On March 18, Florida’s Santa Fe College took home top honors when the Aspen Institute awarded its biennial $1 million Prize for Community College Excellence, the nation’s preeminent recognition of high achievement and performance in America’s community colleges.

Selected from 1,123 public community colleges, Prize winner Santa Fe College receives $800,000. Lake Area Technical Institute (LATI) in Watertown, South Dakota, and West Kentucky Community & Technical College (WKCTC) in Paducah, KY were named finalists-with-distinction.

And this year, for the first time, Aspen recognized a top ten finalist with the “Rising Star” award for rapid improvement in student completion with the honor going to Kennedy-King College (KKC), part of the City Colleges of Chicago system. All three will receive $100,000 prizes. The Aspen Institute recognized many other colleges for their great work as well.

Why a prize for community college excellence? Community colleges provide an on-ramp to the middle class for millions of Americans. And, since nearly half of all undergraduates attend community college, this really matters for our nation’s economic future. The Rodney Dangerfield cliché is well-worn in this sector of higher education. “No respect.”

The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program has been working to change that, leading a group of national college experts, who have been investigating colleges nationwide for over four years as part of the Prize process. The Aspen Prize recognizes colleges for what they are doing to help students succeed in four areas: learning; certificate and degree completion; employment and earnings; and high levels of access and success for minority and low-income students. The goal of the Aspen Prize is to help change the definition of excellence in the field – and showcase examples of colleges that meet it. That means doing more than providing broad access and offering a massive variety of vocational and academic credits. It means providing an outstanding, affordable, and job-relevant education for every student.

You can read more about the winning colleges and the Aspen Prize by checking out these articles:

Aspen Prize Honors Colleges That Are Helping Students Succeed – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Structured Pathways Help Community Colleges Succeed – US News and World Report

Florida community college takes home Aspen Prize at star-studded ceremony – Politico (subscription required)

¿Cuál es la mejor universidad comunitaria del país? – Univision

What can we learn from our community colleges – Miami Herald