Detroit Drives Degrees Community College Collaborative: St. Clair County Community College Joins Collaborative, Receives $300K to Support Students’ Transition to College

Detroit Drives Degrees Community College Collaborative: St. Clair County Community College Joins Collaborative, Receives $300K to Support Students' Transition to College

October 14, 2024

The Detroit Drives Degrees Community College Collaborative (D3C3) welcomesSt. Clair County Community College(SC4) to its cohort of now eight community college partners. A $300,000 grant from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation will support SC4 staff members working directly with high school students in Port Huron and Yale school districts to increase the college-going rates for the 2025 graduating class. Having SC4 staff at the high school buildings will help advance racial and socio-economic equity by supporting students from diverse and rural backgrounds. The new program will also help students navigate the transition to college.

In addition, SC4 will utilize this funding to complete the HOPE survey, a nationally recognized tool developed by Temple University to assess students' basic needs and develop future support strategies. The survey is focused on meeting student needs by removing barriers outside the classroom. The grant runs from October 2024 to September 2025.

"The commitment from our funders to support D3C3 colleges reinforces the importance of this work," said Greg Handel, Vice President of Education and Talent at the Detroit Regional Chamber. "The addition of St. Clair County Community College to the D3C3 program will allow even more expansive, systems-level changes to be implemented and will strengthen collaboration among the Detroit Region's community colleges to better serve students."

"SC4's commitment to ensuring students have equitable access to the life-changing impact of a quality education is closely aligned with D3C3's work," said Kirk Kramer, President of St. Clair County Community College. "The support provided by the generous grant from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation will enable our institution to pursue this work further and improve students' experiences transitioning from high school to college and college to career. We look forward to seeing the results of these efforts."

This is just the latest of many recent successes for the D3C3 program. Two and a half years into this work, the program has achieved the following:

• Participating colleges developed a regional standard of care, which is a reference tool and source of guidance for academic advising practices, ensuring consistent delivery of service to all students. After months of planning and learning from one another and experts, including the National Institute for Student Success at Georgia State University, colleges are beginning to implement their standards of care on campus.

• Colleges are addressing student mental health on campus in partnership with Uwill and the JED Foundation.
• Colleges and their K-12 partners are focusing on expanding equitable access to dual enrollment opportunities by creating strategic plans informed by evidence-based practices and research from the Community College Research Center at Columbia University.

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About the Detroit Drives Degrees Community College Collaborative

The Detroit Drives Degrees Community College Collaborative (D3C3) is a regional initiative that elevates the role of community colleges in increasing equitable access to educational opportunities, boosting graduation rates, and bolstering the regional college-to-career pipeline. It is part of the Detroit Drives Degrees collective impact program of the Detroit Regional Chamber, designed to increase post-high school educational attainment in Michigan to 60% and reduce the racial equity attainment gap by half by 2030. Through D3C3, eight community colleges are being funded to implement college-level, systemic strategies to create lasting improvements for students and employers. This work is made possible by $30 million in funding provided by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation and Ballmer Group. Learn more at detroitchamber.com/d3c3.

About St. Clair County Community College

St. Clair County Community College (SC4) was founded in 1923 and is the only public higher education institution in the thumb of Michigan. SC4 is a comprehensive community college that provides certificates and degrees for employable skills and college credits that can be transferred to a four-year college or university. The college provides collegiate arts and athletics for the area and has been an asset for students and the Port Huron community for over one hundred years. Learn more at sc4.edu.