News and Information Blog
President Regina Peruggi Discusses Kingsborough Selection as a Top Ten Community College by Aspen Institute with News 12 Brooklyn
Sep 12th
- Dr. Regina Peruggi, president of Kingsborough Community College, is interviewed by Josh Chapin, anchor/reporter for News 12 Brooklyn.
Dr. Regina Peruggi, president of Kingsborough Community College (KCC), announced in an interview with News 12 Brooklyn that KCC, a City University of New York (CUNY) college and Brooklyn’s only community college, was named one of ten finalists for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, the nation’s signature recognition of high achievement and performance in America’s community colleges. KCC, selected from an original pool of more than 1,000 community colleges, is one of the top ten entering the last stage of the competition for the $1 million prize fund that will be awarded in March in Washington D.C. to the winner and up to four finalists-with-distinction.
The prize recognizes the most outstanding institutions for achievements in four areas: student learning outcomes, degree and college completion, labor market success in students securing jobs after college, and minority and low-income student success.
KINGSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE NAMED ONE OF THE NATIONS’S TOP TEN COMMUNITY COLLEGES BY ASPEN INSTITUTE
Sep 11th
- Dr. Regina Peruggi, president, Kingsborough Community College, a City University of New York (CUNY) college.
Brooklyn, NY, September 10 –Dr. Regina Peruggi, president of Kingsborough Community College (KCC), today announced that KCC, Brooklyn’s only community college, was named one of ten finalists for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, the nation’s signature recognition of high achievement and performance in America’s community colleges. KCC, selected from an original pool of more than 1,000 community colleges, is one of the top ten entering the last stage of the competition for the $1 million prize fund that will be awarded in March in Washington D.C. to the winner and up to four finalists-with-distinction.
The prize recognizes the most outstanding institutions for achievements in four areas: student learning outcomes, degree and college completion, labor market success in students securing jobs after college, and minority and low-income student success.
“The selection of KCC as one of the top ten community college finalists for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence is a great honor for the entire Kingsborough community of students, faculty and staff,” said Dr. Peruggi. “We believe that all students can succeed if given the opportunity, excellent teaching and appropriate support and we’ve worked hard to make that a reality for our large and diverse student body. Our students come from over 142 different countries and speak 73 different languages. They are the future of our city. When they succeed, we all succeed.”
“Kingsborough stands out for it strong commitment to continuous improvement,” said Josh Wyner, executive director of the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program. “Its thoughtful and cohesive approach to helping an extremely diverse group of students succeed provides lessons for all urban community colleges.”
NEW YORK’S KINGSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE (CUNY) NAMED ONE OF TEN FINALISTS FOR 2013 ASPEN PRIZE FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE EXCELLENCE
Sep 11th
- Josh Wyner, executive director, Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program
Washington, DC, September 5, 2012 –New York’s Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn was named today one of ten finalists for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, the nation’s signature recognition of high achievement and performance in America’s community colleges. Part of the City University of New York system or CUNY, Kingsborough now enters the last stage of the competition for the $1 million prize fund that will be awarded in March in Washington, D.C. to the winner and up to four finalists-with-distinction.
Selected from an original pool of more than 1,000 community colleges, the Prize recognizes the most outstanding institutions for achievements in four areas: student learning outcomes, degree and college completion, labor market success in students securing jobs after college, and minority and low-income student success.
“Kingsborough stands out for its strong commitment to continuous improvement,” said Josh Wyner, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program. “Its thoughtful and cohesive approach to helping an extremely diverse group of students succeed provides lessons for all urban community colleges.”
Kingsborough serves a large multi-cultural and multi-ethnic student body and has put in place a variety of academic and support services to help students succeed. Built around its well-recognized “learning communities” approach, the college has devised a series of services and programs for students in their first year which have resulted in higher levels of success without substantial increases in cost. The administration and faculty’s continuous assessment of student performance and completion combined with efforts to develop responsive strategies for improvement have led to increased retention, graduation and transfer rates.
Daily News: Kingsborough ranked in the top ten best community colleges in the country
Sep 10th
- Kingsborough Community College students Hebah Elsaid,18, (L.) and Erica Bishop,18. Debbie Egan-Chin/Daily News
Oriental Blvd. school only New York two-year college on the prestigous list
By Mark Morales / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Monday, September 10, 2012, 4:00 AM
Updated: Monday, September 10, 2012, 4:00 AM
Brooklyn’s only community college has been tagged as a national standout.
Kingsborough Community College on Oriental Blvd. made this year’s list of the 10 best community colleges in the country, according to the Aspen Institute.
