Education Design Lab, Achieving the Dream, and Business-Higher Education- As Hudson County Community College (HCCC) approaches the official celebration of its 50th Anniversary, HCCC is the focal point of three nationally published case studies detailing how the College’s data-driven approaches and collaborations play critical roles in achieving student and workforce development success. Recently released to national audiences, the case studies are The Project on Workforce at Harvard and Education Design Lab’s “Data and Technology in Action: Community Colleges Advancing Economic Mobility;” Achieving the Dream’s (ATD) “Hudson is Home: Supported by ATD Coaching, Hudson County Community College’s Hudson Scholars Program Brings Student Supports – and Success – to Scale;” and Business-Higher Education Forum’s (BHEF) “Hudson County Community College and Eastern Millwork Create a Transformative Apprenticeship Program.”HCCC was selected by The Project on Workforce at Harvard and the Education Design Lab as one of four community colleges, including South Texas College, Riverland Community College (MN), and Community College of Aurora (CO), to participate in their Community College Growth Engine. The study is a joint research and design project aimed at understanding and improving how community colleges utilize data and emerging technologies to enhance economic outcomes for learners. This three-phase project, beginning with the case study, will result in a national playbook of learnings and best practices to share with other higher education institutions throughout the United States. Over five months, the Project on Workforce at Harvard colleagues collaborated with HCCC faculty and staff to gather information about the College’s use of data and technology, highlighting HCCC’s extensive partnerships with local and state governments, academia, workforce boards, businesses, unions, and other stakeholders. Their findings offer a comprehensive case study, “Building Bridges: HCCC’s Innovative and Inclusive Approach to Connecting Students and Employers.”The Project on Workforce at Harvard study highlights several HCCC best practices including HCCC I NJCU (New Jersey City University) CONNECT, which offers seamless transfer pathways to NJCU for those pursuing a four-year college degree; Achieving the Dream membership and its coaching and networking opportunities; the HCCC “Hudson Helps Resource Center,” a compendium of wraparound services that address students’ basic needs outside of the classroom; HCCC’s nationally recognized “Hudson Scholars” program that improves retention and graduation rates by addressing a wide range of students’ needs; academic and workforce programs shaped by employer advisory boards to ensure alignment with industry standards for in-demand careers; consistent focus on innovative, proactive, community-centered strategies; and a campus culture where all students are valued, represented, and supported.The Project on Workforce at Harvard and Education Design Lab study is available here: Data & Technology in Action: Community Colleges Advancing Economic Mobility. When Dr. Christopher Reber was inaugurated as HCCC’s new President in 2018, faculty and staff consistently expressed concerns about “getting students to the finish line.” To address this, HCCC joined Achieving the Dream (ATD) in 2019. ATD is a national nonprofit network dedicated to helping community college students succeed and achieve greater economic opportunities. ATD guides more than 300 community colleges across the United States through a data-driven, evidence-based change process that closes achievement gaps and improves graduation rates.
The College saw that the retention and graduation rates for students involved in the New Jersey Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) program were exceptional, but that the state-funded program only served a few hundred students each year. Dr. Reber and the HCCC community believed the successful practices of EOF could be scaled up to ensure a greater number of students who face financial challenges, language barriers, employment concerns and family responsibilities could complete their college educations. Making this belief a priority, the College community worked with coaches from Achieving the Dream to institute “Hudson Scholars,” a retention and student success program that provides proactive advisement, financial stipends, and early academic intervention to help all students succeed academically, graduate, and realize their dreams.
“Hudson Scholars” utilizes proven best practices of the New Jersey Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) and the City University of New York (CUNY) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP). “Hudson Scholars” provides proactive advisement, mentoring, financial stipends, and early academic intervention. Coaches and mentors with small advising caseloads support each student on a personal level.
Since its inception, “Hudson Scholars” has served more than 5,000 students and has become a self-funding academic and student success model, with the College’s completion rate nearly doubling over the past eight years. “Hudson Scholars” has been recognized with The League for Innovation in the Community College’s 2021-22 Innovation of the Year Award, the 2023 National Bellwether Award, the 2024 National Bellwether Legacy Award presented to only one community college every five years for proven best practice programs that can be developed at scale, and the 2024 American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Student Success Award of Excellence.
This October, Dr. Reber and Achieving the Dream President and CEO Dr. Karen Stout will present “Leveraging Achieving the Dream Coaching to Foster Innovation: How Hudson County Community College Built an Institutional Culture of Student Success and Continuous Improvement” at the 2025 Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) National Leadership Congress in New Orleans, Louisiana.
