South Louisiana Community College is the recipient of U.S. Department of Education grant money that will be used to increase the participation of African-American students in the community college.

The goal of the $2.7 million grant would be to help African-American students to stay with their education at SLCC, come over to the community college system and get more students to complete an education within the system.

Dr. Krystal Martin is the Student Success Director and current grant project manager.

Dr. Martin says,

“Empowering students through services provided by this initiative will help program participants accomplish their educational and career goals. This program is designed to help students matriculate through college, succeed academically, connect to available resources, and become gainfully employed.”

According to SLCC 37 percent of students in their programs are African-American. The grant money will hopefully help to improve those numbers.

There are several ways that students will be identified to take part in the program including the following:

  • Student self-referral
  • Faculty referral
  • Staff referral
  • High school counselor referrals
  • Dual enrollment staff referrals

According to SLCC, the CME will be able to provide multiple services to African-American students including:

  • Academic advising and assistance
  • Career planning
  • Mentoring support
  • Financial literacy support
  • Tutoring
  • Students will also participate in workshops designed to encourage academic success and be exposed to resources to help improve their success

Phase one of the grant will start on October 1 of this year.

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