News

March 6, 2023

ACC STUDENT LEADERS FEATURE IN KATV COLLEGE WEEK

On Monday, March 6, KATV kicked off College and Career Week by featuring four Arkansas community college students from East Arkansas Community College, South Arkansas College, Southeast Arkansas College, and UA Pulaski Technical College. These inspiring students shared their personal stories, their community college experiences, and the resources that helped them along the way to be successful. 

Click Images to hear their stories.

Patrinia Bankston

South Arkansas College

February 27, 2023

COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS ATTEND STATEWIDE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

North Little Rock (February 27, 2023) – 100 students representing public two-year colleges attended the statewide Student Leadership Academy, hosted by the association of Arkansas Community Colleges. The event was held on the campus of UA Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock.

The featured speaker was Mayor Jaylen Smith (Earle, AR), the youngest African American mayor in the country. Mayor Smith is also a community college student at Arkansas State University Mid-South (West Memphis, AR). Students also learned about state government and legislative processes in preparation for a day at the State Capitol on Tuesday, where they will visit with Representative Grant Hodges (District 96) and attend committee meetings.

Arkansas Community Colleges (ACC) is a nonprofit membership association representing the state’s 22 public community and technical colleges. The 22 member institutions of ACC, located throughout the state, serve more than 66,000 Arkansans per year through educational programs, technical training, continuing education, and customized workforce training for today’s business and industry.

December 15, 2022

Arkansans Trained for High-Demand Jobs Through ACC Grant

Arkansas Community Colleges received $3,500,000 in 2021 from the Governor’s Emergency Education and Relief fund to support workforce training programs across the state. Over the 18-month funding period, ACC member colleges trained 1,239 Arkansans in high-demand occupations such as transportation, healthcare, information technology, industry, and construction. Workforce training highlights included:

Transportation and Logistics

• Four community colleges pooled resources to create the Arkansas Trucking Academy to help meet the state’s demand for truck drivers.

• Three additional CDL programs were created in unserved regions across the state.

• A forklift training program was expanded to meet the labor demands of employers.

Healthcare

• An accelerated Registered Nursing track was expanded to train more nurses in less time, and a new partnership with a local hospital system was created to provide work experience for students.

• New programs for Patient Care Technician and Diagnostic Sonography were created to train healthcare workers for rural hospitals in the state.

• The expansion of emergency technician and patient care technician programs to provide a workforce pipeline for frontline healthcare jobs.

Information Technology

• A Cisco Academy was expanded to train more IT technicians to create and maintain secure network environments.

Industry

• A partnership between community colleges provided Programmable Logic Controller training around the state through the sharing of resources and instructors.

• An expanded Non-Destructive Testing program increased the number of trained workers for the defense industry and other manufacturing companies.

• The expanded H-Volt Academy provided well-trained high voltage lineman workers for Arkansas’ energy sector.

• The expansion of training programs for welding, machining, mechatronics, process operators, and outdoor and marine equipment maintenance upskilled workers for available jobs in their regions.

Construction

• An expanded construction training program was taught in the evening to accommodate both unemployed and under-employed students. Program completers received tools and PPE required to work in the industry.

October 14, 2022

Arkansas Community Colleges Awardee Spotlights

Mitchell Stokes, Outstanding Alum, ASU Mid-South

Kevin Nard, Academic All-Star Student, ASU Three Rivers

Allison Bonner, Academic All-Star Student, UA Hope-Texarkana

October 11, 2022

ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGES ANNOUNCE SCHOLARSHIPS FOR 22 ACADEMIC ALL-STAR STUDENTS

HOT SPRINGS (October 11, 2022) – Winners of the Academic All-Star Scholarships were announced today in Hot Springs at the annual conference of Arkansas Community Colleges (ACC).

Governor Asa Hutchinson presented the keynote address at a brunch honoring the 22 student scholarship winners. The students were awarded a full-tuition transfer scholarship to any Arkansas public, four-year university to complete their bachelor’s degree. The combined total for the scholarships are estimated to be more than $500,000.

