Long Island City, NY—February 17, 2012--In an effort to improve postsecondary success for low-income community college students, LaGuardia Community College is participating in a $4.84 million nationwide initiative to explore whether students receiving public benefits are better able to stay in college longer and complete their course of study faster.

When the three-year, Benefits Access for College Completion (BACC) is launched this summer, LaGuardia and five of the nation’s community colleges will focus on testing that view and developing models that will ultimately be implemented at more than 1,200 community colleges. LaGuardia is the only community college in New York State selected to participate in the pilot project.

“The initiative is a creative idea and huge opportunity to help financially troubled students get the benefits they are eligible to receive, potentially assisting them to finish a degree,” said Dr. Gail O. Mellow, President of LaGuardia Community College, “while also shifting the policy environment to make sure benefits can be accessed in a timely and effective way for our nation’s students.”

BACC is led by the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and the American Association of Community College (AACC), and funded by the Ford Foundation, Lumina Foundation and the Open Society Foundation. The Annie E. Casey Foundation is also contributing to the effort.

In developing a model that will provide eligible students with better access to income supports and other existing public resources, the participating colleges will work in partnership with local and state benefits administrators to eliminate policy barriers and align services.

“A college education is a powerful bridge to self sufficiency and a bright future, but when finances are a missing plank on that bridge, innovative strategies have to be undertaken to ensure safe passage,” said Michael Baston, LaGuardia’s Vice President for Student Affairs. “Participating colleges will develop a model that will ensure that students are getting the financial help they need to cross that bridge and head toward a productive future.”

Of the estimated 8 million credit students attending community colleges annually, 46% receive some form of financial aid, however many still face financial obstacles. This initiative will expose them of the wide range of public benefits and refundable tax credits that they can tap into. For example, students who are parents may be eligible for cash and nutritional assistance, child-care subsidies, public health insurance and tax credits, while students who do not have children may receive support from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program and tax credits.

“We are committed to student completion and appreciate the major investment these foundations are making,” said Walter G. Bumphus, AACC President. “Their collaborative vision will help community colleges identify the best ways for students to access the benefits and services they need to finish what they start.”

LaGuardia Community College located in Long Island City, Queens, was founded in 1971 as a bold experiment in opening the doors of higher education to all, and we proudly carry forward that legacy today. LaGuardia educates students through over 50 degree, certificate and continuing education programs, providing an inspiring place for students to achieve their dreams. Upon graduation, LaGuardia students’ lives are transformed as family income increases 17%, and students transfer to four-year colleges at three times the national average. Part of the City University of New York (CUNY), LaGuardia is a nationally recognized leader among community colleges for boundary-breaking success educating underserved students. At LaGuardia we imagine new ideas, create new curriculum and pioneer programs to make our community and our country stronger. Visit www.laguardia.edu to learn more.

 

Long Island City, NY—February 10, 2012—In celebration of Black History Month, LaGuardia Community College will join a million readers of all ethnic groups in the Twenty-third National African American Read-in on February 14. The event is free and open to the public.

This year’s College read-in will pay tribute to John A. Williams, a former LaGuardia professor and acclaimed author, and Piri Thomas, in influential Afro-Latino memoirist and poet. Faculty and students will read selections from these writers’ works as well as other Black literature.

The event will take place from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the college’s E-building (room E-500) at 31-10 Thomson Avenue, Long Island City.

This annual read-in, which was initiated by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English in 1990, is now sponsored by the Black Caucus and the NCTE and endorsed by the International Reading Association. Schools, colleges, churches, libraries, bookstores, community and professional organizations, and interested citizens will hold read-ins throughout February.

LaGuardia Community College located in Long Island City, Queens, was founded in 1971 as a bold experiment in opening the doors of higher education to all, and we proudly carry forward that legacy today. LaGuardia educates students through over 50 degree, certificate and continuing education programs, providing an inspiring place for students to achieve their dreams. Upon graduation, LaGuardia students’ lives are transformed as family income increases 17%, and students transfer to four-year colleges at three times the national average. Part of the City University of New York (CUNY), LaGuardia is a nationally recognized leader among community colleges for boundary-breaking success educating underserved students. At LaGuardia we imagine new ideas, create new curriculum and pioneer programs to make our community and our country stronger. Visit www.laguardia.edu to learn more.
 

