Bunker Hill Community College Professors Selected for Prestigious Award
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
In a highly-competitive selection process, two Bunker Hill Community College faculty have been chosen to participate in the Global Skills for College Completion (GSCC) project. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the GSCC is a first-of its kind initiative designed to create new pedagogical standards for increasing pass rates in basic skills courses at community colleges.
Only 26 faculty across the country were selected to participate in the GSCC project. Both of BHCC’s nominees – Professor Michael Dubson, an English faculty member and Professor Christopher Watson, of the Mathematics Department – were chosen because they had the highest pass rates for their developmental courses in English and Math.
“We are honored that not one but two of our faculty members have been chosen to participate in this prestigious project,” said BHCC President Mary L. Fifield. “Student success is what counts and Professors Dubson and Watson have both shown that they are star performers.”
The Gates Foundation is partnering with the League for Innovation in the Community College, Knowledge in the Public Interest and New York City’s LaGuardia Community College for the GSCC project. The basic premise of the GSCC is that raising the national pass rate of basic skills courses to an ambitious 80% requires a pedagogical breakthrough, which can be achieved by bringing together the “best minds” in higher education.
Selected faculty will participate in a four-semester online community of practice that will focus on co-creative innovative basic skills pedagogies that dramatically improve student success. They will share and promote their findings within home colleges and ultimately across the country.
Professor Watson has been teaching mathematics for six years at the College “At BHCC I get to work with some of the best math educators in the country,” he said. English Professor Dubson has been at the College since 1991. “At BHCC, we care about our students, and want them to succeed,” Dubson said.
Both Watson and Dubson began their own higher education in community colleges.
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About Bunker Hill Community College
With more than 50 years of academic excellence, Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is Massachusetts' largest community college, annually welcoming a diverse community of around 16,000 students. With campuses in Charlestown and Chelsea, BHCC extends its reach across several locations in Greater Boston. The College offers associate degrees and certificates, early college and dual enrollment, community education, corporate training, and industry-specific training programs. BHCC is celebrated for its diversity, boasting a student body where 65% identify as people of color and more than half are women. The College also embraces a global perspective, with over 600 international students representing 90 countries and conversing in more than 65 languages. Our commitment to diversity is further reflected in BHCC's designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI).