u201d Mahle-Grisez said. Over 31,000 students attend Sinclair Community College from highschoolers taking College Credit Plus to students in the prison education program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sinclair Promise hopes to aid students in their greatest times of academic need. There are several different areas in which Sinclair Promises plans to reach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Urban Zone pertains to seven to twelve school K-12 school districts who have students in need of support when attending Sinclair. Mahle-Grisez explained that the incentive is to: \u201cGet their students through our doors, so that they can be successful in a living wage credential and ultimately, hopefully, a living wage job.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve been working with the Academic Advising Center. In the past, the Sinclair Promise has relied on students reaching out to them. \u201cInstead of waiting for students to come to us, we are now in an effort to be student ready, engaging students earlier,\u201d Mahle-Grisez follows. \u201cAdvisors are reaching out to students before they\u2019re in a crisis using early predictors, and there\u2019s some AI involved in that.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEAB Navigate<\/a> is a platform that advisors can use to communicate with students who may be in the fourth week of the semester struggling, because once they get to a certain point in the semester, it\u2019s very hard to turn that around,\u201d Mahle-Grisez said. \u201cAdvisors are really the linchpin in retaining students and getting them to persist from semester to semester.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students who are reached through academic advising<\/a> have persisted at significantly higher rates than the students who were not. 85% of students persist from fall to spring persistence, versus 67% of students, from one campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Student meeting with an advisor. ARKANSASTECHNEWS.COM.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Sinclair Promise has also helped add a new feature to class registration through the MySinclair portal. Students can now add future courses to their cart. \u201cIt\u2019s not unlike an Amazon shopping cart,\u201d Mahle-Grisez said. \u201cAt any given point, you should be able to see a full academic year of courses, and tag those sections that you\u2019re interested in, and put them in your shopping cart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahle-Grisez wanted to follow with letting students know that the initiative, Promise 2030, is for them specifically. \u201cNot for some student that we imagine when we plan programs, but for the actual student. For you with your actual schedule, your actual life, your actual goals,\u201d Mahle-Grisez said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data shows that students who regularly meet with their academic advisors tend to be more successful than those who do not. Faculty members that discuss career readiness in their courses aid students in better connecting to their coursework and boost student persistence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Achieve at Sinclair is a new peer mentoring program that began in the spring of this year. This program pairs a student with a higher GPA to a student with a lower GPA for mentorship. This trains peer mentors and helps them understand important persistence skills while providing support for students who may feel alone or are struggling on their academic journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On its second year, Sinclair Promise purpose is to show up for students and faculty to prepare Sinclair students for academic success and success after they finish their Sinclair journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josofine Addison, reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out more from The Clarion: <\/p>\n\n\n