“These scholarships will enable our highest-achieving students to reach for their dreams at any of Arkansas’s public, four-year universities,” said Andrea Henderson, ACC Executive Director. “Many of these students are not only working hard to maintain excellent grades but are also adding jobs and parenthood to their list of responsibilities, which makes their accomplishments even more impressive. These students deserve our recognition, and these scholarships are a fantastic way to help them achieve their goals.”

 Each of the 22 public two-year colleges names one student as an “Academic All-Star.” These students maintain a cumulative grade point average of no less than 3.25 out of a possible 4.0 and are outstanding campus and community leaders.

 The 22 member institutions of ACC, located throughout the state, serve more than 60,000 Arkansans per year through educational programs, technical training, continuing education, and customized workforce training for today’s business and industry.

February 2021

Arkansas Colleges and Universities Working Together on Statewide Student Success Goals

Introductory college-level English and mathematics courses have traditionally been a barrier for far too many higher education students, disproportionately so for underrepresented students. Across public community colleges and universities in Arkansas, notable change is underway to dismantle this barrier and help students succeed in achieving their academic and career goals.

READ MORE

January 2021

Governor Announces Ready for Life Initiative to Enhance Workforce, Improve Link with Employers

Funded via CARES, Ready for Life includes a one-time investment of $3.5 million to expand the workforce training capacity of Arkansas’ community colleges. Funds will be used to establish new and expand existing programs that meet employers’ demand for high-skilled workers. Training programs are short-term (six months or fewer) and include construction, manufacturing, truck driving, health care, and more.

 “I’d like to thank Governor Hutchinson for his leadership in expanding the state’s workforce training capacity,” said Andrea Henderson, Executive Director of Arkansas Community Colleges. “Community colleges are the first responders in an economic crisis, and these training programs are vital to getting unemployed Arkansans back to work.”

To find a training program near you, text UPSKILL to 501-371-0404.

Other parts of the initiative include funding to help create a learning management system, the Longitudinal Data System, and a learner employee records system. Details are available at readyforlife.arkansas.gov.

June 2019

Arkansas Community Colleges Association Names Henderson as New Executive Director

The Arkansas Community Colleges (ACC) association announces Andrea Henderson of Wilsonville, Oregon as the new Executive Director of the association.

As Executive Director, Henderson is tasked with collaborating with government agencies, educational institutions, private foundations, and others on projects that improve the ability of the twenty-two member colleges to meet the needs of their students, as well as the needs of their local business and industry leaders. The Executive Director often liaisons between Arkansas legislators and community colleges, an important role for college funding and policy.

Henderson served for eighteen years as the Executive Director of the Oregon Community College Association (OCCA), which is a council of governments of the seventeen community colleges in Oregon.  In this role, she provided leadership, strategic planning, and advocacy on behalf of the colleges.  During her tenure, the Association became a unifying force that created space for colleges to collaborate for the benefit of their students, their communities, and the state.  Significant accomplishments include the passage of a free community college program, spearheading a reorganization of the state system of higher education, and securing over $300 million for capital projects.

Steve Cole, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Community Colleges association, remarked that Henderson’s experience intersects perfectly with ACC’s needs in today’s political and educational environment.

Cole, who is chancellor of the University of Arkansas Cossatot and served in the House from 2009-2010, said the presidents and chancellors of the state’s twenty-two two-year colleges confirmed Henderson for the association’s executive director job on April 29, 2019, based on Henderson’s wealth of community college knowledge coupled with her educational policy expertise.

Henderson is a frequent presenter at state and national conferences on a variety of issues including community college funding, governance, advocacy, the Oregon Promise, and safety and security.  More recently, Henderson has been working on a project exploring the disruptive impact advancements in Artificial Intelligence, automation, and blockchain technology will have on community colleges and the leadership role for community colleges navigating these changes. 

Henderson has a law degree from Willamette University College of Law, an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Oregon State University and holds a certificate in Disruptive Innovation from Harvard University Business School Online.  She also taught higher education law at Oregon State University in the Community College Leadership Program.

Henderson will begin her new role as association Executive Director on July 1, 2019. Together with the ACC Board and staff, Henderson will add to the collective voice of community college leadership to maximize resources and efforts that serve Arkansas students, communities, and industry.

Learn more about Arkansas Community Colleges and their work at www.arkansascc.org.

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