EMCC joins ‘Achieving the Dream’ network

SCOOBA  — East Mississippi Community College has joined the 2021 cohort of Achieving the Dream (ATD), a network of more than 300 colleges in 45 states and the District of Columbia dedicated to improving student success.

As a network institution, EMCC will work to improve equitable outcomes for students, bolster student retention and completion, and expand holistic supports to meet students’ evolving needs. EMCC is one of five community colleges joining this cohort.

“We are excited about this opportunity to join the Achieving the Dream network,” EMCC President Dr. Scott Alsobrooks said. “We are committed to ensuring all of our students are equipped with the tools they need to excel in college and achieve academic success.”

The colleges are joining ATD after the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the nation’s health and economic inequalities and the resulting economic fallout disproportionally hit working class families and racially minoritized communities, according to an agency press release.

The five institutions have shown that student success and achieving equitable outcomes is at the core of their work, Stout said.

Teams from each of the five colleges convened at a Virtual Kickoff Institute Aug. 3 -4, which set the stage for their work as ATD Network institutions.

College teams will meet virtually with their ATD coaches and begin to organize their student success work for the year, including preparing for campus-based kickoff work in the fall. The kickoff experience will include an introduction to ATD’s Institutional Capacity Framework, which helps colleges align all of their student success initiatives and interventions.

 In addition to EMCC, the Achieving the Dream 2021 cohort includes Southeast Arkansas College, Middlesex Community College in Massachusetts, Central Ohio Technical College and Madison College in Wisconsin