Three Ohio Colleges Win a Five-Year, $4 Million Federal Grant to Bring Back Students Who Left Without a Degree: Cincinnati State Leads, With Southern State Comm
HILLSBORO, Ohio — Southern State Community College announced on November 6 that it is part of a three-school partnership, led by Cincinnati State Technical and Community College and also including Wilmington College, that has been awarded a five-year, $4 million federal grant to help former college students who never finished a degree return and complete one. The grant is funded through the 2026 Strengthening Institutions Program and administered by the U.S. Department of Labor on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, according to the colleges.
The colleges cite the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center's 2025 Some College, No Credential report: more than 37 million working-age Americans have attended college but never earned a credential, and while more than 1 million of those former students returned to college in the 2023–24 academic year, that represented less than 3% of the total population. The project builds on CState Complete, a Cincinnati State initiative developed through an earlier Strengthening Institutions Program grant that combines personal outreach, peer connections and coordinated assistance; from fall 2024 through fall 2025, the programme helped 988 students return to Cincinnati State, and 98 of those students graduated with 104 credentials, according to the college. Wilmington College plans to explore faculty connections as a way to reconnect with former students, while Southern State, a rural public community college, will adapt outreach and support to the needs of rural learners.
Cincinnati State President Robbin Hoopes said students who leave college before finishing have already invested time, money and hope in their education, and that working together to help them finish opens doors for those students and strengthens the workforce the region depends on. Southern State President Nicole Roades said many left college because life presented obstacles, not because they lacked the ability or desire to succeed. Over the five-year grant period, the three colleges will work as a collaborative learning community, testing and refining outreach approaches and measuring their effects on re-enrollment, retention and credential completion, with plans to share findings with other colleges.
来源链接：南州社区学院公布（经 Scioto Valley Guardian 刊载，sciotovalleyguardian.com）： https://sciotovalleyguardian.com/2026/11/06/southern-state-cincinnati-state-and-wilmington-college-win-4-million-grant-for-returning-students/
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Source: Southern State Community College and partners
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 俄亥俄州一所社区学院校园（资料图）。（Wikimedia Commons／CC BY-SA 4.0）|A community college campus in Ohio (file photo). (Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)
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