Community College Baccalaureate Association Announces 2010 CCBA Student Essay Contest Winner

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) February 25, 2010 -- The Community College Baccalaureate Association (CCBA) has selected a winner for the 2010 Student Essay Contest. Matthew Keeslar, a student at Portland Community College in Oregon, submitted the winning essay for the contest which included entries from all over the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.

Keeslar was awarded $1,000 and an all expense paid trip to the 10th Annual CCBA Conference to be held in Baltimore, Maryland in March. As part of the winning prize, $1,000 will also be awarded to the Student Government Association of Keeslar’s college; the scholarship prize was provided by Community College Week.

Out of over 300 essays answering the question, ‘Why obtaining a four year degree on my community college campus would be important to me,” Keeslar’s essay was selected as the winning piece. Finalists included: Alicia Cox at Vincennes University in Vincennes, Indiana; Jeremy Hayden, Georgian College of Applied Arts and Technology, Barrie, Ontario, Canada; Gary Holloway, Lurleen B. Wallace Community College, Greenville, Alabama; Adaobi Obika, Central Piedmont Community College, Charlotte, North Carolina; Chris Roll, Missouri State University—West Plains, Couch, Missouri; Miguel Tapia, College of the Desert, Palm Desert, California; Rebekah Stringfellow, St. Petersburg College, St. Petersburg, Florida; Dujuan Walker, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Sarah Zellit, Douglas College, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; and Deborah Dunham Alt, Mid-South Community College, West Memphis, Arkansas.

Baccalaureate degrees are now offered on community college campuses throughout the United States and Canada through University Centers, 2 + 2 programs, and Distance Learning. Community colleges in fourteen states and three Canadian provinces currently confer the degrees themselves. The CCBA conducted the contest to determine what students think about community colleges offering baccalaureate (four-year) degrees. Any student currently enrolled in a community college was eligible, and there was no limit to the number of students per school that could enter.

CCBA strives to promote better access to the baccalaureate degree on community college campuses, and to serve as a resource for information on various models for accomplishing this purpose. For more information, go online to www.accbd.org.

college scholarships     Contest Winners     essay contest