On November 30, Hostos Community College’s Division of Continuing Education and Workforce Development (CEWD) received its third consecutive $150,000 grant award from the Capital One Foundation for its multi-year grant initiative – the Community College Workforce Development (CCWD) Cohort. Capital One’s CCWD Cohort is a consortium of community colleges from Virginia, Maryland, Louisiana, Texas, and New York that are working together to improve student outcomes through career pathways, labor market research, and community partnerships.  

Hostos will use the grant to more effectively align CEWD’s non-credit occupational training programs with credit-bearing academic degree programs. The long-term goals of this project are to better prepare students to enter the college and to improve students’ credit accumulation and employment rates.

The grant will be used to develop new credit articulation agreements which give credit to students that enroll in Hostos after successfully completing a CEWD occupational training program in high-demand fields such as Allied Health and Information Technology. CEWD will work with the Office of Academic Affairs and faculty in the Allied Health and Mathematics Departments to develop new credit articulation agreements.

“We are excited to obtain our third grant award from the Capital One Foundation,” said Evelyn Fernández-Ketcham, Executive Director for Workforce Development. “Our goal is to help students identify and meet their career and academic goals. This grant allows us to partner with faculty to help students earn credit and create a clear pathway from in-demand occupational trainings to degree programs that will result in employment.” 
Hostos will also strengthen its existing non-credit to credit pathways and help current Hostos degree students obtain valuable occupational training. As part of the grant, CEWD will implement a data-tracking system to better identify students’ long-term trajectories.

About Capital One Foundation
Capital One Foundation’s philanthropy program provides grants to national and local organizations that support education, financial literacy, and community development initiatives. In addition, they build partnerships with nonprofit organizations with missions that complement these focus areas. By combining philanthropic dollars with strong, enduring partnerships, they are able to maximize the number of residents reached and the overall impact within a community.

About Hostos Community College
Eugenio María de Hostos Community College is an educational agent for change that has been transforming and improving the quality of life in the South Bronx and neighboring communities for a half-century. Since 1968, Hostos has been a gateway to intellectual growth and socioeconomic mobility, as well as a point of departure for lifelong learning, success in professional careers, and transfer to advanced higher education programs.

Hostos offers 27 associate degree programs and two certificate programs that facilitate easy transfer to The City University of New York’s (CUNY) four-year colleges or baccalaureate studies at other institutions. The College has an award-winning Division of Continuing Education & Workforce Development that offers professional development courses and certificate-bearing workforce training programs. Hostos is part of CUNY, the nation’s leading urban public university, which serves more than 500,000 students at 24 colleges.