Waubonsee Community College is now accepting applications for the first class of students who will pursue the college’s innovative, grant-funded, one-year associate degree. The program, funded by a $500,000 grant from the Aurora-based Dunham Fund, provides coursework and extra support necessary for students to earn a fully transferable associate degree in just one year – all tuition-free.
The Dunham Fund Quick Path program will accept 20 students for the first cohort, which begins in August. Priority deadline for applications is June 1.
While it is unique to the state and innovative for a community college to offer a one-year associate degree, Sean Warren-Crouch, Dunham Fund Project Manager, said the program is modeled after one at Miami Dade College in Florida.
Waubonsee’s program provides students with full tuition, books, a computer, an allowance, lunch every day and coaching by Warren-Crouch. His daily coaching with the class will cover topics including time management, goal setting, professionalism in the workplace, career exploration and college transfer.
Courses will run in eight-week blocks and will be delivered in-person and online. The curriculum has a business focus but still results in a degree that is fully transferable.
Eligible students must possess a high level of commitment and motivation to complete the accelerated degree, demonstrate financial need, demonstrate college readiness through a minimum 3.0 high school grade point average and placement in college-level courses, indicate interest in using the degree to transfer to a four-year school or enter the workforce and live within the Dunham Fund service area (defined as the geography bounded on the north by Illinois State Route 38 and on the south by U.S. Route 34; on the east by Illinois State Route 59 and on the west by Illinois State Route 47).
For more information about the program, contact Warren-Crouch at (630) 466-5757 or email quickpath@waubonsee.edu or visit www.waubonsee.edu/quickpath.
