Take a slate of new courses of instruction in high-demand fields, offer convenient class times to meet students' ever challenging schedules, throw in a broad range of available scholarships, and what do you get? "It's all about the opportunity," says Leigh Bessey, Community College of Aurora's director of recruiting and career services.
It could hardly be said any more clearly than that. CCA's new eXpress Ed initiative, launched earlier this year as a response to the economic downturn, is proving to be a hit. CCA's eXpress Ed courses are convenient and affordable ways for people to get retrained and upgrade job skills so that they can compete for jobs that are in demand in the new economy.
And CCA now offers a wealth of new scholarship aid to make attending college even easier for students in need. There's the Graduation Semester Scholarship, for those in their final semester at CCA; the New Program Scholarship, applicable to new vocational program areas at the college; the Displaced Worker Tuition Grant, for eligible unemployed students who were laid off within the last two years and for dependent students whose parents are unemployed due to layoffs in the last two years; the Continuing Student Academic Scholarship, a merit-based scholarship of up to $500; the Exceptional Need-Based Grant for eligible students who do not qualify for Pell grants; and the High School Honors Scholarship, for eligible first-time, full-time recent high school graduates and home-schooled high school grads.
According to Bessey, eXpress Ed means just that: if you want to start college at CCA, you can sign up on a Friday and start classes on Monday. "Many of our courses are now offered outside the boundaries of a traditional 15-week semester," she explains. "When you're out of work, you need to see results quickly. With these new programs, you'll have something on your resume right away to make you more employable." Many of CCA's certificate programs can be completed in as little as 10 weeks.
According to Bessey, CCA will continue to respond to the educational needs of the community with innovative and convenient programs.