San Antonio College Emerges Winner of 2021 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence

San Antonio College (SAC) was selected as the winner of the 2021 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. The announcement came during a virtual award ceremony on Tuesday.

“San Antonio College, one of five colleges in the Alamo College District, is laser-focused on serving students from its immediate environment, an area that is predominantly low income with low rates of degree attainment and high rates of unemployment,” said Ruth Williams-Brinkley, president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States and Aspen Prize jury co-chair. “Two-thirds of students are Hispanic, Black or Native American. Leaders, faculty and staff have a shared sense of urgency for improvement. They have a commitment to evidence-based inquiry and accountability, and a common understanding that everyone in the community is responsible for students’ wellbeing inside and outside the classroom.”

Broward College, San Jacinto College and West Kentucky Community and Technical College were given Finalist with Distinction awards. And Amarillo College was given the Rising Star award.

SAC will receive $600,000, with the other four schools each getting $100,000.

The Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence award is given every two years.

“In 2010, we launched the Aspen Prize with a few central goals,” said Josh Wyner, executive director or the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program. “We aimed to elevate community colleges through exemplars of excellence. We also strove to work with experts to define what excellence means. It’s more than getting students in the door but also making sure that they succeed. And finally, we see the Aspen Prize and saw it at the time, as a means to identify and replicate highly effective college-wide practices by adding to the body of evidence about what excellent community colleges do.”

For the prize, 150 community colleges are invited to apply. And of those, 10 are selected as finalists.