Some Baltimore City Community College students will be paid to meet with career counselors under a new grant to keep students enrolled and help them complete their study programs.
The grant program, called Expanding Success, awards $125,000 each to BCCC, Prince George’s Community College and Wor-Wic Community College, which serves Worcester and Wicomico counties. Up to 250 eligible students will be paid $50 monthly to meet with counselors at least once a month for one-on-one support.
Emily Dow, an assistant secretary for academic affairs at the Maryland Higher Education Commission, which oversees the pilot program, said the nominal payments are expected to incentivize students to get academic advice about which they might not know.
“For community college students who are primarily part-time, they may not be as engaged with the college campus as a traditional student [who is] living in a dorm,” Dow said.
In Baltimore, students in good standing who are enrolled in a credit program are eligible for the program.
Although the grant is not a “tremendous amount of money,” said Debra McCurdy, president of BCCC, it’s a way to maintain enrollment with a direct payment to students and “lots of direct contact with advisors.”
“You’re getting the dollars for doing what you’re supposed to,” McCurdy said. “As a retention tool, they’ll be doing what they’re supposed to, which is orientation, completing and scheduling their twice a month or so advising sessions.”
MDRC, a nonprofit research institute in New York that helped design the pilot program, has similar initiatives in New York and Ohio, Dow said. The goal of connecting students with career coaches is to close gaps in graduation rates between student populations and increase the number of students who finish their degrees.
The three community colleges were selected based on racial diversity, the number of part-time and full-time students, and the percentage of students who did not complete their programs. The colleges also represent both urban and rural communities with small and large populations.
The Maryland higher education commission and MDRC will collect data on the advising sessions over the year to determine their success and sustainability.
“It’s a new era in higher education,” Dow said. “This is an initiative that demonstrates that MHEC has a different role than what it’s had in the past. And that’s just exciting.”
