The Office for Experiential Learning received a $3 million grant from the Department of Education's Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program.
The City College of New York’s newly established Office for Experiential Learning (OEL) has received a five-year grant of $2,999,599 from the U.S. Department of Education’s (DoE) Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (DHSI) Program to support the Career Awareness and Pathways at City College (CAPACity) initiative and its associated activities.
The Office for Experiential Learning will work collaboratively with three divisions, The Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, the Division of Humanities and the Arts, and the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, by bolstering a team of program and career advisors so that, upon graduation, students can attain opportunities often missed by first generation students and people of color. The pipeline will support more than 5,000 students over 5 years in these three divisions.
Senior Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Assessment Doris Cintron is project director of the initiative and the OEL reports directly to her. OEL Executive Director Francesca Anselmi is Co-Project Director.
“We are thrilled for this opportunity to work with three of the main Divisions on campus to cultivate and promote the talent of City College students. We look forward to implementing structural changes that will allow City College to support our Hispanic, first generation and low-income students so they can enter the workforce as an important voice in shaping America’s future economic and social fabric,” said Cintron.
Benefits of the program will include improved retention, graduation, and post-graduation employment outcomes for Hispanic and low-income students. Integrating student services for social, academic and career needs from the earliest stage of a student’s arrival at City College will create a streamlined approach that is inherent to the OEL’s goals. Increased communication between students, alumni, and faculty will create a sense of belonging for students both to the College and their area of study. Mentoring and internships will foster career awareness and create clear pathways to post-graduation success for students.
CAPACity aims to integrate advising for 1,000 students, to enroll 2,300 participants in career workshops, to near-peer mentor 450 students and to professionally mentor and offer internships to 1,500 students. In addition, the creation of data tools and analytics will be used to track current students’ usage of advising and alumni post-graduation outcomes.
In 2020, prior to the creation of the OEL, the College received a DoE DHSI grant to fund the City College Initiative to Promote Academic Success in STEM (CiPASS) to support underrepresented minorities and experiential learning in the school’s divisions. The current Biden/Harris White House administration has made it a priority to invest in the DHSI program.
About the City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Emsi (now Lightcast) puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. This year, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Thea Klapwald
e:
tklapwald@ccny.cuny.edu