Copiah-Lincoln Community College has been selected by the Aspen Institute as one of the top 150 community colleges in the country.

Co-Lin is now eligible to compete for a $1 million prize for Community College Excellence.

The community colleges named as eligible to compete for the 2019 prize were selected from a pool of nearly 1,000 public two-year colleges nationwide. Co-Lin is one of nine Mississippi community colleges out of the 150 selected.

Awarded every two years, the Aspen Prize recognizes institutions with outstanding achievements in four areas: learning, certificate and degree completion; employment and earnings; and high level of access and success for minority and low-income students.

“We are very proud to be named in the top 150 community colleges in the nation. It demonstrators that many of our initiatives to help students succeed are working and resulting in national recognition,” said Co-Lin President Ronnie Nettles. “Our faculty and staff are focused on student success and the result is higher students completion rates.”

The top 10 finalists for the 2019 Aspen Prize will be named in May. The Aspen Institute will then conduct site visits to each of the finalists and collect additional data.

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC.

In other business at a recent board meeting:

• The Board of Trustees accepted a bid from Independent Roofing Co. for $424,500 for a new roof on the administration building at the Natchez campus.

• Eight of the 37 students enrolled in the Complete 2 Compete program are projected to graduate in December. Complete 2 Compete is a statewide program sponsored by the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning and the Mississippi Community College Board. Its mission is to help Mississippi adults who attended college but did not complete a degree finish their degree and create a brighter future.