The nation’s first urban work college will open a second site in Texas and launch a work-college consortium
There are nine federally designated work colleges, in which all residential students are required to work and school leaders track their performance at work just as they do in academic classes. There are evaluations, performance reviews and, in some cases, grades. Most students come from low-income backgrounds, and the work significantly offsets the cost of their tuition and fees. Schools are typically in rural areas, such as Berea, Kentucky, or Point Lookout, Missouri. But in March of 2017, when Paul Quinn College officially became a work college, it changed the image and perception of what these schools can do and where they can do it.
Paul Quinn College is in Dallas, the ninth-most populous city in the U.S.; it's the first urban work college and the first historically black work college. Now the college, which has become know for taking unusual paths to success, is beginning a new chapter that will make it even more unusual.
"We're about to start a national system of urban work colleges as well as a national consortium or urban work colleges," its president, Michael Sorrell, said in April.
At most work colleges, students work on campus, often in farm-related duties. Paul Quinn, by contrast, takes advantage of being in a major city and allows students to work on or off school grounds. Off-campus positions are usually in a corporate office, offering students a stepping stone to post-college careers.
“The demographic that we serve is the demographic that is becoming the majority of higher education. More than 50 percent of all higher education students are Pell grant students,” he said, adding that a majority of kindergarten through 12th grade public school students now qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. “This is who’s coming to college. So you need to do something different.”
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