The American Association of Community Colleges is working with three community colleges in a one-year demonstration program, Make It Personal: College Completion, to help improve student retention and success by addressing pregnancy planning, prevention, and healthy relationships. Unplanned pregnancy among young adults is at the root of a number of important public health and social challenges, including college dropout rates.
Chattahoochee Technical College (Marietta, GA), Hennepin Technical College (Eden Prairie, MN), and Mesa Community College (Mesa, AZ) are creating curriculum-based strategies, using service learning as a focus, to improve student retention and provide resources that students need to complete their college goals. Over the course of the grants, replicable curricular content and materials will be developed and made available for other community colleges.
- Chattahoochee Technical College will create syllabi and related materials for three courses in which many students enroll: College success and orientation, English literature and composition, and introduction to sociology. Using course materials developed through the grant, service learning students will build broader student awareness and knowledge of pregnancy planning and family stability and how these relate to their postsecondary education goals. CTC will partner with faculty at Kennesaw State University and with local community organizations to develop content that is based on the current literature in the field and is relevant to the lives of community college students.
- Hennepin Technical College will create curricular materials in the area of unplanned pregnancy prevention for a developmental psychology course. The curriculum will provide a three-generational, lifespan perspective on the impact of unplanned pregnancy. Course assignments and activities will include reflection papers on personal values related to the topic and the creation of multimedia materials that can be distributed to other students and institutions. HTC will also integrate service learning into the project by organizing a college-wide event in which the psychology students will educate peers regarding why and how to prevent unplanned pregnancy.
- Mesa Community College will launch Project HOPE (Healthy Outcomes through Prevention and Education) to help students understand how unplanned pregnancy can affect their educational goals and what they can do to prevent it. MCC will form a team from various departments to use service learning in areas such as English, communications, sociology, and psychology to help students reflect on unplanned pregnancy and raise awareness among their peers and the community. For example, students and faculty in business and information systems will develop a "cyber baby"—interactive software that will allow students to gain virtual experience about the responsibilities of parenting. Other colleges will be able to use the materials and approach.
The 2010 MIPCC project is funded by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and managed by AACC. To get the student perspective, watch a video featuring community college students talking about how unplanned pregnancy can affect their academic, career, and life goals.
More information on the MIPCC colleges will be posted here in the coming months.
Questions? Contact Gail Robinson, AACC program director for service learning, at grobinson@aacc.nche.edu or 202/728-0200 ext. 254.