2019 Leah Meyer Austin Award – Columbus State Community College

Columbus State Community College, one of two winners of the 2019 Leah Meyer Austin Award, is being recognized for its focus on student success and its goal of creating a seamless path from high school through to the workforce.

Internally, the college has produced significant gains in course completion, retention, graduation rates, and narrowing equity gaps. College wide, the IPEDS graduation rate increased more than 2.5 times the 2010-11 rate, from 8 percent to 21 percent. More broadly, Columbus State Community College has advanced two other strategic priorities, workforce development and civic engagement, by building key partnerships with high schools, universities, and local industries. It also has been a leader in convening the Central Ohio Compact, a collective strategy aimed at ensuring that 65 percent of the region’s adults will have earned a postsecondary certificate or degree by 2025.

Overall, Columbus State’s transformative work reflects Achieving the Dream’s vision of community colleges as crucial, lifelong sources of civic and economic wellbeing for individuals, their families, and their communities.