Marion Tech Recognized Nationally as a Finalist in Bellwether Award

The Bellwether College Consortium, a group of award-winning colleges focused on addressing critical issues facing community colleges, selected Marion Technical College as one of 10 finalists for the 2025 Bellwether Awards.

“It is an honor to be selected from a tough field of nationwide contributors,” said Dr. Ryan McCall, president of Marion Tech. “We have worked hard to land our first two National Science Foundation grants and many others to help our students succeed. The Bellwether Awards focus on helping other colleges follow in the footsteps of trendsetters.”

The national competition involved rigorous rounds of judging by peers and academics in the field. The winners were announced at the Community College Futures Assembly in San Antonio, Texas on Feb. 23 – 25, 2025. While Marion Tech did not ultimately win the top prize, they were recognized for the partnership with Columbus State and the success it has brought to MTC and ultimately, the success of our students.

“As a community college, we seek to keep tuition low and position our graduates for success in in-demand fields,” said Dr. Bob Haas, provost and chief strategy officer at Marion Tech. “Every dollar counts. I’m so proud of the success of our partnership with Columbus State since 2021 when the partnership began.  Each grant has added value with new programming, equipment and programs such as the new Intel-certified semi-conductor micro-certificate.”

Marion Technical College had received less than $500,000 in grants from Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 through FY 2020.  Upon entering into the collaboration with Columbus State, Marion Technical College has not received less than $1.4 million per year since FY 2021.

The ultimate purpose of entering the collaboration was to provide funds for Marion Technical College’s student success work, serve more students, and to hire personnel to assist with this work.  Between academic year 2017 and 2024, Marion Technical College served approximately 600 more students in large part due to the grant funding received.  And now, the college has recognized its largest student enrollment in a term with just over 3,500 students.

From nearly 1,000 community colleges nationwide serving more than 12 million students. Of those, just 30 are selected to compete. Ten finalists are selected for each category. Marion Tech was selected to compete with nine others in the category of Planning, Governance and Finance.