The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Gateway Technical College a five-year, $2.25 million Title III grant to further strengthen the college’s efforts in areas such as advising, first year experience, work-based learning programs and other areas which support students and help them to succeed educationally and enter their career.

The Strengthening Institutions Program Title III grant is a highly competitive grant issued to only a limited number of colleges across the country, and it is one of the largest federal grants Gateway has ever been awarded.

“Many grants don’t focus on a college’s infrastructure, but this one does. It will serve as a great resource to help us increase our capacity to deliver more programs and support our students in an even more robust way,” said John Thibodeau, Gateway assistant provost/vice president of Institutional Effectiveness and Student Success.

“This is an outstanding grant, and the competitive nature of it speaks to Gateway’s reputation.”

While the grant, in general, aims to put more internal systems in place at the college to help students succeed, it will also target some key areas. Those include addressing low retention and graduation rates among students of color and underrepresented student groups, expanding work-based learning programs such as internships and job shadowing, providing more technology for students to succeed and increasing student peer advocacy and mentoring programs.

Students should begin to reap the benefits of the grant quickly and continue to do so over several years, Thibodeau said.