The Aspen Institute on Tuesday announced the 10 community colleges that are finalists for the $1 million Aspen Prize.
The winner, finalists with distinction and possibly “rising stars” — if the jury decides there is a college that merits it — will be announced in spring 2023 and share in the award money.
The finalists are:
- Amarillo College (Texas)
- Broward College (Florida)
- Hostos Community College (New York)
- Imperial Valley College (California)
- Kingsborough Community College (New York)
- Moorpark College (California)
- Northwest Iowa Community College
- San Jacinto College (Texas)
- South Puget Sound Community College (Washington)
- Southwest Wisconsin Technical College (Wisconsin)
Three of the colleges — Amarillo, Broward and San Jacinto — were top 10 finalists for the 2021 award; this is the fifth time Broward has made the finalist list and San Jacinto’s fourth time.
Two of this year’s finalists are from the City University of New York system, and two are from both California and Texas.
Awarded every two years since 2011, the Aspen Prize recognizes outstanding institutions selected from a pool of more than 1,000 public community colleges nationwide. The award honors colleges with outstanding performance in five critical areas: teaching and learning, certificate and degree completion, transfer and bachelor’s attainment, workforce success, and equitable outcomes for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds.
Among the previous prize winners, four were from Florida. The past winners are:
- 2021: San Antonio College (Texas)
- 2019: Indian River State College (Florida) and Miami Dade College (Florida)
- 2017: Lake Area Technical Institute (South Dakota)
- 2015: Santa Fe College (Florida)
- 2013: Santa Barbara City College (California) and Walla Walla Community College (Washington)
- 2011: Valencia College (Florida)
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