Bank of America Charitable Foundation awarded Hudson County Community College (HCCC) a $150,000 grant to expand the acclaimed HCCC Gateway to Innovation (GTI) Program. Pictured here, the College’s GTI Career Panel of  professionals who share insights on pathways, skills, and emerging trends.

Investment supports experiential learning opportunities leading to non-credit, industry-recognized credentials…

JERSEY CITY, JAN 19 – Bank of America Charitable Foundation awarded the Hudson County Community College (HCCC) Foundation a $150,000 grant to expand the nationally acclaimed HCCC Gateway to Innovation (GTI) Program. The College will utilize the funding to create paid, work-based learning opportunities.

“We are profoundly grateful to Bank of America Charitable Foundation for this investment in our Gateway to Innovation program,” said HCCC President Dr. Christopher Reber. “The funding will help us develop and pilot the GTI Experiential Learning Opportunities Program as a scalable model. We will employ collaborations with business leaders, labor unions, workforce development partners, public agencies, and community organizations to create high-impact learning opportunities for our students and the people of Hudson County.”

The College will build the Experiential Learning Opportunities Program with work-based, non-credit  learning — job shadowing, mentoring, internships, and feedback loops that boost career progression and improve access to sustained economic mobility. The funding will support a credential-based internship model engaging 50 students, and the hiring of a full-time Internship Coordinator. The College will support program participants’ transportation and childcare needs, digital inclusion, and wraparound services through the HCCC Hudson Helps Resource Center that includes food pantries, Career Closet, community agency support, mental health and wellness services, and more.

HCCC’s School of Continuing Education and Workforce Development initiated the groundbreaking GTI program in 2021 to address post-pandemic economic challenges of service industry workers by connecting them with opportunities in recession-resistant fields. GTI implements sector-based career pathway strategies and supports sustainable changes to provide equitable access to jobs paying family-sustaining wages. Thousands of HCCC students and community members have benefitted from the program and attained industry-recognized credentials in finance, health care, information technology, and logistics. GTI is a Bellwether College Consortium Workforce Development Award finalist, an honor that recognizes cutting-edge community college student success programs. The program also earned the League for Innovation in the Community College’s 2022-2023 Innovation of the Year Award.

“Bank of America is committed to lending, investing, and giving in order to build thriving communities by addressing issues fundamental to economic mobility,” the Bank of America Charitable Foundation wrote. “Providing support to organizations like the Hudson County Community College Foundation that are offering critical services and programs is just one of the ways we are helping improve the quality of life in the communities we serve.”

About Hudson County Community College

Hudson County Community College serves more than 24,000 credit and non-credit students annually. The College offers more than 90 degree and certificate programs, including award-winning English as a Second Language; Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM); Culinary Arts/Hospitality Management; Nursing and Health Professions; and Humanities and Social Sciences. The HCCC Culinary Arts/Hospitality Management program was ranked number six in the U.S. by Best Choice Schools. The College’s School of Continuing Education and Workforce Development offers cutting-edge, industry-recognized, stackable credentials in alignment with high-priority workforce needs.

HCCC has partnerships with major four-year colleges and universities in the greater New Jersey-New York area and beyond, accommodating seamless transfer of credits for further undergraduate and graduate education.

The College has received dozens of national awards throughout the years. HCCC was a finalist in seven categories of the 2024 American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) “Awards of Excellence” and earned 2024 CEO of the Year, Faculty of the Year, and Student Success Awards. In 2023, HCCC received the Outstanding Member-Institution Award from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).

For the fifth consecutive year, HCCC was selected as one of only a few community colleges in the United States to be named a “2025 Most Promising Place to Work in Community Colleges” by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD). HCCC was one of 22 community colleges in the nation, and the only college in New Jersey, to be recognized by ModernThink LLC and the “Chronicle of Higher Education” as a 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2022 “Great College to Work For®” and named to the 2024 and 2023 “Great Colleges Honor Roll of Distinction.” 

HCCC is one of two colleges in the United States to be named a Top Ten Finalist in all three program categories for the nationally recognized 2023 Bellwether Awards, and received the 2023 Bellwether Award for the College’s cutting-edge “Hudson Scholars” program, which also won the 2024 Bellwether Legacy Award. 

The College’s exemplary work in advancing student success has been recognized with 2025, 2024 and 2023 “Leader College of Distinction” designation by Achieving the Dream, the national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing community colleges as catalysts for equity and mobility in their communities. HCCC also earned the Campus Prevention Network Seal of Prevention in 2025, 2024 and 2023 for demonstrating leadership in digital prevention programming focused on student safety, well-being, and inclusion.

The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) recently named HCCC the inaugural recipient of the 2025 ACCT national “Impact and Success Award.”

About Bank of America Charitable Foundation – Philanthropic Strategy

At Bank of America, we’re guided by a common purpose to help make financial lives better. Through our focus on Responsible Growth, we deliver for our teammates, clients and shareholders, while addressing economic mobility and social progress focused on the needs of the community. We drive meaningful and sustainable progress to help address society’s biggest challenges by aligning all our resources – including our financing, our client products and services, our philanthropy and how we manage our own activities. 

As part of this work, we develop strong partnerships with nonprofit organizations focused on issues fundamental to economic mobility in low- and moderate-income communities. We focus on improving the lives of individuals and families by investing in health, jobs, and strengthening broader community vitality by addressing needs related to small business resiliency, and community development.

Through our partnerships, we support vulnerable populations, including working families, youth, seniors, individuals living with disabilities, veterans, and those impacted by the criminal justice system – enabling them to move forward in their goals.