LaGuardia Community College President Gail O. Mellow 

to Sit on National Task Force to Recommend Ways to Strengthen Community Colleges

Long Island City, NY—February 7, 2012—Dr. Gail O. Mellow, President of LaGuardia Community College and a national leader in community college reform, has joined a distinguished group of two- and four-year college educators and community and business leaders on a national task force that is charged with recommending strategies to strengthen community colleges.

The Task Force on Preventing Community Colleges from Becoming Separate and Unequal, which is supported by the Ford Foundation and assembled by The Century Foundation, will address an issue that has remained below the radar screen in national and regional discussions over improving college access and completion: the growing racial and socioeconomic divide between two- and four-year institutions.

“I’m excited to be part of the Task Force that will help not only to move students across the finish line to graduation, but also brings some of the most creative minds in our country together to discover ways to ensure equality in funding and resources for two-year institutions,” said LaGuardia Community College President Gail O. Mellow. “This work resonates deeply with LaGuardia’s core values of making a college education accessible to all, so students can write their own futures and together we can build a stronger economy and a better world.”

The issue is being addressed at a time when new emphasis is being placed on community colleges and their role in higher education. Most recently, President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union address, described the important role of community colleges.

The group will examine the demographic trends in community colleges; why these developments are of concern; and make recommendations on how to reduce economic and racial stratification.

“Will higher education reduce or exacerbate the growing economic divide in this nation?” said Dr. Anthony Marx, President of the New York Public Library who is co-chairing the group with Eduardo Padron, the President of Miami Dade College. “If the better funded four-year sector caters to wealthier white students while community college lose funding to educate low-income and minority students, the two-year sector will remain separate and unequal.”

Currently, the U.S. spends almost three times more to educate each four-year college student than it does for students at community colleges.

Dr. Mellow has long presented a compelling argument for investing in community colleges to better educate current students, as well as to reach a larger group of Americans who cannot effectively participate in the U.S. economy without at least an associate degree. The co-author of Minding the Dream: The Process and Practice of the American Community College (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), Dr. Mellow calls for an investment in our nation’s too often forgotten resource—community colleges--so that the U.S. remains economically competitive and our middle class is strong and productive.

The Task Force is the latest in a long series of groups that The Century Foundation has assembled on important public policy issues such as election reform, elementary and secondary education, and U.S. policy in Afghanistan.

The task force members are:
John Brittain
Law Professor, University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke
School of Law
Former Chief Counsel, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights

Walter G. Bumphus
President and CEO
American Association of Community Colleges

Michele Cahill
Vice President, National Program, and Program Director, Urban Education
Carnegie Corporation of New York

Louis Caldera
Vice President of Programs
Jack Kent Cooke Foundation

Patrick M. Callan
President
Higher Education Policy Institute

Nancy Cantor
Chancellor
Syracuse University

Samuel Cargile
Vice President, Grantmaking
Lumina Foundation for Education

Anthony Carnevale
Director
Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

Michelle Asha Cooper
President
Institute for Higher Education Policy

Sara Goldrick- Rab
Associate Professor of Education Policy Studies and Sociology
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Jerome Karabel
Professor of Sociology
University of California–Berkeley

Catherine Koshland
Vice Provost of Teaching, Learning, Academic Planning and Facilities
University of California, Berkeley

Arthur Rothkopf
Former Senior Vice President, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Former President, Lafayette College

Sandra Schroeder
President, AFT Washington
Professor, Seattle Central Community College

Louis Soares
Director of the Postsecondary Education Program, Center for American
Progress
Former Director of Business Development,
State of Rhode Island

Suzanne Walsh
Senior Program Officer
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Josh Wyner
Executive Director, College Excellence Program
Aspen Institute

About LaGuardia Community College:
LaGuardia Community College located in Long Island City, Queens, was founded in 1971 as a bold experiment in opening the doors of higher education to all, and we proudly carry forward that legacy today. LaGuardia educates students through over 50 degree, certificate and continuing education programs, providing an inspiring place for students to achieve their dreams. Upon graduation, LaGuardia students’ lives are transformed as family income increases 17%, and students transfer to four-year colleges at three times the national average. Part of the City University of New York (CUNY), LaGuardia is a nationally recognized leader among community colleges for boundary-breaking success educating underserved students. At LaGuardia we imagine new ideas, create new curriculum and pioneer programs to make our community and our country stronger. Visit www.laguardia.edu to learn more.

