Excelencia in Education Congratulates Finalists for 2015 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence

WASHINGTON, DC — The Aspen Institute has announced that two community colleges previously recognized through the Examples of Excelencia initiative have been selected as finalists for the 2015 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence.

The two Texas schools, El Paso Community College, the 2011 Example of Excelencia in the Associate category for its Early College High School Initiative, and Brazosport College in Jackson, TX, a 2011 Finalist in the Associate category for its Learning Frameworks Program, could be chosen as the grand prize winner or one of the four finalists-with-distinction by the Washington-based Aspen Institute in March of 2015.

In response, Sarita Brown, president of Excelencia in Education, and Deborah Santiago, chief operating officer and vice president for policy of Excelencia in Education, released the following statement:

“Today we congratulate all 10 Aspen Prize finalists, and especially want to recognize Brazosport College and El Paso Community College for their incredible work improving Latino student success.  In 2011, we identified and recognized Brazosport College as a Finalist and El Paso Community College as an Example of Excelencia for programs with clear evidence of helping Latino students prepare and succeed in higher education.  We are thrilled to see these two effective community colleges sustaining their work to improve educational outcomes for Latino students and all students.

“Every year, Excelencia in Education selects Examples of Excelencia, programs that, emerge from a national search and rigorous review process as significant for their impact on Latino student success.  Like the Aspen Institute, Excelencia in Education believes that, by sharing what has worked for other institutions, we can inform, inspire and equip decision makers to accelerate Latino student success.”

Conceived and run by Excelencia in Education, Examples of Excelencia is the only national initiative to systematically identify, recognize, and catalogue evidence-based programs that improve Latino college success.

Excelencia in Education is a Washington, DC-based national nonprofit organization whose mission is to accelerate Latino student success in higher education. For more information, visit www.EdExcelencia.org.

Featured

  • University of Kansas Breaks Ground on Entrepreneurship Hub

    The University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new KU Entrepreneurship Hub, according to university news. The Hub is part of the university’s School of Business and will include spaces for experiential learning and programming.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.

  • Surging Demand for Student Housing Fuels Major Campus Investment Opportunities

    University leaders throughout the U.S. are accelerating plans to modernize and expand student housing as enrollment stabilizes and demand for on-campus living rebounds. Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that total postsecondary enrollment is projected to grow through the end of the decade, with undergraduate enrollment alone expected to increase by more than 8 percent by 2030.

  • abstract illustration of school gym

    How the Gymnasium Can Serve as a Model for Learning Space Design

    Multipurpose gyms work because flexibility was built into the brief from the start, not retrofitted later. The same logic applies to academic spaces.