Career Scholars Scholarship Program

Overview

Career Scholars is a first-dollar scholarship program that awards a $5,000 scholarship over three years. The program is dedicated to advancing equity, access, and opportunities for a diverse population of students, particularly those from historically underinvested communities. Career Scholars provides comprehensive support throughout our students‘ academic journeys, enabling them to move into high-paying, in-demand careers. This is achieved by offering academic and social support and cultivating strong relationships and partnerships for students both inside and outside the college that result in careers.

The program has three primary goals.:

• Significantly reduce student debt by providing first-dollar scholarship funds that cover over 96% of tuition and fees for students pursuing an associate‘s degree or workforce credential.
• Support students pursue a credential or transfer within three years, while gaining hands-on experience in their area of study to prepare them for employment in high-demand fields identified by the Texas Workforce Commission and Austin Chamber of Commerce.
• Foster strong relationships and connections among students, the college, and industry partners in their chosen area of study from the beginning of their academic journey until graduation and beyond.

Accomplishments

• Established a partnership with T-Mobile and Premier Wireless in which 300 students will have the opportunity to receive a free iPhone preloaded with apps that will give them direct access to resources and a direct connection with their case managers, as well as free phone service and a hotspot for internet access.
• Provided summer programming for current and new students in the Career Scholars Program
  • Programming to include career readiness, Student Money Management Office, student success
• On track with internal and outside partner goals for student employment
• Advanced earn and learn opportunities including:
  • Increased career readiness by providing workshops, resume reviews, and interview preparation
  • Partnered with Career Services to provide hourly positions through ACC Grow
• Improved outreach and recruitment by partnering with Workforce Solutions, ACC Financial Aid targeted outreach
• Initial investment for student support from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation
• Partnerships and student opportunities include National Instruments, Continental Auto Group, Toyota Ten, Fonda San Miguel, Amazon Career Choice, Housing Authority of Central Texas, Foundation Communities, Goodwill of Central Texas, Cap Metro, Samsung, and HEB
• Helped initiate a new THECB grant: Paving Pathways for Equitable Futures (PPEF). PPEF promotes equity and helps remove barriers by connecting low-income adult students to academic, career, and financial resources, and providing case management to help ensure their retention, completion, and success at ACC. PPEF students are prepared for high-demand careers in Central Texas through personalized career development and connection to internship and employment opportunities.
• Currently, three of our six interns at National Instruments are permanently employed with the company. Five students are interning with Dell through the Excel with Dell Program. This opportunity allows our Career Scholars to get their foot in the door with Dell in the hopes of making strong connections with a prominent industry partner that can lead to gainful employment with the organization.

Impact

Since inception, the program has supported 796 students and has a proven effective model for supporting persistence and completion. The total cohort demographic is 60% female and 14% White, 10% Black, 7% Asian, 64% Hispanic/Latinx, and 4% other. After applications for financial aid, 73% of the scholars had an expected family contribution (EFC) that made them Pell-eligible, with 47% of the students having the lowest EFC of zero. The persistence and graduation data is consistently higher than the overall student population.

Additionally, Career Scholars attract industry partners wanting to diversify their workforce:

• Since 2021 National Instruments offers an internship-to-employment program that provides an immersive development including personalized mentoring, full-time paid summer internship, part-time employment in the company’s Product R&D organization, and technical skills boot camp. Six Latino students have participated. One was hired full-time and two are on track for hire in summer 2023.
• Career Scholars nominated 25 students to participate in the Excel with Dell professional development career-centric mentorship program. Fifteen students were selected to receive individually tailored professional guidance.
• The Housing Authority of Central Texas provides 21 IT students with real-world experience. These students work on site and are paid $20 an hour for up to 19 hours per week.
• Foundation Communities provide internships for Health Science students.
• The Toyota Ten initiative hires students full time at a dealership while pursuing their A.S. in Automotive.
• A student-led job agency has connected 30 Career Scholars students with student-friendly jobs. Our newest partner, Fonda San Miguel, is offering two Career Scholars restaurant chef training.

Next Steps

Our priority initiatives are to maintain high retention, and increase professional opportunities and paid on-the-job training.

• Onboard new coordinator to support 100 unique students in addition to 150 students to be awarded fall 2023.
• Onboard fourth cohort by providing both in-person and online orientation.
  • Provide open house opportunities with other ACC departments.
  • Coordinate events with Student Life and other Student Affairs.
• Onboard hourly position and three work study students to serve as student outreach ambassadors.
• Provide a more streamlined process to access Workforce Solutions resources for students.
• Work with chief of staff to increase the number of industry-sponsored scholarships, such as our current Samsung, Spawglass and HEB scholarships.
• Continue partnership with ACC student-led job agency, ACC Grow, and ACC partners to expand earn and learn initiatives.
• Partner with QEP initiative to provide microcredentialing to Career Scholars.

As we continue to onboard new cohorts into our scholarship, their access to our industry partnerships will continue to grow as we continue to spread the word about these opportunities. And, with our new partnership with T-Mobile and Premier Wireless, students will have instant access to success resources as well as a direct connection to their Career Scholars coordinators and case managers. All students in the fall 2023 cohort will have the opportunity to receive a free iPhone preloaded with apps that connect them to help with financial aid and other student resources and provide a direct connection to their case managers. It also offers a free hotspot for internet access and free phone service as long as they are in the program.