About the Century Foundation:
The Century Foundation is a progressive nonpartisan think tank. Originally known as the Twentieth Century Fund, it was founded in 1919 and initially endowed by Edward Filene, a leading Republican businessman and champion of fair workplaces and employee ownership strategies, all with an eye to ensuring that economic opportunity is available to all. Today, TCF issues analyses and convenes and promotes the best thinkers and thinking across a range of public policy questions. Its work today focuses on issues of equity and opportunity in the United States, and how American values can be best sustained and advanced in a world of more diffuse power.
 

 

Long Island City, NY--February 2, 2012—Youngkyu Park, a LaGuardia Community College commercial photography major, recently received the 2011 Mac-on-Campus (MOC) Featured Student Photo Vision Award for his impressive collection of photographic work. 

 

Long Island City, NY—February 2, 2012--LaGuardia Community College, a national leader of innovation in teaching and learning, has received $250,000 from MetLife Foundation to offer professional development workshops and technical assistance focused on contextualized instruction strategies, developed by the college’s GED Bridge to College and Careers Programs. Bridge Programs, developed and piloted with support from MetLife Foundation since 2007, are designed to increase student success on the GED and in post secondary coursework using contextualized GED curricula connected to students’ career and college goals. Bridge Program staff developers will design and present interactive workshops for practitioners focused on understanding and developing contextualized curriculum for a variety of adult education settings.

“With the support of MetLife Foundation, LaGuardia will be able to work with educators from across the nation, helping them bring into their classes an innovative and effective way of teaching the GED course," said Dr. Gail O. Mellow, President of LaGuardia Community College. "Rather than just teaching to the test, LaGuardia’s GED Bridge Programs place the course material in the context of what students need and want to learn and build on their own career and educational dreams. MetLife Foundation’s vision and commitment is having a transformative impact on our students and now, with their support, we will be able to reach thousands of more students with this successful educational approach."

Adult students returning to school are motivated by economic and family responsibilities, but often lack writing, reading, and math skills required to succeed in workplace and academic settings. Contextualized basic skills instruction responds to the academic needs and professional ambitions of adult students by providing basic skills instruction focused on a specific career content area. Coursework in a contextualized basic skills class introduces key discourse in a general career field, like healthcare or business, through activities designed to build numeracy and literacy skills.

LaGuardia and MDRC, a nationally recognized social policy research organization, are conducting a small scale random assignment evaluation of the GED Bridge Programs. The purpose of the evaluation is to examine the extent to which career-focused GED instruction improves their likelihood of passing the GED and transitioning to post-secondary education. Preliminary findings indicate the Bridge students are passing the GED and transitioning to college at higher rates than their counterparts in other GED preparation programs.

"We are pleased to support LaGuardia’s innovation and leadership in strengthening instruction and college preparation for GED students in New York City and across the nation," said Dennis White, President and CEO of MetLife Foundation. “It is encouraging to see the success that can be achieved when instruction is tied more closely to a students' career and college goals.”
With the new support from MetLife Foundation, LaGuardia will expand teacher capacity and develop a community of adult educators who practice contextualized instruction. The initiative is a partnership with the National College Transition Network and New England Literacy Resource Center, both part of World Education, Inc., to deliver services in the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions. Attendees will practice techniques to design rigorous instruction that will help adult learners become career and college-ready. Activities will include instructor trainings, webinars, a virtual community of practice (VCP) and a culminating conference each year for the two years of the grant.

