JJC Project Achieve/ TRIO SSS: Approaching First-generation Success With Creativity and Intention

Project Achieve/ TRIO Student Support Services

Project Achieve is an integrated TRIO/Student Support Services program dedicated to enhancing our students' college experience and promoting student success. Project Achieve serves 200 eligible Joliet Junior College students. Of these students, two-thirds of the participants (135 students/200 total students = 67.5 percent) were low-income, first-generation college students, and/or students with documented disabilities. “Student Support Services is 100% Federally Funded for $1.8 million by the U.S. Department of Education from 2015-2020." The mission of Project Achieve/ Student Support Services is to provide support services to traditionally underserved low-income, first generation, and/or disabled college students.

The supportive services aim to:

• increase college retention
• increase graduation rates 
• facilitate a successful transfer process from a two-year to a four-year institution
• foster an institutional climate conducive to student success

Intentional Services and Programming for Diverse Students

As part of our Project Achieve/ TRIO SSS program we strategically formulate culturally conscious programming that is focused on academic success, academic perseverance, and social/emotional health, while supporting our SSS grant goals. The goal of our programming stems from increasing our student engagement and student involvement, while also striving to improve our students’ cultural awareness, racial consciousness, and knowledge of diversity. This, in turn, simultaneously enhances their educational and professional skills.

The SSS team plans programming ranging from workshops, presentations, cultural events/outings, and campus visits. Project Achieve/ TRIO student support services focuses on the following areas:

• Academic Advising
• Academic and Character Building Workshops
• Educational Planning
• Financial Literacy
• Cultural Outings
• Transfer Support
• Multicultural Events
• Four year college/university Campus Visits

First-Generation College Student Celebration

JJC Project Achieve/ TRIO SSS hosted the First Annual First-Generation College Student Celebration on Wednesday, November 8th 2017 from 9am-1pm.

This free celebration accomplished the following:

• brought awareness about first-generation college students
• provided statistics on this student population
• built a sense of community
• provided strategies on how to better support first-generation college students’ holistic development and academic success 

Project Achieve won a JJC Academic for Excellence Grant to develop a wonderful celebration. We had a great agenda that consisted of breakfast, a student panel, a staff/alum panel, a keynote speaker, a delicious catered lunch, and interactive engaging activities.

At this national celebration, we focused on transforming barriers into assets and bringing attention to those first-generation college students who exemplify academic success as they pursue their educational endeavors. Project Achieve had 190 students, administrators, staff, faculty, and community members attend the celebration.

Effective approaches: Using Technology for Retention, Persistence, and Completion outcomes

Project Achieve/ TRIO SSS aims to strategically increase the number of active student participants taking advantage of the student support services, programming, events, and opportunities throughout the academic year. This is an ongoing goal, to provide a plurality of programming that will expose our diverse students to a myriad of skills, strategies, and opportunities. Joliet Junior College is the nation’s first community college, it prides itself in cultivating innovative platforms to better support our diverse students. Joliet Junior College has an innovative system, the JJC Academic Success Tracker that allows Project Achieve / TRIO SSS to effectively communicate with our 200 students.

Through this platform, the SSS staff can provide academic intervention to Project Achieve students by: sending individual and collective communication through email and/or text messages to our students regarding important alerts from faculty/instructors on the students’ academic progress. In this platform we can see our students’ academic progress, any faculty/ instructor academic concern with individual students, and even see notes that faculty and staff have stated in regards to our students as well as write our own notes. Project Achieve recognizes that for our traditional college students, sending text messages has become one of the fastest and most efficient form of communication.

Joliet Junior College- Marketing/ Incorporating Technology

Project Achieve/ TRIO SSS strategically develops flyers for all our programming with the date/time/location which are advertised in various social media avenues, communicated to our Project Achieve students through JJC Academic Success Tracker- emails, phone calls, and text messages, attaching flyers/ advertisement when appropriate.

• Using the Academic Success Tracker- email and text message features communicating with our students about upcoming programming/ workshops, cultural events, campus visits and so forth.
• Academic Intervention Efforts to communicate any academic concerns and administer important reports for our Project Achieve students.
• Joliet Junior College – Project Achieve/TRIO Student Support Services closed Facebook group page for our current and alumni student group serves as an avenue to advertise, inform students about upcoming events/programming, and workshops being facilitated throughout the academic year. This platform fosters a sense of community and cultivates a diverse engaging networking outlet for current students and alums in an informal setting. As well as assist us to keep track of our alum and their progress within their transfer education and other successes. 

Based on the SSS program objectives and outcomes for 2016-2017, our academic persistence project goal rate was 55% [persist from one academic year to the beginning of the next academic year or graduate and/or transfer from a 2 year to 4 year institution during the academic year] and the impressive outcome was 85% of our students persisted. Our academic standing project goal rate was 92% [of students meet the performance level required to stay in good academic standing] and we excelled with an outcome of 95.5% of our students that were in good academic standing from 2016-2017 APR report.
Through our intentional efforts we focus on building strong rapport and relationships with our diverse students to better serve and support their educational and professional endeavors.