15th Anniversary Conference: Best Practices, Policy, and Networking in the Nation’s Capital
NCAN Awarded Grant to Support Statewide Networks in Six States in AZ, CA, KY, NM, OH, and TX
Members Invited to Submit Letters of Interest for TG Funded Student Success Project
KH2GO Focuses on Statewide Network Efforts
NCAN Member Spotlight: On Point for College
Member News August 2010
There’s less than one month left before discounted early registration ends for NCAN’s 15th Anniversary Conference, to be held at the Washington Hilton, in Washington, D.C., October 11-13! Early registration and hotel deadline is September 10th.
The Conference is a can’t-miss opportunity to network with colleagues, policy-makers and advisors, share best practices, and participate in professional development workshops.
Dr. James Applegate, Ph.D. will be the Conference welcome speaker. Dr. Applegate serves as Senior Vice President for Program Development at the Lumina Foundation. In that role, he leads in development of the Foundation’s funding programs supporting achievement of Lumina’s “Big Goal” to dramatically increase educational attainment in the U.S, especially for low income, first generation, minority, and adult students. That work includes strategic implementation of effective practices and policies supporting increases in the number of prepared students entering higher education, the number of students succeeding in college, and in the productivity and capacity of the system to provide many more people high quality credentials and degrees.
NCAN also looks forward to plenary remarks from Dr. Martha Kanter, Under Secretary of Education, who will be a Plenary Speaker at the 15th Anniversary Conference. Dr. Kanter reports to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and oversees policies, programs, and activities related to postsecondary education, vocational and adult education, and federal student aid.
Additionally, conference attendees are invited to attend NCAN’s Policy Breakfast on Capitol Hill. This event will be held at the historic Palm Court of Union Station, and will feature an opportunity to hear from education policymakers.
Another popular event at the Conference is the Best Practices Gallery and Reception. The Gallery is a collaborative effort by NCAN member programs to share best practices with attendees in each other as well network with all attendees. Over 30 organizations will be exhibiting and sharing their methods for helping low-income, first-generation students succeed in college.
The 15th Anniversary Conference will be held at the Washington Hilton in the vibrant Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The Hilton recently underwent a $150 million renovation, and was featured in the television program Top Chef. The Hilton is located within walking distance of many of Washington’s most famous neighborhoods, including Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan and the U Street Corridor.
If you would like to join the Conference email list, please contact ncan@collegeaccess.org. For more information, visit our Conference website: http://www.collegeaccess.org/2010Conference.aspx
NCAN Awarded Grant to Support Statewide Networks in Six States in AZ, CA, KY, NM, OH, and TX
The National College Access Network (NCAN) has received generous funding of $1.5 million over three years from The Kresge Foundation to support statewide college access networks in six targeted states. This support will allow NCAN to work towards its long term goal to develop large scale projects that help to build the capacity of NCAN members and inform best practices in college access and success.
“NCAN is thrilled to support six states in their efforts to develop statewide college access networks as this collaboration is essential to increasing college access and completion for students,” says Kim Cook, Executive Director of NCAN. She continues, “This network development will further NCAN’s mission and allow us to contribute to The Kresge Foundation’s strategic priorities to create opportunity, infuse diversity and equity in access and success work, and bring innovative practices to our practitioners.”
A statewide network is a unique college access support system that brings together multiple sectors to collaborate for postsecondary success. This grant will allow NCAN to create and administer re-grants (via an invitational Request for Proposals process) for expansion or development of statewide networks in Arizona, California, Kentucky, New Mexico, Ohio, and Texas.
“Kresge believes that NCAN plays a vital intermediary role in helping to shape the national student access and success agenda. This grant will enable NCAN to strengthen its work as a valuable technical assistance resource for current and emerging statewide college access networks,” said Caroline Altman Smith, Program Officer at the Foundation.
Statewide college access networks may focus on program support and expansion, coordination of services, fundraising collaboration, technical assistance and professional development for access practitioners, sharing of data and best practices, and policy advocacy. Members of statewide networks may include community-based and youth-serving organizations, local education funds, TRIO and GEAR UP programs, school districts, faith-based organizations, institutions of higher education, foundations and philanthropies, corporations and business leaders, and policy-makers.
