And the Award Goes to …

Dr. Pollard (front row, center) celebrates with students.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York named MC President DeRionne P. Pollard a recipient of its Academic Leadership Award. Pollard is only the second community college recipient of this award. The honor consists of $500,000 in support for each winner’s academic initiatives.

 Pollard has earmarked the Carnegie award funds for two landmark MC programs: the Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success (ACES) academic coaching program and the Montgomery College Foundation’s Innovation Fund. Both programs support student retention and completion. ACES, a partnership with Montgomery County Public Schools and the Universities at Shady Grove, provides mentoring and other services for low-income, first generation students. The Innovation Fund supports cutting-edge projects, such as the Collegewide Calculator Loan Program and Boys to Men, a special mentoring program.

“I am deeply honored to have been selected for this extraordinary award from the Carnegie Corporation,” Pollard says. “Their tradition of investing in higher education is one that benefits not just current students but wider communities, and our democracy as a whole.”

Pollard was among presidents from Northeastern University, Georgia State University, Georgetown University, Stevens Institute of Technology, Harvey Mudd College, and Case Western Reserve University who received the award.

The Carnegie award, established in 2005, recognizes educators who demonstrate vision and an outstanding commitment to excellence in undergraduate education, the liberal arts, equal opportunity, the development of major interdisciplinary programs, international engagement, and the promotion of strong ties between their institutions and their local communities.

“Andrew Carnegie believed in the importance of strong, dedicated, and effective higher education leaders. As custodians of Mr. Carnegie’s legacy, it is our honor to salute a new class of exemplary leaders, who join with another 20 past award recipients in representing some of the best of the American academy,” says Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Photography by Pete Vidal