Citrus College has been selected for the Aspen institute College Education program for the 2019 Aspen prize for community college excellence.
The prize is $1 million dollars and funded by 11 sponsors including the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
The award is given once every two years.
The Aspen institute determines success by considering completion, equity, labor market and learning.
Citrus College has been eligible for the community college prize three times. Superintendent/President Geraldine Perri received notice Sept. 26 that Citrus College was chosen as one of the 150 schools eligible for the prize out of all community colleges in the United States.
Perri, Lan Hao, director of institutional research, planning and effectiveness, Arvid Spor, vice president of academic affairs and Martha McDonald, vice president of student services met several times to prepare for the phone interview with Aspen, Peri said.
“We did get feedback from the perspective that the interviewer said this is highly competitive,” Perri said. “This time we are hoping to get a call that we made it to the top 10.”
Hao was present during a phone interview with Aspen, she said this interview is the bridge between the next round of schools chosen. In the past Aspen had narrowed 150 schools to 10. After a school passes the phone interview a representative will visit the camps, most likely during late April or early May.
Hao said she has heard people say that a good campus has good energy and she believes it. She said if faculty, students, and everyone else has the same priority there is the same energy on campus.
“I think the results from the survey have helped us,” Hao said. By gathering data and evidence the college executives have a better understanding of which programs benefit students and how.
Perri said she thinks the Aspen institute was impressed with Citrus College’s outcomes, mainly associates degrees for transfer. Citrus was ranked at fifth in the state for ADTs given, but when ranked by size of student population, Citrus was actually second.
“Our students were making more money then other graduates in the region,” Perri said.
When asked if Citrus College had a chance of winning Spor said in an email “Yes. The metrics that Aspen uses to determine who will be in the running are very strong for Citrus College. Students are graduating and transferring in record numbers.”
Hao said the purpose of the Aspen prize was to highlight, share and promote a community college’s methods of improving education “so we can all learn together”.
