Connect 2 Complete: Ongoing Peer Advocacy and Service-Learning at Edmonds Community College

Abstract

Connect 2 Complete (C2C) is a Campus Compact program with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. At Edmonds Community College C2C employs community-engaged peer advocacy to foster the success and completion of low-income students who need developmental education courses. Our strategy is two-pronged. First, we have supported four faculty fellows who teach developmental courses at Edmonds CC. Three fellows returned from last year and we have added a new fellow this year. Faculty fellows integrate peer advocacy and service-learning into their existing courses, integrating their efforts with the mentoring programs on campus. Second, we have enhanced, streamlined and integrated peer advocate training for mentoring programs across campus. Peer advocates, under the guidance of four full-time AmeriCorps members, lead C2C and service-learning students through hands-on service and learning activities in the community and on campus. These activities that we call “sponsored projects” reach additional low-income students who need developmental courses and provide an ongoing structure of support for C2C students when they complete their course or courses with our faculty fellows. We are exceeding our quantitative targets for reaching low-income students who need developmental education. Beginning this year and going forward we have been placing greater emphasis on the faculty fellows prong of our strategy. This strategy should have the biggest impact long-term and has been encouraged by the national office of Campus Compact. The attention to success and retention of low-income students who need developmental courses coincides with efforts to revamp our college success courses under the auspices of Achieving the Dream. C2C’s complementary and parallel efforts show considerable promise for implementing peer advocacy on a broad scale across campus as a strategy for improving the success of low-income students who need developmental education courses.