The AANAPISI Grant

The AANAPISI grant provides 1.5 million dollars of funding over a five year timeline. Highline has developed an eight point plan to utilize this funding to provide the best support to the most students possible.

Mission

To provide a caring space of community where learning is cultivated through AA&PI identity, peer-to-peer and community engagement, educational equity, social justice and compassion for others.

Goals

Decrease Drop-Out rates

Currently, 33% of full-time AA&PI students don’t return for a second year. With more resources available to the college through the AANAPISI grant, Highline will reduce that number to 25% in just five years.

Increase the number of AA&PI students transferring into college credit courses from non-credit ESL courses

Approximately half of ESL AA&PI students don’t return for a second quarter. With intensive advising services, community involvement, and culturally oriented, wrap-around student support structures, Highline will nearly double the amount of ESL students that transfer into college credit courses.

To assist ESL-AA&PI students bridge the gap between non-credit and credit courses, the new Jump Start scholarship will cover the first quarter tuition costs of college credit courses and help them secure funding for the following quarters.

Increase the overall number of AAPI students at Highline

With the increased support that the AANAPISI grant provides, Highline will increase its AA&PI population by 13%.

Components for Success

Community Engagement Strategies

Increased community engagement and awareness of educational options through the AANAPISI program in our service area provides greater awareness and interest in Highline. At least 200 prospective AA&PI students will attend AANAPISI hosted summits annually.  Many more beneficiaries will also be contacted through various  strategies, including community members and families.

Academic Advising & Support

Intensive advising, monitoring of students, and coordination of other student support programs provide AA&PI students with the ability to navigate through college more successfully and help them keep on track for graduation. At least 300 AA&PI students will work directly with the Retention Specialist each year; other advisers will be able to assist other AA&PI students more effectively after training.

First-Year Experiences

First-year experiences benefit students by integrating coursework with co-curricular activities to increase student engagement, satisfaction, and – as a consequence – learning (as measured by student academic outcomes).

Learning Communities

Learning communities improve students’ ability to stay in school, become more engaged in coursework through paired courses, and provide focused strategies to help students succeed in gateway courses. Over time, nine redesigned courses will provide AAPI students specific – and in many cases, culturally specific – courses designed to their needs. Many of these courses will be joined to create learning communities. At least 25 students will be involved in learning communities in year 1, with that number growing to at least 200 by year 5.

Co-Curricular Activities

Students have a greater sense of engagement and satisfaction through coordinated activities outside of classroom. This sense of engagement and satisfaction improves academic outcomes as well for students. Highline expects this aspect to impact at least 100 students per year by year 3.

Faculty Development

AAPI students benefit from greater sensitivity and cultural awareness among all faculty. Cultural responsiveness should lead to more effective learning communities and other FYE activities. By year 5, at least 95 percent of faculty will have gone through this training at least once.

ESL Scholarships

AAPI ESL students benefit from a financial boost, encouraging ESL students to continue in credit courses if they are interested and discouraging ESL students from dropping out due to financial limitations. By one year after year 5, approximately $3,000 will be available for ESL support as scholarships.

Increased Research Capacity

More advanced research capacity will allow the college to disaggregate data, enabling the college to provide services to students in a more focused way. Instead of AAPI services, for example, the college might be able to provide more tailored services for Vietnamese and Korean students (as two examples).