The two-year college was the only school chosen in New York State and beat out more than 1,000 other programs to make the list.
“I’m so excited,” said Kingsborough president Regina Peruggi. “Its recognition for the kind of hard work that’s been done at this institution for years.”
The Aspen Institute looked at every college’s graduation rate – especially among minority and low-income students – and the number of students who found jobs after graduating. Kingsborough’s student body is 60% minority with over half of the 18,000 students coming from families that earn less than $25,000 a year, Peruggi said.
Officials for the Aspen Institute are slated to visit each of the schools in October to figure out which community college deserves the top spot. The No. 1 ranked school will walk away with a $1 million prize.
Peruggi said it’s not about the money, but if they do win, the money will go to more teacher development and scholarships for the students.
“It’s not so much about the prize as it is about the achievement, the recognition and what that says about your work,” Peruggi said.
Students at the school said they were glad to hear the news.
“I’m relieved,” said incoming freshman Hebah Elsaid, 18 from Sheepshead Bay. “I was hoping to go away but it’s not going to work out. This way I can save up money and go to a four year college later.”
Elsaid’s best friend Erica Bishop, 18, from East Flatbush, also said she was happy to hear the news since a private college was also out of the question.
NY1: Newest CUNY Community College Hopes Structure Can Get More Students To Graduate
Aug 21st
By: Lindsey Christ
- The City University of New York opened on Monday the doors to the city’s first new community college in more than four decades, and officials hope by building this new Midtown school from the ground, they can get more students to graduate. NY1’s Education reporter Lindsey Christ filed the following report.
For the New Community College in Manhattan, Monday’s freshman class picture on the first day of college was one for the history books as much as the yearbook. It marked the grand opening of the city’s newest community college, and students knew the stakes are high.
“It’s a new school. They are investing a lot of money into the school, so we have to bring it. Bring it every single day, no days off,” said Michael Crop, a New Community College student.
The New Community College in Manhattan has been in the works for years. Enrollment is surging at CUNY’s six other community colleges but graduation rates are still very low. So with this new college, educators are trying a big experiment.
“I think this school has the potential to be a game-changing model for community colleges across the country,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday.
It will be a much more structured college experience. Students are required to do things that are usually optional, like attend summer orientation and preparation classes, meet with advisors frequently and work with study groups. For the first year, all students study the same core liberal arts curriculum.
“It’s so much better if a campus puts together programs that make it clear that there are expectations that this is what you do. You do go to class, you do get your work done, because that’s what you need to be successful,” said New Community College President Scott Evenbeck.
KINGSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE TO HOST ART EXHIBITION OPENING AND PANEL DISCUSSION ON BROOKLYN WATERFRONT
Aug 14th
A distinguished interdisciplinary panel will explore waterfronts’ future in the era of climate change
Brooklyn, N.Y., August 15 – Kingsborough Community College (KCC) today announced that it will host a roundtable discussion, “Brooklyn Under Water: Confronting a Landscape of Risk,” on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, from 5 to 7 pm, in the college’s Art Gallery. The event, organized by the Brooklyn Waterfront Research Center at New York City College of Technology and KCC, will be an interdisciplinary conversation about the future of Brooklyn’s waterfronts in the age of climate change.
The event speakers, representing a wide range of expertise, including architecture, history, city planning, biology, and geophysics, will explore what should be considered as we confront rising sea levels. Panelists include faculty from KCC and New York City College of Technology as well as special guests Klaus Jacob, geophysicist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Michael Marella, Director of Waterfront and Open Space Planning at the New York City Department of City Planning. The Audience will be invited to participate in the discussion and debate.
Community College Times: Learning communities show promise in improving student success
Jul 30th
- Zuleika Rodriguez, director of academic advisementat Kingsborough Community College (New York), talk s with students participating in a learning community at the college. Photo: Kingsborough Community College
By Times Staff, Published July 26, 2012
One-semester learning communities can have long-term benefits for community college students and can even boost graduation rates, according to recently released studies from MDRC and the National Center for Postsecondary Research.
After six years, a one-semester learning community program at Kingsborough Community College (KCC) in New York boosted graduation rates by 4.6 percent, the study reported. That initiative was also found to be cost effective: The cost per degree earned was lower for students in that program than it was for KCC students not in the program.
Modest impact
Despite those figures, the results of a companion study evaluating a learning community demonstration project that targeted developmental education students found only a modest impact on credits earned in English or mathematics.
“Implementing learning communities at scale is challenging but possible,” MDRC said. “Learning communities with high levels of curricular integration are particularly hard to establish and maintain.”
