ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (05/19/2010)(readMedia)-- On May 18, 2010, The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and the Walmart Foundation announced that Elizabethtown College is one of only 30 colleges nationwide to receive a 2010 Walmart College Success Award. The $100,000 award will assist the College in creating programming designed to enhance retention of first-generation students.

Through the Walmart College Success Awards program, 30 CIC member colleges and universities, selected through a competitive application process, will receive substantial grants to help strengthen exemplary programs that support the education of first-generation students. The newly selected 30 institutions and the 20 initial College Success Award recipients, which were selected in June 2008, will work together as a network to assist first-generation college students, learn from one another, and serve as models for other colleges and universities.

Elizabethtown College traditionally has enrolled a high percentage of first-generation college students, with 50 percent of the 2009-2010 class of first-year students being the first members of their families to attend college. According to Dean of Students Marianne Calenda, the award will enhance the College's highly successful academic support services with a new Summer Bridge Program and training and systematic intervention efforts targeted at the retention of first-generation students. "The Summer Bridge Program will introduce first-generation students to key resources and strategies necessary for student success," said Calenda. "We hope to enroll 50 students in the one-week residential program, geared to deepen these students' understanding of the heighted academic expectations in college and to build their confidence and connections to the college community."

The Summer Bridge Program will be implemented through Elizabethtown's Center for Student Success. In addition to providing the funding for the development of the program, the Walmart College Success Award also will increase the Center's capacity through the hire of a half-time mentor and by expanding an already existing academic advising position. This new staff will supplement, not replace, the traditional faculty-student advising relationship, meeting routinely with at-risk students to discuss their academic progress and problem-solving strategies.

In 2009, the CIC received a second grant of $3 million from the Walmart Foundation to support the second cohort of award recipients. Twenty CIC member institutions with programs that show the greatest promise of increasing retention of the largest number of first-generation students were selected to receive grants of $100,000. Ten institutions that have established worthy projects with a smaller scope of impact or are more experimental in nature will receive $50,000 awards. All award winners have an undergraduate enrollment that includes at least 30 percent first-generation students among the most recent classes of first-year students.

"The 20 colleges and universities selected for the initial awards in 2008 have done a great job in rising to the challenges of retaining and graduating first-generation students," said Walmart Foundation president Margaret McKenna. "The Walmart Foundation is proud to provide the opportunity for an additional 30 institutions to participate in the program and contribute to the growing body of knowledge on how best to support these students."

In announcing the award winners, CIC President Richard Ekman said, "We are delighted by the recognition that this second grant from the Walmart Foundation gives to the role played by nonprofit private colleges in educating first-generation students. Much attention has been focused recently on higher education as a key to making the United States workforce stronger and the country more competitive in the 21st century world economy. As the federal government and philanthropic leaders call for increased degree completion in higher education, small and mid-sized private institutions are an underutilized resource in this effort. Private colleges also enroll comparable or higher percentages of lower-income and first-generation students to public institutions and they require far less subsidy by state governments to succeed in meeting these national goals. Most importantly, nonprofit private institutions have moved beyond a focus on access to a record of unmatched success in retaining and graduating low-income and first-generation students."

Citing data from the American Association of Community Colleges, Ekman noted that more than six million students a year enroll for credit at the nation's community colleges. However, only 26 percent actually transfer to a four-year college. In addition, according to the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the six-year graduation rate of first-generation students at public four-year institutions is only 44 percent compared with 61 percent at private colleges and universities. "In short, if we are to achieve the ambitious national goal of increased numbers of college graduates, the lessons learned from the experiences of private colleges will need to be heeded by national policymakers and others," Ekman stressed.

The Walmart College Success Awards program will include a conference in 2011, online networking opportunities, and a final publication on best practices from both cohorts to be disseminated at the end of the grant period in 2013.

The 20 $100,000 award winners are:

Alma College, MI; Alverno College, WI; Berea College, KY; Catawba College, NC; Clark Atlanta University, GA; College of Notre Dame of Maryland; DePaul University, IL; Elizabethtown College, PA; Franklin College, IN; Guilford College, NC; Lynchburg College, VA; Mars Hill College, NC; Mercyhurst College, PA; Mills College, CA; Notre Dame de Namur University, CA; Rosemont College, PA; Stetson University, FL; Stevenson University, MD; Thomas College, ME; and University of St. Francis, IL.

The ten $50,000 award winners are:

Cardinal Stritch University, WI; Chaminade University of Honolulu, HI; Defiance College, OH; Emmanuel College, MA; Eureka College, IL; Heritage University, WA; McKendree University, IL; Saint Augustine's College, NC; Wabash College, IN; and Woodbury University, CA

The programs offered at these 30 institutions represent the wide range of approaches to working with first-generation students. Some institutions focus on the unique needs of a particular subset of first-generation students, such as Hispanic students, commuter students, transfer students from community colleges, or students pursuing a teaching career. A number of the award recipients offer transitional summer programs for incoming students that help prepare them for college-level work and life away from home. Others provide services such as mentoring, tutoring, career development, and providing scholarships and stipends to help ensure success for first-generation students.

For more information about the Walmart College Success Awards and the programs of the 30 winners, visit the CIC website at www.cic.edu/projects_services/walmart_college_success.asp.

Elizabethtown College, in southeastern Pennsylvania, is a private coed college with degrees in liberal arts, fine and performing arts, science and engineering, business, communications and education. The hallmarks of an Elizabethtown education are academic rigor, high expectations and intellectual curiosity. Our faculty members are teacher-scholars, pursuing their academic areas of expertise while sharing that expertise with students. For more information, please visit www.etown.edu.

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Media Contact:

Lori H. Burke

Director of Communications

Elizabethtown College

burkel@etown.edu

717-361-1268 (o)

717-808-7318 (c)

Posted Wednesday May 19, 2010 at 06:00 am by Elizabethtown College
Last Updated Tuesday August 24, 2010 at 01:03 pm