Nevada Tahoe Basin residents now have the chance to attend Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) in California tuition-free for the first year due to two donations that expanded the Lake Tahoe College Promise program.
LTCC’s expansion of College Promise to students across the state border makes it the first bi-state Promise program in the country. The college has a goal to increase full-time student enrollment and also attract adult learners in the Tahoe Basin, many of whom were previously ineligible for the Nevada Promise because of its high school graduation year requirements and age-cap at 20 years old.
“With this expansion, LTCC is breaking down those barriers to access that so many Tahoe residents face,” said Jeff DeFranco, president and superintendent of LTCC, in a statement announcing the expansion. “The goal from the start was to have a Promise program that aligns with our mission of serving the Lake Tahoe Basin in its entirety. We are one Basin, one lake and one community, and we’re proud to offer a free year of college to anyone who lives along Lake Tahoe, despite which state they live in or when they might have graduated from high school.”
Diane Lewis, director of marketing and communications at LTCC, said that the Promise expansion adds two small, rural high schools from the Nevada Tahoe Basin into the college’s feeder zone. The college’s goal is to bring in 200 more full-time students, especially students who may be “place-bound” or lacking the transportation to get to the closest school in Nevada, she said.
“That’s a lofty goal for a small school like us with currently a little less than 2,000 FTES [full-time equivalent students],” Lewis said. “We are one of the eight smallest rural community colleges in California.”
Lewis added that the expanded program will not only focus on the “traditional” students coming from feeder high schools, but also returning adult learners working in service industries around the Basin. This includes workers in hotels, restaurants and casinos.
“We’re talking about a couple of thousand adult learners who have figured out how to afford to live here,” Lewis said. “They’re raising families here and they’re just kind of stuck where they are. A little free college education can bump them up, give them a little raise [and] prepare them to move up into management in hospitality or the restaurant business.”