“We are excited to join forces with LaGuardia to bring more high quality teacher training for adult educators in our region. It will translate into improved college and career readiness and ultimately, job opportunities for low-skilled adults. Contextualized basic skills instruction makes learning engaging and relevant,” said Silja Kallenbach, Vice President of World Education, Inc.

LaGuardia Community College located in Long Island City, Queens, was founded in 1971 as a bold experiment in opening the doors of higher education to all, and we proudly carry forward that legacy today. LaGuardia educates students through over 50 degree, certificate and continuing education programs, providing an inspiring place for students to achieve their dreams. Upon graduation, LaGuardia students’ lives are transformed as family income increases 17%, and students transfer to four-year colleges at three times the national average. Part of the City University of New York (CUNY), LaGuardia is a nationally recognized leader among community colleges for boundary-breaking success educating underserved students. At LaGuardia we imagine new ideas, create new curriculum and pioneer programs to make our community and our country stronger. Visit www.laguardia.edu to learn more.

MetLife Foundation is committed to building a secure future for individuals and communities worldwide, through a focus on empowering older adults, preparing young people and building livable communities. In education, it seeks to strengthen public schools through effective
teaching and collaborative leadership, and to prepare students for access to and success in higher education, particularly during the crucial first year. The Foundation’s grantmaking is informed by findings from the annual MetLife Survey of the American Teacher. More information is available at www.metlife.org.

 Long Island City, NY—January 27, 2012—After his dissertation was granted “with distinction,” the highest honor bestowed upon a doctoral dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Henry Saltiel, the Vice President for Information Technology at LaGuardia Community College was selected to speak at UPenn’s Higher Education Leadership Conference.
Addressing an audience of college presidents and other higher education leaders attending the January 13th conference, Dr. Saltiel shared his dissertation research on the effect of a comprehensive access intervention program on the success of economically disadvantaged and working poor students at a large, urban community college.

Dr, Saltiel found a statistically significant benefit on students’ success from this type of program. His results demonstrated that after six semesters students who participated in the program had a graduation rate approximately 20% higher than that of the other group. The participants also maintained better grades, finished with a higher GPA, attempted and earned more college credits, and had higher pass rates in college-level gateway courses.

“It was a privilege presenting my research before such an prestigious group of educators,” said Dr. Saltiel, who received his doctorate in 2011. “My study contributes to our knowledge of community college student persistence, comprehensive support interventions, and techniques to evaluate similar interventions in a college setting.”

His study followed 198 students who participated in the intervention program, and 297 students in a control group, over a period of three years. Those in the program had access to a wide range of support services—new-student seminar, learning communities, supplemental instruction, personalized mentoring and career counseling, job development and job placement services and financial aid—while the other group did not.

“The program was pro-active in nature,” said Dr. Saltiel, “and was designed to provide consistent and sustained intervention over the entire course of enrollment, from matriculation to graduation.” “The results clearly demonstrate that populations of students with particular needs can benefit from tailored support services,” said Dr. Saltiel, “and even limited exposure from the initial phases of the intervention seemed to have a prolonged effect.”

“At a time when community college are exploring ways to boost graduation rates,” said Dr. Gail O. Mellow, President of LaGuardia Community College, “Dr. Saltiel’s research will prompt its leaders to assess their programs and examine how they can develop intervention programs with strong support services that can have a dramatic impact on their students’ success.”

Dr. Saltiel, who began at LaGuardia in 2001, has worked collaboratively to drive major initiatives related to improving student success and outcomes assessment. His portfolio includes Administrative Computing, Instructional Computing and The Office of Institutional Research and Assessment. He is responsible for guiding strategic planning and policy implementation related to technology and institutional research. Prior to joining LaGuardia, Dr. Saltiel served 19 years as the Executive Director for Information Technology and Resources at Adelphi University.

Dr. Saltiel holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Adelphi University, a M.S. in Information Systems Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of NYU and an Ed.D. from The University of Pennsylvania.

