Diverse: Issues in Higher Education on BHCC Learning Communities

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) Dean of Humanities and Learning Communities Lori Catallozzi and Director of Learning Communities Arlene Vallie spoke to Diverse: Issues in Higher Education about the impact of the College’s Learning Communities program on student retention, particularly for students of color.

The article follows up yesterday’s feature in Inside Higher Ed and featured key findings from the Center for American Progress (CAP) report released earlier this month that found BHCC’s Learning Communities program to be a promising model for boosting retention of part-time college students. The CAP report is informing conversations on campus regarding critical elements of learning communities, such as peer mentoring and success coaching, and opening possibilities for scaling the program further to serve more students.

“Bringing support services to students in Learning Communities is critical, especially for part-time students who may not spend much time on campus outside of class due to work, family or other responsibilities,” said Dean Catallozzi. “If mentoring, advising, career planning and other meaningful ways of engaging students is going to happen, it’s going to happen in the classroom.”

Read the full article in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.