MCC celebrating Community College Month

April 4, 2024

McLennan Community College is proud to celebrate #CCMonth, a mantling grassroots education and stigma-busting campaign coordinated by the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). The primary goals of #CCMonth are to improve awareness of the economic, academic and equity advantages of attending community colleges, and to bust longtime stigmas wrongly associated with public two-year colleges. 

“MCC provides value to our community by providing an affordable opportunity for immediate career access or to easily transfer to a four-year university on our campus through Texas Tech and Tarleton, Baylor or other universities,” MCC President Johnette McKown said. “Because we care, we surround students with opportunities for financial, educational, and basic needs support. We are partners in economic development and we provide leadership and a skilled labor force our community for today and the future. Our value sometimes goes unheralded, but we continue our mission to be a beacon in our community.”

Public community colleges are a uniquely American educational model that was designed to guarantee access to affordable, high-quality higher education for all people. They are the primary educators of life-saving nursing and other healthcare professionals among many others. They also serve as an onramp to bachelor’s, master’s and higher-level degrees for many students, and particularly for the most demographically and socioeconomically diverse students. They guarantee fair admissions for all students. They offer supports for adult students who have to work to support their families. And without community colleges, many American students would not be able to access higher education at all. Despite some ongoing stigma about community colleges, research from New America's annual Varying Degrees study and other sources reveals that most Americans hold community colleges in the highest regard among all higher education institutions with respect to being worth the cost of attendance, whether tax dollars should support them, and whether they spend their resources wisely and run efficiently.

Community colleges throughout the United States provide these services so that the most disadvantaged students will have a chance at succeeding in their higher education careers.

“The new-and-future economy is a skills-based economy,” said ACCT President and CEO Jee Hang Lee. “The nation's community colleges always have specialized in providing practical education and skills that students can use to advance themselves in a competitive economy. They give opportunities to all students, and they support all students throughout their educations, whether they attend to attain an associate degree or certificate, intend to transfer on for a bachelor’s or higher degree, or they take one or a few courses to learn a new skill or expand their horizons.”

Each year's #CCMonth campaign makes millions of impressions across social media platforms with prominent supporters like the U.S. Departments of Education, Energy, Labor, and State; the U.S. Census Bureau; First Lady Jill Biden and former First Lady Michelle Obama; governors of Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and New Jersey, and many others. This year, organizers are encouraging students and others to take the message to their favorite online social platforms to spread the word about the importance of community colleges in cultivating skills for the future, and the unique affordability that community colleges offer to financially challenged generations.

For more information about #CCMonth, visit qrco.de/bewWla.