Thursday, May 11, 2023
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Students from underrepresented backgrounds face considerable barriers when it comes to completing a community college program. Nationally, only 24% of African American, Latinx, and Native American students finish within two years. But Dougherty Family College (DFC), a two-year associate degree program at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, where almost all the students are minoritized and nearly three-quarters are first-generation, has managed to buck this trend. DFC has graduated an average of 56% of its students since its formation in 2017. How has the college pulled this off? By smothering its students with support.