WASHINGTON — Indian River State College (IRSC) and Miami Dade College (MDC), both in Florida, are the co-winners of this year’s 2019 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, a national recognition from the Aspen Institute highlighting their outstanding commitment to student success and equitable student outcomes amongst a pool of 1,000 community colleges across the country.
Indian River and Miami Dade were joined by eight Aspen Prize finalist institutions who were all recognized Tuesday at a ceremony at the Newseum’s Knight Conference Center in D.C. Three colleges — Odessa College, Palo Alto College and Pierce College Fort Steilacoom — also received Aspen’s “Rising Star” award for dramatic improvement.
The two Aspen Prize winners will receive $350,000 each for their achievement and the three “Rising Star” award winners will each receive $100,000.
“This award is an affirmation of what we’ve been aspiring to for so many years at MDC, mainly to ensure open access and academic excellence can go hand-in-hand,” said Miami Dade College president Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón who is retiring this year.
Accepting the Aspen Prize — a $1 million award given every two years since 2011 — Padrón commended the leaders of the finalist institutions because “they absolutely understand that the future of America is inextricably linked to what we do.”
He shared with the collective of leaders that, “for too many years, we have suffered from comments” from individuals who say “that nothing good can come from community colleges.”
“We have proven that this is not true,” he urged. “We have proven that this is the opposite.”
