Dr. James P. Comer was on the plenary session panel, "Is America Still the Land of Opportunity? The Impact of Poverty and Race on College," at the Achieving the Dream Annual Institute on Student Success on February 26, 2014 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Achieving the Dream leads a "comprehensive non-governmental higher education reform movement that is helping nearly 4 million community college students have a better chance of realizing greater economic opportunity and achieving their dreams."
Dr. Comer made the point that community colleges are very important institutions because they serve so many low-income students in this country. "Many of these students have not had the kind of support for development that will prepare them to do well in college and in life. They are in a critical period of development in which schools can help compensate for their underdevelopment."
The other panelists included Roberto Rodriguez, education advisor to President Barack Obama; Laronjaye Teague, a financial aid specialist at Valencia College in Orlando, FL; and Melissa Stowasser, the director of high school programs at Trident Technical College in Charleston, SC. David Dodson, the president of MDC, a nonprofit think tank in Durham, North Carolina, moderated the panel.
"One of the unanticipated benefits of being at the conference was interacting with David Dodson," said Dr. Comer. "I shared with him my vision of a community mobilization program in support of youth and family development from birth to the workplace. He and others have started working on a program of similar intent in Durham. This approach is needed because we currently focus on youth needs in fragmented, often uncoordinated pieces, frequently carried out in silos of service. We need a coordinated approach with an intentional focus on development with all involved creating an environment in which young people feel a sense of belonging, worth, value, and gain the capacity to meet their adult tasks.