Today, the Aspen Institute named South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC) as a finalist for the 2025 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. The $1 million award is the nation's signature recognition of strong performance among community colleges. The institutions selected for this honor stand out among more than 1,000 community colleges nationwide as having high and improving levels of student success, as well as equitable outcomes for Black and Hispanic students and those from lower-income backgrounds.
“We are truly honored to be recognized by the Aspen Institute because it means three important things: 1) SPSCC is in the top 1% of community colleges in the country; 2) The ways we support our students’ success has become a model for other colleges; and 3) Students who choose to attend SPSCC are getting one of the best college experiences in the entire United States,” said Dr. Timothy Stokes, President of SPSCC.
Awarded every two years, the Aspen Prize honors colleges with outstanding performance in six critical areas: teaching and learning, certificate and degree completion, transfer and bachelor’s attainment, workforce success, broad access to the college and its offerings, and equitable outcomes for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds.
“We’re so proud to say that our students are learning and succeeding at a level that other colleges can only dream of,” added Dr. Stokes. “As we celebrate earning this distinction for the second consecutive time, we will keep working, because equitable access and success at SPSCC means that 100% of students are succeeding 100% of the time.”
The winner will be announced in the spring of 2025. To learn more about the next steps of the selection process, visit https://highered.aspeninstitute.org/aspen-prize/.
