ODESSA, Texas — For the next five years, Odessa College will be apart of a National Initiative by the Aspen Institute called Unlocking Opportunity.
It's an initiative that only 10 community colleges in the U.S. were chosen for, Odessa College being one.
“We strive to be the best community college in the nation. So whenever there’s an opportunity to bring the best together, we feel honored to be apart of that and we expect to be a part of that,” said Dr. Gregory Williams, President of Odessa College.
The overall goal is strengthening programs at the school and starting new ones to expand career and education opportunities for their students.
"They want to see can we move the needle more, can we do greater work? So we’re gonna work with some research groups to see how can we continue to improve the community college experience for our students not only while they’re at our institutions but can we make an impact on them so that their afterlives after two year college, so that is much better and greater outcomes than we’ve enjoyed in the past," Dr. Williams.
The first three years will be focused on setting goals, planning strategies and implementing change, while the final years will be filled with research, case studies and reports on growth.
"They want us to be able to see what is working really well for students after they leave college. In other words, what about finding jobs? How effective are students at that, income levels, sustained employment, how are we doing there. What programs are leading to that," Dr. Williams said.
"If you have a program that’s working really well, could you enhance it? If you’re accepting 20 or 40 students per year, what about accepting 60 or 80 students, giving even more students that opportunity? Are you making sure what you’re doing is equitable so that every student has a real chance to be apart of those programs?" said Dr. Williams.