'Everyone Benefits'
'All of our students, no matter what background, skills, experience, or interests they bring, come to us with a desire to better themselves and build better lives for their families. A college education is part of their American dream.' – President Christina Royal
HOLYOKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE was founded on the belief that everyone deserves the opportunity to receive an affordable and quality college education.
Everyone.
From the college's earliest days following World War II, George Frost, the college's first president, put that principle into practice, signing up students who were, in the eyes of others, "not college material" – those with poor high school records, soldiers returning from military service, women entering the workforce for the first time after raising families, older adults seeking new careers after laboring for years in dead-end jobs.
We see the same types of students today and more - high school students, high school dropouts, single moms and working parents, immigrants whose first language is not English and their children. Many of these people are from disadvantaged families who have never sent anyone to college before.
All of our students, then and now, no matter what background, skills, experience, or interests they bring, come to us with a desire to better themselves and build better lives for their families. A college education is part of their American dream.
Read the entire commentary in the May 2, 2020, edition of CommonWeatlth Magazine ...
