Miami Dade College has repeatedly been recognized for its commitment to education and community. The institution’s winning track record is based on a history of providing innovative, creative programs that encourage personal growth and satisfy workforce needs while ensuring that students are on a path toward employment. On a broader level, the College continues to maximize its potential by leveraging the parts that make up the whole. Building on the strength of its partnerships, faculty, a tenacious student body and the vibrant community that it serves, the College consistently provides exemplary educational programs and promotes ideals that enrich South Florida as a whole.
Here is a sampling of some of the recognition MDC has received for these endeavors over the years.
Commitment to Community
MDC received the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award in 2018 and 2016 from INSIGHT into Diversity, the oldest diversity-centered publication on higher education in the nation.
In 2017 MDC was selected to join the exclusive Frontier Set, a group of higher education institutions aiming to eliminate the racial, ethnic and socio-economic barriers that bar students from completing college.
Ashoka U designated MDC as a 2015 Changemaker Campus as a result of its role in promoting social innovation, changemaking and thought leadership in the Miami community and abroad.
In 2015 the College was the recipient of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s Community Engagement Classification, marking the second time since 2008 that the honor was bestowed upon MDC.
In 2014, the Student Success Award of Excellence was conferred on MDC by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). MDC was chosen for the highly competitive honor from more than 1,200 colleges across the nation. The distinction complemented the inaugural AACC Award of Excellence in Advancing Diversity that MDC received in 2013.
The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service learning and civic engagement. In 2013, MDC received its seventh consecutive accolade.
MDC was one of a very small number of high-performing colleges in the nation selected for a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Completion by Design grant, and the only single institution, as opposed to a system of colleges. The five-year grant was awarded to MDC in 2011 to increase student success and boost graduation rates among low-income students.
Excellence in Education
In 2018, MDC’s acclaimed Miami Animation and Gaming International Complex (MAGIC) received a $50,000 award as a winner of the inaugural Siemens-Aspen College STEM Award by the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program and the Siemens Foundation.
Building on its outstanding record, MDC made The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Great Colleges to Work For once again in 2018, marking its 10th consecutive year on the list.
In 2017, MDC was one of only two colleges in the nation to receive Achieving the Dream’s Leah Meyer Austin Award. The prize acknowledges the College’s work to streamline its academic pathways and boost student achievement.
In 2013, MDC was one of only seven colleges and universities in the nation to be honored by University Business magazine as a Model of Efficiency.
MDC has been twice honored by the League for Innovation in the Community College with the Learning and Teaching Innovation of the Year award, in 2013 and 2009.
In 2013, MDC was awarded a national Exemplar Institution Award from the Institute of Higher Education Policy, for driving success among targeted underserved student populations.