Wear your Odessa College blue and join us for the 2019 Aspen Awards Live Stream event from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, April 2 at the OC Sports Center when the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C. will announce the winner of the 2019 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence.
The Aspen Prize consists of a $1 million fund that is typically distributed among a Grand Prize winner, two or three Finalists with Distinction, and one or more “Rising Star” colleges that have achieved exceptional levels of improvement and performance. The Grand Prize winner receives $600,000, and the remaining winners typically receive $100,000 each.
Odessa College is one of the Top 10 Finalists for the 2019 Aspen Prize, repeating the achievement of the 2017 Aspen Prize cycle, which ultimately led to a Rising Star Award for Odessa College. OC President Gregory Williams, the OC Administrative team, members of the Odessa College board of trustees and select OC staff members will be present at the official awards presentation luncheon in Washington, D.C. on April 2.
The festivities in the OC Sports Center, located on the main Odessa College Campus, will begin at 11:30 a.m., so bring your noise makers and join us for the livestream coverage. The Sports Center’s concession stand also will be open during the event.
Awarded every two years since 2011, the Aspen Prize is recognized among American institutions of higher education as the most prestigious and elevated affirmation of high achievement and exemplary performance that a community college can receive.
In 2017, Odessa College was named as one of the Top 10 Finalists for the Aspen Prize. This was the first time that Odessa College had been selected for the competition from a pool of over 1,100 community colleges in the nation. Once chosen to participate, the college had to submit extensive documentation and statistical data on performance and achievements in four areas: student learning, certificate and degree completion, employment and earnings for graduates, and access and success for minority and low-income students.
The Aspen Institute conducted multi-day site visits to each of the Top 10 finalist institutions as part of a rigorous final review process. The final determination of the top community college in the nation is made only after examination of extensive data on performance and improvements in learning, graduation rates, work force entry and success, and equitable outcomes for all students. All facets of this intensive process must be completed before a distinguished Prize Jury of higher education experts select a Grand Prize winner and as many as four Finalists with Distinction.
Odessa College has been selected as a Top Ten Finalist for the 2019 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. The Grand Prize winner of the Aspen Prize will be announced in April, 2019. Historically, the college which receives the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence is acknowledged as the top community college in the United States. Odessa College was previously selected as an Aspen Rising Star Award winner in 2017, an achievement which placed OC in the top four community colleges in the nation.
The Aspen Prize recognizes outstanding institutions selected from an original pool of more than 1,000 public community colleges nationwide. With a particularly tight focus on student success, the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program assesses community colleges’ performance and achievements in four areas: student learning, certificate and degree completion, employment and earnings for graduates, and access and success for minority and low-income students.
“Odessa College has made dramatic improvements in student success over the past several years,” said Joshua Wyner, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program in Washington, D.C. “Using an innovative model of eight-week semesters, which allow students to focus and tailor their education to their busy schedules, Odessa College has increased enrollment, graduation rates, and financial aid awards.”
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