Hollins University has been awarded a grant from the Come to Believe (CTB) Network to study adding a two-year college on campus that serves underrepresented students.
Hollins will collaborate with CTB to look at the viability of instituting the nonprofit organization’s innovative two-year college model, which is intended to provide low-income students with greater access to higher education and complete an associate degree with little or no debt.
The grant provides crucial funding and guidance to Hollins as it pursues the goals and objectives of Transforming Learning, Transforming Lives: The Levavi Oculos Plan, the strategic plan that is reshaping the course of the university’s future and opening an array of opportunities for the campus community. Approved unanimously by the Hollins Board of Trustees in the fall of 2023, Transforming Learning, Transforming Lives offers an energizing direction for the university.
The plan revolves around three “gears,” Academic Excellence, Access, and Wellness, and the CTB grant supports one of three goals under the Academic Excellence gear: “Transformative Learning to Advance Social Mobility.” Among the objectives within that goal is providing alternative pathways for undergraduate degree completion, thereby enhancing access for a greater diversity of students.
“Now more than ever, we are called to prepare our students for a multiplicity of unscripted future challenges, while also ensuring that our learning environment allows all students to persist, thrive, and succeed during their college education and beyond, especially those who have been historically marginalized,” says Hollins President Mary Dana Hinton.
As a participating institution with CTB, Hollins will create a design team led by a dedicated project manager. The group will be made up of stakeholders representing a range of departments and perspectives, including enrollment, advancement, student life, faculty, and more. This fall, the team will take part in virtual retreats facilitated by CTB and visit other colleges where the two-year model has been implemented.
Next spring, the design team in collaboration with CTB will perform a thorough analysis to evaluate Hollins’ capacity as a potential host institution for a new two-year college.
Hollins joins The Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.), Saint Mary’s College (Notre Dame, Indiana), and the University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, Michigan) in CTB’s 2024 design grant program cohort. Each school receives up to $30,000 to cover the cost of the study.
“All of these institutions have an impressive track record of delivering high-quality educational opportunities for their students and their communities,” says CTB President/CEO Steve Katsouros, SJ. “They are also dedicated to leading the way as agents of access, affordability, and social mobility within the higher education system – which makes them ideal partners for CTB.”
