Kingsborough Community College Named One Of The Nation's Top Ten Community Colleges By Aspen Institute

BROOKLYN, N.Y., Sept. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Dr. Regina Peruggi, president of Kingsborough Community College (KCC), today announced that  KCC, Brooklyn's only community college, was named one of ten finalists for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, the nation's signature recognition of high achievement and performance in America's community colleges. KCC, selected from an original pool of more than 1,000 community colleges, is one of the top ten entering the last stage of the competition for the $1 million prize fund that will be awarded in March in Washington D.C. to the winner and up to four finalists-with-distinction.

The prize recognizes the most outstanding institutions for achievements in four areas: student learning outcomes, degree and college completion, labor market success in students securing jobs after college, and minority and low-income student success.

"The selection of KCC as one of the top ten community college finalists for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence is a great honor for the entire Kingsborough community of students, faculty and staff," said Dr. Peruggi.  "We believe that all students can succeed if given the opportunity, excellent teaching and appropriate support and we've worked hard to make that a reality for our large and diverse student body.  Our students come from over 142 different countries and speak 73 different languages.  They are the future of our city.  When they succeed, we all succeed."

"Kingsborough stands out for it strong commitment to continuous improvement," said Josh Wyner, executive director of the Aspen Institute's College Excellence Program. "Its thoughtful and cohesive approach to helping an extremely diverse group of students succeed provides lessons for all urban community colleges."

In making the selection, Aspen stated that "KCC serves a large multi-cultural and multi-ethnic student body and has put in place a variety of academic and support services to help students succeed.  Built around its well recognized 'learning communities' approach, the college has devised a series of services and programs for students in their first year which have resulted in higher levels of success without substantial increases in cost.  The administration and faculty's continuous assessment of student performance and completion combined with efforts to develop responsive strategies for improvement have led to increased retention, graduation and transfer rates."

In addition to KCC,  the only New York  community college selected,  the Aspen finalists include Brazosport College, Lake Jackson, Texas; Broward College, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; College of the Ouachitas, Malvern, Arkansas; Lake Area Technical Institute, Watertown, South Dakota; Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, California; Santa Fe College, Gainesville, Florida; Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, Cumberland, Kentucky; Walla Walla Community College, Walla Walla, Washington and West Kentucky Community and Technical College, Paducah, Kentucky.

Kingsborough Community College, Brooklyn's only community college, is ranked as one of the top 10 community colleges in the country.  It is located on a 70-acre campus in Manhattan Beach, on the southern tip of Brooklyn. The breathtaking campus overlooks three bodies of water:  Sheepshead Bay, Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.  It serves approximately thirty thousand students per year, offering a wide range of credit and non-credit courses in the liberal arts, career education, and specialized programs.

For more information, visit www.kbcc.cuny.edu.

The Aspen Prize is funded by America Achieves, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Joyce Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Lumina Foundation for Education

The Aspen College Excellence Program aims to identify and replicate campus-wide practices that significantly improve college student outcomes.  Through the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, the New College Leadership Project, and other initiatives, the College Excellence Program works to improve colleges' understanding and capacity to teach and graduate students, especially the growing population of low-income and minority students on American campuses. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/aspen-prize.

The Aspen Institute mission is twofold: to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Aspen Institute does this primarily in four ways: seminars, young-leader fellowships around the globe, policy programs, and public conferences and events. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It also has an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.

Contact: Ruby Ryles
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SOURCE Kingsborough Community College