Hudson County Community College Featured in Three National Case Studies

July 29, 2025

July 29, 2025, Jersey City, NJ – As Hudson County Community College (HCCC) approaches the official celebration of its 50^th Anniversary, HCCC is the focal point of three nationally published case studies detailing how the College’s data-driven approaches and collaborations play critical roles in achieving student and workforce development success. Recently released to national audiences, the case studies are The Project on Workforce at Harvard and Education Design Lab’s “Data and Technology in Action: Community Colleges Advancing Economic Mobility;” Achieving the Dream’s (ATD) “Hudson is Home: Supported by ATD Coaching, Hudson County Community College’s Hudson Scholars Program Brings Student Supports – and Success – to Scale;” and Business-Higher Education Forum’s (BHEF) “Hudson County Community College and Eastern Millwork Create a Transformative Apprenticeship Program.”

HCCC was selected by The Project on Workforce at Harvard and the Education Design Lab as one of four community colleges, including South Texas College, Riverland Community College (MN), and Community College of Aurora (CO), to participate in their Community College Growth Engine. The study is a joint research and design project to understand and improve how community colleges use data and emerging technologies to improve economic outcomes for learners. This three-phase project, beginning with the case study, will result in a national playbook of learnings and best practices to share with other higher education institutions throughout the United States.

Over a period of five months, The Project on Workforce at Harvard colleagues engaged with HCCC faculty and staff to gather information about the College’s use of data and technology, featuring HCCC’s broad partnerships with local and state government, academia, workforce boards, businesses, unions, and other stakeholders. Their findings offer a comprehensive case study, “Building Bridges: HCCC’s Innovative and Inclusive Approach to Connecting Students and Employers.”

The Project on Workforce at Harvard study highlights several HCCC best practices including HCCC I NJCU (New Jersey City University) CONNECT, which offers seamless transfer pathways to NJCU for those pursuing a four-year college degree; Achieving the Dream membership and its coaching and networking opportunities; the HCCC “Hudson Helps Resource Center,” a compendium of wraparound services that address students’ basic needs outside of the classroom; HCCC’s nationally recognized “Hudson Scholars” program that improves retention and graduation rates by addressing a wide range of students’ needs; academic and workforce programs shaped by employer advisory boards to ensure alignment with industry standards for in-demand careers; consistent focus on innovative, proactive, community-centered strategies; and a campus culture where all students are valued, represented, and supported.

The Project on Workforce at Harvard and Education Design Lab study is available here: Data & Technology in Action: Community Colleges Advancing Economic Mobility.

When Dr. Christopher Reber was inaugurated as HCCC’s new President in 2018, faculty and staff consistently expressed concerns about “getting students to the finish line.” To address this, HCCC joined Achieving the Dream (ATD) in 2019. ATD is a national nonprofit network dedicated to helping community college students succeed and achieve greater economic opportunities. ATD guides more than 300 community colleges across the United States through a data-driven, evidence-based change process that closes achievement gaps and improves graduation rates.

The College saw that the retention and graduation rates for students involved in the New Jersey Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) program were exceptional, but that the state-funded program only served a few hundred students each year. Dr. Reber and the HCCC community believed the successful practices of EOF could be scaled up to ensure a greater number of students who face financial challenges, language barriers, employment concerns and family responsibilities could complete their college educations. Making this belief a priority, the College community worked with coaches from Achieving the Dream to institute “Hudson Scholars,” a retention and student success program that provides proactive advisement, financial stipends, and early academic intervention to help all students succeed academically, graduate, and realize their dreams.

“Hudson Scholars” utilizes proven best practices of the New Jersey Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) and the City University of New York (CUNY) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP). “Hudson Scholars” provides proactive advisement, mentoring, financial stipends, and early academic intervention. Coaches and mentors with small advising caseloads support each student on a personal level.

Since its inception, “Hudson Scholars” has served more than 5,000 students and has become a self-funding academic and student success model, with the College’s completion rate nearly doubling over the past eight years. “Hudson Scholars” has been recognized with The League for Innovation in the Community College's 2021-22 Innovation of the Year Award, the 2023 National Bellwether Award, the 2024 National Bellwether Legacy Award presented to only one community college every five years for proven best practice programs that can be developed at scale, and the 2024 American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Student Success Award of Excellence.

This October, Dr. Reber and Achieving the Dream President and CEO Dr. Karen Stout will present “Leveraging Achieving the Dream Coaching to Foster Innovation: How Hudson County Community College Built an Institutional Culture of Student Success and Continuous Improvement” at the 2025 Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) National Leadership Congress in New Orleans, Louisianna.

To read the Achieving the Dream case study, click here: Hudson is Home: Supported by ATD Coaching, Hudson County Community College’s Hudson Scholars Program Brings Student Support – and Success – to Scale.

“Hudson County Community College and Eastern Millwork Create a Transformative Apprenticeship Program” is a case study in the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) Innovators at Work series. The series showcases partnerships successfully employing best practices, proven strategies, and impactful collaborations to address critical talent challenges and equip learners with skills needed for the future workforce.

In 2019, Eastern Millwork, Inc. (EMI), a Jersey City-based industry leader in customized, high-end, automated woodwork manufacturing and installation, faced a critical challenge. The company needed a talent pipeline of skilled workers with technical expertise and creativity. Traditional bachelor’s degree graduates were not job-ready, and hiring mechanical engineering majors proved costly and inefficient. EMI approached HCCC about an apprenticeship program, and the College responded with an out-of-the-box solution: rethink the traditional educational model and structure a program to immerse students in major-specific, hands-on learning from the beginning. The approach ensured apprentices could immediately apply their skills in the workplace.

Formulating the HCCC-EMI Holz-Technik Apprenticeship Academy Program – a registered apprenticeship program – was collaboration-dependent and reliant upon EMI’S industry knowledge and HCCC’s agility and expertise to design and implement a tailored curriculum in just seven months. HCCC also took on the role of registered apprenticeship intermediary, handling paperwork and regulatory processes so EMI could focus on training and mentorship.

The resulting Holz-Technik Apprenticeship Academy is a five-year, tuition-free, earn-while-you-learn program that provides hands-on training and leads to an associate degree from HCCC, bachelor’s degree from Thomas Edison State University, and a well-paying, sustainable career.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has called the program “the blueprint for New Jersey’s economic future.” The Holz Technik Academy program is now utilized as a national model for workforce development partnerships, and a proven model for HCCC when working with area businesses and unions.

The BHEF case study may be found here: Hudson County Community College and Eastern Millwork Create a Transformative Apprenticeship Program.