Grant Writer Helps Transform BBCC

For Immediate Release
March 26, 2014
Contact: Doug Sly, (509) 793-2003

Grant Writer Helps Transform BBCC

Terry Kinzel, grant writer and Director of Title V Grants at Big Bend Community College, received a 2013 League for Innovation award on March 2 in Anaheim, California.

Kinzel was one of 400 people nationwide to receive a John and Suanne Roueche Excellence Award. She has authored 17 successful grant applications totaling $17.25 million on behalf of BBCC in the last eight years.

The grants support BBCC’s evolution to online learning, building technology infrastructure and capacity, and remodeling and expanding campus buildings to provide space for new student service programs.

Her work helped establish a campus childcare, supported faculty development, centralized student services, and transformed how developmental math is taught at BBCC.

“Her (Kinzel’s) vision and persistence have transformed the ways in which the college serves students in its large, rural district,” said BBCC President Terry Leas.

Kinzel’s work has created partnerships with various community agencies and universities, helping BBCC deliver higher education to every corner of its 4,600-square-mile service district.

During the worst of the recession–as BBCC lost 25 positions to budget cuts–Kinzel’s success at grant writing helped the college keep moving forward. Three federal grants worth $11.2 million were received from 2009 to 2011.

BBCC received the grant awards at a time of heightened nationwide competition for fewer federal grants, Leas said.

BBCC applied for the Title V grants as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). The HSI grants focus on helping Hispanic and rural students attend and complete college programs. BBCC’s Hispanic enrollment as a share of the total has doubled in eight years, from 22 percent to 42 percent.

“The outcomes of recent years show the grant programs have helped expand academic attainment and increased opportunities for all our students,” Leas said.

A new Student Success Center and a new STEM Center for science, technology, engineering, and math were constructed with Title V funds.

Implementation of the Title V programs coincides with extraordinary statistics reported by BBCC’s department of Institutional Research and Planning. BBCC had the highest student achievement point gains among the state’s 34 community colleges in 2011-12. Fall-to-spring retention rates increased to 94 percent in 2012-13. Success rates for pre-college math increased from 50 percent to nearly 80 percent after implementation of a new math model. BBCC had the second highest rate in the state for completion of academic transfer degrees in 2011-12.

“These are exceptional outcomes for a rural college serving an area where the per capita income is 30 percent below the state average,” Leas said.

Two of the grants include an endowment match. Donations to the endowments are matched dollar-for-dollar by federal money. If the college can secure the maximum donations, it will result in endowments valued at a total of $1.12 million to benefit college programs in the future.

Contact the BBCC Foundation (509.793.2004) for more information on donations to the endowment funds, and how to get the dollar-for-dollar match.