The grant will help the college achieve one of its goals of making students more successful, more employable or better able to continue their education at another institution.
In a significant boost to higher education in the community, Hillsborough Community College’s Plant City campus has been awarded a grant of $1,352,277 million to employ data-driven, research-based methods to remove barriers to enrollment and increase the number of full-time students pursuing and successfully completing a degree or program.
Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs and Workforce Development Mechel Albano, E.D.D., who was instrumental completing the lengthy grant application, found it difficult to contain her excitement when she learned that her grant titled “Supporting Students Through Innovative Practices” was approved.
“I had just finished reading the email when I started hearing shrieks down the hall,” said HCC Plant City campus President Marty Clay, PhD.
The joyful noise was coming from a usually subdued Albano, who had just received a phone call from her grants manager letting her know they’d won the grant. “I was just so overjoyed at the possibilities of what we can do for our students in Plant City and across the college,” said Albano, who has worked at the college for 15 years and also was a student at the college in the 1980’s. “This means a lot to me,” she said.
The grant funds, dispersed over a five-year period and provided through the U.S. Department of Education’s “Strengthening Institutions Program” (SIP), will be allocated to several key initiatives, including:
Migrate the college’s business intelligence software to a cloud-based environment, thus enhancing data collection and analysis;
Expand the use of student early-alert software from fully-online classes to classes with on-campus meetings;
Extend the use of artificial intelligence chatbot software to an estimated 400 HCC Plant City students;
Include technology into Plant City SLS 1106 (First Year Experience) sections to further emphasize student program completion and career development;
Provide professional development workshops to support its faculty in bringing innovative teaching practices into their courses;
Provide enhanced opportunities for outreach to both students and their families.
“Some of these programs are already in place at the college but we’re taking them a step further,” said Albano.
Its business intelligence software identifies trends and measures how successful students are in their classes. That data is fed to artificial intelligence advising, a program that can provide round-the-clock accessibility for students and offer personalized support tailored to each student. The first year experience course, geared toward first-time college students, will include a career assessment to help students narrow down their academic and career plans.
“It’s in everyone’s best interest to get students through these programs as quickly as they can and as successfully as they can and we’re a really great place to start because our costs are low and we really focus on instruction,” said HCC Plant City Dean of Academic Affairs Joseph Borrell, PhD.
On average, HCC’s Plant City campus, which is the smallest of the college’s five campuses, serves approximately 10,000 students each year. Fall enrollment is 5,700 students. It hasn’t increased tuition costs in at least nine years. “We’ve been doing more with less for a long time,” said Clay. “We’ve held the line on tuition so it would stay affordable to students but this grant gives us a revenue stream to offset that and continue to provide a quality education to students without increasing costs.”
The grant will help the college achieve one of its goals of making students more successful, more employable or better able to continue their education at another institution.
What a cause for celebration.
For more information about Hillsborough Community College visit hccfl.edu.
