Capital Community College Receives $3 Million Hispanic Serving Institutions Grant

Capital Community College in Hartford, one of Connecticut’s 12 community colleges, has earned a $3 million, five-year federal grant to improve student achievement and increase retention and graduation rates of low-income students.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Title V Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) program awarded funds for the College’s Cultivating All-Inclusive Student Achievement (CASA) project that will enhance a guided career pathways curriculum, create contextualized learning and improve the first-year experience for Hispanic and low-income students enrolled in associate degree programs.

The grant is designed to link work-based learning experiences aligned with areas of study and embed financial literacy into teaching and learning and a student support component called the Pathways Commons. The project seeks to improve the College’s year-to-year retention rate by 10 percent and its three-year graduation rate by five percent over the grant period.

“Capital Community College is a Hispanic Serving institution and this grant will provide much needed long-term support to move the success needle for our Hispanic students and all students,” said CCC Chief Executive Officer G. Duncan Harris.

Relying on a coaching model to improve student outcomes, the CASA project will add new interventions and supports for career and financial planning from college entry and choosing a major through graduation. 

“Our students, many of whom are the first members of their families to get to college, will benefit from the Title V grant by providing supports and intensive interventions to help them persist and graduate,” said Miah LaPierre-Dreger, Ed.D., the Dean of Academic and Student Affairs. “The grant gives faculty and staff much needed resources to help students succeed from the day they enroll. It will engage more students in courses tied to careers and improve academic achievement toward transfer and graduation.”

Dr. LaPierre-Dreger will serve as the CASA Project Director.

Capital Community College is an urban, two-year institution enrolling more than 3,000 students in Connecticut’s capital city. The college offers 60 academic programs in accredited studies preparing students for associate degrees, certificates and transfer, while its non-credit offerings prepare students for the immediate needs of the Connecticut workforce.  

Capital, one of New England’s most diverse campuses, was the first college in Connecticut to be designated a Hispanic-Serving Institution. According to the U.S. Department of Education, CCC is one of three colleges in Connecticut and among five in New England to be awarded this distinction.

To qualify for that designation, an institution must have an enrollment of undergraduate full-time equivalent students that is at least 25 percent Hispanic students.