Sinclair Community College has received a planning grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for $500,000 as part of the completion by design program.
Sinclair, along with Stark State College and Lorain County Community College, form the Ohio cadre that will receive the planning grant. Sinclair is the managing partner of the Ohio cadre.
Ohio and Florida have been announced as cadre states. The other two have not yet been revealed.
“We were up against some tough competition,” Madeline Iseli, vice president of advancement, said.
The planning grant will be used to develop a proposal to be given to the Gates Foundation next April. The grant money can only be used for its specific purpose, according to Iseli.
If Sinclair’s proposal is accepted next April, the school could receive “up to $10 million,” according to Kathleen Cleary, dean of Liberal Arts, Communication and Social Sciences.
“By fall 2012, if we get the implementation funding, we hope that students will get more of a seamless experience when they start their college experience,” Cleary said.
If the Ohio cadre is accepted, Cleary said the school will focus on helping students get through college.
“The focus is to use strategies that will lead more 16-26 year olds, especially at-risk students who might not normally be in college, to lead more of them to actually finish with a degree or certificate,” Iseli said.
Cleary will become project director of the program for the entire state on June 13. Cleary said that the hope for the project is to create systemic change.
“This is all very much a partnership,” Cleary said.
Cleary said one of the reasons Sinclair and other cadre schools were chosen was because of their track record of “innovative strategies.” Cleary listed Sinclair’s student success plan and Stark State’s “read right program” as examples.
“The student success plan within Sinclair helps students get a good start,” Cleary said.
Why the Ohio cadre was chosen
Iseli said that during the application process, Sinclair and the entire cadre put Ohio’s position as a rustbelt economy in the forefront.
“Our argument was, our economy was transformed,” Iseli said. “We need this. Generations of families that didn’t need college before need college now.”
Along with the need for the grant and the Ohio cadre school’s history of success, the Gates Foundation looked for schools that had good relationships and shared best practices with each other, according to Iseli.
The final thing the Gates Foundation wanted was schools with access and good relationships with policy leaders, according to Iseli.
“We want the public policy environment to be favorable,” Iseli said.