Promising Practices from the Sauk Valley Community College Impact Program

EmmaLea M. Bittner

College of Education, Northern Illinois University

HESA 740: Pedagogical Innovations and Student Learning

Dr. Kari Schimmel

November 12, 2022

 The focus of this case study is to examine the Sauk Valley Community College Impact

Program, an earned tuition program that allows students to earn up to three years of tuition and

fees in exchange for volunteering in their community (Sauk Valley Community College, 2022b).

In order to better understand how implementing a promise program can impact higher education,

this paper will provide an overview of the implementation of the SVCC Impact program, its’

outcomes, and best practices. With 362 promise programs in the United States, sharing best

practices and outcomes can contribute to the continued development and implementation of these

programs, which can have an overall impact on higher education (College Promise, 2022). This

is important because according to College Promise (2022), “College Promise programs improve

affordability, equity, and inclusion for postsecondary education while reducing student debt in

order to build a sustainable pipeline of skilled workers for the future.”

Introduction of Sauk Valley Community College and the SVCC Impact Program

Sauk Valley Community College (SVCC) was established in 1965 and serves six rural

northwest counties in Illinois. “Sauk Valley Community College is dedicated to teaching and

scholarship while engaging the community in lifelong learning, public service, and economic

development” is the college’s mission statement (Sauk Valley Community College, 2022a).

SVCC awards both certificates and associates degrees. According to Sauk Valley Community

College (2022d), the student population is comprised of nearly 75% Caucasian students, about

60% female students, made up of approximately 35% full-time students, and about a quarter of

all students receive the Pell grant. The Sauk Valley Community College website (2022d) also

stated that approximately 60% of SVCC students plan to transfer to the university and 40% are

participating in a career technical education program, leading to nearly 300 jobs locally.
 Dr. Lori Cortez, Dean of Institutional Advancement, stated she was “tasked with a way to

address issues facing SVCC such as a decrease in enrollment, decreased funding from the State

of Illinois, providing a trained and qualified work force for the SVCC district, and a way to

retain and attract population” (personal communication, November 13, 2022). In 2018, Dr.

Cortez submitted an unpublished manuscript to the President, Dr. David Hellmich, substantiating

the implementation of a College Promise Program at SVCC. The manuscript also highlighted

that promise programs can “expand access and affordability of quality education, especially in

the challenging economic realities in the state of Illinois” (Cortez, 2018, p.7). Cortez (2018) also

highlighted the College Promise Playbook, as a resource to be used regarding the design and

funding model of the SVCC Impact Program and provided results from the feasibility study from

the Easton Cumings Group.

Next a task force of Foundation board of directors, representation from the Board of

Trustees, and community leaders was established to develop the program criteria. According to

Sauk Valley Community College (2022b), the five criteria for the program are: for students to

enroll by September 1 of their freshman year of high school, complete 100 hours of community

service, graduate on time, file the FAFSA, and apply for a scholarship. The SVCC Impact

Program is a last-dollar program and covers a student’s tuition and fees after all available aid

(Sauk Valley Community College, 2022b). L. Cortez (personal communication, November 13,

2022) mentioned that it was very important to have designated roles between the Sauk Valley

College Foundation and Sauk Valley Community College. The Sauk Valley College Foundation

is responsible for fundraising for the Impact Program and SVCC is responsible for the

coordination of the program.

 The mission statement of the SVCC Impact program is to “harness the collective power of

Sauk Valley partners and communities to create an effective, supportive, sustainable path for

students to pursue a college education and achieve career success through lifelong learning,

public service and economic advancement” (Sauk Valley Community College, 2022b). SVCC

was able to harness creativity and innovation with the creation of the SVCC Impact Program to

address both the community and institutional issues cited in Dr. Cortez’ manuscript. According

to the Parent Flyer, promise programs can “increase college enrollment, expand economic

vitality, and foster and sustain community partnerships across the region” (Sauk Valley

Community College, 2022c).

Dr. Cortez garnered community support from a series of Sauk Summits, including a Super

Sauk Summit where Dr. Martha Kanter with College Promise was the keynote speaker (Sauk

Valley Community College, 2020). As a result of the Sauk Summit series, SVCC entered into a

contract for the creation of a mobile application and web portal to assist students in tracking their

progress throughout the program, as well as allow community partners to post available

volunteer opportunities (Sauk Valley Community College, 2021).

