Community College Month declaration invites experiences, stories

Even as Illinois Valley Community College celebrates a century of service, Gov. JB Pritzker is saluting the entire community college system’s service to its communities.

Pritzker has declared April as Illinois Community College Month, and major community college associations are calling for people to light up social media with their own college-related stories.

Comments should be posted with the following hashtags: #4everystudent4everycommunity, #ilcommunitycollegeproud, and #CCMonth. The Illinois Community College Trustees Association, the Illinois Community College Board and the Illinois Community College Marketing Collaborative will feature the stories on social media in April.

In his declaration, Pritzker called the state’s 48 community colleges “powerhouses of opportunity” that “define success student by student and community by community.” Community colleges educate 65 percent of students in higher education and rank No. 1 in the nation for bachelor’s degree completion rates among community college students who transfer.

Illinois community colleges “share a common belief in the people and places they serve, prepare people for the workforce, help students to transfer to other colleges and universities and continually respond to the communities they serve through adult literacy continuing education services,” the declaration concluded.

The first public community college was established in Joliet in 1901. The state’s second oldest community college -- IVCC, then known as LaSalle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College – opened 23 years later, in 1924.