Jo Alice Blondin, Ph.D., Clark State president.
By: Jo Alice Blondin, Ph.D., Clark State College president
Clark State College has been relentlessly focused on how best to serve students since its founding in 1962. To further this mission, Clark State, in the fall of 2024, embarked on an ambitious project to launch Caring Campus, a nationally-recognized program that focuses on improving campus culture to ensure persistence and retention of students. With 120 higher education institutions participating, the Caring Campus movement has proven strategies that help campuses realize their vision for a true culture of care. These commitments to the highest level of customer and student service also ensure a welcoming campus for all.
During the past two years, Clark State College’s Board of Trustees, faculty and staff, have worked tirelessly on implementing the five commitments of Caring Campus. They are:
- The Ten Foot Rule: Whenever a student is within 10 feet and seems to need assistance, a Clark State employee will approach the individual and inquire if they need help—and, more importantly, follow through on helping the student. We also say hello, smile and use a positive tone as we pass anyone in the hallways.
- Nametags: We wear name badges or lanyards with the college name on them so that students will know who to approach with questions.
- Cross-Department Awareness: We learn about other departments so we are as familiar as possible about where to connect students and to whom.
- Warm Referrals: We call ahead or walk students to the office they need. We follow up to ensure the student got what they needed.
- First Week Greetings: We welcome students and provide information and activities to ensure a strong first week. But we don’t stop there—Clark State continues frequent check-ins with students and enlists our entire team for early alerts and to intervene to ensure students have the tools, resources, tutoring and other supports necessary to succeed.
Clark State has done such an outstanding job of launching Caring Campus that four of our talented staff members attended the Caring Campus Conference in San Diego, Calif. on Nov. 12-14 to share their successes and help other colleges learn how to execute and scale this work quickly, efficiently and with maximum buy-in and enthusiasm I am deeply grateful and thankful for Mellanie Toles, Seth Snyder, Asiah Jeffries and Amy Kelly, staff members, for representing Clark State so well on the national stage.
With Clark State’s recent recognition as one of 200 community colleges eligible to compete for the Aspen Prize, the college’s alignment with the commitments of Caring Campus truly demonstrates the Aspen Institute’s finding that, “A culture of caring has become a hallmark of excellent community colleges.” This culture of care has also resulted in increasing nursing pass rates as a result of our Smart Start Nursing (First Week Greetings) program and continued supplemental instruction for nursing programs. Clark State’s nursing enrollment has grown to 786 students in the practical, registered nursing and bachelor’s programs. These are students who are passing the national exam at rates of 95 percent and 91 percent, respectively, well above the Ohio and national averages.
Additionally, Clark State’s overall retention rates from spring to fall 2025 have grown from 72 percent to 78 percent, and from 61 percent to 62 percent for fall 2024 to fall 2025. These numbers show that the work we are all committed to doing is making a difference in students’ lives. With 85 percent of Clark State graduates living and working in our region, we want to ensure that these individuals thrive at our college and beyond.
I am so proud of Clark State College, an excellent community college with a focused and intentional culture of care for students, employees and community members alike. And for this, I wish to give thanks.