SAN ANTONIO, April 21, 2015 — Moraine Valley was honored in the Advancing Diversity category on April 20 at the American Association of Community Colleges’ (AACC) Awards of Excellence Gala, part of AACC’s 95th Annual Convention in San Antonio, Texas.
Moraine Valley was one of seven community colleges honored for their work toward the student success agenda. This is the third year AACC has presented the Awards of Excellence.
The Advancing Diversity category recognizes colleges that are dedicated to increasing diversity and advocating for social equity on their campuses and in the community. Moraine Valley Community College serves 26 diverse communities, but strives to be an institution of inclusiveness that embraces all people. One of the college’s many initiatives is the Directing Results through Educational and Academic Mentoring (DREAM) program, which gets staff and faculty from all departments involved in mentoring students within the Multicultural Student Affairs department. Moraine Valley is led by Sylvia Jenkins.
Our Agree to Degree program also was honored as one of four finalists in this year’s award program in the Student Success category.
Other colleges honored were Montgomery College (Maryland) for Emerging Leadership; Bunker Hill Community College (Massachusetts) for Outstanding College/Corporate Partnership; Fort Lee College (Texas) for Student Success; Eastern Gateway Community College (Ohio) won in the Exemplary Board/CEO category; Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College won in the Faculty Innovation category; Brookhaven College (Texas) won in the Community College Safety Planning and Leadership category.
Winners were selected by a committee of the AACC Board of Directors. Twenty-one finalist colleges also were recognized at the Awards of Excellence Gala.
As the voice of the nation’s community colleges, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), delivers educational and economic opportunity for 13 million diverse students in search of the American Dream. Uniquely dedicated to access and success for all students, AACC’s nearly 1,200 member colleges provide an on-ramp to degree attainment, skilled careers and family-supporting wages. Located in Washington, D.C., AACC advocates for these not-for-profit, public-serving institutions to ensure they have the resources and support they need to deliver on the mission of increasing economic mobility for all.
