Colleges continually adopt new strategies, launch initiatives, and respond to changing student and community needs. Yet evidence from Achieving the Dream’s Network shows that meaningful, sustained improvement requires more than individual programs or promising practices. Colleges achieve greater student success over time when they build institutional capacity and pursue whole-college transformation aligned with their communities’ economic, social, and civic needs. This webinar will explore ATD’s Community Vibrancy Framework and how it helps colleges strengthen people, processes, practices, and organizational infrastructure to use data, align priorities, and scale effective strategies that advance student success and community well-being.
Kalamazoo Valley Community College will bring this approach to life by sharing its transformation journey since joining the ATD Network in 2025. Building on a strong foundation in continuous improvement, data-informed decision-making, and holistic student support, the college is working with ATD to strengthen its institutional capacity and accelerate change. Through examples of its work, including its implementation of shortened academic terms, Kalamazoo Valley will share how it is advancing its student-success goals and what it is learning along the way. Participants will gain practical insights into institutional strategies they can adapt to their own contexts, along with a clearer understanding of how ATD’s whole-college approach and Network partnership can help colleges achieve lasting improvements in student, institutional, and community success.