LaGuardia Community College located in Long Island City, Queens, was founded in 1971 as a bold experiment in opening the doors of higher education to all, and we proudly carry forward that legacy today. LaGuardia educates students through over 50 degree, certificate and continuing education programs, providing an inspiring place for students to achieve their dreams. Upon graduation, LaGuardia students’ lives are transformed as family income increases 17%, and students transfer to four-year colleges at three times the national average. Part of the City University of New York (CUNY), LaGuardia is a nationally recognized leader among community colleges for boundary-breaking success educating underserved students. At LaGuardia we imagine new ideas, create new curriculum and pioneer programs to make our community and our country stronger. Visit www.laguardia.edu to learn more.

LaGuardia Community College Holds Symposium  

on The First Year Experience on February 10  

Long Island City, NY—January 27, 2012—LaGuardia Community College will host a symposium on February 10 where educators from the City University of New York and other area colleges will explore ways to improve the first year experience of their freshmen, a program the higher education establishment agrees is crucial to students’ academic success. 

 
Sponsoring the “Making Connections Symposium on the First Year Experience” is the Center for Teaching and Learning and LaGuardia’s Making Connections National Resource Center. Virginia Tech and the other participants are partners with LaGuardia in the Making Connections programs, which are funded by the U.S. Department of Education. 

 
The event will be held in LaGuardia’s Little Theater at 31-10 Thomson Avenue, Long Island City, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more information, please visit www.laguardia.edu/connections.

 
A team from Virginia Tech will give a keynote presentation on its award-winning First Year Experience program, “Pathways to Success,” which is designed to provide first-year students with the tools needed for exploration and discovery of the academic opportunities necessary to become fully engaged learners. One of the major topics covered is how the ePortfolio, an electronic collection of students’ academic work that is vital in aiding student assessment and learning outcomes, is incorporated into the program. 

“One of LaGuardia’s key initiatives is to improve our graduation rate and having a strong first year program is crucial to that,” said Dr. Bret Eynon, an Assistant Dean and the Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. “The first year is a key site for integrating advisement and instruction, launching ePortfolio as a learning and advisement process; and helping students to chart plans.” 

In addition, representatives from Bronx Community College, Queensborough Community College, Lehman College and Queens College will examine their programs during breakout sessions. 

For more details on the event, please visit 

www.connections-community.org/news/article/30-news/440-symposium-on-the-first-year-experience-fri-21012. 

LaGuardia Community College located in Long Island City, Queens, was founded in 1971 as a bold experiment in opening the doors of higher education to all, and we proudly carry forward that legacy today. LaGuardia educates students through over 50 degree, certificate and continuing education programs, providing an inspiring place for students to achieve their dreams. Upon graduation, LaGuardia students’ lives are transformed as family income increases 17%, and students transfer to four-year colleges at three times the national average. Part of the City University of New York (CUNY), LaGuardia is a nationally recognized leader among community colleges for boundary-breaking success educating underserved students. At LaGuardia we imagine new ideas, create new curriculum and pioneer programs to make our community and our country stronger. Visit www.laguardia.edu to learn more.
 

The Office of Marketing and Communications collaborated with students from the Fall 2011 ENG 211 Journalism course, The Craft of Gathering and Reporting the News, to produce material for publication in LiveWire, Student News and on the homepage of the College's website. This is some of their work.

Foreign-born professionals should not allow their experience and potential to go to waste because they lack English-speaking skills. Luckily, there are many programs at LaGuardia Community College that offer free or low cost language and career development classes for immigrants.

LaGuardia’s Center for Immigrant Education and Training (CIET) offers numerous English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes, from ones that provide basic language skills to ones that include personal and career development components. CIET”s Bridge to Allied Health courses are designed for people who were working in the healthcare field in their native country and now seek licensure in the U.S., while its Civics and Family Literacy ESOL classes help newly arrived immigrants learn English and teach specific communication skills to immigrant parents with children in public schools.

The Bridge to Allied Health course is for those with a developed understanding of English and prior nursing experience. This course prepares students to pass the NCLEX-PN exam, which is needed to obtain a practical nurse license. Bilingual nurses in New York hospitals are greatly needed. The classes are usually small; the summer 2011 class had 15 registered students, with an ESOL teacher co-teaching with a nurse instructor. CIET’s NCLEX-PN classes are extremely successful. They have an attendance rate of 100%, and in June 2011, 14 out of the 15 students who took the NCLEX-PN exam passed it.

