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Five CUNY community colleges have been named among the top 150 community colleges in the nation by the Aspen Institute, making them eligible to compete for the 2025 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. The biennial prize, which comes with a $1 million award, is considered the highest recognition for community college achievement in the nation.
Borough of Manhattan Community College, Hostos Community College, Kingsborough Community College, LaGuardia Community College and Queensborough Community College were invited to apply for the prestigious award based on data showing strong and improving student outcomes in key areas including retention, completion, transfer and equity.
“Our community colleges continue to lead the way in providing transformational educational opportunities and, with them, equitable pathways to a prosperous future,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “We congratulate the five CUNY schools that earned this prestigious recognition from the Aspen Institute, with appreciation for this latest reminder of our colleges’ high quality.”
The Aspen Prize honors colleges that demonstrate outstanding achievement in five critical areas: teaching and learning, certificate and degree completion, transfer and bachelor’s attainment, workforce success and equity for students of color and those from low-income backgrounds.
CUNY and its colleges have posted strong showings in recent competition for the Aspen Prize. Hostos and Kingsborough were among 10 finalists for the prize awarded earlier this year, a cycle in which the University established an Aspen Prize record for the largest percentage of colleges from a single system to be eligible. In 2020, BMCC was named a finalist for the 2021 prize. Kingsborough also was previously recognized as a 2013 finalist with distinction, and Hostos previously reached the final round in 2014.
The list of the top 25 semifinalists for the 2025 Aspen Prize will be released in April 2024; it will then be narrowed in June 2024 to 10 finalists. Representatives from the Aspen Institute will visit each of the candidate schools and collect additional quantitative data, including employment and earnings data. A jury will make award decisions in spring 2025.
The City University of New York is the nation’s largest urban public university, a transformative engine of social mobility that is a critical component of the lifeblood of New York City. Founded in 1847 as the nation’s first free public institution of higher education, CUNY today has seven community colleges, 11 senior colleges and seven graduate or professional institutions spread across New York City’s five boroughs, serving more than 225,000 undergraduate and graduate students and awarding 50,000 degrees each year. CUNY’s mix of quality and affordability propels almost six times as many low-income students into the middle class and beyond as all the Ivy League colleges combined. More than 80 percent of the University’s graduates stay in New York, contributing to all aspects of the city’s economic, civic and cultural life and diversifying the city’s workforce in every sector. CUNY’s graduates and faculty have received many prestigious honors, including 13 Nobel Prizes and 26 MacArthur “Genius” Grants. The University’s historic mission continues to this day: provide a first-rate public education to all students, regardless of means or background. To learn more about CUNY, visit https://www.cuny.edu.
