A statewide effort to get more people over the age of 25 enrolled at community colleges. A brand-new scholarship aimed at reversing a growing trend of high school seniors not pursuing traditional college paths. A program designed to help incoming college students get up to speed on key skills they might have forgotten or missed. These are a few of the initiatives that the State of Michigan is using to get students of all ages into college classrooms and armed with the skills they need to succeed. And for leaders at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC), these programs spell an exciting new dawn after years of declining enrollment, COVID aftershocks, and big questions about how to engage older or nontraditional learners.

Not all these efforts are brand-new. The biggest one, Michigan Reconnect, has been in place for nearly two years. Michigan Reconnect offers students free tuition at their in-district community college to pursue “an associate degree or Pell-eligible skill certificate.” Right now, the program is open to anyone 25 or older.

In its first two years, Michigan Reconnect has already had significant impact on NMC’s enrollment. Since welcoming its first Reconnect students in summer 2021, NMC has attracted about 400 pupils through the initiative – even more if you factor in the program’s predecessor, the Futures for Frontliners program.

All told, some 950 students have so far come to NMC by way of the Frontliners and Reconnect programs – not including current-semester numbers, which have yet to be finalized. That’s no small impact, considering the number is more than double the count of students that NMC lost between the pre-pandemic (the college had 2,789 students enrolled in the fall of 2019) and the post-pandemic (by fall 2021, enrollment was down to 2,331 students, a 458-pupil dip). Across those 950 students, NMC has dispersed nearly $2 million in free tuition to date, per NMC Director of Financial Aid Linda Berlin.

There is also big potential for Michigan Reconnect to grow further. As The Ticker reported earlier this month, Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed state budget for fiscal year 2024 includes $140 million to expand access to the Reconnect program by temporarily dropping the age of eligibility from 25 to 21.

Also on the temporary agenda is the Michigan Achievement Scholarship, a program that offers thousands of dollars per year to any 2023 high school graduate who decides to pursue to college in state. The size of each scholarship will vary depending on the type of program the student decides to attend (more details here) in addition to factors like family income and financial need.

Unlike an expansion of Michigan Reconnect, the Michigan Achievement Scholarship is already a done deal – at least for this year. As of January 1, students graduating with the class of 2023 – and even pupils on track to earn their GED this year – are eligible to sign up for the scholarship. There’s also already evidence that the scholarship will boost enrollment of local students to NMC: Berlin says 150 local 2023 grads have already indicated plans to use the scholarship at NMC, and that her department is anticipating at least 50 more.  

Also debuting in 2023 is “College Edge,” NMC’s name for a new state-funded “catch-up program” aimed in part at helping address COVID-era learning loss for students starting college in the fall. Per Todd Neibauer, NMC’s vice president for student services and technologies, NMC will get $83,000 upfront to plan a pair of five-week sessions for that program this summer. Each session will include math and English classes, as well as a “college success component” where students learn time management, smart study tactics, and more. Depending on enrollment, NMC could receive additional funding from the state to pay for the program, up to a potential $250,000. More information about the program can be found here.

“It’s not confined to just recent graduates,” Neibauer notes of the College Edge offering. “It’s really for anybody who’s going to school for the first time, or attending after a long hiatus. Because for adults who are deciding to come back to school, that can be as much of a hurdle [as COVID-related learning loss].”

Both Neibauer and Berlin see these new programs as huge moments of opportunity for the college and the community. Even if some or all of the current offerings end up being temporary, they say the state’s assistance is providing a much-needed shot in the arm for higher education.

“For financial aid, it's a very exciting time to see the state putting so much money into programs for our students of all ages – from right out of high school through older adults,” Berlin says. “And because of these programs, it’s just really a good time for people to look at coming to school or coming back to school. On a federal basis, the Pell Grant is going to be increasing as well over the next several years, to reach more students and to offer higher awards than it has in the past. So, that combined with additional state funding, it’s worth it for people to look into the cost of getting a degree.”

“In the last five years, we've seen the post-secondary attendance rate for our local graduates decline by 10 percent,” adds Neibauer. “We’re down to about 52 percent of local graduates pursuing college within six months of high school graduation. So, I think having these programs available – and getting the word out to students that these opportunities are there for them – I think that’s going to be really important to improving those numbers and also to helping those students get a leg up. It doesn't matter if they're looking to be a welder, or transfer and go to a university for a bachelor's degree: They have opportunities to do those things through these programs.”