Bunker Hill Community College President Attends Third White House Meeting on Student Success

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Dec 04, 2014, 06:19 ET

BOSTON, Dec. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bunker Hill Community College President Pam Eddinger will join President Obama, the First Lady and Vice President Biden along with hundreds of college presidents and other higher education leaders to announce new actions to help more students prepare for and graduate from college.

The White House College Opportunity Day of Action helps to support the President's commitment to partner with colleges and universities, business leaders and nonprofits to support students across the country to help our nation reach its goal of leading the world in college attainment.

Bunker Hill Community College has made the following commitments:

Develop a STEM Pathway Early College High School that connects key sectors of the community and business to promote high school graduation, college completion, and workforce development.
Expand the College's Learn and Earn paid internship program, implemented in partnership with business and industry leaders along with measuring the effects of the program on student success and career readiness.

"We are making progress on the commitments we made at the White House in January," said Eddinger. "Working with Greater Boston educators to create a 6-year education pathway will allow students an opportunity to earn a high school diploma and an associate's degree, along with a prospect of employment upon completion."

Today's participants were asked to commit to new action in one of four areas: building networks of colleges around promoting completion, creating K-16 partnerships around college readiness, investing in high school counselors as part of the First Lady's Reach Higher initiative, and increasing the number of college graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The President will announce new steps on how his Administration is helping to support these actions, including announcing $10 million to help promote college completion and a $30 million AmeriCorps program that will improve low-income students' access to college. Today's event is the second College Opportunity Day of Action, and will include a progress report on the commitments made at the first day of action on January 14, 2014.

Expanding opportunity for more students to enroll and succeed in college, especially low-income and underrepresented students, is vital to building a strong economy and a strong middle class. Today, only 9 percent of those born in the lowest family income quartile attain a bachelor's degree by age 25, compared to 54 percent in the top quartile. In an effort to expand college access, the Obama Administration has increased Pell scholarships by $1,000 a year, created the new American Opportunity Tax Credit worth up to $10,000 over four years of college, limited student loan payments to 10 percent of income, and laid out an ambitious agenda to reduce college costs and promote innovation and competition.

The event will be streamed live on www.whitehouse.gov/live.

Media Contact:
Karen M. Norton, Executive Director of Integrated Marketing and Communications
Bunker Hill Community College, Boston, MA 02129
Phone: 617-228-2177; Email: [email protected]

Bunker Hill Community College is the largest community college in Massachusetts. The College enrolls more than 14,000 students on two campuses and at three satellite locations. BHCC is one of the most diverse institutions of higher education in Massachusetts. Sixty-seven percent of the students are people of color and more than half of BHCC's students are women. The College also enrolls more than 800 international students who come from approximately 100 countries and speak more than 75 languages.

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SOURCE Bunker Hill Community College