Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Southern State Community College and Wilmington College have won a five-year, $4 million federal grant to help former college students who never finished a degree return and complete one, the Scioto Valley Guardian reported Nov. 6, citing the colleges.
The grant is funded through the 2026 Strengthening Institutions Program and administered by the U.S. Department of Labor on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, and is led by Cincinnati State, according to the Guardian’s reporting on the colleges’ announcement. Southern State, based in Hillsboro, serves Highland, Fayette, Clinton and surrounding counties.
More than 37 million working-age Americans have attended college but never earned a credential, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s 2025 Some College, No Credential report cited in the Guardian’s story. More than 1 million of those former students returned in the 2023-24 academic year, but that was less than 3 percent of the total, the report found, according to that reporting.
“Students who leave college before finishing have already invested time, money and hope in their education,” Cincinnati State President Robbin Hoopes said in a statement reported by the Scioto Valley Guardian. “By working together to help them finish, we can open doors for those students and strengthen the workforce our region depends on,” Hoopes said in that statement.
The project builds on CState Complete, a Cincinnati State initiative from an earlier Strengthening Institutions grant that combines personal outreach, peer connections and coordinated help, according to the Guardian. From fall 2024 through fall 2025, that program helped 988 students return to Cincinnati State, and 98 of them graduated with 104 credentials, according to the college as reported by the Guardian.
Wilmington College plans to explore faculty connections to reconnect with former students, while Southern State will adapt outreach and support to rural learners, according to the colleges as reported by the Guardian. “Many left college because life presented obstacles, not because they lacked the ability or desire to succeed,” Southern State President Nicole Roades said in a statement reported by the Guardian. Wilmington President Corey Cockerill said in a statement reported by the Guardian that a pause in college does not have to mean the end of that journey.
Over the five-year grant period, the three colleges will work as a collaborative learning community, testing and refining outreach approaches and measuring effects on re-enrollment, retention and credential completion, with plans to share findings with other colleges, according to the colleges as reported by the Scioto Valley Guardian. Former students interested in returning should watch for outreach from Cincinnati State, Southern State and Wilmington as the programs are built out.
Photo: Aesopposea, CC BY-SA 3.0
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