Evaluating the Impact

After successfully garnering support from the community, SVCC also caught the

attention of First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, and U.S. Secretary of Education, Dr. Miguel Cardona for a

site visit on April 19, 2021 (Ainley, 2021). Shortly after that visit, an anonymous donor provided

a $1 million dollar gift, which was utilized to launch a pilot of the SVCC Impact Program at two

high schools (Sauk Valley College Foundation, 2021). The pilot program allowed the college to

“test and experiment with different processes and systems while obtaining valuable feedback

from all partners” (L. Cortez, personal communication, November 13, 2022). Additionally, 70%
of pilot students met the criteria for their freshman year (signing up by September 1st, completing

25 hours of volunteering, and progressing to their sophomore year) and progressed to the next

year (Bittner et al., 2022a).

The SVCC Impact Program was designed with specific outcomes in mind. The intention of

the SVCC Impact Program was to increase college enrollment, address funding concerns for the

College, and confront community needs such as population loss and an increase in the number of

people with a post-secondary credential. The SVCC Impact Program is in its infancy, there is no

data available related to these specific outcomes yet. One promising statistic is the fact that 60%

of all high school freshman in the SVCC district signed up for the Impact Program by September

1, 2022 (Bittner et al., 2022b)

Another success of the Impact Program was the creation of the Impact web portal. The web

portal allowed the college to manage and support the 765 impact students (Impact Program

Community Dashboard, 2022). L. Cortez (personal communication, November 13, 2022) credits

the creation of the Impact web portal to the skills of the internal IT department with the

assistance of the Impact Program Coordinators. By having the web portal being hosted in house,

it allowed SVCC to ensure students were able to move through the program the way the program

was designed, which helped reinforce the commitment of the Impact Program to the community.

Additionally, the Impact web portal has a community dashboard, which provides program

statistics. L. Cortez (personal communication, November 13, 2022) anticipates the mobile

application being ready for the Spring 2023 cohort.

Although in its infancy, the SVCC Impact Program has seen success is the number of

volunteer partners and hours completed. L. Cortez (personal communication, November 13,

2022) stated the Impact team started with a list of 400 community organizations to reach out to
about becoming a volunteer partner. According to the Impact Program Community Dashboard

(2022) there are 135 volunteer partners. For the month of November 2022, those volunteer

partners have provided 73 volunteer opportunities, requested 192 students, and provided over

20,000 hours (Impact Program Community Dashboard, 2022). Since June 1, 2022, SVCC Impact

students have completed nearly 7,000 volunteer hours (Impact Program Community Dashboard,

2022).

Best Practices

Given the continued rise of college tuition, implementing a promise program has the

possibility to remove financial barriers of access for students and make higher education more

attainable. The SVCC Impact Program can be seen as a blueprint regarding the implementation

of a promise program. The College Promise Playbook and the feasibility study conducted by the

Easton Cumings Group helped SVCC plan and implement a successful promise program, that

strived to address institutional issues and concerns from the local community (Cortez, 2018). The

value the institution placed on garnering community support in the beginning phases of planning

propelled the programs’ success when implementation began. The web portal is an innovative

use of technology, which allows SVCC to easily track students’ progress and serve as a

connection for students to volunteer opportunities. To share their success and best practices, Drs.

Cortez and Hellmich co-authored a policy brief for College Promise in March 2022 and

presented at the American Association of Community Colleges in April 2022 (L. Cortez,

personal communication, November 13, 2022).

 References

Ainley, E. (2021, April). Special coverage: Dr. Jill Biden visits the students and staff of SVCC.

The Skyhawk View. https://www.svcc.edu/skyhawk-

view/issues/2021/06/SPECIAL%20COVERAGE%20Dr.%20Jill%20Biden%20visits%20the

%20students%20and%20staff%20of%20SVCC.html

Bittner, E., Devereueawax, B., & Sorenson, A. (2022a, June 3). Impact program monthly

newsletter-June 2022. Impact Program Updates. https://us11.campaign-

archive.com/?u=390318d29b74ebb484d0b6d2d&id=8be2298179

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archive.com/?u=390318d29b74ebb484d0b6d2d&id=2a8731f6cb

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it%20for%20Earned%20Tuition%20Program.html
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Sauk Valley Community College. (2022a). Mission and strategic directions.

https://www.svcc.edu/about/strategic-directions.html

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earned tuition. Home. https://www.svcc.edu/impact/index.html

Sauk Valley Community College. (2022c). Sauk impact program building bright futures through

earned tuition. Media. https://www.svcc.edu/impact/images/Impact-ParentFlyer_V2022-

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Sauk Valley Community College. (2022d). SVCC:Did you know?.

https://www.svcc.edu/about/did-you-

know.html?utm_source=header&utm_medium=multiple&utm_campaign=mega%20menu

Sauk Valley College Foundation. (2021, July 7). Million dollar gift: SVCC receives $1 million

dollar gift for impact program [Press release].

https://saukfoundation.com/2021/07/07/million-dollar-gift/