Bunker Hill Community College Receives National Award from Achieving the Dream

Monday, February 24, 2014

Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) received the Leah Meyer Austin Award for its success in increasing student retention and completion at the annual conference of Achieving the Dream in Orlando, Florida, today. Along with this prestigious recognition, BHCC will receive $25,000 to support its ongoing student success work. BHCC shared the honor with Montgomery County Community College.

“Helping students persist in their studies and walk across the stage at commencement to receive their hard-earned degree or certificate is what we are all about,” said Pam Y. Eddinger, President of BHCC. “We are honored to be recognized for work that is so central to our mission.”

The award honors BHCC’s focus on college wide, data-informed decision making that has resulted in measurable increases in critical areas. The college has:

• Increased fall-to-fall persistence from 41 percent to 51 percent
• Improved black students' completion rates from 68 percent to 72 percent
• Increased Latino students’ completion rates from 68 percent to 74 percent
• Raised completion rates in gateway English from 67 percent to 74 percent
• Improved completion rates in developmental English courses (reading and writing) from 72 percent to 78 percent

BHCC attributed its impressive gains to strategies basic to Achieving the Dream’s Student-Centered Model of Institutional Improvement: committed leadership, use of evidence, broad engagement, systemic institutional improvement, and equity. BHCC embraced the Achieving the Dream model to meet the needs of specific student populations, with a particular focus on the highest-need students.

The Leah Meyer Austin Award, sponsored by The Leona M. & Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, was established in 2008 to recognize outstanding achievement in supporting and promoting student success through the creation of a culture of evidence, continuous improvement, systemic institutional change, broad engagement of stakeholders, and equity, with particular attention to low-income students and students of color. 

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About Bunker Hill Community College
With more than 50 years of academic excellence, Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is Massachusetts' largest community college, annually welcoming a diverse community of around 16,000 students. With campuses in Charlestown and Chelsea, BHCC extends its reach across several locations in Greater Boston. The College offers associate degrees and certificates, early college and dual enrollment, community education, corporate training, and industry-specific training programs. BHCC is celebrated for its diversity, boasting a student body where 65% identify as people of color and more than half are women. The College also embraces a global perspective, with over 600 international students representing 90 countries and conversing in more than 65 languages. Our commitment to diversity is further reflected in BHCC's designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI).