MJC gets grant to help students along path to graduation

The U.S. Department of Education awarded Modesto Junior College a $2.6 million, five-year grant to help its students get through college more swiftly and surely.

The Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions grant will be used for what MJC calls its Removing Barriers for High Need Students project. The project has three major activities, according to an MJC statement.

The first aims to remove academic barriers and shorten time to graduation or transfer. The college will be reviewing and revising enrollment and placement. That includes looking at testing and prerequisites to get into courses, sequencing of courses, and other ways to help students complete their major and general education requirements.

The second goal is to remove procedural barriers for students, for example hang-ups in receiving financial aid. The plan is to better coordinate support services and staff training to simplify transactional tasks for students and improve customer service.

The third action will be to eliminate the hassle of going through many offices to accomplish basic student tasks by establishing one-stop Student Support Centers with online, telephone and face-to-face support.

This initiative will align closely with MJC’s Student Success and Support Program and Student Equity plans to address the college’s priority: improving the way it serve students.

This story was originally published October 3, 2015 at 3:15 PM with the headline "MJC gets grant to help students along path to graduation."