Portland Community College's Future Connect program celebrated 15 years at the Willow Creek Opportunity Center in Washington County on Thursday, Sept. 10.

The program has served nearly 5,000 first-generation and low-income students since its first cohort entered PCC in the 2011-12 academic year. It has direct ties to the Bethany area: Beaverton and Hillsboro each committed $100,000 in city funds in 2013 to support Future Connect students, with matching dollars from the college, the PCC Foundation and the Meyer Memorial Trust. PCC Rock Creek, the campus closest to Bethany, sits in the same county where the celebration took place.

Future Connect pairs each student with a dedicated success coach and provides scholarships, career guidance, internship resources and help navigating financial barriers. Eighty-five percent of participants are the first in their families to attend college. Seventy-five percent come from low-income households. Eighty-seven percent are students of color.

"When we started the program 15 years ago, people said it might not stick and it might just be a flashy object that fades," Josh Laurie, dean of PCC's College Success Programs, said at the celebration. "But we believed in what we were building and so did the community."

Future Connect launched with more than 100 students and backing from the City of Portland and PCC Foundation donors. It now enrolls more than 300 new students each year, according to PCC.

The PCC Foundation has raised more than $24 million in gifts and grants for the program. Eight million dollars of that total has gone directly to scholarships.

The program's model also shaped state law. In 2015, then-Gov. Kate Brown signed House Bill 3063, the "Aspirations to College" bill, which allocated $3 million to fund similar programs at Oregon community colleges. PCC received a $1.3 million grant through that initiative in 2016.

A 2017 evaluation by Education Northwest found the program improved first-year grades, credits earned and three-year completion rates. The federal What Works Clearinghouse cited promising evidence of effectiveness in a December 2021 review.

Graduates who transfer to four-year schools can tap Future Connect's Next Step Scholarships at Portland State University, Lewis & Clark College, Pacific University, Linfield University and other Oregon institutions. Those scholars receive between $35,000 and $68,000 a year on average through institutional and merit-based aid.

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read and state Rep. Mari Watanabe, a former PCC board member who represents District 34, attended the Sept. 10 event. PCC Interim President Katy Ho said the program's success now shapes how the college supports new students across all campuses.

That influence is already scaling. PCC launched its First-Year Experience initiative in fall 2024 with a $1 million gift from Brigid Flanigan, founder of Tenfold Senior Living, and now extends similar wraparound support to 5,000 students a year.