The Aspen Institute has just named the 10 finalists for the 2025 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. The $1 million award is the nation’s signature recognition of strong performance among community colleges. The institutions selected for this honor stand out among more than 1,000 community colleges nationwide as having high and improving levels of student success, as well as equitable outcomes for Black and Hispanic students and those from lower-income backgrounds.
Awarded every two years, the Aspen Prize honors colleges with outstanding performance in six critical areas: teaching and learning, certificate and degree completion, transfer and bachelor’s attainment, workforce success, broad access to the college and its offerings, and equitable outcomes for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds. The winner will be announced in the spring of 2025.
Josh Wyner, executive director of the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, noted the Aspen Prize finalists not only deserve national recognition, but they also need to be studied and their successes replicated.
“Working-class Americans are experiencing an economy that seems to be stacked against them, while employers are struggling to find well-prepared workers in fields such as teaching, nursing, software development, welding, and advanced manufacturing,” Wyner said. “The 10 Aspen Prize finalists demonstrate how community colleges serving urban and rural communities throughout the country can prepare many more graduates for fulfilling lives and careers in their communities. They show that excellence can be reached in any and every context.”
The finalists are:
This September, the Aspen Institute Science & Society Program, in collaboration with Aspen Institute Kyiv, hosted a groundbreaking webinar featuring...
LPL Financial’s Board of Directors has named Rich Steinmeier, former managing director and chief growth officer, as its new chief...
by Sonia Montalvo | Photos by Anica Marcelino Holly Edwards was a force—both gentle and unyielding—who forever shaped Charlottesville’s community....