High-Impact Practices at Community Colleges
By: Dwight Smith, Ed.D.
Highline Community College’s Honors Scholar program demonstrates that combining wit and will can benefit students’ wallets. Through the will of a dedicated faculty, the program was implemented in 2003 with thirteen students and three faculty and has grown to approximately 250 students who work with 100 faculty on research projects integrated in courses. The students enroll in a two-credit “bootcamp” course to develop a personal statement, an academic resume, and explore transfer opportunities throughout the United States. A one-credit course serves as a capstone experience to prepare them to submit admission and scholarship applications to further their higher education. Graduates of the program have transferred to public universities, elite private universities, and the military academies.
The three Highline honors graduate students at the session demonstrated the varied paths community college students take through higher education. One student was a Marine who is now a student at Tufts; the second student, from Ethiopia, now is in a master’s program at the University of Washington; and the third student, a UPS employee, is now a George Washington University law student. Some five years later, each student recalled in detail his or her research topic and the results of their honors projects. The three students represented very well the 85 percent of their fellow honors students who transferred to a university.
While the honors scholar program is operated on a small wallet, the financial benefits for students are substantial. Faculty without financial compensation work with the students on their research projects, with these experiences helping students realize $3.2 million in financial aid from transfer institutions.
At the beginning of the AAC&U conference, attendees heard Under Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education Martha Kanter call upon the higher education community to educate the top 100 percent in order for the United States to reclaim its status as the leader in the world for proportion of citizens with a college degree. She emphasized that to reach this goal, the higher education community must focus on student success. Honors programs at community colleges provide additional pathways to students who are moving through the college pipeline at a pace that is perhaps slower than others, but moving nonetheless. The opportunities and the expectations for success of the three Highline Community College graduates provides evidence that excellence can be inclusive.
Dwight Smith is the vice president of academic affairs at the County College of Morris.
