Big Bend receives $189K achievement award
A construction worker measures the overhang on the science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) building at Big Bend Community College. For more photos <a href="http://www.instantimagegallery.com/iig/a/193/294834">click here</a>.
MOSES LAKE - Big Bend Community College was awarded $189,168 from the Washington Student Achievement Initiative for its progress in helping students meet their educational goals.
The initiative awards points to each community college or technical school for hitting educational benchmarks, and makes monetary awards based on those results. The college had the highest point gains in the initiative plan of any technical or community college in the state in the 2011-12 school year.
"For our size, more Big Bend students made more progress toward their educational goals than any other college in the system," said Bob Mohrbacher, the college's vice-president of instruction and student services.
The award was the biggest of about $1.17 million awarded statewide to community and technical colleges through the initiative. It was designed to improve student achievement in community and technical colleges.
College officials will use the money to fill some of the gaps left by state budget cuts and add more academic support programs for students, Mohrbacher said.
The benchmarks include completing pre-college math and English courses, college math courses, 15 to 30 college credits and a degree or certificate. Big Bend's biggest gains were in college readiness, with more students completing pre-college English and math. In addition, the student retention rate (students that started college in the fall and were still there next spring) improved to 93 percent in 2011-12 from 81 percent in 2008-09. In the same period there was a 57 percent increase in associate degrees awarded.
College officials have worked to provide a whole range of student support services, said Director of Public Relations Doug Sly, including tutoring, "supplemental instruction" (where students receive extra help from other students), mentoring and book and computer loans. The Student Success Center was supported in part by a federal Title V grant, Sly said.
The grant also helped restart the college's computer science program, Sly said, and a Title III grant is helping to pay for support services for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) students, as well as to pay for a new STEM center which is currently under construction.