To read the Achieving the Dream case study, click here: Hudson is Home: Supported by ATD Coaching, Hudson County Community College’s Hudson Scholars Program Brings Student Support – and Success – to Scale.
“Hudson County Community College and Eastern Millwork Create a Transformative Apprenticeship Program” is a case study in the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) Innovators at Work series. The series showcases partnerships successfully employing best practices, proven strategies, and impactful collaborations to address critical talent challenges and equip learners with skills needed for the future workforce.
In 2019, Eastern Millwork, Inc. (EMI), a Jersey City-based industry leader in customized, high-end, automated woodwork manufacturing and installation, faced a critical challenge. The company needed a talent pipeline of skilled workers with technical expertise and creativity. Traditional bachelor’s degree graduates were not job-ready, and hiring mechanical engineering majors proved costly and inefficient. EMI approached HCCC about an apprenticeship program, and the College responded with an out-of-the-box solution: rethink the traditional educational model and structure a program to immerse students in major-specific, hands-on learning from the beginning. The approach ensured apprentices could immediately apply their skills in the workplace.
Formulating the HCCC-EMI Holz-Technik Apprenticeship Academy Program – a registered apprenticeship program – was collaboration-dependent and reliant upon EMI’s industry knowledge and HCCC’s agility and expertise to design and implement a tailored curriculum in just seven months. HCCC also took on the role of registered apprenticeship intermediary, handling paperwork and regulatory processes so EMI could focus on training and mentorship.
The resulting Holz-Technik Apprenticeship Academy is a five-year, tuition-free, earn-while-you-learn program that provides hands-on training and leads to an associate degree from HCCC, bachelor’s degree from Thomas Edison State University, and a well-paying, sustainable career.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has called the program “the blueprint for New Jersey’s economic future.” The Holz Technik Academy program is now utilized as a national model for workforce development partnerships, and a proven model for HCCC when working with area businesses and unions.
The BHEF case study may be found here: Hudson County Community College and Eastern Millwork Create a Transformative Apprenticeship Program.# # #Caption: Hudson County Community College (HCCC) is featured in case studies of national importance from The Project on Workforce at Harvard, Education Design Lab, Achieving the Dream, and Business-Higher Education Forum. Pictured here, the front page of Achieving the Dream’s HCCC case study. - About Hudson County Community College
Hudson County Community College serves more than 20,000 credit and non-credit students annually. The College offers more than 90 degree and certificate programs, including award-winning English as a Second Language; Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM); Culinary Arts/Hospitality Management; Nursing and Health Professions; and Humanities and Social Sciences. The HCCC Culinary/Hospitality Management program was ranked number six in the U.S. by Best Choice Schools. The College’s School of Continuing Education and Workforce Development offers cutting-edge, industry-recognized, stackable credentials in alignment with high-priority workforce needs.
HCCC has partnerships with major four-year colleges and universities in the greater New Jersey-New York area and beyond, accommodating seamless transfer of credits for further undergraduate and graduate education.
The College has received dozens of national awards throughout the years. In 2023, HCCC received the Outstanding Member Institution Award from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). HCCC was a finalist in seven categories of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) 2024 “Awards of Excellence” and earned the 2024 CEO of the Year, Faculty of the Year, and Student Success Awards.
For the fourth consecutive year, HCCC was selected as one of only a few community colleges in the United States to be named among the “2024 Most Promising Places to Work in Community Colleges” by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD). HCCC was one of 22 community colleges in the nation, and the only college in New Jersey, to be recognized by ModernThink LLC and the “Chronicle of Higher Education” as a 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2022 “Great College to Work For®” and named to the 2024 and 2023 “Great Colleges Honor Roll of Distinction.”
HCCC is one of two colleges in the United States to be named a Top Ten Finalist in all three program categories for the nationally recognized 2023 Bellwether Awards, and received the 2023 Bellwether Award for the College’s cutting-edge “Hudson Scholars” program, which also won the 2024 Bellwether Legacy Award, an award presented to only one community college every five years for proven best practice programs that can be developed at scale.
The College’s exemplary work in advancing student success has been recognized with the 2025, 2024, and 2023 “Leader College of Distinction” designation by Achieving the Dream, the national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing community colleges as catalysts for equity and mobility in their communities. HCCC was also presented with the Campus Prevention Network Seal of Prevention in 2024 and 2023 for demonstrating leadership in digital prevention programming focused on student safety, well-being, and inclusion.
