Photo: Michael Robinson Chavez

When Kelly Martin Broderick, 40, left the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2014, she was just five classes short of graduating. As is the case for more than 36 million adults who started college but do not finish, life got in the way.

Then she got a letter from UMBC inviting her back to finish her degree. Broderick’s return came as some universities began turning more attention to students who left school before earning a degree, in part, as a way to turn around enrollment declines during the pandemic. For some former students, the push arrived at just the right time.

Photo: Andrea Hsu

When Valerie Mekki lost her job in April 2020, she was too scared to share the bad news with her children. Instead, she hid in her room for 45 minutes. But her teenagers surprised her with their optimism. They told her she would figure it out. 

More than a year later, Mekki is still figuring it out. She is among millions of women who have yet to return to work full time, despite an economic recovery boosted by the availability of COVID-19 vaccines and falling rates of coronavirus infection.

As part of a recent convening on teaching and learning excellence, community college leaders discussed ways to not only recruit students amid the current health crisis but also support them on their path to completion.

On this podcast, three experts—Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón of Miami Dade College, Dr. Lenore Rodicio of The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, and Dr. William Serrata of the El Paso County Community College District—take a deep dive into the many challenges brought on by the pandemic, plus the solutions to address them.