Student Success Center

About the Program:

The SUCCESS program at Bristol Community College leverages proactive outreach, high-touch student support, intentional communication, and data-driven decision-making to create strong relationships with students from onboarding through degree completion or transfer, learner by learner.

Eligible students are identified at the time of application and automatically enrolled in SUCCESS. These students work with Navigators who provide wraparound support from application through orientation completion and facilitate a warm handoff to the student’s assigned Academic Coordinator. Academic Coordinators provide intensive cohort-based focus on the SUCCESS population, including holistic onboarding, traditional academic advising, relationship building, goals development, and education about college knowhow. Academic Coordinators and Coaches form collaborative teams, meeting regularly to review the status of program participants and provide actionable items for targeted intervention from Coaches to ensure proactive student support.

SUCCESS services are offered through Advising & Success. By design, students are not made aware that they have been identified as eligible for SUCCESS services. Students are encouraged to engage with SUCCESS services at Bristol through consistent, proactive, and targeted outreach. Students are removed from the program if they fail to engage with SUCCESS staff in the first semester or may opt-out at any time. Other units that support SUCCESS at Bristol include Admissions, Basic Needs, Transfer & Career Services, Disability Services, Financial Aid, Library Learning Commons Tutoring and the Writing Center, Multicultural Student Center, Student & Family Engagement, and Mental Health Counseling.

Student Eligibility

Students who are eligible for the SUCCESS program at Bristol include all part- or full-time enrolled students.

Cohort Focus Population

In line with the legislative intent to improve outcomes for the most vulnerable student populations, the following student populations are considered for participation in SUCCESS at Bristol Community College with priority for students holding two or more historically marginalized identities:

Economically disadvantaged students
First-generation college students
Racially minoritized students (i.e., Hispanic or Latino, Black or African American, Cape Verdean, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and multi-racial students)
Students with disabilities
LGBTQIA+ students

Support Services

The following supports are available to SUCCESS students at Bristol:

Academic Advising

Assessments

Basic Needs Counseling

Career Advising

Case Management

Coaching

Financial Aid Assistance

Mentoring

Transfer Advising

Student Planning

Workshops

Support Network

SUCCESS at Bristol is supported by the Director of Advising and Success, an Associate Director of Student Advocacy, an administrative assistant, three academic coaches, six academic coordinators, and now a program coordinator.

SUCCESS receives funding through the Massachusetts legislature and is supported by the 15 state community colleges, the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges (MACC), the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education (DHE), and the SUCCESS Leadership and Coordinating Committees.