Three City Colleges of Chicago – Kennedy-King College, Malcolm X
College, and Olive-Harvey College -- will receive approximately $8.5
million for up to five years from the U.S. Department of Education to enhance
the colleges’ capacity to better serve low and middle income African-American
students. The three City Colleges are
among 62 colleges across the country to receive a share of a $24.6 million
award.
“These awards translate into
tremendous opportunities for our students,” says City Colleges of Chicago
Chancellor Cheryl L. Hyman. “This funding will assist us in meeting our
Reinvention goals to ensure more students earn college credentials of economic
value, and leave us ready to transfer into bachelor’s degree programs or
successfully move into the workforce.
“Thanks go to Congressman Danny Davis
and the Illinois delegation for their work in helping
us secure these resources for our students,” continued Chancellor Hyman.
Kennedy-King
College received a formula grant of
$250,000 per year for five years ($1.25 million total). With this funding, KKC will focus primarily
on academic and student enrichment services by:
- increasing
the number of high school graduates enrolling at the college
level;
-
increasing
capacity of the math, reading, and writing tutorial labs;
- establishing embedded tutors during class periods,
and
- expanding
the Level UP program to support high school juniors and seniors to prepare for
college level work.
KKC also received a competitive grant
of $599,000 per year for four years ($2.4 million total). Through this award,
KKC plans include:
- developing a
Transfer
Academy to provide students
with the skills needed to make the transition from the two-year college to
four-year colleges, as well as into the workforce;
- increasing its
tutoring, mentoring, and advising capacity through the establishment of a
First-Year
Academy.
KKC also proposes to implement Project
GEMS (Grooming Educated Men for Success). This project is designed to address
the overarching need to increase African-American male enrollment at the college
and to increase those students’ success in college courses and retention from
semester-to-semester, ultimately leading to degree and certificate
completion.