Illinois Central College Joins Community College Month Campaign to Draw Attention to the Community in Community College
East Peoria, IL (04/03/2024) — Illinois Central College (ICC) is joining community colleges across the country this April in celebrating Community College Month, a grassroots education campaign coordinated by the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) to improve awareness of the economic, academic and equity advantages of attending community colleges. This year's theme is Cultivating Skills for the Future.
"Community College Month is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the impact and value of ICC to our Central Illinois community," shared Dr. Sheila Quirk-Bailey, ICC President. "Our students are earning the credentials that change their lives and prepare them for further credentials and a career. When our regional community members earn these credentials, it not only changes the trajectory of their lives, but also that of their families. Additionally, increasing the number of credentialed adults in our region expands our local workforce, strengthens our regional employers and increases the economic vibrancy and resiliency of our regional economy. ICC and our fellow community colleges are equity, career and economic engines that positively impact our community members and communities. We honored and humbled to pay this role in Central Illinois and in Illinois."
Public community colleges are a uniquely American educational model 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 support for adult students working to support their families. And without community colleges, many American students would not be able to access higher education at all.
In short, community colleges were created to serve the needs of their communities, and they do it exceptionally well.
"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." ICC is a national leader in this arena as evidenced by being one of only two community colleges funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration's Good Job Challenge program which allows ICC and its partners to certify 1,000 regional adults in IT credentials at no cost.
During Community College Month, ICC is hosting the Experience ICC Open House on Tuesday, April 9 from 4:00 - 7:00 p.m. on the East Peoria campus. Attendees can explore over 150 programs of study, learn about scholarships and financial aid, meet with faculty and staff, and discover student life. Register at go.icc.edu/openhouse. Community members can also attend a General Visit Day on Friday, April 19 from 9:00 a.m. - noon on the Peoria campus.
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Illinois Central College is a two-year community college with campuses in East Peoria, Peoria and Pekin, Illinois, providing a high-quality, affordable education to prepare students to enter the workforce or to transfer to a four-year institution. ICC is the 2020 awardee of the National Community College Charles Kennedy Equity Award from ACCT, a 2022 EDA Good Job Challenge Institution, and the Lead College for the state of Illinois' Workforce Equity Initiative. ICC also conducts original research in agricultural fields, including water quality and soil conservation. For more information, visit icc.edu.
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