Complete College America

06/04/2026

New on CCA on the Air: Humanities, Leadership, and Belonging: Inside Tri-C's Mandel Scholars Academy

What does it look like when a community college program gets belonging right?

Midwest Region Alliance Engagement Director Nichole Mann sits down with Dr. Constance Kassor and Cuyahoga Community College theater student and Mandel Scholar Morgan Dillard to talk cohort models, "CLEadership" activities, and the kind of confidence that takes a student from "going to work and going home" to honors classes and a transfer pathway to Cleveland State University's Honors College.

Dr. Kassor's takeaway says it all: "Don't sleep on community colleges. Don't sleep on the humanities."

🎧 Listen now: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1lMaX3umcbW55lASM93Cv1?si=w1_p6T8UTwutFAh54Xnlgg

CCA On the Air · Episode

05/26/2026

What does it really mean to use AI in service of students?

At the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium's recent summit, our Chief of Staff & SVP for Strategy Dhanfu E. Elston made the case that AI's promise in higher education isn't about efficiency for its own sake — it's about closing gaps, building momentum, and ensuring every student has a genuine path to completion.

"The technology only matters if it moves students forward."

Watch the full conversation here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvucjXbPBZY

Panel 3 of CVHEC’s 2026 Central Valley Higher Education Summit featured a national perspective by Dr. Dhanfu Elston of Complete College America on artificial...

05/26/2026

Good news: we've extended the Call for Session Proposals for the 2026 CCA Annual Convening!

New deadline: June 3, 2026

This year's theme — Doing the Work: When Higher Education and Workforce Integrate, Students Succeed — is focused on real implementation stories, hard-won lessons, and data-backed results.

Join us December 1–3 in San Diego. Submit your proposal today:

Register Now We are headed west in 2026! Save the date for the 2026 CCA Annual Convening, taking place in San Diego from December 1 to 3, 2026. Registration is now open, and you can book a room through the hotel block once you complete your registration. Call for Session…

05/19/2026

Big news: CCA President Yolanda Watson Spiva just published a major piece in Campus Technology — and it's a must-read for anyone in higher education.

Her argument: colleges can't keep treating AI as a side project. With AI already transforming classrooms, advising, and operations, institutions need coordinated, campus-wide strategies — not just individual experiments.

Without a coordinated strategy that involves multiple academic and administrative units across the entire campus, colleges risk wasting resources, duplicating efforts, and ultimately failing to deliver on the promise of deploying technology to improve learning and operations.

05/18/2026

🔍 We're looking for our next Director of Communications and Advocacy.

Complete College America is seeking a seasoned communications leader who thrives at the intersection of policy, advocacy, and storytelling. You'll lead our external communications strategy, engage partners and policymakers, and champion the voices of students who deserve better from our higher ed system.

What we offer:
✔ Fully remote position
✔ A team of passionate, mission-driven reformers
✔ National reach across our state alliance network

Deadline to apply: June 5
Apply now: https://completecollegeadmin.bamboohr.com/careers/42

Know someone who'd be a great fit? Please share.

Director of Communications and Advocacy Job Description Organizational Overview The barriers to college completion are complex and intertwined. No one educator, department, institution, or state can solve them. Without a simultaneous and intersectional approach, those barriers will continue to rob a...

05/18/2026

Access without completion isn't enough. 🎓
CCA President Dr. Yolanda Watson Spiva sat down with Growing Inland Achievement's Education Insight podcast to talk about two decades of data on college success — what's holding students back, and what's actually moving the needle.
Hit the link in bio to listen. 👆
https://inlandempiregia.org/podcasts/education-insight-what-20-years-of-data-reveals-about-college-success/

05/05/2026

New Episode Alert: CCA on the Air

What does it really take to transform academic advising at scale? On the latest episode of CCA on the Air, we sit down with Brett Barclay, Dean of Academic Advising at Greenville Technical College, to find out.

For nearly three years, GTC has been part of CCA's Accelerator — a key initiative within the Gates Foundation's Intermediaries for Scale Investment — and they've used that time to fundamentally rethink how advising works for their students.

In this special feature, Brett shares:
- How GTC approached advising transformation
- The lessons learned along the way
- What's working — and what's next

If you care about student success, advising redesign, or what real transformation looks like in practice, this episode is a must-listen.

Tune in now and hear how Greenville Technical is reshaping the student experience, one conversation at a time.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/65MiSkZNItNQgfyTBS6hk7?si=5Q_fmI-kQKe3veqElYgBhw

CCA On the Air · Episode

05/04/2026

The Voices for Justice Podcast is LIVE with a brand-new episode!

Recorded live at SXSW EDU, host Dr. Nia Woods Haydel leads a powerful conversation with Dr. Kayla Elliott, Christina Coffman, and Dr. Feliza Ortiz-Licon on disrupting inequitable systems in higher education.

Together, they explore how leaders, advocates, and policymakers can work collectively to expand opportunity, challenge unjust systems, and ensure all learners have access to success.

👉 Watch or listen to the full episode now:
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/3jmmu5yn
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEvXTC0AsWY

04/07/2026

We have our 2026 March to Graduation Madness champions!

- 𝗠𝗲𝗻'𝘀 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁 Champion: Prairie View A&M University
- 𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻'𝘀 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁 Champion: Southern University and A&M College- Baton Rouge

For the third year in a row, either one or both champions are HBCUs. That’s not a coincidence; it’s a reflection of what these institutions have always prioritized: access, affordability, and student success for communities that have been historically underserved by higher education.

In CCA’s 2026 March to Graduation Madness, schools competed on on-time graduation rates, Pell Grant access, and net price of attendance. Prairie View A&M and Southern University won for all the best reasons, round after round, on the metrics that matter most for students.

Congratulations to both universities! And congratulations to every student at every institution in this tournament who is on the path to completion. You’re the real reason .

04/06/2026

After weeks of competition measured not by points on the board, but by graduation rates, Pell Grant access, and net price of attendance, we have our 2026 March to Graduation Madness championship matchups:

𝗠𝗲𝗻'𝘀 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁 Championship:
Prairie View A&M University vs. Tennessee State University

Two HBCUs in our final student success match-up. Let that land.

𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻'𝘀 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁 Championship:
vs.

An HBCU in Baton Rouge and one of the nation’s most-recognized public universities. Both earned their spot by delivering for students.

This is what happens when you measure success by how well institutions serve their students. The data led us here.

Who will be crowned the ultimate champions for college completion? Stay tuned for the final results tomorrow. 🔥