“Creating opportunities, one student at a time,” is a mission statement that Clovis Community College is certainly living up to in 2019.
Some things the new year will bring to the college are: a free tuition promise, hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships, a seven-year re-accreditation, and many exciting new programs and partnerships.
Of course, one of the most important things when it comes to education is money.
This year, in order to help its students be able to focus on their school work and get their degrees, student-centered CCC has raised over $100,000 in scholarships the past two years to dole out to students enrolled at the college.
Also, starting in 2019, CCC is looking forward to implementing the “Central Valley Promise,” a partnership with Clovis Unified School District that grants one semester of free college to qualifying students.
In 2018, the college partnered with Clovis Unified to align their visions and make sure every student transferring to CCC from a CUSD school has the opportunity to succeed.
Lori Bennett, president of Clovis Community College, said about the partnership, “One of the things that is very important is making sure our local students come to our college, college-level ready.”
“And so we built a partnership with Clovis Unified, starting with Clovis West, to align our English program with the high school’s English program.” she said, calling it “a true collaboration between the faculty at both the high school and the college.”
Bennett continued, “through that collaboration, transfer-ready English students grew from 33 percent to up to over 90 percent — almost every student coming forward. And the program has now expanded through all of Clovis Unified.”
“For that work we were acknowledged by the National Bellwether Award as one of the top 10 finalists in the country, out of 400 applications for this prestigious award,” she said. “So, we are very proud of that.”
CCC was named a champion for higher education for exemplary work in awarding associates degrees for transfer students. This was based on the conversion rate of the number of ADTS awarded and the number of students enrolled at the college.
The college has also been acknowledged for being number one in completion rates for the entire Central Valley region.
“At Clovis Community College we are focused on ensuring students succeed in whatever their goal is, and we want to help make sure that students transfer to whatever university they want to transfer to,” Bennett said.
CCC has been working on developing a variety of curriculum, including career technical education programs wherein students can attend the college, get training, and go out and get a job after graduation.
One example is the new Mechatronics Advanced Manufacturing program in which after only two semesters, students can learn the skills to go out and get “a very high paying job in the local community, in an area that is truly in demand as the area of fresno county grows,” according to Bennett.
“Clovis Community College is a relatively new college,” Bennett said. “And we received our first accreditation to open in 2015. Spring of 2018 we went through a formal re-accreditation process and received the full seven years.”
“Accreditation is an ongoing process for a community college,” Bennett said. “It’s something we think of all the time. And it’s possible because of the faculty, staff and students all working together to make sure we are constantly improving our school.”
“It is truly great accomplishment especially being a new school,” Bennett said.
On the horizon for 2019, CCC is really excited about its partnership with UC Merced and the implementation of “The Small Business Development Center,” which will serve students, entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Clovis Community College was selected by UC Merced to host the Small Business Development Center and to “develop this organization that covers the four county region of our area,” according to Bennett. “This program will help our local community because it focuses on helping people to become small business owners or entrepreneurs.”