TSC News

The Seal of Excelencia is a new voluntary certification for institutions serving Latino students that will facilitate institutional change to close equity gaps and significantly increase Latino student completion and will assist Latino students in making postsecondary education choices. The Seal signals that an institution has developed a comprehensive and systemic approach to accelerating Latino student success and seeks to raise the bar by which institutions are evaluated with regard to serving Latino students.

Four Texas community colleges are among the finalists:

• Alamo Colleges
• Austin Community College
• El Paso Community College
• South Texas College

On June 20, Excelencia in Education will live steam the announcement of the inaugural colleges and universities to earn the new certification.

Jerome Drain, Dean of Natural Sciences and Horticulture at Houston Community College and Suzanne Wilson Summers, Special Assistant to the Provost and Professor of History at Austin Community College have been selected as fellows with the American Council on Education for 2019-2020.  Drain and Summers will be placed at an institution other than their own, where they will work with a senior leader.  Learn more about the ACE Fellows Program.

Achieving the Dream announced Amarillo College as one of the two winners of the 2019 Leah Meyer Austin Award at its annual DREAM conference on February 19 in Long Beach, CA. Amarillo College and Columbus State Community College (Ohio) were recognized for their work measurably improving student outcomes through cultural transformation. 

After examining institutional data, Amarillo College embarked on the No Excuses poverty initiative and established a culture of caring at the college. Amarillo College shares its strategies with other colleges through its Culture of Caring Summit.  Read more about Amarillo College's recognition by Achieving the Dream and watch excerpts from the award ceremony.

The Texas Success Center recognized five Texas community colleges for their work implementing and scaling mathematics pathways.  The awards, given in conjunction with the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, were announced at Texas Pathways Institute #5 on November 14, 2018.

• Overall Exemplar: Paris Junior College (pictured)
• Principle 1: Grayson College
• Principle 2: San Jacinto College
• Principle 3: McLennan Community College
• Principle 4: College of the Mainland

Read more on the Charles A. Dana Center blog.

Steve Smith, vice president of instruction and workforce education at El Paso Community College, received the 2018 Carl M. “Cheesie” Nelson Administrative Leadership Award from the Texas Association of Community Colleges (TACC) at the TACC Summer Conference in Corpus Christi.  The "Cheesie" Nelson Award recognizes administrators with outstanding leadership qualities who have made a significant impact on higher education.  Read more from the El Paso Herald-Post.