NCAN staff will work with the selected recipients to develop or expand their statewide networks. These states will all receive tailored technical assistance for the grant years of 2011 – 2013. In addition, each of the statewide networks will become NCAN members and receive NCAN’s member services such as: the Building Blocks online toolkit, professional development opportunities, discounted conference registration, monthly member conference calls, a Research to Practice newsletter, and advocacy materials.
Members Invited to Submit Letters of Interest for TG Funded Student Success Project
The National College Access Network (NCAN) is now accepting letters of interest for Supporting Best Practices in Student Success, a project funded by a TG Public Benefit Grant. Four NCAN members will be selected to submit full proposals to receive $25,000 planning and implementation grants to create, enhance or expand their persistence, retention and success programs. Two organizations will be selected to develop student success programs and two organizations will be selected to expand or enhance existing student success programs.
NCAN will provide technical assistance throughout the project, evaluate the projects, and develop an evaluation report that will be shared among the college access and success community. The evaluation work will be done in partnership with the Institute for Higher Education Policy. The result of this project will be the development of four student success programs that will benefit the students currently being served by those organizations and an evaluation report that will serve as a practitioner-focused, implementation roadmap for other college access programs that want to develop or strengthen their own student success programs.
"NCAN appreciates this support from TG, not only for their direct support of NCAN's work to develop best practices in student success to be disseminated throughout the education community, but also for this very significant investment in college access and success initiatives across the country," said Kim Cook, Executive Director of NCAN.
NCAN members interested in submitting a letter interest should visit http://www.collegeaccess.org/SuccessBestPractices.aspx for more information. The deadline for letter submission is Friday, September 3, 2010.
KH2GO Focuses on Statewide Network Efforts
National College Access Network has been invited by Lumina Foundation for Education to play an expanded role in providing technical assistance to nine states as they continue to develop their statewide college access networks. These states have received funding from Lumina for the last few years to develop a KnowHow2Go campaign and build a statewide network to support this work now and in the future. These states include California, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Washington. Idaho, Louisiana, and Michigan had previously contracted with NCAN for similar work. These twelve states will now receive support from the NCAN staff and skilled consultants to fully develop their networks so that students and families in these states will have a web of support to attend college.
NCAN will embark on analyzing the technical assistance needs for each of the states and help identify the resources available to further enhance the network. Regular assessments, monthly calls and site visits will be utilized to assist each state’s lead organization(s) as they continue to build their networks. In addition, these states will also receive support from the other national partners in this initiative including the American Council on Education (ACE), the Public Education Network (PEN), and the Academy for Educational Development (AED). Together, this team of partners will provide a comprehensive support structure to assist with the efforts to create strong networks in each of these states.
NCAN Member Spotlight: On Point for College
According to the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, “There’s a definite increase in the number of homeless students nationwide.” (“College Students Hide Hunger, Homelessness,” Gloria Hillard of NPR, July 27, 2010). One NCAN member On Point for College of Syracuse, NY, www.onpointforcollege.org has worked since its inception in 1999 to assist its students with housing if they have no place to stay while away from campus.
On Point for College has teamed up with Le Moyne College, a private Jesuit college also in Syracuse, for the past ten years to ensure that the program’s students with no place to stay during the summer months have safe and free housing. Supplying safe summer housing to fifteen homeless college students is a natural extension of Le Moyne College’s community service.
Students like Kendra Selmon, who, prior to college, lived in the Salvation Army’s homeless shelter. Another student, Brian Greene, was raised by his grandmother, who fought off Alzheimer’s to keep a roof over her grandson’s head until he enrolled in college, and then moved into an assisted living facility. Although each student has unique circumstances affecting why they are housing vulnerable, Brian reflects the gratitude of the students, “What a relief it was to live somewhere (Le Moyne College) where you don’t have to worry that the lights will be shut off, whether the water will be safe to drink, or whether you will have to sleep in a car.”
To support these college students, On Point for College provides a Resident Assistant—an older student with a difficult home situation —and an initial food allowance, bus tokens and assistance in finding a summer job.
On Point for College was recently featured in the Syracuse Newspaper The Post Standard profiling their work on summer housing for homeless college students. To read the original story, visit: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/07/on_point_program_lemoyne_colle.html or call Ginny Donohue, Executive Director at On Point for College at 315-374-3426 for more information.
Member News August 2010
To read about what NCAN members are doing this summer, please click here.