Room to Grow Attends NIU Health Sciences Event
Room to Grow grant leaders attended NIU’s Advancing Health Education Together event this June. Led by NIU’s Area Health Education Center, participating community college partners learned about valuable tools and resources available to all students pursuing healthcare careers. As NIU is Highland Community College’s nearest state public university, new partnerships between the two continue to […]
Room to Grow Sponsors Attendance at Summer Camps
As the spring semester wound down, Room to Grow leadership at Highland Community College used two connections to support access to opportunity in the region. HCC and Northern Illinois University reached an agreement to utilize Room to Grow Grant funds to sponsor northwest Illinois students’ attendance at NIU STEAM camps this July. Eight regional high schoolers are […]
Highland Success Center Continues One-Stop-Shop Success
Supporting students through postsecondary attainment can be fun! Each semester’s Midway Through Midterms event was a big hit for Highland Community College students, and this spring’s was no different. Students participated in the open house for stress-relief activities like bead bracelet making, motivational rock painting, board games, pizza, and even a “Honk Like a Goose” […]
Vocational Education Centers Host Life Simulations
Both vocational education centers in the Highland Region Pathways to Success recently hosted life-simulation events for middle school students. Jo Daviess Carroll CTE Academy teamed up with Citizens State Bank to give students hands-on experience navigating a variety of real-world expenses, such as housing, groceries, and childcare, at its annual CTE Month Life Event. Soon […]
Highland Career Fair Reaches New Heights
Highland Community College hosted its annual Career Fair in Freeport, Illinois, in mid-November. The event hosted over 530 high school students from 10 partner high schools, setting a new post-COVID attendance record, and featured brand-new student materials to support research, learning from, and reflection on the event’s 44 diverse employers. Highland Career Services gathers feedback […]
Highland Hosts “Speed Dating” for School Leaders, Community Partners
The Highland Region Pathways to Success Leadership Community is busy making waves in northwest Illinois. A regional meeting and “speed dating” event for school leaders and community partners in early November helped each sector build an understanding of the other’s wants and needs. Local partnerships are now being formed to support student activities across the […]
HR Roundtable Connects Employers with Purpose-Driven Career Exploration
In mid-September 2025, the Greater Freeport Partnership and Highland Community College Career Services co-hosted an HR Roundtable for local employers to discuss Gen Z in the workforce. Much of the conversation was influenced by JP Michel’s “challenge mindset,” a growing philosophy in career services, with which Highland Career Services gained much firsthand experience at the National […]
Highland Community College Recruits New Schools to Transitional English Effort
Several years after launching Transitional English at Freeport High School, Highland Community College (HCC) is once again working to bring this valuable course to more high school students. Rae Schupbach-Roe (Dean of Humanities, Fine Arts, and Social Sciences) and Andrew Martin (Career Pathways Navigator, former Transitional English teacher) co-hosted an introductory webinar for regional high school administrators, […]
Highland Community College Distributes New Resources
A first batch of new school-based resources, supported by the Room to Grow Grant, was distributed to high school administrators and counselors in the Highland Region Pathways to Success Leadership Community in early August. New Dual Credit Pathways documents help all stakeholders visualize the direct alignment between high school dual credit coursework and the precise requirements […]
CareerTEC (EFE 220) Receives Statewide Spotlight
In August, ISBE’s ConneCTEd newsletter put a spotlight on Health Occupations Youth Apprenticeship (HOYA) students and staff. The program, run by CareerTEC and comprised of students from EFE 220’s service area, including Dakota, Durand, Freeport, Orangeville, Pearl City, and Pecatonica, announced a 97.7% pass rate for the IDPH Nurse Aide Competency exam and several new […]