Highline has received a $2.2 million federal grant to support students. 

The grant will be used to help low-income students and to close student equity gaps. 

The Title III-Part A, Strengthening Institutions Program grants can be used for a variety of purposes, from faculty support to developing new curriculum.  

Highline was notified of its award in late September, said May Lukens, special projects manager in Academic Affairs. 

“The grant will support Highline’s degree pathways work. The goal is to change how we support our students to help more students graduate, on time, in their chosen pathway,” Lukens said.

The purpose of these grants is to help Institutions of Higher Education “become self-sufficient and expand their capacity to serve low-income students, by providing funds to improve and strengthen the institution’s academic quality, institutional management, and fiscal stability,” according to the program’s description. 

Lukens, taking on the role of acting project director until a permanent project director is hired, coordinated and wrote the application for the grant with the help and input of many people on campus.

“Knowing that Highline would be eligible for the highly competitive upcoming 2021 Title III Part A SIP grant competition, we started talking about applying for grant funding tied to our Guided Pathways work over a year ago – in Spring 2020,” said Lukens. 

Guided Pathways, which seeks to help steer students toward degree completion, is in line with the purpose of Title III SIP, she said. 

“With Executive Cabinet’s endorsement, we began the process of researching Highline’s challenges and our strengths to help us overcome our challenges that are in line with college strategic priorities and Title III funding goals,” said Lukens. 

Highline’s Title III steering committee included about 50 staff and faculty members across the campus. 

“Once we narrowed down our focus, I worked with key stakeholders to finalize the application,” said Lukens. “We submitted our application in mid-July 2021.”

The grant’s “goal is to make Highline stronger as a college,” said Lukens. “By strengthening our ability as a college to serve our students, we will support our current and future students in achieving their goals.”

The funding from the grant will be used to focus on a variety of methods to accomplish Highline’s goal in becoming stronger as a college to support its students. 

The grant funds will be used for “implementing in-class supports in gateway courses, such as tutor-mentors, in-class advising,” Lukens said, plus “offering course-specific Academic Excellence workshops (AEWs) topics and study groups.” 

The funding from the grant will also focus on increasing Highline’s ability to make decisions based on data to improve the success of the students, said Lukens. 

To improve the process for enrolling at Highline, “we will hire entry advisors to provide pre-enrollment advising and help students who are undecided to get on a pathway of their choice,” Lukens said. 

The funds will be used for providing an easy advising process for students, starting from pre-enrollment through graduation, transfer and/or employment.  

They will also focus the funds on providing “additional professional development for faculty and staff on new methods and tools to support students in achieving their academic goals,” Lukens said.