Achieving the Dream bestows highest honor to Southwestern for improved student success

Feb 19, 2025 | Curry Campus, News, Student Success

Southwestern Oregon Community College takes home the Leah Meyer Austin Award.

Photo left to right: Krystal Hopper Meyers, STEAM Pathways Assistant; Dr. Alisha Lund, Director of Institutional Effectiveness; Dr. Ali Mageehon, Vice President of Instruction and Student Services; Dr. Patty Scott, College President

COOS BAY, OR — Achieving the Dream (ATD), a national organization committed to advancing community colleges as accessible hubs of learning, credentialing, and economic mobility, today awarded the Leah Meyer Austin Award, its highest recognition, to Southwestern Oregon Community College as well as Chattanooga State Community College.

The award, given annually, signifies a college’s adoption of practices and strategies leading to a student-focused culture, notable increases in student outcomes, and a reduction of equity gaps. The announcement was made at ATD’s annual DREAM conference, which brought over 2,000 community college leaders, faculty, student affairs staff, and other higher education practitioners to the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.

“Selection for the Leah Meyer Austin Award is a highly competitive process,” noted ATD President and CEO Dr. Karen A. Stout. “Winners of this award do not just demonstrate pockets of excellence; they employ a holistic approach to student success that permeates their entire institution and results in whole-college transformation. Chattanooga State and Southwestern Oregon community colleges have the bold leadership and the across-the-board commitment of faculty and staff that make them true standouts in their student success efforts. I congratulate them wholeheartedly on their achievements.”

Southwestern Oregon Community College has been an ATD institution since 2012, when it joined the Network as one in a group of nine rural Oregon community colleges. The institution achieved Leader College status in 2015, which it held until 2021 and regained in 2023.

“We are so pleased to be honored with this award. This recognition reflects an unwavering commitment to student success by every single employee of our college,” said Southwestern’s President Patty Scott. “We know our students. We know they have diverse needs and complex lives. We have proven that by putting students first and adapting our programs and services to their individual needs, they will succeed. Ultimately, not only do our students benefit, so do their families, our workforce and our communities.”

Dedicated to Student Success

Southwestern’s dedication to student success has long been rooted in its responsiveness to community needs, and the college has particularly excelled in its recent efforts to engage and support its district’s adult learner population. Recognizing that adult learners are often forced to balance their studies with work and family responsibilities, the college has implemented several reforms that benefit both adult learners and part-time learners — two subpopulations that often overlap. By creating specialized advising and new age- and lifestyle-appropriate student orientations; performing a thorough evaluation of both its communication practices as well as its portfolio of academic and workforce programs; and improving its online services, which are often utilized by adult learners who appreciate the convenience, Southwestern has realized several notable improvements.

For example, in comparing the 2017 cohort to the 2020 cohort, the four-year completion rate among part-time learners improved by 8.7 percentage points, narrowing the equity gap between adult learners and traditional-aged learners by 3.2 percentage points. Between adult learners and traditional-aged learners, the gap narrowed by an impressive 6.7 percentage points, as the rate of completion among the former rose 12.3 percentage points.

With nearly half of the total student body composed of first-generation students — many of whom are also adult learners and many of whom are economically marginalized — great efforts have been made to accelerate the success of this population through financial supports. As a complement to TRIO services, the college introduced the SNAP Training and Employment Program (STEP) to provide students with basic needs assistance as well as support with the costs of books, transportation, and interview clothing. Southwestern also employs a benefits navigator who assists students in finding help with basic needs support in the community. In addition, the college’s foundation supplements these services with scholarships, including emergency scholarships to help with unexpected expenses or utility bills. As the result of these efforts, the equity gap between first-generation and non-first-generation learners in fall-to-fall persistence narrowed by 3 percentage points, from 8.2% in the fall 2019 cohort to 5.2%, in the fall 2022 cohort.

Mandating academic advising, implementing a more robust early alert system that notifies advisors and support staff when a student needs additional assistance, utilizing new placement procedures, and moving to a co-requisite course system, among other innovations, have contributed to overall advances in student success rates for the college. Most notably, from the fall 2017 cohort to the fall 2020 cohort, the overall four-year completion rate grew 6.6 percentage points, and the rate at which students transfer and earn a baccalaureate degree, despite severe geographical hardships, rose 3.7 percentage points from the fall 2015 cohort to the fall 2018 cohort.

A copy of the Case Study recognizing Southwestern, published by Achieving the Dream, can be accessed here.

Achieving the Dream’s Leah Meyer Austin Award

The Leah Meyer Austin Award was established in 2008 to recognize outstanding achievement in supporting and promoting student success through the creation of a culture of evidence, continuous improvement, systemic institutional change, broad engagement of stakeholders, and equity. The annual prize is given in honor of Leah Meyer Austin, former senior vice president for program development and organizational learning at the Lumina Foundation and emerita director of the ATD Board of Directors, whose visionary leadership shaped the development of Achieving the Dream. Chattanooga State Community College and Southwestern Oregon Community College are the 23^rd and 24th ATD Network Colleges, respectively, to receive the award. A complete list of past winners can be found here.

Achieving the Dream (ATD) is a partner and champion of more than 300 community colleges across the country. Drawing on our expert coaches, groundbreaking programs, and national peer network, we provide institutions with integrated, tailored support for every aspect of their work — from foundational capacities such as leadership, data, and equity to intentional strategies for supporting students holistically, building K–12 partnerships, and more. We call this Whole College Transformation. Our vision is for every college to be a catalyst for equitable and economically vibrant communities. We know that with the right partner and the right approach, colleges can drive access, completion rates, and employment outcomes — so that all students can access life-changing learning that propels them into community-changing careers.