Community college project increases number of transfers to eight schools

Through a program called “Threading the Needle of the American Dream,” low-income community college students are having higher access to eight prestigious universities, including USC. In just two years, the number of transfers enrolled into these schools tripled, according to The Washington Post.

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, an organization that seeks to help “promising students reach their full potential through education,” was launched in 2006, with one of its stated goals enabling a stronger transfer between community colleges and prestigious four-year universities. The foundation held a three-day conference called “Partnerships that Promote Success” in Washington, D.C., where it released its new numbers.

Elements of USC’s installment of the program include SCholars Clubs at various community and technical colleges to provide transfer advising, access to USC’s writing center for prospective transfer students, and a week-long “immersion experience” for low-income transfer students to help them get acclimated to the coursework at USC.

The other seven schools listed in the initiative are Amherst College, Bucknell University, Cornell University, Mount Holyoke, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of North Carolina and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.