LaGuardia Community College gets grant

LaGuardia Community College will be receiving a grant through the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program worth more than $570,000 for “Project RISE: Reinvigorating Second Year Education.”
“I am pleased that LaGuardia Community College has been awarded this grant through the Department of Education,” said Senator Hillary Clinton. “The Developing Hispanic-Serving Institution Program grant will help implement two imperative components of Project RISE that together will improve student learning and achievement, and help prepare students for transfer and career success. I hope that LaGuardia’s success is reproduced throughout New York State and across the country.”
The goal of the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institution Program is to “improve student learning and achievement beyond the first year of college.” The grant, totaling $574,930, will go towards strengthening instruction, assessment and advisement, which will assist LaGuardia Community College with three of its goals, retention, graduation and transfer.
LaGuardia Community College, which has been serving the borough for 32 years, has a student population that represents 158 different countries and speaks 114 different languages. On an annual basis, the school has 13,500 enrolled students seeking degrees and 41,000 seeking job training.
It has a federal designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution and serves many Hispanic students, as well as other students from low-income families. Many of its students are minorities and many comprise the first generation of their families to attend college.
Project RISE will help LaGuardia Community College build on its first-year programs and “will help the college complete a transformation that will benefit Hispanic and other low-income students and help to demonstrate a groundbreaking model for community colleges nationwide.”