Learning communities are aimed at boosting persistence by grouping small cohorts of students together in two or more thematically linked courses, usually for a single semester, while they are also given additional academic support. By giving students a chance to form stronger relationships with one another and their instructors, the premise is that they will engage more deeply in learning and thus will be more likely to pass their courses, and ultimately, graduate.
KCC’s Opening Doors program placed freshmen, most of whom needed developmental English, into groups of up to 25 students. The groups took three classes together during their first semester: English, an academic courses required for the student’s major and a freshman orientation course.
The evaluation, Commencement Day: Six-Year Effects of a Freshman Learning Community at Kingsborough Community College, reported that 35.9 percent of students in Opening Doors had earned a degree after six years, compared to 31.3 percent of students in a control group.
Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony Held for Opening of a New Toddler and School-Age Program at KCC’s Child Development Center
Jul 24th
- Above ribbon-cutting (L-R) Candice Henry, student parent; Dr. Angela Alvarado Coleman, senior director of Student Support; Dr. Elizabeth Basile, associate dean, Office of College Advancement; Dean Peter Cohen, Student Affairs; Dr. Regina Peruggi, president, KCC and Heather Brown, director, KCC Child Development Center.
The Kingsborough Community College (KCC) Child Development Center hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Thursday, July 12, for the grand opening of its new toddler and school age program.
“We are extraordinarily pleased to launch our new toddler and school-age program, expanding our child development service which will accommodate more of our students who are trying to balance education and childcare,” said Dr. Regina Peruggi, president, KCC. “Please join us for the Center’s 40th anniversary celebration in November.”
The Child Development Center opened in 1971 as a service for student parents who were eligible for admission to college but had no resources for child care. The center provides on-campus childcare for children between the ages of 18 months and 9 years-of-age, offering flexible hours and schedules to meet the needs of student parents.
The center currently has an enrollment of 60 students and offers high quality early care and education opportunities for children of KCC students.
Kingsborough Community College Honors Former Governor Mario Cuomo and Former First Lady Matilda Raffa Cuomo
Jul 24th
- Dr. Regina Peruggi and Former Governor Mario Cuomo
Presentation of the 2012 President’s Medal to Mario and Matilda Cuomo by Dr. Regina Peruggi, president, Kingsborough Community College.
Good morning and welcome. I’m now pleased to invite the Honorable Mario Cuomo, former governor of the State of New York, to join me at the lectern.
Mario Cuomo, a recitation of your many accomplishments as lawyer, advocate, author, orator, and public servant could easily fill the better part of this morning’s program. Even if we limited ourselves to an examination of your achievements as a three-term governor of New York State (including leading the state through two national recessions, balancing twelve consecutive budgets, creating more than a half million jobs, launching the largest economic development initiative in New York’s history, and introducing innovative socially progressive legislation), we would exhaust ourselves. Governor Cuomo, you have loved this State and dedicated your career to the success of all of its people. In fact, at a recent dinner where you were honored, even President Clinton remarked that he had never seen anyone as dedicated to New York as you.
However, we honor you today not so much for the specific accomplishments of your career but rather for your articulation of and dedication to a philosophy of America that is an inspiration to us all. That philosophy of America includes a commitment to public education of which you once said, “We are the richest, the freest, the most powerful nation in world history. Is there any reason why we should not also be the best educated and the most highly skilled people in this fiercely competitive world?” We celebrate that commitment to public education today in the hundreds of Kingsborough graduates who sit before you.
Matilda Raffa Cuomo, Former First Lady of New York, Delivers Commencement Address at Kingsborough Community College
Jul 24th
- Matilda Raffa Cuomo
Commencement Address
By Matilda Raffa Cuomo
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Thank you, Dr. Peruggi, for your gracious introduction and thank you honored guests and faculty.
Kingsborough Community College is fortunate to have the extraordinary dedication and leadership of its first woman president, Dr. Regina Peruggi.
It is especially significant for me to receive this (President’s Medal) from you, Dr. Peruggi, because you are a highly admired and greatly respected woman, whose successful career I have followed for years.
As you know, Kingsborough is Brooklyn’s only community college and so I’m especially proud because I was born and raised in Brooklyn, so I will always treasure this award.
Now, first and foremost, congratulations Kingsborough Community College Class of Two Thousand Twelve!
Yes, we are proud of you graduates and we extend our congratulations and gratitude to the parents and families here today
Kingsborough was founded in 1963, built from the labors and taxes of a whole community – a public college established for the public interest serving a diverse population.
And we know that, for two consecutive years, the Aspen Institute has recognized Kingsborough as among the top ten
percent of the nation’s almost twelve hundred community colleges.