Mr. John Hunt, director of the program since 2001, says that despite program funding cuts there is high demand from people wanting to learn English. There is currently a waiting list of 200; that’s around two years of waiting to enter class. Mr. Hunt added that the budget situation has yet to hinder CIET’s success rate, though. Ms. Maria Pajares, who was a Civics student at first until she improved her English and progressed to the Bridge to Allied Health course where she studied while holding a minimum wage job, passed the NCLEX-PN exam and was immediately hired as a diabetes nurse educator. “The connections made here at LaGuardia helped me grow professionally, and I learn what I needed to do to work in the United States,” said Ms. Pajares.

CIET’s Civics course focuses on teaching English that can be used in day-to-day situations, and teaching U.S. history and culture. Being able to communicate effectively is a parent’s first step to helping their child succeed in school. The Family Literacy course focuses on parent-teacher connections, navigating the child’s school system and communicating without a translator in school.

Program like these need more teachers and classes because the demand is there and success does happen, we should not let experience and passion go to waste.

More information on LaGuardia’s CIET can be found on the programs website at www.lagcc.cuny.edu/ciet. 

LaGuardia Community College located in Long Island City, Queens, was founded in 1971 as a bold experiment in opening the doors of higher education to all, and we proudly carry forward that legacy today. LaGuardia educates students through over 50 degree, certificate and continuing education programs, providing an inspiring place for students to achieve their dreams. Upon graduation, LaGuardia students’ lives are transformed as family income increases 17%, and students transfer to four-year colleges at three times the national average. Part of the City University of New York (CUNY), LaGuardia is a nationally recognized leader among community colleges for boundary-breaking success educating underserved students. At LaGuardia we imagine new ideas, create new curriculum and pioneer programs to make our community and our country stronger. Visit www.laguardia.edu to learn more. 

The Queens Poet Laureate to Read a Selection of His Works at LaGuardia Community College on October 26 

Long Island City, NY—October 6, 2011—Paolo Javier, the poet laureate of Queens, will be delivering a poetry reading at LaGuardia Community College on October 26. The event is free and open to the public.

Mr. Javier, an award-winning author of three poetry collections and four chapbooks (short books of poetry), as well as a playwright, film director and editor and publisher of 2nd Avenue Poetry, an online journal of contemporary poetry, will read a selection of works from his new book of poetry, The Feeling is Actual.

The event will take place from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the College’s E-building (room E-242) at 31-10 Thomson Avenue, Long Island City. For more information, please contact (718) 482-5672.

A native of the Philippines who has resided in Sunnyside, Queens, for over 10 years, Mr. Javier was named the borough’s fifth poet laureate in June of 2010. He will assume the non-salaried position for three years.

In his role as poet laureate, Mr. Javier is interested in nurturing residents’ love and appreciation for poetry through public readings such as the one to be held at LaGuardia. He has scheduled multimedia performances and interdisciplinary poetry workshops at libraries and community centers throughout Queens, as well as an international poetry festival in the borough.

Outside of Queens, he has given readings, lectures and poetry performances throughout the United States and Canada. His poems have been published in journals and anthologies, including Language for a New Century: An Anthology of Arab and Asian American Poetry.

Mr. Javier received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and creative writing from the University of British Columbia and a master’s in the same discipline at Bard College. He served as a visiting professor at the University of Miami.

LaGuardia Community College located in Long Island City, Queens, was founded in 1971 as a bold experiment in opening the doors of higher education to all, and we proudly carry forward that legacy today. LaGuardia educates students through over 50 degree, certificate and continuing education programs, providing an inspiring place for students to achieve their dreams. Upon graduation, LaGuardia students’ lives are transformed as family income increases 17%, and students transfer to four-year colleges at twice the national average. Part of the City University of New York (CUNY), LaGuardia is a nationally recognized leader among community colleges for boundary-breaking success educating underserved students. At LaGuardia we imagine new ideas, create new curriculum and pioneer programs to make our community and our country stronger. Visit www.laguardia.edu to learn more.