As part of a national strategy embedded in our strategic commitments , ACE is helping post-traditional learners achieve success by expanding flexible completion pathways through innovative learning. Nowhere is the impact of that work more evident than through the achievements of the annual ACE Student of the Year Award recipients.
Adult learners represent nearly half of enrolled undergraduate students in the United States. These learners are generally over the age of 25, and they often balance work and family responsibilities while attaining credentials. Roughly 60 percent of adults without a bachelors degree want to pursue a post-secondary degree or certificate. Adult learners are looking for flexible course schedules and opportunites to put their prior learning to work.
Student veterans are more likely than other learners to pursue post-traditional paths. On average, student veterans delay entering college by five years after graduating from high school; when they do enroll, 61 percent of student veterans take classes online, at night, or on weekends.
Fifty-four percent are enrolled in associate degree or certificate programs, and 44 percent are enrolled in bachelors degree programs. Emerging research on credit for prior learning CPL and student success indicates that students with CPL are far more likely to complete a postsecondary credential.
Marine Corps veteran and an aspiring pediatric neurologist, and Josh Vandergriff, a nutrition educator at a state health department and a doctoral candidate, as the recipients of the ACE Student of the Year Award.
